One of my big issues with SoM was that it was more fun when you were weak and a couple of captains was a huge danger, later in the game and fully upgraded you can be an unstoppable force of destruction... But sometimes, you'll come up against an orc
who is also one of those. The sequel has difficulty settings and a bigger array of ways for orcs to counter what you can do, so it's a more satisfying challenge.
I hope I didn't sound too negative, as I like the original a lot, and since it's so short, running through it to make a Nemesis Forge with cool orcs to transfer to the sequel is very worth it. Incidentally, there's a very easy way to select which orcs in the Forge will be the ones transferred over to Shadow of War: Just keep Marking Target on the two you want until the icons move.