"Middle Earth: Shadow of War" Review

2014's Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a 2nd rate action game made up of a bunch of bits and pieces poorly copied from other, superior games. It achieved near universal acclaim for its (admittedly compelling in concept) Nemesis system. As you built your army of orcs, if you were ever killed, the orc that killed you would rise in Sauron's ranks, and it would become a matter of revenge to seek this orc out and kill him. All it really amounted to in the end, though, was a several minutes-long wait time to resume gameplay after death. In stark contrast, Middle Earth: Shadow of War is an excellent game that improves on nearly every aspect of its predecessor. Shadow of War is a bit of a mess, especially in its first act, but it boasts more responsive combat, a better (if slightly more jumbled) story, and the Nemesis system itself has been upgraded to such a degree that I actually found it enjoyable this time around. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Reagan, aren't you forgetting something?" To that, dear reader, I say this: Worry not. I'll be touching on the Oliphant (get it?) in the room before this review is over, mark my words. Now, for this review, I'm going to be doing this a little differently. Typically my style is to review each aspect of the game individually. This time, however, I'm going to cover the story and gameplay, and then I'll be breaking it down by act. There are 4 acts in Shadow of War, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I plan to address all of these. Let us begin.

In Middle Earth: Shadow of War, we're once again placed in the unlikable, bland shoes of Talion; a Gondor ranger who was killed by the hand of Sauron while on watch at the black gate. In the first game, after his death, he became tied to the wraith of Celebrimbor, the elven smith who forged the rings of power for Sauron. At the start of War, Talion and Celebrimbor have just finished forging a new ring of power that they plan to use to continue turning the armies of Mordor against Sauron; this time rallying the orcs to the cause of the "Bright Lord." However, Celebrimbor is...kidnapped? I'm not really sure how this comes to be, but one way or another, Talion must rescue Celebrimbor from the legendary Shelob. You remember, the giant spider from Return of the King? Only this time she's a Morrigan-esque brunette woman. I'm not joking, they literally took a giant spider goddess and made her into a generic female fantasy character. With that in mind, one of the major problems I had with the story in Mordor was that it delved far too deep into the realm of fanfiction. Oddly enough, Shadow of War is a much bigger offender in that regard, but it didn't bother me nearly as much this time around because it was at least well-done fanfiction (well, except for Shelob). Look, one way or another, Talion rescues Celebrimbor by relinquishing the ring to Shelob, and from there we have the start of our story. Like several things in this game, the story is a bit of a mess. However, it does reach some notable high points that made my jaw drop, so that's already one point over Shadow of Mordor, which had basically no story at all beyond "hey, look, we have Gollum!". There are a couple different stories to follow, and as far as I can tell, very little of them are actually required. There's a plot line where the Witch King is trying to capture Minas Ithil, a plot line about the Gondorians, a plot line about the nazgul creating orcs called "The chosen," it's all over the place. I'm still not sure how you end up getting the final quest, but I got it.
Backing up the good-but-kind-of-messy story is a relatively weak cast of characters. As I and every other reviewer on the face of the earth have said, Talion is a big part of this. He's just so boring as a character. Troy Baker does his best with what he has, but it just isn't enough to salvage the person we'll be spending all of our time with. Celebrimbor isn't much better. He's at least a little interesting, but his character is kind of one-note in this game (more on that in the act 1 paragraph). Beyond our protagonists, the biggest offenders are the Gondorians. Tell me if you've seen these characters before: 1) A single black character whose primary character trait is his strong sense of duty and 2) the daughter of an overly protective public figure, and her primary character trait is not wanting to be protected anymore. Yeah, you've probably heard that song and dance before. However, it's not all doom and gloom. For instance, eventually I met an elven woman named Eltariel (or something like that). She would become a major character, but one of the first lines I heard from her was "try to keep up." Now, "try to keep up" is in the same vein as "I can handle myself" when it comes to forced, poorly written female characters, so I braced myself for another entry on my lamest characters of the year list. However, as the story continued, Eltariel became significantly better developed, even with the kind of no-nonsense personality that comes hand-in-hand with a spot on my aforementioned list. It just goes to show that good development is everything, and it can save an otherwise doomed character. The greatest characters and the true stars of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, however, are the orcs you end up recruiting. Gone are the days of boring, randomly generated, useless orcs from Shadow of Mordor. Actual care went into crafting a lot of these orcs, and it shows. I actually ended up growing attached to a lot of my orcs, and that made the stakes all the better when one died or ended up betraying me (more on that in the act 2 paragraph). I have fond memories of capturing forts with my orc captain who began every sentence with "okokok!" and my orc captain who only said "Determination!" (seemingly in reference to Undertale). There's a wealth of personality to be found here, and I'll be discussing that further once I delve into the improved Nemesis system in the act II paragraph.

