#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay movie
#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay full
#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay trial

#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay movie

When a captain enters a fray like that it’s like a scene in a movie in which two opposing heroes spot each other across the battlefield and cut a swath through their armies to fight. But when dozens of them flood the screen at once they’re a force to be reckoned with, and they’ll beat on you if you try to suck the life out of their friends.

Literally – the quickest way to restore your health is to drain it from an unsuspecting victim (or one of the rats that scurry around in certain areas). “Just like in Shadow of Mordor, individual rank-and-file uruks are so non-threatening they’re basically health pickups. There’s also a Diablo-like gem crafting and slotting system, which lets you customize your build on each piece of gear to suit your playstyle with enhanced damage, health, or chances for good-quality drops. Some of those challenges are built around the absurdly forgiving stealth (you can pretty much run right up to an uruk and stab him to death before anyone notices), but most are active and interesting. Thanks to these side goals there’s always something new to do as you fight, and there’s always another reward waiting for you. That makes it an interesting tradeoff to kill an uruk captain instead of brainwashing him and recruiting him into your army.Įach piece of rare, epic, or legendary loot comes with a challenge to unlock its more powerful traits: for instance, kill X enemies while mounted on a tiger-like Caragor and your sword will suddenly do more damage while your health is low, or throw Y enemies off of ledges to activate your cape’s power to make your allies do more damage in combat.

The higher the level of the uruk you kill, the better the potential of the gear that will drop.

#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay full

Uruk captains are also walking meat pinatas full of potentially game-changing loot, which ranges from a sword that has a chance to set things on fire to a suit of armor that actively heals you while you’re on fire. They’re full of surprises and personality, so much so that It’s almost a shame to lop their heads and limbs off with spectacularly animated, slow-motion finishing moves. Other things can’t be predicted as easily: sometimes enemy uruks will ambush you out of nowhere, or they’ll turn on you when you least suspect it.

#Middle earth shadow of war pc gameplay trial

Though it’s generally easy to interrogate a lacky uruk and learn a captain’s weaknesses, sometimes I prefer to go in blind and discover their traits by trial and error in combat. (If the annoying immunity to melee weapons from Shadow of Mordor exists in Shadow of War, I haven’t encountered it.) Some have weaknesses that let you instantly kill them with fire or stealth attacks, others have only slight vulnerabilities to certain damage types. Some become enraged (making them attack with more ferocity and impossible to pacify until they calm down a notch) at certain moves, like vaulting over them or using a freeze power – and some become enraged over literally everything. Some are immune to execution moves or arrows, and some can defy death and come back at you with a second wind just at you think you’ve won. It’s a far more in-depth system than what we saw in Shadow of Mordor, with everything from being equipped with flaming or poisoned weaponry and flashbombs to more complex and scarier abilities like killing you outright, ignoring the Last Chance mechanic that allows you to save yourself when you run out of health.

“Underneath, each has their own random combination of a huge selection of class-based abilities, strengths to counter, and fears and weaknesses to exploit.