What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+

[MCerberus]

Don't worry, the Hildebrand quests get even weirder in Stormblood. And the Shadowbringers MSQ is really really good. Can't wait for Edgewalker coming out in a month, although I'm kinda bored and just doing one daily Alliance Raid[1] because all my classes are at 80 and I really don't have the energy to grind out more relics right now.

[1] for some reason, that's my preferred roulette. Shorter than MSQ, more brainless than any of the others.

I will remind you that at the end of ARR he

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became the chosen Gentleman of Light and flew off on a rocket sword

[PhoenixPhyre]

I will remind you that at the end of ARR he

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became the chosen Gentleman of Light and flew off on a rocket sword

Right. It gets weirder. Because Hildebrand always gets weirder.

[Anonymouswizard]

Best Mission 17 in Devil May Cry 5, and I must say that Dante is a lot more fun when he gets more weapons, and especially now I've got my boy back. Haven't seen them since DMC3.

But yeah, I found the secret gun, and now I have all the storyline guns and devil arms. Got my favourites, honestly Caviliere might get left behind for the last couple of levels because I'm just not enjoying it as much as Balrog and KC, and I feel ready to face the final boss.

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And yes, I went in knowing that Vergil returns. I have to admit, the game does a very good job at not outright saying it, and the scene is still spectacular.

Although knowing it allowed me to notice just how similar V is to Vergil personality wise, he's nowhere near as arrogant but just as prideful.

Weirdly, this might be one of the first games I've played where it feels like it's going to sucker you into microtransactions with freebies and then gives enough rewards to make them feel unnecessary. Especially if you're good enough to use Dr Faust to farm red orbs, unfortunately I didn't realise quite how hat gambling works (edit: now reading about it on the wiki) but they certainly rack up quickly.

[Zevox]

Took Nick All-Stars online today for a few games... and sadly was not impressed by how it handled. I don't know, maybe I got a bunch of people in a row all playing on Wifi or something, but that did not feel anything like the good rollback netcode games I've played. It didn't lag outright as much as Smash, but there was definitely a lot of stuttering and rollbacks. And that despite the fact that the highest ping I saw was like 110, and most were in the 60-80 range, which would be great in a game like Guilty Gear Strive or Them's Fightin' Herds. Not helping things is the fact that you don't get to see any information about your opponent's connection quality until you're already in the match, too, which is a shocking oversight.

I'll try it some more, but if that's typical of what I can expect... sadly I don't know if I'll be playing this as much as I was hoping. At least not until they do something to improve it. Which would be a pity, because it does feel great to slap Spongebob and Catdog around with Toph when things are working relatively well.

Best Mission 17 in Devil May Cry 5, and I must say that Dante is a lot more fun when he gets more weapons, and especially now I've got my boy back. Haven't seen them since DMC3.

But yeah, I found the secret gun, and now I have all the storyline guns and devil arms. Got my favourites, honestly Caviliere might get left behind for the last couple of levels because I'm just not enjoying it as much as Balrog and KC, and I feel ready to face the final boss.

King Cerberus is probably my favorite Dante weapon too (it's so much better than the original, which was the weapon I liked least in DMC3), followed by a close contest between Balrog and Devil Sword Dante for second. Cavaliere is cool too, but definitely harder to use effectively with it being both slow and multi-hitting (thus the actual hits lingering and taking longer, leaving you more vulnerable), which resulted in me not using it as much as I'd wish to, especially on higher difficulties. I don't know if I used it at all when I played on Dante Must Die.

[Thomas Cardew]

I finally picked up Shadows of Mordor and the sequel Shadow of War last week since they were ~80% off. I’d avoided paying full price for them because while I thought I’d enjoy the games, I worried that as a massive Tolkien nerd the violence they’d inevitably do to the story/setting put me off.

Well, I was right, on both accounts. The first was a ton of fun. It took me about 50-55 hours to 100% complete it, all steam achievements and in-game challenge modes completed.

