I hate defending fortresses in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. I hate it so much, in fact, that when an army of orcs from the Machine tribe showed up at the gates of my fortress in N rnen in Mordor s sunny southeast, I just went to the menu, clicked Leave Mission, and let them have it.
And so it often went with Shadow of War s controversial fourth act – called The Shadow Wars – which involves a 10-stage series of battles over different fortresses before you can reach the real ending. Some say it s essentially impossible to complete without using purchasable loot boxes stuffed with legendary quality gear and orcs for your army if you run out of money, with Polygon going so far as to say that the system is predatory. I, on the other hand, said in my own Shadow of War review that I didn t get the point of the loot boxes. I never felt the need to use them. After playing a lot more of Shadow Wars, I feel the same way, and although I mainly came to that conclusion by pulling stunts like the one above, that “stunt” made the game more fun. I sincerely believe developer Monolith Productions could remove the boxes right now and it d make little tangible difference to the game. (more…)