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Fixed that for you: Middle-earth: Shadow of War
The series’ Nemesis System is being rightly lauded as groundbreaking, especially in Shadow of War. But has Monolith put all their Ghul eggs in one basket, leaving the rest of the game in design limbo?
Obligatory disclaimer: Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a very good game. It takes a while to get going, but when you’re commanding your own army of orcs and really getting in deep with the robust and expanded Nemesis System, taking down fortresses and claiming them as your own, with your own orc garrisons, it definitely comes into its own. It steps out of the shadow (pun intended) of the first game and forges its own path in this space. But this forge is strictly built for the Nemesis System, so there’s still a shadow cast over the rest of the game because in systems principle they’re both largely still the same.
Assassin’s Creed is a series that does this often too, but in the AC series, Ubisoft usually at least tries to envelop the whole experience in every new outing; updating its systems to help amplify any of their new design concepts. In other words, they do go above and beyond to try and make the “what’s old is new again” adage stick as a design tentpole. Unfortunately with Shadow of War, combat, movement, story pacing, mission structure (partly), repetition and more are all lost to the more important Nemesis System. But that system is only one part of a larger whole, and so we’re here in our game critic lab coats in an attempt to confront Monolith about a number of Shadow of War’s flaws, with ideas on how to broach them for any future Middle-earth: Shadow of games. Just as we did with Guerrilla and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Are you not entertained!?
© Warner Bros Games
Player Inputs
We’ve put this at the top of the list, because it’s the game’s bridging problem between so much of what’s mentioned below, but button presses (or “inputs”), are unbelievably laggy or unresponsive in Shadow of War. Weakening an enemy to green to able to grab him and turn him to the side of the Bright Lord should be as simple as, ‘well, he’s green now, let’s press RB and grab him’, but it’s not. More often than not your press doesn’t register, and you can then take a spear to the gut. This can be equally frustrating if there’s a mission marker, or an item in the same space up for grabs, with the game tending to use the RB interaction for anything other than what it is you’re trying to do. And in combat, non-registered button presses can be the difference between life or death -- especially on the OP hard option (more on this in a minute).
There’s no ‘design’ fix for this, other than to have each press of a button properly registered within the game. If the Batman: Arkham series can get this right every single time (and let’s be honest, the Shadow of games are largely Batman-inspired Middle-earth adventures), then so can Monolith’s series.
But will I need a new outdoor decorator?
© Warner Bros Games
Fix the Game’s Movement
This is arguably the game’s most contentious point, and we challenge anyone to come forward who’s had a smooth, incident-free experience with Shadow of War’s player movement. Talion constantly gets hung up on the environment, and the controls when you’re attempting to move more quickly, immediately start a fight with you. The number of times the game’s new double-jump action failed to fire in the same direction twice, despite little-to-no thumb movement beyond ‘forward’, forced us to take out “controller through screen” TV insurance. Double-tapping A or X in combat, if you’re near a wall can often lead to Talion climbing that wall rather than evading his enemy’s attacks. And finally clicking L3 while already running does give the player a massive boost of speed, but because you need to keep pushing forward, being able to competently control a character seemingly forever-drawn to attaching himself to any protruding part of the environment is an exercise in absolute frustration.
On that last point, the better option would be to have holding down the A or X button as your run input, without the requirement to push forward, thus allowing the player better left and right control as they’re sprinting at break neck speed. A directional smart system would also help with jumping, where the game predicts -- loosely -- what direction the player is attempting to head in and aids movement in that direction. While in combat, have a different input or break-away system applied if a player wants to leave the battle, or gain higher ground, allowing then for a cleaner combat approach for players without them worrying that the game’s broken climbing and movement system is going to sabotage their orc slaying.
I'm your new landlord - the Bright Lord
© Warner Bros Games
Combat and Camera
Oh boy. This is a divisive part of the game, because this writer is playing the game on the hardest difficulty setting where enemies are just far more aggressive and powerful than you, rather than being smarter or more cunning. But again, in the Batman: Arkham series of games, I’m not too proud to say that I’m a better Batman than most, especially in combat (70+ combo counters are a walk in the park). That game’s combat camera, and its use of slowing time at crucial combo points is perfect -- there’s simply none better.
I’m not too proud to say that I’m a better Batman than most, especially in combat (70+ combo counters are a walk in the park).
In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, combat is not a precise exercise. Partly because of some of the issues mentioned above, and partly because it lacks the depth and construct of the Batman combat system, despite borrowing so heavily from it. The camera here is the game’s biggest flaw, and you often find that it doesn’t centre well enough, leaving enemies out of your periphery, while stacking attack inputs isn’t even an option. A solution here would be to have the camera zoom back smoothly to allow the player a chance to survey their combat field and then appropriately face each enemy in the way they see fit. Camera movement can still be dictated by the player, but if the game can sense the player is too invested in handling a mob, then the camera once again takes the vision out to a better viewing position with an adjustment in game-time speed as well -- based on the combo counter, of course.
But can he pay the billz?
© Warner Bros Games
Make the Enemy Smarter, Not OP, for Higher Difficulties
As mentioned earlier, the game’s higher difficulty setting isn’t so much a skill challenge, as it is a test of your patience. Enemies are just strictly overpowered, to the point that some only need to hit you twice before depleting your entire health bar. The further you get into the game and level up on the higher setting, the stronger you eventually become. But I watched my partner play the game on Normal and blitz through. She was literally at the same spot as me within the game, within half the time. It might actually be more fun to play that way, but as a professional games writer, I pride myself on beating games on the highest setting, but in Shadow of War, there’s no added challenge -- the game just tests your glutton for punishment mettle, and then some. And it’s all done with cheap OP enemies.
The game’s AI and Nemesis System is a thing of beauty, so the better outcome here would have been to have made the enemies smarter, more tactical, and more cunning and ruthless. I don’t want a number value of health depletion upon being hit be the only difference between playing on the hardest setting or the middle setting. That’s no different to enemies who can sponge more bullets than you can take in games like Call of Duty when you play on Hardened. That’s not a challenge, it’s just cheap.
My Fortress for a Caragor
© Warner Bros Games
Act I should have been a part of Act II
This is our final point, but the game’s opening act was pretty terrible. It served as a tutorial, naturally, but as a call-to-action segment of gameplay, it was both narratively lacking (on a number of fronts), and clumsy. The aforementioned issues with player-movement and camera were far more predominant here because of the design of the city, while having a city under siege where you can still just take your time and do all the things around you doesn’t really help with suspension of disbelief. We obviously needed the Shelob side of the first act, and, honestly, that would have been a better option. Minas Ithil being overrun by orcs would have been better served as an event closer to the end of act II where the urgency would have made more sense.
In fact, the opening hour of act II would have been a much better introduction to what Shadow of War is really all about. But the opening we got simply delayed the game’s true strengths being shown to the player, and did little to highlight the larger differences between this, and Shadow of Mordor.
And that’s it (for now). The Xbox One X version of the game is being touted as being much better than the Xbox One version, but for all its Nemesis System glory, Shadow of War could have done with a bit more love in a lot of different areas. It’s still a fundamentally good game, and the dynamic nature of how the orcs interact with you and among themselves is amazing. Plus Bruz the Chopper saves the day, again and again with his bogan Aussie charm, but it’s not quite enough. Inputs, movement, combat, camera and more all need to be addressed for the inevitable third instalment. And given the success of the series so far, here’s hoping there’s time, budget and vision to look beyond the Nemesis System.
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