Superman adventures on Mordor. Opinion about the game Middle -earth: Shadows of war

“Shadows of war” are a direct continuation of the first part. The game begins with the manufacture of a new ring of omnipotence (the story of how Talion created it, having at its disposal only a hammer and an anvil will probably become a separate DLS) and the abduction of a “good” spirit with certain forces that the trackers will necessarily encounter. The main plot is spinning around a magic ring and creating an army for the sake of victory over Sauron (Talion, stuffed with magic, is not aware that you can look for an original ring, and drain the main evil by throwing a little thing into a volcano …). From this moment, the problems begin with the problems of monoliths. Questions appear: what makes a new ring and why you can’t just kill everyone as in the first part? Of course, to justify the nonsense created by the talion, but t.To. The game is still about gameplay, you can close your eyes to such jambs. The only thing that is worth paying attention to is inconsistencies with a book that break consciousness with their delusibility, but the alternative view of the developers on the history of Middle-earth and many characters (including nhatguls) gives the players a chance to look into the past and find out who is hidden under the masks of ghosts and what the Shelobe in the dark caves of Kirit-INGOL is starting.

Map, quests and magic artifacts
More or less figured out the plot, so you can proceed to the gameplay component of this Title. Let’s start with the pseudo -open world filled with all kinds of devilry: different tasks for the murder of captains and the destruction of avantosts, trials, etc.D. Praise to the developers that it is not necessary to pass this nudatin to become a local dictator, but for trophhaters the destruction of all living things on the map for Achivka is the usual thing. Instead of a large location, the Mordor map is divided into several zones, each of which has its own fortress and its own trials. Of course, many fans of the Universe wanted a big seamless world to appear, but another problem arises-filling. The same type of task and so the car, and the creation of a single card would only aggravate the situation, turning the game into endless humiliation of the captains and boring running around the Mordor desert. It is impossible to say that everything has become much better or worse than the first part, but at least the developers were at least a little to dilute the total uniformity, removing unnecessary side missions to save the captives and tasks related to the collection of grass and hunting for any game.

Since we touched on the topic of side tasks, we can tell a little more about some of them, namely about testing the shadows of the past. These tests turned out to be more or less interesting and at some points problematic, t.To. Sometimes it is necessary to show ingenuity to perform certain actions. It is also pleasant that the rewards for tasks are really useful and will help not only strengthen the hero and his army, but also pump the fortress. After fulfilling all these missions, a surprise awaits you – one of the parts of the legendary Set Kelombbrimbor, a bright lord. Again, not all trials are interesting, some of them are able to cause burning pain not from the complexity of the passage, but from the stupidity of AI. The rest of the tasks do not have much benefit, except for an insignificant experience and sometimes a delicate ally.

The next attraction is the collection of artifacts. I highlighted this moment separately, t.To. I think the process of searching for different pikovin in this game is quite interesting. Firstly, by collecting artifacts, you can learn a lot about the life of past eras, about the armies, about art and culture, as well as about the confrontations of good with evil. Secondly, you will open the secret of Shelob and see why she hates Sauron so much. Thirdly, you will receive a set of legendary armor, which will help in the seizure of power. It is only required to find all the iteldins and open a tomb with a treasure on location. I want to note that finding some items can cause difficulties, but attentiveness and a non -standard approach will help to fulfill the task 100%.

One of the chips of the game cannot be mentioned – the capture of the fortresses. The capture process itself is quite simple: you are recruiting orcs, lift them up the career ladder to the leaders to facilitate the conquest, recruit the captains in the assault group and begin the attack. Before the attack, you can provide a brigade with various improvements for more comfortable retention of points and order a couple of shirts to penetrate the ranks of the bodyguards of the ruler of the fortress. When all points in the fort are under your control, it will be possible to fight the Glavgada and, in case of its defeat, capture the region. The very idea with capture and defense is quite interesting, but the problem is that at the final stage of the game you are obliged to constantly protect the fortifications, turning the game into an endless monotonous grind. The same scenario must be repeated a large number of times, avoiding the capture of the citadel. Otherwise, the fortress will have to storm the fortress again. Such a system completely kills the desire to play, but the correct and clear fulfillment of this gridkoshmar will allow you to find out the fate of Talion.

