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Shadow of Mordors true ending - Grinding or Lootboxes

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
"Legendary orcs are only available with paid loot boxes"

Loool! Fuck WB!

Regular orcs can be leveled up to legendary without paying.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
So what you're saying is I can't see the secret ending without spending real money on loot boxes?

Based on all the reviews I can tell you that's total and utter bullshit.

OP: Grinding or Lootboxes

So no, it is not necessary to spend real money to get the true ending, but the only other way is to grind and that is what is being criticized here. Why are you being deliberately obtuse?
 

Cramoss

Member
Fucking disgusting if true

3e9U0Y4.gif
 
Reviews that I've read definitely pointed out that the "4th act" is extremely grindy. It seems like a bit of a leap to say that it forces you to buy lootboxes though. From what I've seen, essentially buying better orcs isn't going to let you skip the numerous giant battles you'll need to participate in without the distractions you'd find while playing the campaign.

Edit: Just read that last excerpt of the Polygon review and I'm still kind of torn. I suppose someone who really wants to see that "hidden" ending might be super tempted to spend real money there. Otherwise it just seems like a neat way to continue playing the game, even if it is a bit of a grind. I take more issue with the fact that they put a tiny morsel of extra story at the end of that mode than the fact that extra purchases speed it up.

It's probably just a dumb cutscene that leads the game into the start of the LoTR trilogy anyway.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
OP: Grinding or Lootboxes

So no, it is not necessary to spend real money to get the true ending, but the only other way is to grind and that is what is being criticized here. Why are you being deliberately obtuse?

Read the post I replied to. I'm not the one being obtuse.
 

This should be bolded:

When you run out of in-game money, you have two choices: Make a huge time investment by hunting down orcs in your game world and earning chests via vendetta missions, or spend some real money to get the more powerful orcs you need now.
 

Bizzquik

Member
Total Biscuit d@mn well better be right about this claim, because the truly incendiary aspect isn't just a credibility hit against Warner Brothers - its against fellow reviewers.

We'll see....
 

Tagyhag

Member
"Legendary orcs are only available with paid loot boxes"

Loool! Fuck WB!

Regular orcs can be leveled up to legendary without paying.

OK, that's better.

While making it grindy on purpose just to entice you to buy loot boxes is pretty messed up,at least they don't purposely lock out legendary orcs JUST to paid loot boxes.

Now that would have been fucked.
 

EpicBox

Member
So you've never run out of resources or cash in games which doesn't have loot boxes?

Sure I did. And if the game offered it, I might use a cheat code.

When I have to pay for that luxury, the implication is that the game is deliberately giving me a harder time for the sake of profit.
 
So what you're saying is I can't see the secret ending without spending real money on loot boxes?

Based on all the reviews I can tell you that's total and utter bullshit.

What I'm saying is that they've made (allegedly) made the game more grindy/tedious/unsatisfying/less rewarding in an attempt to get more dollars out of their $60 (or more!) game. You were the one trying to compare it to grinding in any other game like there's no difference whatsoever. I never said the lootboxes are a necessity at all, microtransactions never are. They're just the end goal of a physiologically manipulative system that prays on susceptible people, and WB are the masters of it.

You're free to use the tired excuses but what we're seeing is hardly surprising to me at least. It's WB after all.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
That Polygon review snippet sounds like exactly what any sane person would expect from this game after WB started revealing their hand months back.

Mess.
 

sjay1994

Member
Arkham Knight's ending... Now with microtransactions!

I can't say I'm shocked. I figured something like this would happen after the fortresses mechanic was announced

Next Arkham game has a MT that gets all the riddler trophies.

A MT I would actually be tempted into buying.
 

pelican

Member
My immeduate question is..

Has TB played Act 4 to completion? If not, unsure how he could make such a statement.
 
Sooooo the gamespot review just says that the final act is tedious and unnecessary and requires upgrading your Orcs which you otherwise didn’t really have to do up until then.

Separately, it says Legendary stuff is only available through paid micro transactions but they’re not materially different from Epic stuff and don’t seem necessary or useful.

It say nothing about these things having anything to do with each other. It pretty much says paying for Legendary loot is pointless.
 
So this guy read one review and came to this conclusion and that's all we're gonna go on? Mr Biscuit's extrapolations? I'd like to know some specifics before grabbing the pitchforks.

Also, obligatory "TB is a shitheel GG supporter and he should fuck off into the sun"
 

SilentRob

Member
Ah, nice. Totalbiscuit is at it again, sharing information he didn't get or confirm himself. That worked out great with Hellblade. Including the bashing of media. Fun.

Also: You make a thread about a tweet about a review instead of the review itself? While we already have a review thread? Why?
 
