Shadow of War is a very strong follow up to the excellent Shadow of Mordor. There are some issues I had with the game that I think ultimately hold the game back from being great. That being said, it still is a solid title and well worth a play especially if you enjoyed the first game.

I'm going to address the microtransactions kerfuffle at the opening of this review and then I will not be mentioning them again. The fact that MTs are in a 99% single player experience is short-sighted and unnecessary. They should never have been in this game in the first place. That being said, there is no reason whatsoever to purchase anything to play this game to its entirety at an enjoyable level. You can largely ignore the microtransactions for the most part. You may want to spend the in game currency that you earn or any gold you may earn on some of the loot boxes, but you largely can ignore the "Market" section of the menu entirely. The game does not nag you to buy anything aside from some menu mentions and you can earn Gold (the paid currency) by doing challenges. WB could've avoided a lot of negative press by never putting them in this otherwise good game.

Here are some tl;dr Pros and Cons...

Pros
+ Very strong technologically. Great graphics, voice acting/sound, and music.
+ Lots of varying regions to discover.
+ Raiding forts is a lot of fun.
+ Strong set pieces. The big moments are memorable.
+ The Orcs are hilarious and varying.
+ Flying a dragon is one of the most thrilling and satisfying moments in any current release.

Cons
- The story is shallow.
- The first 6-8 hours of the game are convoluted in almost every respect.
- Defending forts (unlike attacking) is not so much fun.
- Gear/gems system is never fully explained, but at least easy to figure out.
- Controversy around the game could've been avoided.

I'm not going to cover the minutiae of the game in my review because if you are familiar with the first game, you get what the second is about. You're here to smash some orcs and have a laugh doing so. The game delivers this in an impressive design that is gorgeous in places.

The biggest minus to the game is the story. While there are aspects of it I enjoyed (mainly around the character Bruz and anything have to do with the Nazgul), the story comes off disjointed and in pieces. There's no cohesion behind a lot of the motivation that Talion has. The game starts with a group of Gondorians as the central focus and it lacks depth and there's no foundation for empathising with their plight. There are a few splinter stories that are interesting but most of them are just slices and lack depth for obvious reasons. At the very least a lot of fun gameplay is in the splinter stories, and that helps out a lot. However, unlike the first game, I never felt the same motivation to know what happens since that began so viscerally in the first game. If Mordor is the Lord of the Rings series, War is the Hobbit series in terms of quality of story. If you're a Tolkien traditionalist, this game may not be for you as it takes dramatic liberty with some of the lore. For the most part I did not mind this and in some ways it really works, but consider yourself warned.

I currently have 45 hours in the game at the time of this review. I have completed all of the scripted stories and am at stage 4 (of 10) of "The Shadow Wars" which is the end game act. The Shadow Wars involve the mechanic of defending forts and invading if necessary and that is basically it.

Despite the controversy, Monolith deserve a lot of credit for Shadow of War. It plays well and has some really awesome moments. There is criticism that could and should be levied. But, if you enjoy third person action, this delivers on a lot of levels. There's a lot more going on in this game than in the first which is important for a sequel.

7/10