The good first: I loved playing it. The aesthetics were on point, perfectly fitting in Peter’s Jackson visuals. (Although I did smirk at the character wearing an upside-down White Tree on his chest.) The controls were a bit clunky on PC, it was clearly designed as a console game, resulting in some awkward key combinations. You go from strong in the beginning to completely broken by the endgame, and it’s GLORIIOUS. It’s almost too easy by the end, endgame challenges revolve around doing a full clear fast with some additional restrictions. I expect the sequel will be even more polished and slightly more challenging.

The bad: Whelp I was right about the story… That was a lot of damage. It wasn't enough to make me stop playing mid-game, and I won't write a bunch of 5000-word articles on how they missed the point of ____. Instead, I think the biggest problem was what I once heard decribed as ‘For the brand’ inclusions. There’s a lot of stuff that’s just in there for the brand, to remind you of other moments from the movies. <Insert Ryan George THAT WAS IN THE MOVIE here>

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Why is Gollum in this? For the brand! Why is Saruman involved? Well, you see we can have him possess a character, it will be just like King Théoden! Remember? From the movie! Why did we torture the dialogue to have Celebrimbor repeat lines from half a dozen different characters? For the brand!

That ended up being a lot more grating than I imagined going in. I’d love to play an identical game in a different or brand new IP. A Warhammer Fantasy version with an Asur hunting Druchii would have been a better fit.

On to the sequel next week. I expect it to be more of the same. I hope the combat and re-playability will be improved. I expect the damage to story/setting to be much worse. I’ve heard rumors of human-form Shelob…

[Rynjin]

"Stupid Sexy Shelob"

I'm interested to hear thoughts on Shadow of War's gameplay. On launch I heard it was crippled by the real money lootbox system, but that was removed at some point because of the hundreds of thousands of people calling for Warner Bros. crusty suits' balls on a silver platter over it, so maybe it's fixed?

I’d love to play an identical game in a different or brand new IP. A Warhammer Fantasy version with an Asur hunting Druchii would have been a better fit.

Well, you're in luck: all the Batman Arkham games (except Origins) are quite good. Most of them even came out first.

No Nemesis system though, and no other game ever will, thanks to the aforementioned crusty suits.

[Thomas Cardew]

"Stupid Sexy Shelob"

I'm interested to hear thoughts on Shadow of War's gameplay. On launch I heard it was crippled by the real money lootbox system, but that was removed at some point because of the hundreds of thousands of people calling for Warner Bros. crusty suits' balls on a silver platter over it, so maybe it's fixed?

Well, you're in luck: all the Batman Arkham games (except Origins) are quite good. Most of them even came out first.

No Nemesis system though, and no other game ever will, thanks to the aforementioned crusty suits.

The Arkham games are similar? Good to know, I'll keep an eye out for a sale. I never really got into comics, so they didn't pop on my radar the way the LotR games did.

Hopefully everything is fixed. One of the advantages of playing games 4 years late is a lot of problems get fixed while you wait! I'm going in relatively blind. I think the nemesis and minion-control systems got a little more polished; they were a little barebones in the first. I'm hoping for some stronger and more recurring enemies. I only died a handful of times in the story campaign, and very few of my enemies every respawned. Except for this one archer with explosive arrows, ambush, and no last chance. He had a habit of popping up just as I finished a fight and killed me 3 times in the early game and came back after I killed him at least twice. One of the more memorable enemies from the game, I'd like more of that.

I know the Nemesis system got patented but I'm surprised WB hasn't used in any other games. That said, it didn't get actually awarded until February of 2021, this year! They might be more inclined to license it, now that it's actually been granted. Half the point of patenting something is to get other people to pay you to use it after all. Other companies might actually be willing to pay for it now that the rights are clear. I could seem them being hesitant to pay for something that they might otherwise be able to develop 'for free' if the patent failed.

[Anteros]

Arkham asylum and Arkham city are great. Arkham Knight is a 40 hour long escort quest where the escort is the batmobile and you spend your entire gameplay trying to figure out how to get it into strange places because the devs were weirdly obsessed with making it required for every single puzzle in the game.

[Rynjin]

he Arkham games are similar? Good to know, I'll keep an eye out for a sale. I never really got into comics, so they didn't pop on my radar the way the LotR games did.

Arkham Asylum is the game that invented/popularized the fighting style that similar games (like Sleeping Dogs and Shadows of Mordor) copied for a while.

