Shadow of War Review

Shadow of War is a game that is simultaneously agonising and rewarding. While the experience itself is competently crafted, with eye-popping graphics, an eye for detail and possibly the best enemy-AI system to come out in the last ten years, the final package is a big downfall for a franchise that started so well in its first outing. Unfortunately, the game’s size is its biggest nemesis; forcing anti-consumer mechanics and creating a poor, over-bloated and over-long storyline that fails to showcase what should have been a triumph.

 

The storyline continues directly on from Shadow of Mordor; involving the creation of a New Ring.
Screenshot from in-game.

Shadow of Mordor was perhaps the best licensed video game since Batman: Arkham Asylum. Taking inspiration from the latter, the first entry into the franchise married satisfying rhythm-based button-mash combat with a well-designed open world to create what was at the time the best single player title yet to come out in the PS4/Xbox One generation. If that wasn’t enough, the exciting Nemesis system was brought into the world, creating a platform for emergent stories that put enemy AI in the spotlight. Combat became much more dynamic and exciting, as did the enemy forces themselves. 

It’s a shame that Shadow of War doesn’t follow suit. Despite a strong attempt, the game ultimately buckles underneath the great weight of its horrible design choices. The result is an experience that seems to both hate and love itself; it is just as ready to reward you as it is to destroy you and laugh at your attempts to enjoy the game, oh, and did you know that you could be slightly less annoyed by buying the Mithril Chest for real money?

One of the most controversial aspects of Shadow of War is the inclusion of loot chests, a practice that has been somewhat over-discussed recently as an anti-consumer pricing model, especially for a full-price game. To keep this aspect of the review concise; the inclusion of loot boxes here is painfully unnecessary and clearly informs some parts of the game to be more irksome than they should simply to attract players to dropping cash, which is not okay at best, and a disgusting and shady practice at worst. Given the game’s ambition, it’s probable that the sheer level of investment and production value that went into building Shadow of War was too high to profit feasibly from a simple full-retail purchase. In this case, my argument is this: if your game fails to profit in such a way, that’s a failing of your own budgeting and not of the market itself. 

 

The graphics are so sharp that this orc's eyes actually gave me nightmares.
Screenshot from in-game.

As for the presentation and production values; yes, every aspect of Shadow of War is out of this world, graphically speaking. This game really took my new PC out for a spin and it was an interesting experience to see the sheer power of graphical and gameplay fidelity made possible by ever-evolving technology. The textures often hit jaw-dropping levels of detail on every little part of Mordor. There is little to criticise here, except perhaps that some of the maps look a little bit drab and rely too much on that modern gaming crutch of brown and grey colour schemes, except for maybe one or two specific areas in the game.

The gameplay itself is the real wow-factor here though; the Nemesis system has evolved into its own and is suitably impressive, especially for a game of this scale. There is a multitude of strategies that become viable when considering the weaknesses of the multiple Orcs that one will face on their journey through Mordor. The sandbox nature of the combat that allows one to exploit different weaknesses through experimentation with so many intricately-overlapping systems is a wonder to behold. Many times, I found myself pleasantly surprised with how robustly the game’s engine could create a multitude of interesting scenarios. 

 

One of my favourite Orc Nemeses, was obsessed about his Black Blade but didn't win a single fight with me.
Screenshot from in-game.

Unfortunately, there was a desperate need for some extra tweaking here: while the system itself encourages exploitation of weaknesses in enemy captains, often combat can feel cheap and even painful. Enemy archers are overpowered and the respawn rates are set far too high. They became a constant thorn in my side and a source of annoyance that held me back from truly enjoying the free-flowing combat that I loved in Shadow of Mordor. Some captains often developed immunities to literally every combat move I had as an option, requiring an impressive, but ultimately irksome, set of hoops for me to jump through to create attacking openings. It would have been so much simpler if every orc captain had at least one weakness you could have exploited in combat, instead the game is satisfied with having you jump in and out of stealth for hours luring them between arrow markers on the map. Impressive for encouraging sandbox experimentation, but in combat terms it is often poorly-implemented and even broken at times. 

Orc recruitment and training is perhaps the biggest aspect of the game, and while it is a fun quest, this is where things start to turn from mediocre to worse. While it is fine enough to gather your army in the open world, especially in the later stages of the game this becomes a slog. One time I lost out on ten hours of progress developing my army because of a cheap love-tap by a captain who happened to have a one-hit kill perk. This is the point where the game is meant to encourage the purchase of loot boxes and microtransactions, and it is so transparently designed that the game almost becomes a parody of itself at this point. It is so clear that the latter part of the game is meant to encourage you to buy the loot boxes that I left feeling that on some level like I was treated to a worse game because of it. 

As for the game itself, it is certainly a ‘bang for buck’ purchase, microtransactions notwithstanding. There is such a mountain of things to do that at first it is intimidating to a new player. This has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of how inviting and non-convoluted the game is to play, but the sheer size of the package itself is noteworthy. At over 40 hours I still am nowhere near seeing everything that the game has to offer and as a sandbox it is competently designed enough to create the right mood in the player for exploration and play. However, this is also a downside to the game because at the half-way mark it starts to feel over-long, like a painful slog. Enjoyment of the game eventually diminishes to a point that all it will take is a single frustrating battle to go wrong and the player will put down the controller completely.  The game is absolutely bloated and it is a shame to see such promise be underwritten by such a mixed bag, especially given that the maps themselves aren’t particularly memorable on their own; here the only location that really rivals Shadow of Mordor’s maps is perhaps Minas Ithil, but the player only spends a scant amount of time there such that its impression is somewhat missed.

Then there is the plot. There are so many mis-steps here in terms of Tolkien story that the game might as well be considered non-canon, and a face-heel turn toward the end that doesn’t quite hit the right notes. Story was never this series’ strong point. While the setting promises an epic tale that will engage gamers, instead there are a couple of charming scenes where some of the more interesting orcs can shine through. Unfortunately, here it is also a case of bloat where the storyline suffers from feeling padded because of the game feeling twice as long as it should have been.

Bruz is one of the more fun characters in the game.
Screenshot from in-game.

While Shadow of War offers a well-designed open world with a backbone of a great Nemesis system that promises more interesting orcs than the previous entry in the series, ultimately the poor, anti-consumer decisions force it into being a much worse game than it has any right to be. Despite amazing production values and satisfying gameplay, instead the fact is that the game seems at every turn to offer you something to love and something to hate.

Shadow of War is my marmite game of 2017; I have a love-hate relationship with it and it is difficult to occupy a middle-ground at any one point in the game. At some points, you’ll hate where things are going, while at other times you’ll find some genuine sandbox enjoyment, but ultimately the loot chests and terrible post-game create something that I would only recommend if it was at least half of its full-retail price.

This orc knew it, apparently.
Screenshot from in-game.