Shadow of War came with a lot of hype, and I was excited to play it. It was a gift from a friend, so I was determined to complete it also. I reckon some people will be like duh! Others will sympathise, as a man with a full time job and running my own little business when I can but this game, I was determined to complete.
So how did I find it? Very same-y to the first game, though they have developed the famous nemesis system to include allies which I found to be amazing. Especially when the blood brother perk comes into play, it can catch you by surprise and this emphasises what a fantastic system it is.
In terms of gameplay, not a huge amount of change, the game plays like its predecessor and I can honestly say completing the thing was a serious grind. There are some cool abilities, but it takes an effort to use a lot of the abilities. Some were more natural than others to use. The arrow abilities are ok to use, the animal tree is well done and easy to integrate. The wraith is a strange tree, which has a basic skill to pick up items right at the end of it and I found that to be very odd progression. Combat and Stealth is hit and miss with some abilities amazing and some rarely to use. I do like the sub-skills that can really change a skill from useless to very useful.
Combat is a violent Batman: Arkham system which is really intuitive, though the camera is prone to creating blindspots.
I was one of the few that enjoyed the story, I feel like (Lore breaking aside) that it was a personal and progressive story that added substance to characters from the game and films alike.
One horrible point was that as soon as you get into Act 3, the Shadow Wars, then the dominate skill takes a severe downgrade. It suddenly takes forever to dominate orcs and made an already tedious aspect of the game even worse.
My hints and tips for the game are:
– Finish the wraith skill tree ASAP. You really don’t want to hang around to pick up goods. Preferably use the prologue to rack up the skill points to get this quickly.
– Find a playstyle and stick with it, but be at least competent playing in other ways as missions may demand that you do this.
– Dragons are metal as **** but not always practical. Can be prone to friendly fire, something to keep in mind during fortress assaults.
– Research fortresses attack and defence and prepare accordingly
– Sell all gear (besides legendary) to boost the Miriam. You’ll need it later on for fortresses.
– Do your best to always upgrade any gear you have got.
– Gems can make the game a lot easier so make sure you research and get the most out of them. Remember that equipped gems won’t count towards how many you have when crafting better gems, so unequip them to craft stuff sooner.
– Complete all quests as quickly as you can to unlock more skills for you to use.
– Vaulting is a great go to in a fight, but learn to fight without it as half the time you’ll encounter vault breakers, who will just ruin your day.
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