Shadow of War Question

[Vinyadan]

Shadow of Mordor was a cool game, but its swordplay was awful. The Orcs took too many hits to die, and all you could do was hitting them with a blunt blade until it got blue, which allowed you to perform a long animation and finally kill one of them. Since you could always block while performing a normal attack, you only were in danger if you tried to end an enemy on the ground, which meant that you really didn't want to do that.

Is swordfighting in Shadow of War any better?

[Keltest]

I don't know about "improved" but it is different now. They added a bunch of abilities that change the way you sword at things besides "hit them harder". YMMV on whether this is actually a better system, or a more enjoyable one, but it isn't just "Shadow of Mordor, with more orcs."

[Vinyadan]

OK, thank you. Do you find it more fun?

[Keltest]

OK, thank you. Do you find it more fun?

Personally, yes. If nothing else, theres just more to do with taking and holding forts, having orcs betray you, and things just generally being more dynamic and alive.

[NeoVid]

Shadow of War manages to give you more options while making things more difficult, which is good. The original was at its most fun early on when an extra captain appearing in a fight was a massive threat, and the tension disappeared once you were upgraded into an unstoppable force or had mastered The One Combo.

Different people wanted different things from a Shadow of Mordor sequel, but it gave me everything I was asking for, completely fixing my three big problems with the first game: Too short, too easy and never getting to do much of anything with that army you spend half the game building.

[Draconi Redfir]

there is a skill that you can get that lets you automatically kill any orc (grunt not captain) when you perfectly counterattack. so if you can manage to master right-clicking at just the right time, you can kill your attacking foes left and right in a fancy dance of death.

[factotum]

I'm going to disagree with t'others and say I found Shadow of War rather disappointing. I think the problem was that it was simply too big, with too many orcs in it--in the first game there were few enough orcs that you could kind of get to know them, and the Nemesis system was at its best when you had one particular one who killed you several times and who you'd really developed a good grudge against. The second game still has the Nemesis system, but with so many orcs around it dilutes its effectiveness.

[Keltest]

I'm going to disagree with t'others and say I found Shadow of War rather disappointing. I think the problem was that it was simply too big, with too many orcs in it--in the first game there were few enough orcs that you could kind of get to know them, and the Nemesis system was at its best when you had one particular one who killed you several times and who you'd really developed a good grudge against. The second game still has the Nemesis system, but with so many orcs around it dilutes its effectiveness.

That can be true if you jump around from region to region really frequently, but in general I think the game encourages you to stay in one spot for a while, and there aren't really any more orcs per region than in SoM

[Draconi Redfir]

honestly my only complaint is that my SoM Nemesis that shows up during the arena battle never comes back again. And any future Nemesi i make have a high tendency to just die permanently. would like it if there was a higher chance surviving the more they kill you or something. if there is something like that, then i just get really unlucky.

[NeoVid]

The first few named enemies you kill have a boosted chance to cheat death, so if you rush through to the arena fight without killing that many captains, your old nemesis' got a good chance of reviving. I've been able to get my transferred nemesis to cheat death in more than one playthrough... but it honestly would be cooler if your returning archenemy was near certain to come back.