Ah, nice. Totalbiscuit is again at it, sharing information he didn't get or confirm himself. That worked out great with Hellblade. Including the bashing of media. Fun.

There are two reviews in this thread that claim the same: Either grind or buy lootboxes to get legendary orcs directly instead of using grinding to level them up.
 
I found it really interesting to see so few reviews actually talk about this part of the game, seems pretty important to mention. Now it does seem like it's an option post story mode, so it's not something everyone will do so there is that.

Also this comparison to Batman is silly. In batman if I recall correctly to get the secret ending you had to 100% the game, which is something many players do naturally when they play these games. I got 100% in every batman game before that and loved it. It's part of the MAIN GAME.

In this it seems there is a brand new objective that unlocks only after you beat the game at it requires lots of repetition of defense battles to get the secret ending. It's an extra mode where batman was just stuff you do during the game.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
So this guy read one review and came to this conclusion and that's all we're gonna go on? Mr Biscuit's extrapolations? I'd like to know some specifics before grabbing the pitchforks.

Also, obligatory "TB is a shitheel GG supporter and he should fuck off into the sun"

You're free to read the two reviews posted in this thread that completely detail exactly what that dude tweeted about.
 

zelas

Member
OP, why not go to the source instead of crediting that scumbag Totalbiscuit. Here is their review:


However, Shadow Wars is spoiled by two major issues.

First, it’s not just postgame content. While the main plot of Shadow of War wraps up in relatively tidy fashion before act four begins, Monolith has confirmed that there is a “true ending” hidden behind Shadow Wars. I love the idea of offering dozens of hours of grindy yet fun content for players who really adore this game to sink their teeth into. But that works better as an option rather than a looming obligation for completionists. Having the game’s real finale locked away behind those dozens of hours — hours that, while fun, are devoid of story missions, side quests, cutscenes or other distractions that help mix up the pace — is a disappointment.

When you run out of in-game money, you have two choices: Make a huge time investment by hunting down orcs in your game world and earning chests via vendetta missions, or spend some real money to get the more powerful orcs you need now. Does the game ever force you to spend money? No. I’m sure you can get to the end of Shadow Wars without spending a dime, as long as you’re patient and persistent. But locking progress through this mode (and, again, toward the game’s true ending) behind either spending more money or doing tons of tedious busywork feels at least greedy if not predatory.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/5/16428308/middle-earth-shadow-of-war-review
 
Well this is absolutely misleading. Let's outrage about nothing, again.

Isnt the only misleading thing about that that TB said you can only get them in lootboxes?

The Polygon and Gamespot review said you can upgrade them to become legendary, but it takes time. Or you can buy lootboxes and skip that grind.
 
Guys there are 2 other reviews already quoted in this thread backing up what TB has said. Come on now.
They've verified that the game has a grindy postgame with a 'true ending', but TB's posts are wildly misleading & reactionary. He refers to Shadow Wars as the '4th act', as if an entire quarter of the game is gated behind a paywall. In reality, it seems like there's just an ending cutscene at the end of this grindy side mission - closer to AK's 'true ending' requiring 100% completion.

He also insinuates these reviews have been coerced into not making a bigger deal out of this, despite zero evidence to this claim. As he's done in the past, he's invoking GG-esque boogymen of corrupt games journos - just to get attention on himself in the name of 'consumer interests'.
 
They're already out, and largely positive.


I play videogames for 20 year now but some days I just hate my hobby and everything that happens around it. Today is one of them.

A game with such a business model should get the biggest shitstorm possible. For once, not from their buyer, from the reviewer. This should get denied immediately. How will Videogames look like in the future if this gets a pass?
 
So to be clear, the last act of the game requires you to have Legendary orcs in your party. These can either be taken from boss battles through domination - or randomly scored through loot boxes. The boxes can be grinded out through game play, or bought directly with cash.

Yeah, that sounds right.

I mean the game has daily challenges, community events and asynchronous Pvp.

I really don't think you're supposed to be trying to finish the post end grind in a single sitting.

I think the loot boxes are fucking stupid but I'm glad to have something to do in the post game. I remember letting myself die a bunch of times just to make some powerful Orcs to fight in the first one.
 
I suppose if you're enjoying the gameplay then grinding isn't an issue. Look at all the people that continued to play Destiny.
 
Backed up also by a commenter from the Eurogamer review:

As I may have played more of this than Johnny, a word of warning about the microtransactions: if you want to complete the endgame and see the *true* ending, be prepared to buy the XP boosts from the store while you're playing the campaign or face a 40-50 hour grind. I finished the story in about 15 hours (and agree that it's awful), and have been grinding for 8 hours a day for the past four days just to level up enough to finish the "Shadow of War" endgame content, and it is indescribably tedious.
 
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