Recent reviews by Matdir

Excellent gameplay. Fairly easy combat, but in a way that makes you feel powerful and lets you have fun. You eventually get a build going that makes most things simple, but at the same time it allows for creative expression in how to play the game and look cool while doing it.

OK story. Somewhat jarring for those very familiar with LOTR, but easy to get over it.

I also found it strange that when they removed MTX you couldn't buy crates with in game currency anymore. Not a good or bad thing inherently, just strange as you end up with a dramatic excess of currency that you could never possibly spend in game.

One thing that I will say is that the Nemesis system is much weaker in this game, as the game takes place over multiple regions which the captains do not cross. In the first game, I died to some random grunt who then got insane captain perks. I died the first few times running into him, then beat him several times but never actually killed him until the final mission. It was satisfying. On the other hand, in this game, I never felt like I really built a rivalry with any of the orcs. You simply conquer a region, and there isn't really an incentive go back there so you don't really encounter the same orcs throughout the whole game. So while the game is still fun, you don't experience the full potential of the Nemesis system like in the first game.

A great sandbox game. Build an army from nothing and become a mercenary, bandit, lord, king, or emporer. I would highly recomend playing this game modded. Workshop, moddb, and nexus all have great mods that make this game even better