I also really recommend Sleeping Dogs if you like true crime stuff as well. It's like a more down to earth Yakuza game.

Arkham asylum and Arkham city are great. Arkham Knight is a 40 hour long escort quest where the escort is the batmobile and you spend your entire gameplay trying to figure out how to get it into strange places because the devs were weirdly obsessed with making it required for every single puzzle in the game.

Arkham Knight is still good, but the batmobile stuff does get old. There's a reason the TeamFourStar boys CHEERED when it was destroyed near the end of the game during their streams of it.

[factotum]

On to the sequel next week. I expect it to be more of the same. I hope the combat and re-playability will be improved. I expect the damage to story/setting to be much worse. I’ve heard rumors of human-form Shelob…

I personally thought the sequel played worse than the original. Part of the problem was that the first game allowed for a variety of playstyles, including out-and-out stealth, and since I far prefer that to the combat (my timing sucks in Arkham style combat) that's how I played it.

Second game has you engaging in sieges to take enemy citadels, which is about as far from stealth focused as it's possible to get!

Oh, and sexy Shelob is an offence against the story for definite...

[Cozzer]

Played Impostor Factory (the third part of the To The Moon series).

My opinion on it depends on whether there will be another (hopefully, the last) sequel. As an intermediate entry, Impostor Factory is great. It adds a lot of new information to the "lore" of the series, and retroactively explains a lot about a few important characters, while keeping an outsider perspective.

As an ending to the whole series, Impostor Factory would be really underwhelming.

That said, it's definitely worth experiencing, no matter what its place in the series ends up being.

[Thomas Cardew]

Well. I started Shadow of War tonight. Long form first impressions!

Opened the game to a notice that micro-transactions had been removed and you could no longer buy gold directly. Not a particularly auspicious start but okay. On to difficulty select mode. We have Easy, Normal, Nemesis, Gravewalker, and Brutal. Hmm Gravewalker allows no last stand but Brutal does… I wonder which is harder, time to alt tab and find out. Ah Gravewalker is enemy bullet sponges while Brutal is everyone is glass cannons. Killing stuff is typically more fun than whacking it with a wet noodle so Brutal it is. Okay, lets’ get started.

Opening cutscene: Ok summarized story from last game blah blah. Okay creepy blacked haired lady does a riff on Galadriel’s speech from fellowship. (FOR THE BRAND! REMEMBER THE MOVIE?!) Talion/Celembrimbor make a new ring. (So just some light Heresy to start, no big deal.) Then Celembrimbor gets nabbed by shadows, Talion has vision memories, and we need to go save the wraith. Into a cave, time to kill some uruks. Sneak stab a few, try to pull out my bow and…. Nothing. Okay then, shooting people was one of my favorite things, I hope I get that back soon. Stealth stab a few more, fight a few, and get to the end of the section. And cutscene.

…Stupid Sexy Shelob…And we give up new ring to save Celebrimbor… (*HeadDesk* on every level…Let’s upgrade that to mortal heresy, where’s my pitchfork) Ok, a dead wraith poured his lifeforce into the ring… (How does that even work, don’t worry it’s FOR THE BRAND) And now we’re off to save a Palantir and Minis Ithil.

Time to interrogate an uruk for information. AND we’ve changed the information screen to be prettier while presenting less useful information, what used to fit on one screen now takes eight. PROGRESS! Try to grab a different uruk for more intelligence aannndd the controls are different, that didn’t work and I’m dead. This seems to be a good place to just take a breath, walk away and restart. I don’t have a ton of time to play tonight and I just wanted to get through some of the obligatory tutorial bits.

Came back and played through the rest of the starting mission. I got my bow a few minutes later so hurray for that. And a few pieces of basic gear that are instantly better than the legendary weapons I forged last game. A few minor changes to control schemes, and I recover health by draining now instead of finding herbs. Enemy AI is definitely better, orcs definitely hit harder. The Gondorian uniforms seems slightly off, everything in the last game really fit the movie’s aesthetics or was out-right copied. These soldiers feel like they should be in plate, not mail and bad breastplates/tabards. The story feels like it’s setting up to be aggressively stupid. But the tutorials over, time to move on to the main game. Probably play and post more on Sunday.

