This game actually feels alive every encounter with an uruk captain is completely different and freaking hilarious XD and gameplay is smooth like butter

SShadow of Mordor is the better game. I don’t understand why, they are basically the same game. Although Shadow of War is newer and looks much better, the feel is off. Shadow of Mordor is fun to play and addictive, but Shadow of War just seems like a chore. It’s just bad. The cutscenes, tutorials, and constant orc dialogue are unbearable (although beautiful). They’re hard to immerse yourself in or follow the story. Don’t get me wrong, Shadow of Mordor wasn’t the best either, but it didn’t annoy me like Shadow of War does. Enough to write a review and maybe save someone the pain of purchasing this game

Honestly I'll probably finish so don't be surprised if my hours go up, but this is a grindy piece of crap. One of the worst. The nemesis system is cool in theory and tone, but it's just a grindy slog that wears you down. After I fought the same orc lord 3 times, I was like, ok this is dumb (he kept coming back because apparently he was a special 'chase' boss).

And this is ignoring the egregious "re-invention" of the Tolkien universe that clearly sought to capitalize on the brand awareness without paying any homage to the actual story tiself - turning Shelob into an alluring female definitely guts that character of any meaning it had in the LOTR universe (she's a symbol of nature unchecked, not sexxxy femme fatale that humps heroes and villains alike). I mean, if they were going to make an ENTIRE new story and universe, why not make an original property? Ohhhh because they wanted to maximize profits by mislabeling their product, haha. Checks out.

But even if the story were original, it would still lack profound relationships that tend to give a story meaning. It has a cool premise and the plot services that premise decently, but like John Gardner wrote: all fiction is moral fiction. We need to see the character have a moral conundrum. The protagonist(s) don't really ever have that. They're pretty straightforward. They quibble about details but then just do what they were going to do anyway. My favorite was how the Shelob-turned-Milla-Jovovich got the protagonist to practically lick her feet in one cutscene or less, despite his phantasmal partner foaming at the mouth about how she's clearly, you know, a mischievous spider who spins webs of deceit and blackmailed you to steal your pretty new jewelry. But it's ok, she showed him some visions (and hugged him lovingly that one time because he's lonely) and that made him be like "nah man she's cool." (in all fairness, he had reason to kowtow to her and I believe she serves a greater function in the plot that has yet to be revealed to me because I'm too busy slogging through a jungle killing orcs and more orcs and some more orcs).

Apparently when all this initial killing is done, I'll be able to command orcs! But don't worry, if it's anything like the first game, they'll be dumb and incapable of doing anything on their own. So I'll have to help them do basic ♥♥♥♥ like recruit other orcs or wipe their asses or wipe their friends' asses or I don't know, orcs do what orcs do.

And in all fairness, the base gameplay 'loop' is enjoyable, or at least tolerable (lol we call them loops now because we all know we do the same things over and over again in a never-ending grindfest we've been force fed for years in so many major titles).

But while the gameplay loop here is enjoyable, you do it all so much that it becomes a bore. And, what's more, this game, compared to the first, seems to have an overly sensitive latch mechanism - meaning the orc I'm "targeting" for domination (kinky) won't necessarily be the one I end up dominating because (spoilers!) there was another orc playing with himself just off screen that was two centimeters closer to me. Wasn't the one I was looking at but who said you were in charge here, player?

Or sometimes the vaulting is more like dry humping sans the enjoyment.

But hey, at least you get to kill orcs. A lot of orcs. At least the environments are a little more varied than the first game, but whatever.

Also, apparently the game considers it an achievement to encounter the same orc three times in nemesis mode. Yes. Congratulations on achieving this. Good job. This is great. This is what you wanted from this experience. 10/10 would go play Witcher 3 again.