TL:DR

A beautiful game with the combat system introduced by the Batman Arkham games. While the game lacks in story it makes up in power fantasies of slaying countless orcs and your very own nemisis generated by the game.



I played through the game twice.

It introduces two different worlds, which are set in a wasteland similar to what you would imagine Mordor to be and a beautiful coastal area inhabitated by several creatures and many orcs.

The graphics look stunning throughout the game.

While the game entertains a story set inbetween the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is rather on the weak side and failed to intrest my in the development of my own as well as other characters. There could have been more potential due to the rich background offered by this fantasy universum.

The gameplay on the other hand is a mixture of any Ubisoft open world game released recently and the Batman Arkham games by Steady games.
You get to explore two vast areas spicked with towers which unlock fast travel and sidequest (sound familiar anyone?) and then fight orcs with a well-made copy of the combat styl in the Batman games.
The orcs are made up of the grunts and officers. These officers recruit themselves from the lower ranks and are an RNG element in the game. When ever you die at the hands of an orc, he gets to challenge an officer and if successful he will be an officer from now on. The means a changing apperance, added attributes with an unique mixture of strenghts and fears as well as the chance for loot if you manage to kill them.
You can follow these officers during their advances within the enemy army, create, sabotage or assist in power struggles and later even command these officers, building your own army within their army.

For me this is one of the best features within the game though it fully reveals late, too late, in the game.

My biggest critic is the difficulty settings in the game
While already in the early game you can slay through a handful of orcs at once the numbers get ridiculous late game when you with ease kill complete fortresses including several low to mid ranking officers. Even the boss fights are not much off a challenge. I was missing any chance to adapt the difficulty to a level that would work for me, so I played it twice.
On the first run I was eager to explore and do all the sidequest. Leveled up faster then the game unlocked further abilites so I easily overpowered most enemies with ease.
The second time I rushed through it to see if it was more of a challenge. Saddly it wasn't.

While the game offers to continue the game after the final boss, I was lacking any motivation to do so since I already had all achievements and the officer did not scale with the later game. If you killed a highranking officer the next one would only be low to mid ranking in level and strength and it will take time for him to acutally grow into an opponent.

I also missed the challenges I am used from the batman games, as they are priced out as DLC and I do not undestand why such a small feature would be worth a DLC rather then implemented directly since this is a fullprice game.

I would recommend as the game is fun to play but I could not find any longtime motivation to play this game.

TL:DR A beautiful game with the combat system introduced by the Batman Arkham games. While the game lacks in story it makes up in power fantasies of slaying countless orcs and your very own nemisis generated by the game. I played through the game twice. It introduces two different worlds, which are set in a wasteland similar to what you would imagine Mordor to be and a beautiful coastal area inhabitated by several creatures and many orcs. The graphics look stunning throughout the game. While the game entertains a story set inbetween the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is rather on the weak side and failed to intrest my in the development of my own as well as other characters. There could have been more potential due to the rich background offered by this fantasy universum. The gameplay on the other hand is a mixture of any Ubisoft open world game released recently and the Batman Arkham games by Steady games. You get to explore two vast areas spicked with towers which unlock fast travel and sidequest (sound familiar anyone?) and then fight orcs with a well-made copy of the combat styl in the Batman games. The orcs are made up of the grunts and officers. These officers recruit themselves from the lower ranks and are an RNG element in the game. When ever you die at the hands of an orc, he gets to challenge an officer and if successful he will be an officer from now on. The means a changing apperance, added attributes with an unique mixture of strenghts and fears as well as the chance for loot if you manage to kill them. You can follow these officers during their advances within the enemy army, create, sabotage or assist in power struggles and later even command these officers, building your own army within their army. For me this is one of the best features within the game though it fully reveals late, too late, in the game. My biggest critic is the difficulty settings in the game While already in the early game you can slay through a handful of orcs at once the numbers get ridiculous late game when you with ease kill complete fortresses including several low to mid ranking officers. Even the boss fights are not much off a challenge. I was missing any chance to adapt the difficulty to a level that would work for me, so I played it twice. On the first run I was eager to explore and do all the sidequest. Leveled up faster then the game unlocked further abilites so I easily overpowered most enemies with ease. The second time I rushed through it to see if it was more of a challenge. Saddly it wasn't. While the game offers to continue the game after the final boss, I was lacking any motivation to do so since I already had all achievements and the officer did not scale with the later game. If you killed a highranking officer the next one would only be low to mid ranking in level and strength and it will take time for him to acutally grow into an opponent. I also missed the challenges I am used from the batman games, as they are priced out as DLC and I do not undestand why such a small feature would be worth a DLC rather then implemented directly since this is a fullprice game. I would recommend as the game is fun to play but I could not find any longtime motivation to play this game.