The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion

The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion
N/A
Metacritic
37
Steam
42.418
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$11.99
Release date
6 February 2018
Steam reviews score
Total
37 (697 votes)

The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion includes: • NEW Story campaign • NEW Orc Allies & Side Missions • NEW Boss fights against the Ringwraiths and Dark Talion • NEW Light wielding Combat • NEW Legendary Gear Set for Eltariel

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The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 SP1 with Platform Update
  • Processor: AMD FX-4350, 4.2 GHz / Intel Core i5-2300, 2.80 GHz
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD HD 7870, 2 GB / NVIDIA GTX 660, 2 GB
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 70 GB available space
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Reviews
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PeonStyle
PeonStyle

So I got this with the definitive edition. I didn't even bother to play the base game. I'm usually not into this kind of game, for a very simple reason : I find the combat so very boring. You got this magic button (A for dodge in this game) which allows you to win almost every fights unscathed, combined to an auto-lock on enemies... honestly I didn't feel like I needed much skill to win the fights, and when I died, it was because I wanted to try something fancy. Just press A when the game tells you to, else you go with smashing X, and congrats you've won.

So why a positive review then ? Eltariel. Yeah, I like hot elf chicks.

DarkShadow
DarkShadow

This story DLC is the best, you play as Galadriel as she attempts to eliminate (Spoiler) and adds an extra scene to the end of War of Shadow's final scene

Gravity
Gravity

People gave this DLC bad reviews because they dislike Eltariel (the elf chick) from the main story. I know this because I was biased too and hated this DLC even without playing it until I ended up playing the DLC and I loved it.

I still don't like Eltariel but this DLC doesn't deserve mostly negative review and I hope people don't give biased review on this and actually play the DLC after finishing the main story as it is quite fun to play through.

Godslayer4000
Godslayer4000

I got it from the ultimate addition and bothered to beat it, it was so crap I now wish I could have asked to get the ultimate edition without it WITH NO DISOUNT.

unless you buy ultimate edition dont get this, heres why.

pros=combat is amazing, feels real and adds a level of difficulty to the game like seen in the bright lord, im not saying its darksouls or tmodloader, but the diffficulty is there; and thats a gift given the easy ass shadow of games *cough movies.

cons=completely throws story out the window, is not cannon, the bullshit

if you only want the combat Id actually say yes get this but if you give a DAMN about middle earth or SOW story you will despise this, so for the first game, the bright lord dlc, and then the second game its all been cannon to lord of the rings, hell extended editions of hobbit and LOTR even left some subtle references to the games; however while you can forget about this dlc being cannon to the LOTR movies, im also here to tell you its not even cannon to THE DAMN GAME ITS A DLC FOR, keep in mind eltarial actually is incinerated when sauron and celebrimbor merge in the base game, not to mention the transformation of talion from man to wraith which canonically took decades takes place in mere weeks, DO NOT BUY THIS

rating 0/10 (LOTR fans)

rating 8/10 (people who could give a shit about the story, which for this game series is nobody.)

zubnort
zubnort

I just got this Dlc because of Orcs they look cool aspecially the Slayer of the Dead he looks Cool but I hate Galadriel

Phantom Virus
Phantom Virus

This one is a solid OK. It's not the best by any means but if you are getting all of the DLC's together, then its worth playing for fun. Not nearly as good as the Desolation of Mordor though.

CannedBison
CannedBison

Much like the journey of Bilbo and Frodo, Monolith Studios seems to be on their own long quest. The only difference is the studio is continuously working to expand on otherwise-terrific "Middle-Earth" titles with terrible and underwhelming DLC releases, The best example of this is "Blade of Galadriel" which is 2 extra hours of content so lacking in creativity and content that it's not really worth completing even if given away for free.

