The Middle-earth: Shadow of War

As a big fan of the first chapter, i must say i am eager to see the sequel, so i’ll wait to cast my judgment. Grafics are great, finally you get to clash with Ring wraiths (nazguls) and balrogs.
Downside is:

  1. you can see a woman soldier, and this chains to
  2. you can also see a black male soldier. This is huge, since in tolkien lore there are no asians or black men. Also since imho he was a misogynist, women in tolkien-based worlds have to stay home and sing ugly songs while men do all the dirty work. I’d say that politically correct here is a big mistake, and infact most tolkien hardcore fans are virtually rioting already, and that’s just for the black man. I am waiting to see what happens once they notice the lass too :confused:
    I mean, come on, anyone who has read prof T’s work knows that the only asian looking guys are the one that support Sauron, black guys are MIA at all. This was a huge misstep, imo.
  3. And this is,imho, the worst thing they took away Celembrimbor off the bat! I mean, WTAFH!?
    I simply worship the elf lord, being a machiavellic character outside the clichéd boundaries of good and bad. A true epitome of the warlord/warmage category.
    So no preorder for me until i find out if you get t rescue him earlier (i hope so), late (plz no!!! :’( ) or at all (like only in the ending). No elf lord no game, imo V___V
1 Like

I thought dark-skinned warriors appeared riding elephants at one point in Return of the King, no?

IRRC (not sure) they are described more like middle east guys, plus, again, therioting is because there are no black man at all in all middle earth. We know of other ethnicities, but only among the bad guys supporting sauron. So they say that having a black man in gondor is heresy.

EDIT: Checked, ok, so the mamuk riding guys are haradrim.
They come from the south earth, and are differentiate in the northern ones that are persian/arab like (olive skinned, scimitars and all that jazz) and southern ones, actually black skinned and with short and frizzy hairs. So long story short, there can be a black man in gondor as likely a snowball can survive on the sun.

1 Like

Hey now, Eowyn would have a word with anyone who thinks women were absent from the frontlines of Middle Earth.

2 Likes

Let’s see, which is more important:

  1. Preserving perfectly the racism and misogyny of a long-dead author in a game that’s already non-canonical to his stories?
  2. Adding a little diversity so that people other than white dudes have characters they can identify with in a AAA game?

On a scale of harm done, one of these things is clearly a better choice.

2 Likes

dude, you are preaching to the choir :heart:
I just talked about the game, cuz i loved shadow of mordor, and about the fuss the hardcore fans are doing just for talking. I am no mysoginist nor racist (not even a big tolkien fan, but that is another story).

There was a female warrior in the first game. Don’t you remember?

yes, but that was the “princess” of nurn, not gondorian.
The middle earth is kinda misogynistic as set up and lore (arwen does nothing all 3 books, the little screen time she gets is thanks to peter jackson. Eowyn has to pretend to be a male to actually go to battle).
And that was always a brilliant set up from the game writer, like the mage woman.

Okay, so the game devs got out the pan just stating that evrything that happens in middle earth - shadow of X is non canon. Too bad, imo the celebrimbor story would make a great movie.
Sauron as Annatar is really cool.
Btw, the woman is a “Shield Maiden of Gondor” whatever that is.
In the game you can ride Drakes (puppy dragons), instead of fell beast (idk what they are. Apparently are what nazguls rode in the LoTR.)
The action is mixed with awesome “build your army and fortresses” were is you that decide who will manage the lands you conquer based on what traits and abilities you think are more useful.
The elf lord is there, so i am already 100% sold.
Fun fact: today I a had a Vendetta mission to avenge @Dizeaze death.
I killed the bastard, bro. :wink:

So, SoW is out, and not having that much of cash i resorted to having a friend of mine borrowing me console+game.
Overall is disappointing, a mere 6/10.
The game is great for what concerns graphic, skill trees, fighting mechanic, nemesis system etc, but honestly is just a better version of the first game. Ok, better, but not so much to feel another game.
The great downfalls of this game are (imho ofc):
the plot is just meh. It starts slowly, then it picks quite a pace and then fall down to the ground like a falcon having a stroke. Spoiler warning: there is a spoiler.

Spoiler

celebrimbor betraying talion is really a bummer, and plausible like the earth reversing his own spin. There is no such a thing as a traitorous elf. Sauron is a Maiar sometimes disguised as an elf, not an elf. Plus all the “Talion suffered like a gutted pig for decades before becoming fully corrupted” in the so called “true ending” in the free extra chapter really leaves a bad aftertaste.

Not to mention that after a not so nice chaper 4 they released a free DLC chapter 5 that is basically 20 sieges, doing the same thing over and over and over just to get the “true ending”. I saw that on youtube, cuz after 2 sieges and much grinding i was fed up already. And thank God i did, since said ending made me grateful to my stinginess for not purchasing the game. A total let down, a 1/10 for the ending, period.
Least but worst of all are the micro transactions, the true reason that made me not preorder or insta buy SoW. I mean, how the heck can you ask 60€ for a full single player game AND insert MTs? As a potential customer i smell foul trickery a mile away and keep my wallet fiercely closed.
Basically MTs are a fraud early game ( you would have stuff useless until u get the required level) dumb mid game (a legendary item has like +2 better than the normal one u find) and a theft end game. Because while chap 1-3 u get all the exp u need, chap 4-5 require much more grinding, and ofc having better orcs or the legendary/mythic weapons that grant extra XP is useful.
You can still complete all the game without the MTs (like my friend) but honestly the grinding in an ARPG really beat the fun outta of it for me.
Bottom line, i will not buy this game until i find it in a sale at 5€ tops, cuz WB definitely deserve boycot for this MTs stuff. I already hate that in mobile games, but trying to charge them AND want money for the game itself is too much.

TL/DR: overall 6/10.
Major flaws are sub par plot, super crappy ending, slow pace in chap 1, sloth pace in chap 5 (unless MTs), MicroTransactions and too much grinding.

1 Like