I personally thought the sequel played worse than the original. Part of the problem was that the first game allowed for a variety of playstyles, including out-and-out stealth, and since I far prefer that to the combat (my timing sucks in Arkham style combat) that's how I played it.

Second game has you engaging in sieges to take enemy citadels, which is about as far from stealth focused as it's possible to get!

Oh, and sexy Shelob is an offence against the story for definite...

That’s disappointing. I truly love stealth games, particularly the old Splinter Cell style ones where you could go the whole game only have to disable/kill one person. While SoM wasn’t that, I still loved being able to sneak around and shank a whole bunch of orcs. Getting extra xp for stealth kills didn’t hurt at all either.

At the beginning I mostly did sneak kills, a solo/pair of orcs were dead orcs. For larger groups, I’d sneak kill in, drop the first 2-4, pull out the bow and headshot until I ran out of focus/arrows, and then normal attack/execute anyone left. If I got into really a big fight, I’d try to fight it out with lots of basics, using my kill streaks for either aoe crowd control, or a quick combat drain to get more elf shot to pop off a few special enemies.

At the end, due to time constraints, I’d shadow dash to an objective, kill my objective, ideally stealth execute if vulnerable, if not with headshots, or with chain executes if immune to ranged. Then shadow dash/fast travel to the next objective. For big group fights farming score points, I’d shadow dash until I was out of arrows (extra points) then chain execute or brand a few enemies for arrow refills, then shadow dash again till everything local was dead. Then fast travel to a new zone and repeat. The timers on the harder challenges were so tight, it felt like it really constricted play-styles down to -fastest possible kill and leave-

[Lord Raziere]

Won with Norway in civ 6, another domination victory on a islands map. turns out, a strong navy solves a lot of the sieging problems I had, and putting ports in every city allowed me to make a lot of money. I won like a 100 turns faster than I did with Rome, but got a lower score. like a good navy pretty much ensure that I didn't even need the giant death robots, they were coming but I just conquered everything too fast for them to matter.

so yeah, I think I have a pretty good grasp of what a domination victory entails in civ 6. next time? I think I'll try for a cultural victory instead. see what its like when I'm not ticking everyone off by constantly conquering people.

[SaintRidley]

Metroid Dread is exactly what I needed it to be so far.

[Rynjin]

Well. I started Shadow of War tonight. Long form first impressions!

Opened the game to a notice that micro-transactions had been removed and you could no longer buy gold directly. Not a particularly auspicious start but okay. On to difficulty select mode. We have Easy, Normal, Nemesis, Gravewalker, and Brutal. Hmm Gravewalker allows no last stand but Brutal does… I wonder which is harder, time to alt tab and find out. Ah Gravewalker is enemy bullet sponges while Brutal is everyone is glass cannons. Killing stuff is typically more fun than whacking it with a wet noodle so Brutal it is. Okay, lets’ get started.

Ha, this is the exact same journey I went on last night after I installed it. Remembered I got it in a Humble Monthly years ago.

That’s disappointing. I truly love stealth games, particularly the old Splinter Cell style ones where you could go the whole game only have to disable/kill one person. While SoM wasn’t that, I still loved being able to sneak around and shank a whole bunch of orcs. Getting extra xp for stealth kills didn’t hurt at all either.

You might like the Batman games better. There are mandatory "Predator" sections in each one that challenge you to take down all of the bad guys using stealth.

Sadly, not too many actual stealth games released in a while. Last big one I remember coming out was the Styx games (which are very Thief-esque in many ways). Oh and Aragami 2 recently, but I didn't play it because I wasn't a huge fan of the first one.

[Anonymouswizard]

King Cerberus is probably my favorite Dante weapon too (it's so much better than the original, which was the weapon I liked least in DMC3), followed by a close contest between Balrog and Devil Sword Dante for second. Cavaliere is cool too, but definitely harder to use effectively with it being both slow and multi-hitting (thus the actual hits lingering and taking longer, leaving you more vulnerable), which resulted in me not using it as much as I'd wish to, especially on higher difficulties. I don't know if I used it at all when I played on Dante Must Die.

It's going to take me a bit longer to get used to Devil Sword Dante, there's so much more in the normal combos now and it's throwing me off. Still nice to use, but confusing them I notice I'm doing prop shredder and not sure why.