The main character, Eltariel, is clumsily tossed into the Shadow of War canon and then intertwined into story in a way that is supposed to 'feel' real, but it has all of the originality of a comatose soap opera character. Her story is expanded upon in this DLC but despite the build-up it seems terribly short and inconsequential. Monolith Studios also did the two things that they have done in every DLC which is (1) remove helpful character skills to increase the game difficulty and (2) add new features to replace the lost skills which are as useless as they are necessary for mission objectives. So, Monolith took away Dominate/Brand in this DLC so that no orcs can be dominated (Eltariel frames this as a convenient moral choice in the story) and replaces it with the LIGHT OF GALADRIEL, a talent which is absolutely as useless as it sounds. Using the LIGHT, Galadriel can shine a LIGHT on orcs so that they can now shine brightly as they murder the player. To add to this, many orcs are immune so the skill's limited value mostly doesn't work anyways.

To replace the Brand/Dominate ability, the dour and unsociable Eltariel must 'convince' Orcs to follow her banner by doing favors for them in several missions. It's a torturous story arc to watch since Eltariel seems more likely to brand an orc than Talion and even has the power in her hands, but still muddles along as a favor-giver to a series of Uruks like an unwilling hostage of some scriptwriter's screenplay.

The brief DLC also doesn't really build relationships with any of the Orcs but still forces decisions as though they are momentous and emotional. For example, there's one mission where Eltariel must choose to side with one of two characters - either (A) an Orc you met 20-30 minutes ago or (B) another character who literally popped out of the ground this very moment. Neither seem to have a good argument, but then the theme music starts and it feels like the Fate Of Mordor will be decided by some decision between the Orc-Architect or the Orc-Miner.

"Blade of Galadriel" is probably the weakest DLC from the entire "Middle-Earth" series, and that's even including "Lord of the Hunt" DLC from the original title. It's hard to see it as more than a cash grab from the studio and anyone who spent money on it has my condolences.

Jono Raja Tega
Jono Raja Tega

only in this game, troll have better job than you.

TROLL ARCHITECT

ImmortaLeader
ImmortaLeader

i give this dlc : 8.5/10
===
this dlc is really good, i love the elthariel character and more story for her is of course good
playing as elthariel is really fun too, you get cool unique skills.
it is not worth 15 $ ! it is worth 5 to 10 $ depending on your view.
buy it on sale as part of a bundle.
===
i give this dlc : 8.5/10
reviewed by IMMORTALEADER !

Guard1aN RB
Guard1aN RB

You play as a elf women with an attitude to a dude she betrayed cough cough redemption dlc basically

Lord Brock the Duck Hunter
Lord Brock the…

Stopped playing this game because I got bored of the lack of fun skills

Kaxology
Kaxology

It feels like everything in this DLC is just designed to infuriate you, I only time I felt good while playing this DLC was when I realized it's finally over.

The gear is pretty boring, some of them consisting abilities reused from the base game, I didn't unlock all of them because of how frustrating the captains you need to beat tend to be.

The captains are INCREDIBLY frustrating, I believe it's actually HARDER to find a captain that doesn't have immunity to execution. The captains usually only have one or two weaknesses, making the fight a lot longer than it should be.

The bosses are annoying and underwhelming, the ringwraiths are very cartoony and their fight mostly consist of them thinking that if they stare hard enough at you, you'd stop swinging at them. The Dark Talion boss fight is mostly just spirit strike over and over because Talion will keep jumping away from you and heal if left alone.

The skills are almost all crap like make ball of light or make ball of light but with another button or make ball of light but it's a ground trap.

The story is short and pretty forgettable too, you're honestly not missing much if you've only finished the base game. I'm honestly impressed by how they managed to make an even more emotionless, grouchy character with a perpetual resting b**ch face than Talion so bravo on that front.

In conclusion, I should've just listened to the "mostly negative" reviews and not waste my time with this.

JadeMarshall
JadeMarshall

I found the reduced skillset and limited versatility of Eltariel to be quiet boring. The story component was very limited and not much happened aside from the last mission. More could've been done and sadly this dlc provides no where near the value of its price point.

Felix
Felix

TLDR: An absolute trash of a DLC of a great game. DO NOT BUY THIS CRAP.

This is a DLC, probably meant to be played after completing the main campaign. As such, the enemies are ridiculously overpowered. Nearly half of captains that you have to deal with are legendary and come with 6 friggin immunities, while Eltariel's combat abilities are severely limited compared to Talion. Nearly all of her special abilities are of the new Light-type, while plenty of captains are outright immune to light.