Now we arrive at gameplay, which has been considerably tightened in the three years since Shadow of Mordor. Talion responds to your button commands instantly this time around, and the difference it makes is astounding. Like its predecessor, combat in Shadow of War is a freeflow rpg affair a-la Rocksteady's Arkham saga. You point the left stick in a direction, press the attack button, and Talion closes the gap between you and the enemy and attacks. You'll need to employ attacks, counters, dodges, and stuns in order to survive. In addition, you can also use your bow to thin the herd a little bit or pin a powerful enemy in place. There are a variety of enemies that require different tactics to beat, so despite the relatively small list of combat mechanics, combat itself doesn't grow stale. As you attack enemies, you build up "might," and once your might is full, you can unleash an execution to instantly kill an enemy or heavily damage your more powerful foes. As you progress, you'll unlock other ways to make use of might, such as instantly draining all the health from an enemy and healing yourself or launching a powerful arrow in the event that you're facing an enemy who is immune to executions. In most situations, you'll be facing oceans of orcs, so assuming you pay attention, you can rack up executions pretty regularly. What I like about this system is that, despite what I just said, this doesn't make combat trivial. Combat depends on your reflexes, so even if you have the best gear around, you're going to have a hard time racking up might or even surviving if you aren't, as certain fanbases might say, "getting good." Even when you're at level 40 and have so many skill points invested that you don't know what to purchase anymore, combat is balanced to rely primarily on your skill. If and when you lose all your health, you'll get two "last chances." If you press the correct button at the correct time, you'll dodge the killing blow and be reinvigorated. But as I mentioned, it all depends on your skill. If you press the wrong button or press the right button too early or too late, you're dead. At the end of the day, the question is: was it fun? The improvements to gameplay in Shadow of War cause the answer to be an emphatic "yes." Unfortunately, it's also a bit of a mess, but in an inoffensive way. You see, there are all these extra things like upgrades for your gear and gems that apply certain bonuses to your weapons, the list goes on. All these little extra things are a little confusing and 100% unnecessary. Don't invest your time in learning about these aspects of the gameplay. I guarantee you won't need them. Now, let us delve into this game act-by-act.

I will say right off the bat that Act I is weak as all get out. There's just way to much crammed in and not explained to make for a strong opening. From the get-go, you're going to be running around confused, unsure of what your objective is. This feeling will continue for the entirety of act 1. When you finally do get on track and figure out what you need to be doing, this section of the story becomes unbearably repetitive. You're going to be so freaking sick of hearing Celebrimbor talk about "the palantir" and hearing him argue with Talion about it that you might scream. I actually considered not writing this paragraph and instead recording and posting a cover of that old jazz standard, "Let's call the whole thing off" ("You say palantir and I say Gondor, you say ring and I say Shelob. Palantir. Gondor. Ring. Shelob. Let's call the whole thing ooooff!"). Anytime either of our protagonists started talking, I would internally bet on what was going to be discussed. There are only so many times you can hear a protagonist say "we should get back to Shelob" before it starts to hurt. I was ready to open this review up with the line: "Having now played Middle Earth: Shadow of War, I've come to the conclusion that I just don't get these games." Thankfully, things pick up in act 2.

