Middle Earth: Shadow of War--Pretty, but Tedious

My adventures with the games of Game Pass continued with Middle Earth:  Shadow of War.  I was a bit on the fence about this one because I had read some very unfavorable things about it upon its release several years ago.  One of the notable criticisms was the fact that a particular part of the game seemed to have been intentionally designed as a massive grindfest with the goal of driving players toward dubious in-game purchases to make the experience less painful.  That criticism is somewhat warranted, but I will explain it in the cons section.

It had been quite awhile since I had played the original Middle Earth game and I vaguely remembered some of the characters and gameplay features  If you're like me and it has been awhile, fear not!  The controls and gameplay are very easy to pick up and there hasn't been a vast departure from the formula of the past game--you're still going to use a combination of stealth and combat bad-assery to give the smackdown to a vast array of orcish baddies.  The nemesis system is still very much a part of the game.

The story in Shadow of War follows Talion as he continues his quest to free Middle Earth from the grasp of Sauron.  Talion isn't fully "alive," and is accompanied by the supernatural powers of the elvish wraith Celebrimbor.  A large part of the story revolves around the fact that Celebrimbor had forged another ring of power to counter the powers of Sauron (and, for other reasons that are very spoiler-y that I won't elaborate on).  The creation of this ring, of course, leads to unwanted attention and....issues.  Mixed up in the entire thing is Shelob, the spider queen, who has some very supernatural powers herself and offers up tantalizing pieces of the history of Sauron.  Talion finds himself immersed in trying to save the human city of Minas Ithil from orcish invaders.  Not one to be undone by Talion, Sauron sends in the big dogs in the form of the Nazghul--a new, wicked form of enemy.  Talion is forced to face the facts--in order to defeat Sauron, he's going to need to raise an army.  The rest of the story hinges on efforts to raise that army and work to defeat Sauron.

One of the gorgeous vistas in Shadow of War.

Pros:
+ The game looks amazing.  The graphics are really impressive and the world feels exactly how Middle Earth should feel--beautiful, large, and full or orcs.  Each zone offers up a different Middle Earth inspired feeling--a towering human city; a dark, cave-like industrial orc stronghold; a forested, critter-filled playground; and even a few icy biomes for variety.  The details in Talion's weapons and armor are also really impressive.

+ Combat is still a ton of fun.  I hadn't played Assassin's Creed prior to playing the first Middle Earth game and, after playing the AC games, I now realize how similar the combat styles are in both games.  Talion is still an orc-slaying badass who can take on a heaping pile of lesser orcs with no problems.  Taking on commanders is where the real combat happens and defeating them can be quite challenging.  Players can choose to be more stealthy in their approach or to take a more head-on path.  Either way, you're gonna have a blast stabbing orcs.

+ Collectibles, exploration, and sidequest content.  Each zone is an open-world and upon discovering and cleansing the Haedir stones, certain sidequest and collectible markers are revealed.  Players can spend time tracking down and reconstructing Shelob's lost memories, collecting lost artifacts of Gondor, or finding lost elven words to unlock the hidden Ithildin doors in each zone.  Completing these optional side activities provides numerous rewards.  The Ithildin doors in particular are good places to find legendary gear.

+ Upgradeable gear sets.  Talion can find and equip numerous pieces of gear.  The best gear can be found while taking down orc commanders and SoW implemented a tiered, colored loot system.  The ultimate prizes are the legendary tiered loot which forms sets with set bonuses.  Legendary loot can be upgraded at various levels upon completing specific objectives.  There are numerous sets in the game and someone who is dedicated to collecting could spend a lot of time trying to piece together all the sets.  Each set has its own look and the armor and weapons in the game all look really cool.

+ Talent trees with a metric ton of talents allow players to customize Talion to face every encounter.  Each talent has three "versions" that can be unlocked through investing more talent points.  Players can easily swap out talents at almost anytime.

+ Challenge quests.  As Talion unlocks new talents there are sidequests that tell the story of Celebrimbor that serve as tiered challenges.  Each quest hinges on using a newly unlocked skill to perform a certain task and how successfully you are able to perform that task will provide additional loot or talent points.  These quests can be repeated multiple times and are a good way to learn how to use Talion's new talents.

+ Forming an orcish army and storming enemy strongholds is fun (like the first few times, but I will get to that in the cons).  There are different "tribes" of orcs with different talents and abilities--the variety has very much increased over the first game.

+ Brainwash and use your orcish follows as your own personal force.  You can assign orcs to be your "bodyguard" and accompany you.  This is handy when you want backup to take down commanders.

Cons:
- Story is very forgettable.  For me, the Middle Earth games fall into the same category as the Assassin's Creed games--the settings and gameplay are the main course and the story is a side dish (it's peas).  Stabbing orcs is way more fun than the story.  Don't expect something amazing on the story level.

- Gets a bit grindy.  Part of the story involves travelling to various zones and recruiting a powerful enough army of orcs (which means tracking down, defeating, and converting several orc commanders) to eventually take on and defeat a stronghold.  There are numerous ways to do this--the best way is to adequately weaken the strength of the fortress by defeating its numerous commanders (who usually have several underling bodyguards.  Generally you want to defeat the underling bodyguards so that you're not facing several commander type orcs at the same time).  You can also invest the currency you find and earn in upgrades for your army.

- Epilogue.  For me, this is the biggest point of contention.  You play through the entire main storyline, complete the "final" battle, and get to see how the story unfolds.  Then, you find out that the story isn't actually over!  There's an "epilogue" chapter that involves defending ALL of the strongholds you've conquered against attacks.  The bad news is that you've leveled up, your commanders haven't, so you're gonna need to go out and repeat the entire recruitment process (many times!) to adequately crew your strongholds with commanders of the appropriate level.  You're looking at hours and hours of very repetitive gameplay just to be able to "complete" the story in its entirety!  If you're a completionist...this is very frustrating.  This is the part of the game that was intentionally created to sway players toward purchasing boosts, currency, EVERYTHING just to help them finish it more quickly.  It's some really cash-grabby design and is dumb.

- Gear sets are upgradeable, but reaching certain upgrade goals is almost impossible in the main storyline (excluding the epilogue).  This is another aspect that is frustrating.

Recommendation:
I can't say that I didn't have fun with Shadow of War.  Finishing the main storyline was enjoyable, but I was frustrated by the design of the "epilogue."  As someone who is a completionist I wanted to finish it, but I didn't want to invest the hours and hours of grinding just for the benefit of seeing a short video that finalizes the story.  If you're someone who feels fine about having a nice time playing through the bulk of the storyline, it's a good option for you.  If you're someone who likes to finish EVERYTHING, know that you're in for an unneeded grindfest that is the product of some dubious design--you're probably going to want to skip it.  I would definitely look into buying Shadow of War during a sale (it frequently goes on sale for 50% or more off and it's definitely worth that price).