Yeah I ignored loot boxes completely, they're the least of the game's issues. Having your gameplay randomly paused every 2 minutes for an unskippable 30 second cutscene is a considerably bigger problem.
Stopping every two feet because you ran into a captain is because the orcs were turned into loot. That problem is directly related to the loot boxes.
It's almost like loot boxes fundamentally warp and disrupt a game's core design!
Yeah I ignored loot boxes completely, they're the least of the game's issues. Having your gameplay randomly paused every 2 minutes for an unskippable 30 second cutscene is a considerably bigger problem.
Stopping every two feet because you ran into a captain is because the orcs were turned into loot. That problem is directly related to the loot boxes.
It's not tho. Buying more lootboxes doesn't stop that from happening. It's just an incredibly poor choice that was still a problem in the previous game.
It was only ever annoying to me in the first game if I hung out in a stronghold and had a huge extended brawl.
Problem is in the second game huge brawls are kinda put front and center so it goes from a fairly avoidable annoyance to oh my God can I turn these fucking things off somehow
Captains could be ignored or run away from, and I was like 65+ hours into the game before I started hearing repeating dialogue more than new dialogue. Thats impressive as shit
Captains could be ignored or run away from, and I was like 65+ hours into the game before I started hearing repeating dialogue more than new dialogue. Thats impressive as shit
It's one of the systems that could vary in experience a lot player to player. There was a lot more ways an orc captain sneaking up on you could be triggered but if someone got bad rolls they might get a lot of repetition. I never felt it was overwhelming but if someone got multiple dudes hunting them down at the same time and then those orcs all had blood brothers it could get a bit much.
Captains could be ignored or run away from, and I was like 65+ hours into the game before I started hearing repeating dialogue more than new dialogue. Thats impressive as shit
In 70 hours I got 4-5 singing orcs. All of whom sing the EXACT SAME FUCKING SONG.
Im curious about the new dlc, I have the season pass so I will be checking it out soon. Releasing on the same day as the destiny 2 expansion won't be helpful but I guess it's different categories of game
I didn't enjoy the last dlc at all so hoping this one is better
Hmm only been playing about an hour, but so far it's a very visually interesting region, and hiring mercenaries is a neat change. Basically the way it works is if you die you lose your army and conquered forts but you keep your progress in the story and all your skills. Which is fine. So far nothing amazing but lots of neat little bits
Since you don't have the ability to teleport they've given you a grappling hook that works similar to the one in assassins creed syndicate which is nifty
So far it's nothing that screams absolute play, but it's definitely neat, I'd give it a neat out of 10
I will say hiring mercenaries isn't quite as fun as dominating orcs, since you're basically just paying them, it works thematically, but doesn't feel as fun. I wonder if some have traits where they aren't as loyal as others unless you pay them more, I'll have to keep an eye out
Man I've always had trouble with the sound in this game, and I swear the dlc is worse, combat sounds always are fucking quiet as hell no matter what I do, in the test area of the menu it sounds fine, but in game you can barely hear combat noises. Games need to stop making everything 100% directional, sometimes a sound should be loud even if the character making it is far from the screen. Like sword hits sound almost silent it drives me nuts
You also get a shield, which makes dealing with archers a different experience. I'd say overall I'm enjoying the change in gameplay style more than the last dlc, which just felt like a different set of not quite as interesting powers, this one at least feels more natural in that you're just an ordinary human, so you have a different set of abilities that feel a little more grounded and logical. It feels less like a nerf and more like just playing a slightly different type of combat
Although if you die you lose your army, dying does feel more in your control here, you have 3 health potions you can take which instant fill your health, so it's more viable to take a potion and run off when a fight is going south, so there's less chance of getting a stray arrow killing you when you're fleeing or something like that
Ok I may be in love with the chain whip aoe attack, it slices ordinary orcs in half mwahaha. Also ran into an old Orc who when he vault broke me said "bah, I've been seeing that move since the old days!"
So what’s the impact of removing micro transactions on overall gameplay? Did anything get rebalanced, or did they just take out the loot boxes? It’s on sale on steam this weekend so I’m a bit curious.
Really the lootboxes never had an impact, outside ruining the natural feeling of the gameplay in a theoretical sense, in that it ruined the sense of immersion. Like it spoiled it more because it was there as an option rather than how it impacted any design decisions in my opinion.
