The nemesis system is the best thing this game has to offer. It's a hierarchy system for the orc captains (minibosses) in the map, and they are always trying to climb up the ranks, either by backstabbing/dueling eachother or by killing the player. If you interrogate some lower level enemies, you will learn weaknesses and strengths about these captains to plan their demise. Also, there's a bunch of additional mechanics around this system, like captains stealing your weapon if they beat you, or returning from their deaths looking for vengeance, or awarding you with better loot if you send them a death threat before killing them. You can also recruit them for your own army after beating them.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy everything else in the game:
- I'm not a big LOTR fan, so the story didn't engage me. Taking that into consideration and removing the narrative aspect, the gameplay both inside and outside missions becomes *very* repetitive. Kill a bunch of orcs. Follow this trail. Kill a captain. Kill a bunch of orcs...

- The combat in hard difficulties feels like a worse version of the one in the Batman Arkham games, for reasons like unavoidable projectiles being shot to you from a blind spot, excessive use of the counter button, and very shallow stealth mechanics.

- Playing in the hard difficulties can also become very tedious, I would be OK with failing and replaying missions if I didn't have to listen to a captain's monologue over and over again. It can also be frustrating to watch 3 other bosses pop out of nowhere while you are trying to deal with one of them.

- The map design suffers most of the uninteresting open-world symptoms. The only reason it doesn't feel lifeless is because it's swarmed by orcs, but there's really nothing to do in it aside from picking up collectibles or running towards your next captain victim/mission marker.

- Some skills in the skill tree have nonsensical level requirements. If I have the necessary skill points to invest in the branch I like, It feels arbitrary to make me choose something else instead. This is even more common in skill specializations.

I'm glad I didn't run into the lootbox mtx that this game had on launch, but even without them, Shadow of War is another AAA-slop game with an interesting enemy system as its only saving grace. It's a serviceable experience that LOTR fans will probably love, but it's not for me.

kill black orcs

Top 3 Best free-flow combat video games of all time.

Graphics - B+
Gameplay - A+
Story - B-
Music - A
Voice Acting/Dialogue - A+