Anyway, finished the game, and now beginning a Son of Sparda run. But first, I believe I have costumes now.

... Wait, I have to buy those? What happened to just unlocking some new clothes after mission 20?

[Zevox]

It's going to take me a bit longer to get used to Devil Sword Dante, there's so much more in the normal combos now and it's throwing me off. Still nice to use, but confusing them I notice I'm doing prop shredder and not sure why.

That's because many of the moves that were the Swordmaster style moves of Rebellion/Sparda became part of Devil Sword Dante's normal moves. Aerial Rave is just its jumping normals now (with Helm Splitter becoming back + normal while locked-on in the air), and Prop Shredder became the ender of combo C (two attacks, delay, two more attacks). Which feels more natural to me, personally; it always felt like Rebellion/Sparda's moveset in DMC5 was just strangely minimalist and lacking compared to the other weapons, and it makes sense why after they introduce Devil Sword Dante.

[Anonymouswizard]

That's because many of the moves that were the Swordmaster style moves of Rebellion/Sparda became part of Devil Sword Dante's normal moves. Aerial Rave is just its jumping normals now (with Helm Splitter becoming back + normal while locked-on in the air), and Prop Shredder became the ender of combo C (two attacks, delay, two more attacks). Which feels more natural to me, personally; it always felt like Rebellion/Sparda's moveset in DMC5 was just strangely minimalist and lacking compared to the other weapons, and it makes sense why after they introduce Devil Sword Dante.

Oh, it's not bad, and when I'm not actively noticing the integration it feels great. Although I'm still not sure how it's Swordmaster abilities work, going to need a lot more practice with it.

Also, here we run into a slight issue: being dyspraxic Son of Sparda is actually just near impossible for me. I already had to use gold orbs in most of the latter half of Devil Hunter, now I'm dealing with both stronger and remixed enemies. I might get Vergil Mode and try a run through Devil Hunter as him first, I did love playing as him in 4SE. On the plus side the removal of a boss rush as part of the story removed the bit that stopped me completing the other games on normal. So not a real issue, but still an annoyance.

Okay, I completed DmC on normal. But that's not really Devil May Cry. Also the first, but that took a lot of practice.

But it took about 10-12 hours to complete, and just felt great. There was no need for any kind of padding, so while I think the missions are longer in glad there's just 21.

But I'll get that Irregular Full Custom eventually.

[Zevox]

Oh, it's not bad, and when I'm not actively noticing the integration it feels great. Although I'm still not sure how it's Swordmaster abilities work, going to need a lot more practice with it.

Essentially, the conjured swords that its swordmaster abilities create act separately from Dante himself. So whatever else you're doing, you can always use the swordmaster moves at the same time. Takes some serious dexterity to use them a lot while also doing the normal stuff, but you can just occasionally throw them in when you're comfortable with it. Its "stingers" ability is basically a short-range projectile you can throw whenever, for example.

The easiest use of it I found is simply to charge it up for Round Trip whenever you're not occupied doing some other attack. That move is amazing when it doesn't disarm you like it normally does with Dante's other swords.

[Rodin]

Beat Baal on my Hardcore Arctic Blast Druid today. It's the last I'll play of the character for a bit, because DEAR GOD that was a slog. The damage bug for Arctic Blast is bad enough, but trying to use it against bosses with 50% Cold Resist is just comical. I had 75% elemental resist and Cyclone Armor.

The result was a pillow fight. Baal couldn't hurt me much, but could instantly murder any summons/hirelings I brought along thanks to the infinitely stupid 10x damage bonus he gets vs those. Without either my summons or hireling, I could only tickle Baal in return.

I'm pleased I got there in the end, but it made very clear that I would need to respec my Druid to continue in Nightmare. I'm not that keen to do that, since I only played this character for Arctic Blast and the Druid's wind skills are some of the most frustrating in the game.

On the plus side, having Gull through the entire playthrough means I'm laden with set items to experiment with on a new character. Might try and play a Paladin, one of the only classes I never played much of in the original.

