Patient Gamers

I've started Shadow of War. It's sad what WB did with the game when it released, but in its current state it's a blast to play. The pacing is just a smidge to the slow side but I'm taking it more as a marathon than a sprint, because I am enjoying the core gameplay loop. It's one of the few games where dying is fun. The story is essentially nonsense and you can see plot twists coming from a mile away, but you're not playing it for the actual story. You're playing it for the stories the nemesis system creates.

It's such a simple system that just creates such memorable stories and enemies. In my playthrough I have an ork who killed me, I then got revenge on them by poisoning them, they then came back from the dead as a legendary with epic poison trait and now I run away from him because he keeps getting stronger. I have another ork who followed me from one area to another, he's an epic ork with iron will (meaning I can't turn him to my side) and I keep humiliating him in hopes that eventually I can break his iron will trait. No luck so far but I'll keep trying.

If anyone is planning on playing it my recommendation is to either start on the hardest difficulty (and focus on collecting skill points because the game does get easier one you have more skills unlocked) or raise the difficulty as you progress until dying is relatively common. You're simply not going to get the full nemesis system experience if you're never dying.