This weekend i have been playing "Shadows of War"
So: Steam asked me a few weeks back: Hey, hey you... you want some Shadows of War (Price was like 2.99 or something)? I thought i already had bought it a few years back, but maybe i did pirate it? Wasn't sure. So i just bought it. When i looked it up, found that i already had in in my game-list.
There it was: Shadows of Mordor AND Shadows of War - weird - looks the same. Maybe it is some "Game of Year"- thing or something? Now after checking it: Shadows of War ist the sequel and my demented, terrible brain didn't make the connection.
The game: Well, it's fine, i guess. The pacing and storytelling is pretty bad. (The "Tutorial" or first act is like... quite some HOURS. AFTER that you get the pretty simple strategy part bolted on and get send to a new local map for again like five-six hours. AFTER THAT -The main Map opens up with three more levels. At this point i am pretty sure i have seen and done everything the game has to offer)
But mechanically it plays well. I am playing on hard, and i do die when i mess up my rhythm or movement (worst enemy in the game is "a random ordinary guy you forgot coming in from the side and murdering you") . The game has a nice sense of chaos and agency. It plays a bit into the absolute power fantasy. (I mean when i looked into my stats in the tutorial i already had a confirmed ~900 kills and oh boy can you flip out on those poor orcs.)
Some things are pretty bad: It does the "Ubisoft" thing: You get to some tower, look around, then walk to everything on the map and press "action". Not much diverse gameplay. It is all in the chaos and destruction. Batmanning around, see what traps and wild animals are around, then unleashing hell and murdering everyone. Sometimes dealing with ambushes yourself. It has some tonal weird schticks. (The Orks are sometimes really "English Soccer Hooligan-funny" while the humans and elves play the war drama straight)
Also: Game was a 139 GB download. for 2.99 that is quite the bandwidth cost for steam here. Also: It is relatively "new" and looks like a expensively made game; why so cheap?