Middle-earth: Shadow of War Review - IGN

"Middle-earth: Shadow of War expands on Shadow of Mordor's already strong action and variety in lots of great ways."

[morganfell]

Boom. Can't wait until Tuesday. Gamestop is still debating their midnight launch.

[UltraNova]

Damn so many good games this month and so little time...but ME:SoW has 'must-play' written all over it! Damn.

[--bienio--]

This game or the evil within 2 ?? Need advice guys!!

[UltraNova]

@bienio
Get both if you can, since they're entirely different games. Evil W. 2 first if you're feeling full of time consuming open world games.

[Neonridr]

@bienio - well I am a horror junkie, so no surprise where my dollars are going. :P

[fiveby9]

I will wait and see on ME:SoW. Unfortunately, the dev was probably forced to add a terrible MT system. Frankly MT in a single player game is a scourge. Not saying the game can't be good but it is unknown for me at this time. What was once a day 1 purchase is now wait and see.

[morganfell]

@five,

The game was balanced without MTs. And if you look at the reviews, plenty of scorers stated they played right through it, didn't use and MT and neither did they need them. And there was not sense of grinding. The MTs work exactly the way the dev stated they would work. They allow a person that does not have the time to shorten the play length of the game.

[darthv72]

I read in another thread you are getting the Mithril Edition. That's sweet. I love steelbook and metalpak cases and the one in that comes with the game looks awesome. I'd be lying if I said i wasn't jealous but congrats. The first game was great and this one looks to really improve on every level.

[-Foxtrot]

Not a single mention of MT or grinding....not even the fact that to get the best ending you have to grind along with so many loot boxes. What about the pointless lore change to Shelob just magically transforming into a sexy big titted woman.

Are journalists becoming a bunch of pussies. First Forza 7 now this...

[morganfell]

The MTs are not necessary to the game. There fore they din't use or mention them. The MTs are functioning exactly as the devs intended. They are only there for people to shorten play that only have an hour or two a week to game. Not everyone can throw 10, 20, 30, hours a week into a game. And without MTs gamers do not feel they are grinding either. Since it is single player and their is no sense of grinding without the boxes, it is actually an effective implementation working as intended.

The Shelob bit? Yeah, as a Tolkien fan who goes deeper with my reading and love of the lore than most will there was simply no explanation for that.

[KingKionic]

Possible GOTY contender right here folks.

Seems the devs stepped it up.

[lukferr]

It's got a fair few 7's and 8's. Really don't think this will win game of the year anywhere. But looks like a great game.

[lukferr]

@ Cupofjoe. I hope it's really good. I don't own a Switch but my friend does. I played it after him. That's how I sunk about 150 hours into Zelda BOTW. Hope Mario is something really special.

[morganfell]

GOTY is easy. If you stop and think which game won critical acclaim AND has had a big impact on other developers then it isn't Mario. Hint: It is however a platform exclusive game. Hint 2: It has an expansion releasing soon.

[freshslicepizza]

@morganfell
"GOTY is easy. If you stop and think which game won critical acclaim AND has had a big impact on other developers then it isn't Mario. Hint: It is however a platform exclusive game. Hint 2: It has an expansion releasing soon."

Zelda already got an expansion didn't it?

[2600Thunder]

D:OS2 or HZD will be GOTY - at least for me.

[DaleCooper]

In a year with both a new Zelda and a new Mario, probably won't get GOTY, but I'm still excited for this game. LOVED the first one.

[EddieNX]

I will definitely play this when it drops in price a bit. The first one was epic.

[lukferr]

Dan Stapleton, the man that couldn't handle Bloodborne difficulty. Spent half his life in the first area before he quit. Then was saying, "It's not me. It's the game that's bad". Forgive me if I look for another review from a competent reviewer. I don't trust this guy.

[SCW1982]

Thank you, my thoughts exactly. Him and Ryan McCaffery are jokes of the industry.

[Bigpappy]

Ryan is an Xbox guy so you should hate his opinions.

[Razzer]

Don’t know much about Stapleton, but McCaffery seems very genuine to me.

[SCW1982]

@ Bigpappy
I play games not consoles get out of here with that garbage.

[nondescriptcitizen]

expands on ...strong action and bla bla bla....such cautious and very bland words, IS IT FRICKING GOOD!!??? tell me!!!

[IanTH]

...Read the review then? I'm guessing there are a few extra words in there. Not to mention the 9/10 score attached might give you an idea of if they thought it was good or not :-p

[PhoenixUp]

My precious

[zivtheawesome]

the fact that the final act will take you about 40 hours of grinding (IIRC from other reviews) unless you use MTX is digusting.

[BenjaMan64]

Gee, people can't be happy. On one hand, they complain if a game is to short... but if it offers them tons of hours of entertainment (in Shadow of War's case while fighting plenty of unique orcs with their own unique mixes of strengths and weaknesses), they also complain. And of course, said reviews could be wrong.

[j15reed]

So your mad at the grind and the MT's if you don't want to grind?

[equal_youth]

Too much Fan fiction and microtransactions For my taste.

[Razzer]

I’m buying it. The MT are a needless distraction, but seems easy enough to ignore.