Act II made me wonder why this game was split up into acts in the first place. Act II is literally 90% of the game. But I digress. At the start of act II, we get to start depriving orcs of their free will and building our orc army. This time around, our orc army actually serves a purpose: to make capturing the 4 forts of Mordor easier. As I mentioned, I'm not sure what causes the final mission to show up, but in order to actually do the final mission, you need to capture all 4 forts. So, I suppose that's actually the main quest. In any case, each fort is defended by a series of warchiefs and an overlord. Each warchief manages a fort defense that makes capturing the fort harder. With that in mind, you'll thin out these defenses by capturing orc captains and turning them to your cause. From there, you'll order these captains to kill other captains, become a bodyguard to a warchief so that they can stab the warchief in the back when you meet face to face, or to become your own bodyguard. While it's definitely time consuming, the best way to capture forts is to get rid of all the warchiefs before you start your siege, though it isn't required. Every warchief you kill destroys one of the fort's defenses, making the siege easier. Putting in the time could mean the difference between climbing a fort's walls or being burned by a fire spout as you attempt to climb the walls. If not to make things easier, I would suggest taking the time to get rid of the warchiefs just so you can experience the wonders of the newly improved Nemesis system. When you order one of your orcs to kill another captain, a quest will be revealed. You can either wait for this quest to be resolved automatically or you can join the quest and ensure that your captain comes out on top. Joining in these nemesis quests essentially means that you have another orc captain ripe for the picking right in front of you, so I would recommend taking a direct role in your army's endeavors. What's truly brilliant, though, is the fact that sometimes your captains will call an enemy captain by their name. It really makes it feel like there's an actual orc hierarchy in place, not just a bunch of randomly generated npcs. Earlier I mentioned betrayal as a possibility for your orcs. Let me tell my story. I conquered a region alongside a powerful orc named "Flogg the Regal." He was my right-hand orc. Later in the story, he ambushed me and announced that he'd been playing me all along. I decided he needed to be made an example of, so I chopped him in half and called it a day. That isn't where the story ends, though. Even later on, I was surprised to see old Flogg again. He had been renamed "Flogg the Machine," and true to his name, most of his stomach was completely metal. He mentioned that other orcs had put him back together (he specifically mentioned being cut in half). His hatred of me was tangible, but I ended up killing him again. Toward the end of the game, Flogg re-appeared, this time with half of his head made of metal. Hopefully that gets across what I mean when I say that the Nemesis system has been improved. Unlike in the original game, organic stories end up being told as a part of this system, and it's truly impressive. A number of things can happen, and it makes for some great story moments. For example, I was facing the overlord of a fort after a long siege. I had him down to his last bit of health, but then he knocked off the last bit of my health. I was out of last chances, so this was going to be the killing blow, and I was going to have to do the whole siege over again. The overlord wound up his attack in slow motion and swung. However, at the last second, one of my loyal captains appeared out of thin air, deflected the blow, and killed the overlord, effectively winning the siege for me. This captain then offered me his hand to get me back on my feet. That was a freaking great moment of organic storytelling that had my jaw on the floor. I had been rescued from certain death by one of my captains, and because of my army working together like that, we'd captured a region of Mordor.
Returning to the topic of the forts, once you're ready, you can launch a siege of the fort for whatever region you're in. These are always invigorating. Every time. It starts with you assigning your assault leaders. You'll chose a number of your best captains and have them join the fray. Then, you assign "siege upgrades" to them. These can be Olag-hai to break down the fort's walls, a host of shield-wielding orcs, siege beasts, you name it. These upgrades require the in-game currency...and that's something we'll discuss further when we reach Act IV. Once you start the siege, you're greeted to a scene of your army chanting and chest-pounding as you walk down the middle of the battlefield to stand with your assault leaders. Your assault leaders will then say something like "you say the word, boss!" The overlord comes out at the top of the fort's tower and gives a grandiose speech about how he's going to kill you. Then, in a moment that truly makes this game feel like Lord of the Rings, you let out a battle cry, point your sword forward, and charge towards the fort with your followers. I got goosebumps every time, that's how well this game simulates leading an army into war. From there, you'll capture certain points in the fort by fighting in them for an unspecified length of time. Once you've captured all the points, you'll enter the fort's tower to face the Overlord and his minions once and for all. The overlords are always challenging, and some of the forts come with added challenges like fire spewing up from the floor in regular intervals. You'll need to be prepared for these battles. If you defeat the overlord, you'll get another Lord of the Rings-esque moment. You'll walk onto the top of the tower and scream out a victory speech to the effect of "MORDOR BELONGS TO US!!! MORDOR BELONGS TO THE BRIGHT LORD!!!!!" Even though these speeches were a little corny sometimes, it still got me pumped up to make Sauron's army tremble. From there, you'll assign a new overlord and call it a day. Once you've done this for all 4 forts of Mordor, you'll be able to start the final mission and end Act II.

Act III is the shortest of the acts, and it only adds to my question of why this game was divided into acts in the first place. Act III is essentially just the final mission, the final boss fights, and the "final" cutscenes. Frankly, it's brilliant. Though it leaves us with a cliffhanger, I thought it was a strong and very unexpected ending (or it could just be because, unlike in Shadow of Mordor, the final boss isn't a quicktime event). That's really all there is to say about Act III. It lasts all of half-an-hour, depending on how much trouble you have with the bosses.

