Cool at first but gets repetitive pretty quick. Has some of the worst platforming/climbing I've seen in a game like this. Combat is annoying most of the time when your character locks on to whoever he pleases. Final boss was ass.

The different maps became stale after like two missions. On the surface they're different but once you play through them a bit you notice they're really all the same.
None of the collectibles felt satisfying to collect.
After about 5 hours I was so tired of seeing that close-up followed by goofy voice-line when you encounter a boss. I understand that's the point of the nemesis system, to learn the boss's shit and all, but it just gets so exhausting. I don't care that this dude named Griklok The Destroyer is after me because I killed his brother, Poopy the Pooping.

Shadow of War is a solid follow-up to the first game that showcases the same visceral, exhilarating combat that made me adore Shadow of Mordor. However, this game often feels like there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and I couldn't help but feel like the developers implemented too many different systems, which for me, made the game feel bloated and convoluted on occasion. I appreciate it's predecessor more for being a bit more grounded, and I feel like the bloat largely has to do with them being pressured to develop enough ways to encourage players to consider purchasing loot crates. As to no surprise, this does not sit well with me, and it really frustrates me that AAA companies couldn't even keep their predatory monetization practices out of single-player, story-driven games.

Fortunately, you can play the whole campaign and most side objectives without interacting with the store at all, and the monetization really only becomes apparent once the game tries to encourage you to play fortress defense, which would require a lot of grinding to participate in... unless you're willing to pay up, of course. It was at this point, after finishing all of the story-quests, I checked out.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, aside from the story, which felt like complete fan fiction instead of something that would actually be believable as a part of the Tolkien universe. About mid-way through the game, I simply just stopped caring about the narrative because I couldn't take it seriously, no matter how hard I tried. But regardless, the gameplay was solid enough to motivate me to play through the entire story and all of the side missions and collectibles.

If you enjoyed Shadow of Mordor, it's definitely worth giving this a playthrough. It mostly builds upon what worked in the first game while adding some neat new features as well. It's just a shame that the developers were clearly forced to design a large part of the game around monetization, which I feel really hindered the game in the long run and spoiled what could have been something marvelous.

Warner has the possibility to make the greatest game of the generation by making a sequel or shadow-esque game where instead of both of your protagonist being brooding edgy assholes who have a stick so far up their own asses one of them is an actually funny sidekick. Hell that's not even that far off, most of the orcs here, specially the plot important ones, are constantly oozing charisma, and the dynamic they had in Arkham Knight between Batman and The Joker was by far the most enjoyable part of the game. They just need to take those two aspects into one game, since they are so fucking greedy they are making sure literally no one can make a game with a mechanic similar to the nemesis system