Lots of people argue the increased frequency of captain encounters and deaths was a way of encouraging you to use microtransactions, but I feel like that doesn't really pan out, since you can kill captains more quickly with more options in this one compared to the original. I honestly think there's more captains in this one because there are more captain types and more gameplay options to deal with them, so seeing them more often isn't really a negative for me. I think it was a deliberate gameplay choice that some enjoy and others dislike, rather than anything nefarious. But others will swear that the entire game was geared towards microtransactions being necessary or easier. Really even if you bought orcs and gear the game isn't any easier or even much quicker, depending on what you want from it.
Some also argue the post campaign game encourages their use, but again, I never used them and beat it quickly and easily. That's not a boast, it's just you don't need perfect captains and perfect gear to best it. You're never wanting for gear or followers, unless you're trying to create a perfect army, and frankly you don't need to to beat the game, and you won't get a perfect army that much faster using the marketplace.
The one area it might have made easier is getting perfect gear sets, but even then its negligible.
That's my feeling after about 200 hours with the game all up, others might disagree strongly so you'll have to weigh that against other opinions.
Ultimately the game is fun as shit tho I recommend it, it's story is nonsense garbage but its gameplay is super fun
I don't think anyone has argued that the increased captain encounters were designed to get you to buy loot boxes. The problem was that they turned the captains into loot themselves. It ruined the nemesis system. Instead of reasonably spaced spawns on the maps for the captains, they had to populate the loot table with the game's loot, which is the captains. So they were everywhere, and you can't go five feet without running into one and stopping to listen to their unskippable dialogue every time.
The nemesis system was perfect in the first one, because it was working as intended. This one effed it up by overloading the system with orcs and it took all the personality away from it. They all just became a bland mess. Like, your supposed nemesis might show up at some point in a mission and you're just like "Who?"
I think they mentioned nemesis system tweaks for the update, so maybe they'll tone em down or something. Fingers crossed.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
So in anticipation for the big update dropping tomorrow that will get rid of the Market and improved Shadow War/Nemesis System updates I started a new file and tried out the Story Expansion DLC.
Didn't like Blade of Galadriel, the cone of light blinding mechanic felt clunky. And she gets all these skill upgrades that let you heal allies but the story missions never really call for them, and you can't dominate captains or do more fortress assaults/defenses so healing friendlies is pointless.
Desolation of Mordor was more fun, love Baranor's gadget skills. Although it did get too easy once you unlocked multiple bodyguards, being able to summon 3 allied captains felt like overkill.
Stuff specific to Shadow Wars and other gameplay/character stat/gear mechanics:
Improvements to Epilogue (Shadow Wars):
• Reduced the number of stages and missions required for 100% completion of the Shadow Wars.
• Completing the Shadow Wars now earns you the pieces of gear listed below. Players who have already completed Shadow Wars will receive this gear when they begin playing.
o Servant’s Blackened Armor: Allied grunt Orcs have a chance to resurrect when they die. This includes allied Undead grunts.
o Mask of the General: Consume and Drain kills create a Curse explosion.
o Mask of the Undying: Waters of Lórien and Spectral Dash cost no Focus. Melee and Stealth damage increase for five seconds after use.
o Mask of the Fell Rider: Graug Call summons an Elemental Graug.
o Mask of the High King: Raise Dead summons Gondorian Wights.
o Mask of an Empress: Wraith Execution, Wraith Chain, and Chain of Shadows each deal more damage with each successive Wraith.
• Additional narrative elements:
o Additional dialogue from Orcs, Shelob, Dark Talion, and the Witch-king.
Progression Improvements:
• You can now reach level 80. Continuing to earn XP after reaching level 80 earns you additional skill points.
• Enemy Orcs can now reach level 85.
• New Prestige Skills, accessible after Act III, allow you to customize your character build. Each Prestige Skill can be purchased multiple times.
• You can now spend Mirian to raise the level of a piece of gear to match Talion’s current level. You must complete any upgrade challenges on the gear before you can raise its level.
• You can now spend perfect gems to re-roll secondary traits on gear. You must complete any upgrade challenges on the gear before you can re-roll.
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
Wuheyyyyyy, glad I didn't play this yet. Maybe I'll pick it up next sale.
Yeah, between the changes they've made before and the changes they just made, I really REALLY wish I could have played this version back in 2017. The endgame fixes alone would have been a huge weight off the games shoulders.