And now we come to the final act, and the source of that really clever Oliphant joke I made in the introductory paragraph. It's hardly a secret at this point, but in case you don't follow games media closely: Middle Earth: Shadow of War, a $60 single-player game, has pervasive microtransactions. The plastic, buzzword-slinging corporate mouthpieces (as Jim Sterling might say) of publisher Warner Brothers Interactive tote the usual company line: "It's optional," but I'm here to tell you that Act IV literally only exists as a way to get you to take part in the microtransactions. Let me tell you how desperately Warner Brothers wants you to use the market. As you boot up the game for the first time, you're greeted with the End User License Agreement, and you're asked to agree. That's part for the course for a lot of games, but there's an option on the agreement to let WB use your data. Without checking that option, you can't access the market or online options. Being vehemently opposed to the whole idea, I agreed to the EULA, but not to that option. I was greeted with a large, grim warning about market access, and I continued anyway. Normally, that would be it, and you could go in and allow WB to use your data in the options anytime you want. However, if you don't agree to that option, you will have to agree to the EULA every single time you start the game up. That's how desperate they are. They make it so you have to jump through hoops in order to avoid access to the market. I'm proud to say I help strong throughout my time with this game. WB never got the pleasure of my cooperation, not even for the ability to get into the market. Now, disregarding that, they're actually pretty sneaky about the microtransactions. You can get through Acts I to III without having any need to spend a cent. However, once you get to Act IV, the gloves come off. Act IV is essentially a series of sieges in which you need to defend your forts against Sauron's armies. Each fort defense is a "stage" of the "Shadow Wars" that you need to complete to get the game's true ending. Your forts will be attacked by orcs warchiefs of exceedingly higher levels than yours. You'll need to defeat as many as ten orc warchiefs at these higher levels, and if you die, you have to launch a siege to take back the fort. It doesn't matter how many of the warchiefs you killed, more will take their place if you lose. At the start of a defense mission, you'll go through the same steps you did for sieges. This time, however, you'll have to pay in-game currency in order to unlock more slots for assault commanders. On the attacking side, these slots were unlocked as you level up, but on the defending side you have to pay, and you'd better believe that it's expensive. What's more, siege upgrades on the defending side are way more expensive than they were on the attacking side. To have a basic defense ready, you'll be out as much as 10,000 Mirian, easy. I hardly ever spent Mirian, and I collected a lot of it. That basic defense knocked off a third of what I'd won in-game. Still, I kept playing. I won the first stage and lost the second. Honestly, the best way to do these missions is just to not buy siege upgrades and lose on the defense side and take back the fort without having to pay too much additional in-game currency, but that's completely bonkers that you have to do that. I won the third stage and got the mission for the fourth with only a little bit of Mirian left. I was getting tired of it, so I looked up how much I had left to do. Now, how many stages would you expect there'd be? 4? One for each fort? That would make sense, right? Wrong.

How about TWENTY?!

There are twenty stages, each increasing the difficulty, and by extension the amount of Mirian you'd need to spend in order to have a basic survival setup. All of this is required to get the game's true ending. Warner Brothers, in their infinite, unmatched greed have held this game's actual ending hostage, and the only way you're going to get to it is by either forking over actual money for Legendary orcs to add to your army or by doing a soulless grind for about the length of twenty times the length of the story. That isn't ok. It makes me regret setting a rule for myself that I can take off a max of 1 point for every problem I find in a game. It's disgusting, and Warner Brothers should be shamed for it as much as is humanly possible. Microtransactions aren't mandatory in this game, but don't you dare let any fool tell you they're optional, because they're not. I stopped playing this otherwise excellent game on a bad note, and without knowing what really happens in the end. I truly feel bad for developer Monolith. They had a great game, and then WB stepped in to shape it to end as a glorified Candy Crush wearing the mask of the previous three acts.

Folks, despite my screaming tone in the last paragraph, I had a great time with Middle Earth: Shadow of War. It's just such a shame that WB couldn't keep it in their pants. This game improves on nearly every aspect of its predecessor, and that deserves to be celebrated. The gameplay is tighter, the story hits more high points, the Nemesis system has been vastly improved, and the organic storytelling possibilities are endless. However, we must hold WB accountable for this. I can look the other way when microtransactions are truly optional, but in a case like this, I feel the need to hold the line. We need to speak the only language that pond scum game publisher executives understand. I'm sure there were a bunch of charts in board meetings that estimated how much they'd earn from microtransactions on average for each player. It gives me a sense of absolute pleasure to imagine how much money my stubbornness has cost WB. My policy is this: don't punish the devs by not buying the game. Punish the CEOs by refusing to pay more than $60. Or better yet, level yourself up and dominate them, forcing them to work for the Bright Lord.

Let us review:

Goshdarned flippin' Microtransactions - 1.0
Weak first act - 1.0
Kind of a mess -0.5

The final score for.....actually, hold on a second. I'm going to do this differently.


Let us review for the first three acts:

Weak first act -1.0
Kind of a mess -0.5

The final score for the first three acts of Middle Earth: Shadow of War (the acts designed by the devs, and the only acts I'll acknowledge as legitimate) is...

8.5/10 - Quite Good
Excellent work, Monolith, excellent work


Now, let us review for the final act:

Goshdarned flippin' Microtransactions - 1.0
Everything is more expensive on the defending side - 1.0
You have to grind for about 20x the length of the game to succeed - 1.0
The game's actual ending is hidden behind this paywall -1.0
The only way to avoid spending is to intentionally lose - 1.0
There are 20 of these sieges -1.0
You have to pay for additional assault commanders - 1.0
If you lose, you'll just end up having to pay more next time - 1.0
Most of your orcs will end up dying because of the level difference - 1.0

The final score for Warner Brothers' bastard act is:

1.0/10 - Unacceptable
Shame on you, Warner Brothers, shame on you.