A little deepened into the process of conquests, it is worth noting that you can improve not only an attacking detachment, but also defenders of fortifications. You can include walls, additional units of soldiers or even dragons in the arsenal. Great news, but miracles do not end there. In the second part, talion is allowed to improve their orcs, buying various bonuses to them: superpower, super -life, additional protection, high level, etc.D. (copypast of small immortal talions).

Chapter One: Immortal Hero from Indian militants.

An overdose of abilities
We will cut off a slightly from the Mordora race for the next artifact and make a small stop at the sportpit item for fantasy heroes. Previous game aspects are needed by the game, which cannot be said about the stupid tree of skills in the “shadows of war”. If the first part of the talion’s skills did not have much, but at the same time, most of them were used as intended, then in the sequel there were an order of magnitude more, which is why you simply confuse in the names and in presses of the right buttons for using skills. More than half of the abilities are useless and needed only for what to make Superman out of the Superman to the end of the game. Not even pumped talion can run along the walls, see through objects, jump per kilometer and almost fly. Additional magic steroids in the form of perks will turn a ranger into an immortal god, who will not even kill a dragon with a graug (the fruit of the troll’s love and some other abomination). In order to at least somehow balance the hero, you can choose only one improvement in the ability of three. Unfortunately, such a trick does not help to get rid of the feeling that we are not a person in front of us, but an unbearable car for chopping orcs. Nevertheless, everything looks very impressive and stylish. The skills themselves are given for every dusty work: I completed the test – received a point, raised the level – received a bun, collected a bag of junk – also received a point. You can make a single -button mutant from a ranger very quickly, without particularly straining.

Combat madness and Nemesis
And here we smoothly go to the fighting and the Nemesis system. Nemesis is a system in which the orcs live their own life, constantly competing with each other through hunting tests, raids for supplies or even a duel. If the talion kills any orc, then after a while the green friend can return by gaining new abilities or new allies to take revenge on the offender. So that life does not seem like honey, the Avenger can hit in the back when you fight with a completely different enemy. So, when killing local guys, always wait for ambushes at the most inopportune moment. The orc who killed you is moving along the career ladder from the usual shirt to the captain, leader or ruler. Nemesis has undergone a minimum of changes, but there were more diverse tasks to eliminate captains, as well as the arena and a new position – the ruler. It’s a shame to realize that they promised a lot, but, unfortunately, Igrodel did not succeed in realizing new ideas.
Back to combat mechanics. The battle system in the game is quite simple and it is not necessary to understand it for hours, and strong techniques can be carried out in one easy movement. If anyone did not play the original game, then I will briefly explain: the whole essence of combat mechanics is reduced to a timely pressing of the counterattack, the mouse hollow or gamepad to strike and somersault through the enemy. If the enemies seriously crushed the number, which often happens in the realities of this game, then Talion always has a secret weapon of mass destruction – anger. Anger is a unique combat reception that can be applied with a full range of rage. This is a powerful skill that kills all living things within a radius of several meters, unless opponents have immunity from distance attacks. The developers did everything so that the hero categorically refuses to die. Despite all the colorfulness of the battle, this circus can quickly get bored for the simple reason that only 2 or 3 buttons are used in battle (roll, blow, sight. Very fun …).

If you mistakenly suggested that rolletto review there is nowhere easier, then you are mistaken. The game contains stealth. He raised the bar of absurd madness to a new level. Now, thanks to improvements to the abilities, Talion will be able to lay the orcs to sleep with just one button. Most captains and leaders are susceptible to hidden attacks, which makes this method of murder the most effective. It’s not only about damage from the dagger, but also in the stupidity of local AI. Until they fix this, build a house from the mountain of corpses can be for the power of even a child.

The maniac who went to Talion is not enough ordinary sword and “broken” stealth. Skillful heads seriously strengthened his small arms. True, from small arms there is only a name. Just shooting on onions is very primitive, so in this game you can blow up bonfires, barrels, tanks, cut off your heads, call on evil spirits, set fire to, freeze, poison, slow down, stagger and cause a small earthquake. This is an incomplete list of use of magic arrows, but the good at least there is no possibility of self -confidence ..

In defense of this whole Kuterma with a fighting, stealth and shooting, we can say that visually everything looks just fantastically spectacular and beautiful.

Chapter three: killed AI or how to try to spend all the money on the picture.