I'm not sure I have the fortitude to play through the entire game a second time. (Which is funny because I've played through the first game like four times now.)
THought about reinstalling on PS4 but last I checked the file size grew to almost 100gb or something? Is there a 4K texture pack I can opt out of?
Checking my local files on steam and it's 109GB with the story DLCs, geez. I made sure I didn't have the free high res texture pack and 4K cinematics DLCs installed too.
After picking up and playing Baranor it sort of makes me wish there was an Open "What If" story mode that lets you play as each character through the main campaign. Baranor's Batman moveset is something I'd love to have in the main game.
THought about reinstalling on PS4 but last I checked the file size grew to almost 100gb or something? Is there a 4K texture pack I can opt out of?
There might be 4K cinematics, but the PS4 version doesn't have a 4K texture pack (if there's a game on Playstation 4 Pro that has a separate texture pack, I haven't heard of it yet). It's a really big damn game.
So I'm about 15 hours in and at around 52% done, which I feel is much faster than the last time I played through, though I can't say if it's due to changes or just me knowing the game. I'm not even close to the endgame yet, which I where most of the changes I'm interested in are at, but so far I'm having a blast. (Though that's what happened the last time I played)
Haven't touched any DLC stuff aside from running into a few DLC orc tribes and (very) briefly visiting the new DLC zone (Which I didn't even realized they added to the main game! So that's neat, I guess)
I do like how, if you find a weapon you like, you can just upgrade it with the in-game currency you amass. I'm a whirling dervish of poison and fire now.
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
So I'm about 15 hours in and at around 52% done, which I feel is much faster than the last time I played through, though I can't say if it's due to changes or just me knowing the game. I'm not even close to the endgame yet, which I where most of the changes I'm interested in are at, but so far I'm having a blast. (Though that's what happened the last time I played)
Haven't touched any DLC stuff aside from running into a few DLC orc tribes and (very) briefly visiting the new DLC zone (Which I didn't even realized they added to the main game! So that's neat, I guess)
I do like how, if you find a weapon you like, you can just upgrade it with the in-game currency you amass. I'm a whirling dervish of poison and fire now.
The "percent complete" is a bit weird so I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. Also, the world remains open even after you finish the shorter Shadow Wars now, so there's still plenty to do if you're still into fort attacking/defending/etc.
So I beat the Blade of Galadrial expansion a few days ago and I want to talk about the ending
So.. this is basically setting up Shadow 3 to be about Eltarial hunting down Celebrimbor's spirit in a post LotR timeframe, right? If so, it'll be interesting to see how they deal with that given Eltarial seems very adverse to dominating orcs. Though if you literally had to go and make friends or deals with every orc you recruit, that'd actually be cool.
Finally playing this and it's pretty great. Only flaw so far is the dominating not allowing you to enslave Orcs higher level than you which makes no sense since you just clearly beat them and it be nice to have some level ranges on the areas (unless it's all scaled, but ran into some 30+ at 19 just now).
Well, it was great until the end- the fortress bits were my least favorite part of the game so I avoided them until forced to. Now the endgame is to do TEN of them in reverse that are harder and more annoying to do? PASS! To youtube to conquer the ending that way.
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It's almost like loot boxes fundamentally warp and disrupt a game's core design!
The fact that 39% of Shadow of War sales were on Xbox One is interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a title that did shit on PC.
The fact that in the next sentence it seems like they accidentally refer to the preceding title as "Shadow of War" is a bit funny.
It's not tho. Buying more lootboxes doesn't stop that from happening. It's just an incredibly poor choice that was still a problem in the previous game.
Problem is in the second game huge brawls are kinda put front and center so it goes from a fairly avoidable annoyance to oh my God can I turn these fucking things off somehow
Captains could be ignored or run away from, and I was like 65+ hours into the game before I started hearing repeating dialogue more than new dialogue. Thats impressive as shit
It's one of the systems that could vary in experience a lot player to player. There was a lot more ways an orc captain sneaking up on you could be triggered but if someone got bad rolls they might get a lot of repetition. I never felt it was overwhelming but if someone got multiple dudes hunting them down at the same time and then those orcs all had blood brothers it could get a bit much.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
In 70 hours I got 4-5 singing orcs. All of whom sing the EXACT SAME FUCKING SONG.
I didn't enjoy the last dlc at all so hoping this one is better
What is this, Doom DLC or something?
