The game should be released in a week, so this is a good time to talk about it. Are you looking forward to playing it? Did you play the first game, and what are your expectations?
(Warning: Rant and possibly minor spoilers ahead!)
Personally, I have played and enjoyed ME: Shadow of Mordor, and so when Shadow of War was announced I was excited to play it. I still think it might be good gameplay-wise, but after having seen some trailers, in-game footage and developer interview, I've noticed some story and design choices with which I am not happy and which might deter me from playing the game altogether. They're little things and might sound silly by themselves, but I don't think I can just ignore them all.
One of those is the Balrog as seen in some videos. I don't mind a Balrog being in the game, on the contrary; I think they might have done some great things with it. However, to be perfectly honest, I think it looks terrible. Balrogs are supposed to be shadow and flame, instead we're presented with an oversized troll with flimsy neon wings. Fighting it also seems underwhelming, as they weren't making use of the size difference as much as they could (like Dark Souls 3 did with Midir, for example). This might change in the finished game, but I don't think it'll be fundamentally different from the pre-release let's-plays I've seen.
I've also heard about micro-transactions being implemented in the game. I know a lot of people are not happy with that; me, I might be OK with it if you can just ignore that part and play the game normally, but it's one more detail that tips my balance towards the 'nope' side.
So that was my rant about some things that irk me. What are your thoughts?