Visual lawlessness
The visual component was made at a decent level, but I did not leave the vague feeling that the past looked better. It is worth recognizing that the bluer has become smaller, and Talion ceased to be a “fuzzy” guy. All this is good, but the quality of textures and sometimes lighting left much to be desired. Only I wanted to take a suitable picture of how I don’t understand what to fly in the face. As if I play minecraft.

I note that in the graphic plan, the game does not cause a large number of questions, despite the clumsy textures and spreech flowers.
But there are no obvious stylistic jambs in the game. The orcs look as they are supposed to, namely, vilely, menacingly and in all weapons, the Gondors are also good, but everything is like a carbon copy, the forts look solid, possessing gloomy majesty, t.To. The developers really wanted to give each fortress an exquisite style. On one of them you can see a large number of spicy spiers, a pile of human and orc bodies chained on tower or gates, on the other – “ice armor” of mountain peaks that protect the fort from the attack from almost all sides. Returning to the topic of the orcs, we can add that each captain has his own unique design, his weaknesses and his own orientation (yes, yes, there are orcs in the game). Many of them are invulnerable to some effects, and many generally go in pairs (well, if you understand what I mean). The coolest feature of green governor will be the ability to adapt. If you beat execution many times, then at some point a powerful blow may not work. The orcs also have castes, each of which practices its own fights of battle and methods of warfare. Also, the developers reacted very reverently to the appearance of the Nazgulov, adding a little personality to them: different elements of armor, the style of battle and personal weapons, and the shelobe paraus appears before the player in the image of a beautiful woman who looks like an aristocrat.

But where without unpleasant moments? In katsets, you can often see a soap kins with cheap CGI effects, which stands out very much against the background of the graphic engine of the game, although such a trifle is unlikely to frighten experienced traces and hunters for orcs. Much more depressing
The design of locations by which the player is forced to move the whole game. Most of them are a pile of stones, caves, caves with stones or ice grottoes mixed with stones and t.p. In addition to cutting down heads by local underwear, there is nothing special to shoot here. However, the differences with the first part are still available. The game designers were not too lazy to plant several blurry trees and throw one of the locations with a snowball. It looks so-so, but at least some variety.

The absence of AI and the only song from the tracklist
Technically, the game is made at an acceptable level. There are no large number of serious bugs in the “shadows of war” and optimization is not lame. More questions are raised by a dragon and. Dragon is a hellish murder machine of nerves. The management is monstrously uncomfortable, and often this hefty creature simply does not want to move. Ground transport is more malleable, but periodic incidents arise with it in the form of an unwillingness to do what they order him. Artificial intelligence does not shine with the mind, which greatly affects the complexity of passage and battle. A powerful enemy can be destroyed, jumping on it from the top of the wall or building, and the local stealth, as mentioned earlier, is a real annihilation of enemy forces. Opponents not only do not see the Talion point blank, but even after direct contact for a few more seconds, they wait for some miracle, looking frantically at the trace. The apogee of this nightmare is arena, where two orcs fight each other. Everything is quite simple, but two stronger ones will often run after another in a circle than to try to fight. One of them will get stuck in the texture, and someone will decide to completely ignore the opponent, engaged in meaningless standing. The irresponsible approach of people to the development of AI is very depressing, which in working condition would deliver a lot of trouble with the ranger from the black gate.

We’ll move away a little from the topic of beautiful pictures and pay attention to the soundtrack of the game. I tried my best to listen to the mishmash of sounds before and during the battles, as well as in the main theme of the game, trying to find the spirit of Middle -earth, because, if you recall the films, then every melody that sounded in the frame has excited and aroused excitement. The viewer understood that now there would be something grandiose and unforgettable. Is there any feeling when you play the game? Probably not. In addition to the sounds of shocks of the sword and cutting the bodies of unfortunate orcs, the game cannot provide the game. The light spot of the plain track will be the composition of Fires of War-a very touching and beautiful song.

Chapter Four: two boots of a couple, both left.

