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.
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.