[Anonymouswizard]

Essentially, the conjured swords that its swordmaster abilities create act separately from Dante himself. So whatever else you're doing, you can always use the swordmaster moves at the same time. Takes some serious dexterity to use them a lot while also doing the normal stuff, but you can just occasionally throw them in when you're comfortable with it. Its "stingers" ability is basically a short-range projectile you can throw whenever, for example.

The easiest use of it I found is simply to charge it up for Round Trip whenever you're not occupied doing some other attack. That move is amazing when it doesn't disarm you like it normally does with Dante's other swords.

Okay, that makes more sense. I'll make sure I have and use Round Trip next time I'm playing Dante.

Started my Vergil run, done the prologue and first four missions, and he's an absolute blast to play. Slowly walking and dodging towards enemies until I'm close enough to air trick next to them, and then unleash Yamato fury (I haven't bothered learning Beowulf or the Lightsaber yet, I'm sure they're good but the Yamato is such a useful default weapon). I know it's mostly easier because I have twice the health I had last time I was doing these missions, but if I can just get my dodge timings better then full Concentration combos with Yamato seem to destroy everything with ease.

[factotum]

The result was a pillow fight. Baal couldn't hurt me much, but could instantly murder any summons/hirelings I brought along thanks to the infinitely stupid 10x damage bonus he gets vs those. Without either my summons or hireling, I could only tickle Baal in return.

Weird, I just defeated Baal myself and he didn't kill a single one of my Necromancer's minions (I actually had far more trouble with Baal's Minions). Of course, him being under the combined effects of a Clay Golem's slow and Decrepify probably helped enormously!

[EDIT] One thing I do like that they fixed, though--the final cutscene. In the original release Tyrael's wings looked completely different in that cutscene than in all the others--kind of ghostly bird wings rather than the "fingers" of energy everywhere else. They probably thought it looked better 20 years ago or something. In the revised cutscene his wings look as they should!

[Anteros]

Anyone know any hack+slash games with actual gameplay deeper than PoE or Diablo style where you just run into your enemy and hope you have the stats to win? I'm talking about actual dodge mechanics and such.

[Cespenar]

Anyone know any hack+slash games with actual gameplay deeper than PoE or Diablo style where you just run into your enemy and hope you have the stats to win? I'm talking about actual dodge mechanics and such.

Might try some Hades clones. Curse of the Dead Gods, for example?

[Frozenstep]

Anyone know any hack+slash games with actual gameplay deeper than PoE or Diablo style where you just run into your enemy and hope you have the stats to win? I'm talking about actual dodge mechanics and such.

Maybe Bastion and Transistor?

[Man_Over_Game]

Maybe Bastion and Transistor?

Might try some Hades clones. Curse of the Dead Gods, for example?

Yup. There's also Furi, Hyperlight Drifter, Wizard of Legend. All great games if you aren't strict on the "Murder hundreds of enemies for experience" gameplay.

[Erloas]

Well I just started Back 4 Blood. It really is just Left4Dead, which is what everyone expects. There is a lot of additional gamification going on between rounds, but otherwise the gameplay is the same.

It demonstrates to me how out of practice I am with any shooter game. I find the players vs enemies very hard to tell apart at times and it makes it worse when players quickly go in and out of "highlight other players" mode at times so it's that much easier to loose friendly players.
I don't have any friends to play with and as can be expected this early, there is a large variety of player mastery of the system going on.

[Man_Over_Game]

Well I just started Back 4 Blood. It really is just Left4Dead, which is what everyone expects. There is a lot of additional gamification going on between rounds, but otherwise the gameplay is the same.

It demonstrates to me how out of practice I am with any shooter game. I find the players vs enemies very hard to tell apart at times and it makes it worse when players quickly go in and out of "highlight other players" mode at times so it's that much easier to loose friendly players.
I don't have any friends to play with and as can be expected this early, there is a large variety of player mastery of the system going on.

You might already be familiar, but the Vermintide games are basically Left4Dead with For Honor's melee combat. They're so similar to L4D, they almost feel like a weird, triple-A mod.

Dodge, parry, knockback, block, attacks change the more you swing and you can reset the combo string (like if you wanted to spam the first attack in your weapon combo because it has a wider arc or whatever) by blocking mid-string. Each character has multiple classes, with each character/class combination having unique passive or active powers and different weapons (each with their own unique attack combos).