Solid Talion and.
In my soul, hope for good heroes was warming up, but, unfortunately, the game also blushed with this, but not completely. Characters – one of the three pillars of a successful game for several reasons. The most important of them – through the protagonist and his actions, developers want to convey their thoughts and feelings along with the moral of history. The main character is the connection between players and games. If the hero is empty, then the product will not cause emotions. What do we see in the sequel?
A couple of old acquaintances reappears in the shadows of the war – Talion and Keelombrimbor. The trackers are still obsessed with a thirst for revenge for the dead family and is ready to take a chance even with his own soul for the opportunity to kill Sauron. There are no progress in the development of the hero, but by the end of the 3rd act, Talion could surprise me even by the end of the hero. Being a very predictable hero, he was still able to find his inner rod, having repulsed the puppeteer. Subsequently, the ranger saw a more worthy goal in life, having renounced stupid revenge. Before you see an interesting scene, you will have to endure a couple of arches, where Talion is to no avail looking for his balls. Despite his stupidity and spine at the beginning of the game, closer to the end, he began to really evolve. After the incident, Talion finds not only a new goal, but his worldview also changes. He got rid of his “parasite”, gaining strength to save Middle -earth, however, at a very expensive price, which makes the story more tragic and beautiful. His brave act, in my opinion, makes him a completely solid hero.

… no Kelombbrimbor and Co
Keelombrimbor went far from his friend. At some points, he shows prudence, but the longer you play the game, the more distinctly the degradation is visible. The character should develop because he is a link. The hero can become a villain, but with his philosophy, with his ideas and his ideals, and in the “shadows of war” we see as hypocrisy, a thirst for power, selfishness and a sense of anger go to a new level, depriving the keelbrome of the remnants of great. It would not be so bad if the king was different during his lifetime, but nothing has changed. The developers erected vices of the elf into the absolute, killing any signs of changes in it. Nevertheless, the spirit showed perfectly that you can fall below even after death.

To the question of secondary characters – everything is bad. Okay, the story of the Shelob is somehow told, but it is too simple, but the duet from Gondor was clearly deprived of the love and care of the people responsible for the history of these heroes, but this is a great way to add a black warrior. Everything is so false that a couple of inserts about the Nazguls look just amazing. Elfica Assassin (seriously?) The game is needed in order to just move the plot, being an ordinary mannequin. Separate additions came out about her and about Baranor, where they would supposedly tell us about the goals and motives of these nonsense. Additions are generally a separate terrible story, where the meager scriptwriters hits the head with the force of blacksmithing. It makes no sense to talk about the friends of the orcs, they are simple training bots.
In defense, I can say that, no matter how primitive the story of the Shelob is, it is told interestingly. New facts appear from her biography that change the idea of ​​the character. The videos about the Nazguls are short and not very high quality, but very tragic. You witness how the rings break the lives of people, turning them into Sauron slaves. Orcs, although they act as training bots, bring a little humor to the game.

Chapter Five: Galadrieli and Afrosamurai crutch.

Wonderine-woman on the run
It is no secret for anyone that recently large projects are cut into several unequal parts for the subsequent milking of players. This trend did not bypass the “shadows of war”, raising the level of idiocy to new heights. To understand the reason for such a strong statement, we turn to the first “addition” – the Blade of Galadrieli. It tells of a strong and independent woman who was ordered to finish the case with the talion and go straight to the west. Unfortunately, instead of steep twists and improved mechanic, we received a set of tasks cut out of the main game. When a person buys content for 1100 rubles, he wants to get new sensations, new opportunities and a quality story. The addition offers the player everything is the same as in the original, only with an elven instead of a talion. Strokes with the heroine’s extracts, you involuntarily ask the question: why? Why slip a hat to people and say that this is a sweet pie? Having passed through the hellish torment of the gameplay, I found obvious evidence of the disgusting work of the developers.
Firstly, The main character as a beautiful mannequin performing stupid instructions remained. The character is disclosed at a level that has not yet been invented. If you bought this craft for the sake of new details about the true motives of Eltariel, about its past and future, then forget. She, like Talion, blindly dancing under the tune of the next lord, occasionally performing the same tasks of the unfinished trace. Instead of proud elf, we see a girl on the run -in executing orders: chatting chat with a vile orc? No problems! Smell over the troll? How did we live without it! Gather a gang of killers and looters? You’re welcome! This is probably what you imagined elves from Middle -earth.
Secondly, There are absolutely no new mechanics. Another indestructible hero, dividing orcs like pigs on a cattle -beam. Not only is GodMod already annoying, the monoliths decided to add self -healing and blinding so that a person could not think at all with his head during the game. We still run along the walls, fly, burn enemies with x -ray vision and waving toothpicks. I pleased only fast shooting, and even then only visual execution.
Third, Nightmare tasks for the killing of the captains. You know, in the main game, this type of task was really and is not needed, it did not give advantages and cool rewards, but he did not poke his player in the face, shouting about Nemesis’s innovations. In addition, these seven circles of hell are simply necessary to get more or less good equipment. Okay, you can go through the game with standard, but it will be more difficult and longer.
Fourth, The time of the game. Without collecting equipment equipment, you can go an addition for a couple of hours, if not less. For 1100 rubles, 2 hours of game were added to the game? Funny joke.
Fifth, delusional story. There was a very weak plot in the “shadows of the war”, but it had interesting details and he could sometimes surprise. The absurd story about the Nazgula-Office (where my Corvalol?) gives the creative impotence of the scriptwriters. Who are these apostates? Where did they come from? How they killed Nazgul in the end?! Eltariel in direct text stated that they could not be killed! A cherry on the cake was a CGI video that simply killed his stupidity, trying to prove that in the Middle-earth there is such a small Ottoman Empire with Blackjack and Asian.

