This review contains spoilers
An open world game that doesn't overstay its welcome as much as others. Obviously the nemesis system is great, but there are so many other parts which made it one of my favourite open worlds:
- Stealth is fun! For a lot of open worlds the stealth is an after-thought. In this game i used it for about half the game
- Combat is great too. I am surprised how much like a dynasty warriors game this feels like
- Mounts can traverse cliffs and walls, keeping the flow of the game and not having awkward collisions and paths (in theory)
- The map is small. This is a big one for me, as I am turned off open worlds these days by the junk they pile in to make it "AAA". A handful of ubi-style towers can be fun. 20 is not.
- The shadow dash/brand/kill mechanic is great and allows for such quick traversal when sneaking
While these are all pros, there are a few things I wish they had refined more:
- Even though the map, collectibles and missions were smaller compared to other open worlds, the 24(!) free the slaves missions were such a ball-ache. You could easily half that and probably still make it feel saturated
- While the mount traversal and versatility was appreciated, it still was quite janky, accidentally climbing things i didn't want it to
- A bit nitpicky, but i did a lot of orc killing and side questing before tackling some main story missions, and sometimes the dialogue inferred I had not done things that I actually had, breaking the immersion a bit
- DLC was a bit underwhelming - mostly more of the same (which can be played in perpetuity on the main game, as uruks get replaced as time goes on!)
If shadow of war is better, as everyone says it is, then it might just be a masterpiece!
- Stealth is fun! For a lot of open worlds the stealth is an after-thought. In this game i used it for about half the game
- Combat is great too. I am surprised how much like a dynasty warriors game this feels like
- Mounts can traverse cliffs and walls, keeping the flow of the game and not having awkward collisions and paths (in theory)
- The map is small. This is a big one for me, as I am turned off open worlds these days by the junk they pile in to make it "AAA". A handful of ubi-style towers can be fun. 20 is not.
- The shadow dash/brand/kill mechanic is great and allows for such quick traversal when sneaking
While these are all pros, there are a few things I wish they had refined more:
- Even though the map, collectibles and missions were smaller compared to other open worlds, the 24(!) free the slaves missions were such a ball-ache. You could easily half that and probably still make it feel saturated
- While the mount traversal and versatility was appreciated, it still was quite janky, accidentally climbing things i didn't want it to
- A bit nitpicky, but i did a lot of orc killing and side questing before tackling some main story missions, and sometimes the dialogue inferred I had not done things that I actually had, breaking the immersion a bit
- DLC was a bit underwhelming - mostly more of the same (which can be played in perpetuity on the main game, as uruks get replaced as time goes on!)
If shadow of war is better, as everyone says it is, then it might just be a masterpiece!
Has some really addictive combat and it's very fun to just run around and clear outposts. It does get grindy after a bit and I wouldn't say it's endlessly replayable but its worth experiencing for the nemesis system alone.