I'm mildly annoyed that I haven't run into Kumail Nanijiani's orc yet (I really want to recruit him), about halfway through the game.
Also, they made it all free.
Since you don't have the ability to teleport they've given you a grappling hook that works similar to the one in assassins creed syndicate which is nifty
Though I need to finish the Wolfenstein dlc.
I will say hiring mercenaries isn't quite as fun as dominating orcs, since you're basically just paying them, it works thematically, but doesn't feel as fun. I wonder if some have traits where they aren't as loyal as others unless you pay them more, I'll have to keep an eye out
You also get a shield, which makes dealing with archers a different experience. I'd say overall I'm enjoying the change in gameplay style more than the last dlc, which just felt like a different set of not quite as interesting powers, this one at least feels more natural in that you're just an ordinary human, so you have a different set of abilities that feel a little more grounded and logical. It feels less like a nerf and more like just playing a slightly different type of combat
Although if you die you lose your army, dying does feel more in your control here, you have 3 health potions you can take which instant fill your health, so it's more viable to take a potion and run off when a fight is going south, so there's less chance of getting a stray arrow killing you when you're fleeing or something like that
Lots of people argue the increased frequency of captain encounters and deaths was a way of encouraging you to use microtransactions, but I feel like that doesn't really pan out, since you can kill captains more quickly with more options in this one compared to the original. I honestly think there's more captains in this one because there are more captain types and more gameplay options to deal with them, so seeing them more often isn't really a negative for me. I think it was a deliberate gameplay choice that some enjoy and others dislike, rather than anything nefarious. But others will swear that the entire game was geared towards microtransactions being necessary or easier. Really even if you bought orcs and gear the game isn't any easier or even much quicker, depending on what you want from it.
Some also argue the post campaign game encourages their use, but again, I never used them and beat it quickly and easily. That's not a boast, it's just you don't need perfect captains and perfect gear to best it. You're never wanting for gear or followers, unless you're trying to create a perfect army, and frankly you don't need to to beat the game, and you won't get a perfect army that much faster using the marketplace.
The one area it might have made easier is getting perfect gear sets, but even then its negligible.
That's my feeling after about 200 hours with the game all up, others might disagree strongly so you'll have to weigh that against other opinions.
Ultimately the game is fun as shit tho I recommend it, it's story is nonsense garbage but its gameplay is super fun
The nemesis system was perfect in the first one, because it was working as intended. This one effed it up by overloading the system with orcs and it took all the personality away from it. They all just became a bland mess. Like, your supposed nemesis might show up at some point in a mission and you're just like "Who?"
I think they mentioned nemesis system tweaks for the update, so maybe they'll tone em down or something. Fingers crossed.
Didn't like Blade of Galadriel, the cone of light blinding mechanic felt clunky. And she gets all these skill upgrades that let you heal allies but the story missions never really call for them, and you can't dominate captains or do more fortress assaults/defenses so healing friendlies is pointless.
Desolation of Mordor was more fun, love Baranor's gadget skills. Although it did get too easy once you unlocked multiple bodyguards, being able to summon 3 allied captains felt like overkill.
Edit:
Full patch notes on the update:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/356190/announcements/detail/3112434863481463081
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
I'm not sure I have the fortitude to play through the entire game a second time. (Which is funny because I've played through the first game like four times now.)
Checking my local files on steam and it's 109GB with the story DLCs, geez. I made sure I didn't have the free high res texture pack and 4K cinematics DLCs installed too.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
There might be 4K cinematics, but the PS4 version doesn't have a 4K texture pack (if there's a game on Playstation 4 Pro that has a separate texture pack, I haven't heard of it yet). It's a really big damn game.
Apparently there's no save slots, so I'll need to delete my 72 hour 100% run.
And I don't think I can bring myself to do that.
..man the opening to this game is kinda slow. Granted I basically just fucked around for two hours, but Talion feels so sloooooww.
Haven't touched any DLC stuff aside from running into a few DLC orc tribes and (very) briefly visiting the new DLC zone (Which I didn't even realized they added to the main game! So that's neat, I guess)
I do like how, if you find a weapon you like, you can just upgrade it with the in-game currency you amass. I'm a whirling dervish of poison and fire now.
The "percent complete" is a bit weird so I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. Also, the world remains open even after you finish the shorter Shadow Wars now, so there's still plenty to do if you're still into fort attacking/defending/etc.
B+ other than the ending gameplay.