Dark warrior
Galadrieli Blade did not make a proper impression? I will analyze the second nightmare called the Mordor’s Wasteland without problems without problems. In this part, the story is spinning around Captain Baranor, who vowed to fight with Mordor. His tedious war brought him to Litland, where there is a large fortress that he wanted to win. This addition is strikingly different from the previous one in that we are allowed to play for the “mortal”, and not for the next ghost. I’ll start with positive points. The first and most important is the absence of a Godmod mode. I agree, sometimes Baranor can give out something abruptly techniques of Talion or Eltariel, but life is given only one, and if they killed, then we start all over again. I also liked to improve the combat glove, the details of which are scattered throughout the location and on the mini-card, they are not displayed, which brings a little interest to the gameplay. Pleased the system of improvement improvement and a more or less useful skill tree. Most skills can really seriously affect the course of the battle, helping Chernysh survive in extreme conditions. Actually, all the good is ever ending.

“Mordor’s Wasteland” for 1400 rubles add an hour or two of the game time, for which you not only can not “enjoy” the game, but you will not have time to drink tea. On the complexity of the “sworn enemies” all the way took me about an hour and a half. As a result, 2 additions with a total value of as the original pass in less than a day.
What else was terribly laughed is shooting. In DLS, it is much stronger than a piece of iron behind her, and with some improvements you can kill a dozen orcs with one button. In addition, Baranor is also armed with a bag of bombs, which are no worse than arrows cope with opponents, and the various effects screwed in them will smash the whole army to the puffs. Despite the imbalance, bombs and arrows do not save from the exact blow of the berserker or the arrows of the sniper.
Nearby mechanics did not undergo any changes. Baranor, like a bun, is ridiculously rolling from one enemy to another, occasionally jumping over obstacles. The main shock force of the sword is the execution, t.To. many captains from the addition are especially vulnerable to this ability. Also added to the game several new -fangled little things in the form of a circular attack with a hook and paraglider. There is little use, but cool.
I left the most delicious for dessert, namely the plot. The main story is in no way connected with the talion and rings of power. She personally affects Baranor, who did not give up to anyone for nothing. The journey of a Negriten on the desert will interest only completely bored players. The story raises only new questions: where did his friend go? Why capture the fortress? Why fight at all? Baranor simply does not have motivation. You just won’t understand why this unhappy is running around the rocks and killing orcs.

The results of the year
Summing up, we can say that the game is an excellent disposable blockbuster that can brighten up several rainy evenings. There are no smart thoughts, philosophical moralizing, and she also has many problems associated not only with gameplay, but also with the plot. At the same time, the “shadows of war” does not cease to be a stylish, exciting and fairly atmospheric game, where everyone will be able to look at the new page of the story about the Lord of the Rings. Of course, fans of the first part and the genre in general will like the game like many fans of Middle -earth. This applies only to the main game. It is not necessary to purchase additions at all, t.To. They carry nothing new in themselves. In the annotations, the inscription “Continuation of the main plot” flaunts, but this is not so. Rather, these are just weak spin-offs designed to pump out more money from fans. On this I have everything. Good luck and all the best!