And for the classic L4D experience, you rescue fallen allies from closets, stick together to avoid having a special enemy drag an ally away, share healing items so that everyone goes down roughly evenly. It's interesting, since you don't really have to learn any new teamwork mechanics or even how the enemies work (since they're almost identical to ones from L4D), you just gotta focus on mastering the combat mechanics that your character utilizes.


You might like it more than L4D. I did, by a lot.

[NeoVid]

I'm interested to hear thoughts on Shadow of War's gameplay. On launch I heard it was crippled by the real money lootbox system, but that was removed at some point because of the hundreds of thousands of people calling for Warner Bros. crusty suits' balls on a silver platter over it, so maybe it's fixed?

For me, Shadow of War had everything I wished the original was going to have, since my three complaints about the first game was that it was too short, got way too easy once you upgraded into a unstoppable force of absolute destruction, and you never really got to do much with that army you spent half the game building.

The lootbox worries turned out to be untrue, you were more likely to get good Uruks from gameplay than from the lootboxes. The upside of the lootboxes was that there was a simple exploit that allowed you to get unlimited numbers of them if you cared. The real problem with the lootboxes were that they were so blatant it permanently damaged the game's player base... Anyway, eventually an update allowed recruiting Uruks from online play, so you can grab stupidly powerful followers by avenging or invading someone who has strong captains in their game... assuming you can actually take them down. One of the main differences between the two games is that once you've become an unbelievable killing machine, the sequel has enemies who can still challenge you, which is something I really wanted in the original.

Warning, the other big difference is that the original could be beaten in a weekend, while the second can take weeks if you're going for 100%. Since "More!" was one of the main things I wanted, that was great for me, but it's not as good for people with normal amounts of free time, or who just want to complete the storyline.

And sadly, the best reason to play both games in order is no longer available: You used to be able to transfer one enemy and one follower over from the original to the sequel, but with the shutdown of online features for the original, that's gone. Seeing that one bastard who came back from the dead four times in the first game reappear as the end boss of Act 1 in the sequel was amazing, and I think they're crazy for taking that option away.

Well. I started Shadow of War tonight. Long form first impressions!

Opened the game to a notice that micro-transactions had been removed and you could no longer buy gold directly. Not a particularly auspicious start but okay. On to difficulty select mode. We have Easy, Normal, Nemesis, Gravewalker, and Brutal. Hmm Gravewalker allows no last stand but Brutal does…

As someone with several complete playthroughs of Shadow of War, I'll warn you Brutal was the least fun difficulty. I played through the game on Gravewalker and Brutal once each just to see if I could do it, but Nemesis was the difficulty I was wishing for since the first game. Fights on Nemesis are challenging and can be overwhelming if you make mistakes or get surprised, but Nem isn't punishing or unfair like the highest difficulties are designed to be.

...Man, I wish I'd thought to create a couple of Steam guides when Shadow of War was new and I was totally addicted. The infinite lootbox exploit is long gone, but the method to make your followers gain 20 levels in one mission still works perfectly.

Hmm, I haven't fired the game up for a while. I should see what my current forts are like in hopes I'll get a new batch of invaders.

[Rynjin]

Yeah, I tried our Brutal because I'm actually usually a fan of "Take more damage deal more damage" game modes (eg. Heaven or Hell in Devil May Cry 3, Critical Mode in Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+) but it just feels like such a slog, especially since you don't start out with things I'm pretty sure you started with in the first game (like EXECUTIONS of all things). Think I'll torque it down because I was very much not having fun.

And sadly, the best reason to play both games in order is no longer available: You used to be able to transfer one enemy and one follower over from the original to the sequel, but with the shutdown of online features for the original, that's gone. Seeing that one bastard who came back from the dead four times in the first game reappear as the end boss of Act 1 in the sequel was amazing, and I think they're crazy for taking that option away.

Man, that is a super bummer.

I had a guy who lost both hands, one leg, and suffered burns over 90% of his body during the course of my Shadow of Mordor playthrough who JUST KEPT COMING, and he truly was a NEMESIS. It's a shame I can't see him again. I think over time he became completely immune to everything except fire damage and executions.