Need some opinions on middle earth: shadows of war .Thought the first game was ok but I remembered there being so much drama for the sequel and microtransaction bs which out me off completely. Is this still the case?
Basically the scenario I fear is that all the orcs I like will be shit and easily killed because they ain’t prenium legendary orcs and i will be forced to stack my team with nothing but epic and rare orcs to progress through the late game because the game is designed as if it was f2p mobile title.
The comments on that polygon article gave me cancer. Controlling orcs with the ring is clearly problematic as it's a parallel to slave ownership and orcs are representative of black people! Eugh...
Otherwise for the article itself, maybe I'm too cynical but the whole "we realized that microtransanctions affect the game so in our infinite magnitude we are removing it" just made me eye roll, it was the drama about lootboxes that forced them to make changes, not a change of heart. Since they are dishonest about this, how can I trust them to be honest about having reworked the end game to be fair? Especially as it seems the game has a "true" ending that is locked behind tough challenges, and googling around it definitely does seem like you needed to drop money to progress or grind like a korean mmo farmer.
It doesn't help that looking up youtube vids for this game, I'm seeing mostly "check this awesome LEGENDARY orc" type vids instead of "check my cool army of orcs i handpicked because i liked them for reasons that make sense only to me instead of their stats or rarity rating".
I love
Shadow of War and highly recommend it.
Some things to know:
* The whole loot box idiocy was driven by the publisher, Warner Bros.,
not the developers, Monolith.
* You
cannot drop real world cash to pay to win. The cash store was completely removed. Getting to the end is a long term challenge ... you get there by fighting a lot of fights.
* Even when the cash shop was there, all money would buy you was tougher orcs and higher-stat gear, not the ability to skip content. So those fights would have been easier I guess, but really it wouldn't have made much difference. I could be misremembering because I never felt like there was any point to the cash shop, you get tons of orcs anyway.
* Hand picking orcs you like because you like them is a valid strategy. I do it. Also, you can give upgrade potions to the ones you really like to
make them "Legendary".
* The missions you can send your favorite guys on to level them up are fun. Hand pick some crazy dude, give him an assassination mission, then follow along to help him and level up. Don't fuck it up though, he might get killed. To me this is what it's all about.
* Tip: keeping your favorite orcs alive can be a real bitch sometimes, especially at the beginning of the game. Keep your eye on the radar and watch for the "bleeding out' icon as there is
no other indication you're about to lose a guy in large scale fights. Or just stay close to your favorites and keep an eye on them. Sometimes they will die anyway though, don't get so attached you can't deal iwth it.
* Tip: there is a command for "send your bodyguard home". This is a good way to ensure your favorite orc won't get killed. Make him your bodyguard, then send him home if you're worried things are getting out of hand.