Imagine having fighting a thick-skinned defender captain, who is immune to everything you throw at him--including vaulting--except fire, when do not have any means to set him on fire. That's the kind of BS that happens in this DLC. Your only realistic option is to quit the quest or die, go to a different region, do a bunch of "Equipment quests" to get fire gear, and then come back. Shadow of War was NOT supposed to be a linear, railroad piece of trash like this.

The campaign itself is also extremely shallow and boring. It offers nothing you have not experienced in the original campaign. In fact, your gaming experience is so much more limited in this DLC compared to the original campaign due to Eltariel's abilities being so limited.

You equipments are also very limited in variety, and you have to fight tedious, repetitive battles against a bunch of legendary Uruk captains to obtain each one of them. There's basically no point of fighting anything that is not a quest target as the only things you will get (aside from a small bit of experience, which is pointless because the level cap is so low) are gems. And there is only one kind of gem in this dlc. You can only upgrade your equipments once each, and half of them have absolutely ridiculous requirements for upgrading them.

To top it all off, while this game series never really cared much for LOTR lore, the characters added to this DLC are outright obnoxious. I mean, Nazgul sisters? WTF??

D4ft_R0b0t
D4ft_R0b0t

It's not that bad, however, by comparing to the original game, it's pretty meh...

I played only for the lore and it was also meh.

Score: meh/10

Samuel070303
Samuel070303

short and galadriel isnt likeable but still a good couple of hours

D𝐞𝓈𝐏𝔸𝒾Ř
D𝐞𝓈𝐏𝔸𝒾Ř

Very Good Campaign Expansion if you have played the main game then you might as well grab this i dont know why they did not just make it a normal part of the game though :l

Ryder
Ryder

Blade of Galadriel has been through some controversies, but I think this DLC is great for what it is. It's a short experience that gives us a new perspective of the game and allows us to experience something new, yet familiar.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE MAIN STORY

We play as Eltariel, of course, and we start off a couple of years after the battle in Barad-Dur happened. Eltariel is defeated by Sauron while he and Celebrimbor become one as the new Eye of Barad-Dur. She finds out that Talion used Isildur's ring to live once more and is now defending the fortresses of Mordor to keep the place at ease, which is the only thing stopping the chaos from spreading to the rest of Middle Earth. The story is short, but pretty good. The Nazgûl sisters are good as a concept, I only wish their battle hadn't been so easy. Interacting with Talion and fighting by his side felt so good, I think it's worth it just for that.

The gameplay is also pretty good, we are introduced to Eltariel's set of skills which basically consists of using light to blind you enemies, stunning them, which leaves them open for attacks or an instakill from your E. I loved playing as her, and I really wish there was more to the DLC that allowed for more Eltariel gameplay. There's also these missions that put you agaisnt strong orcs that reward you with legendary gear which belonged to other Elves who passed through Mordor. These mission are kinda tiring, but the payoff is great. You get a final set of armor focused on your light mechanic, and that shit is OP as hell. Eltariel could probably defeat the Nine by herself with those abilities. Which is why I wish there was more gameplay in the DLC.

Overall, I think this is great, the DLC is fun and if you liked the main game you will like this one too. Just buy this with the Deluxe Edition on sale, because it's kinda pricey.

Lynxsieus
Lynxsieus

10/10 Orc husband acquired.
You now are the wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet and can make orcs turn to dust.
Making friends instead of slaves.

It's only about 3 hours and 30 minutes worth of content (quests + achievements).
Some differences between this and the normal game:
1. You don't dominate orcs, instead you go on a mission to make them your ally. I thought it was refreshing just trying to make them my allies, because you have to win their loyalty and you don't know whether they'll betray you or not (all of the loyalty and helping you is based off of that one time you helped them and *The enemy of my enemy is my friend*). (I felt like the orcs that were my allies were my friends instead of my slaves)
2. Power of light - Thano's power in Avengers Infinity War of turning everyone into dust.

Lets Go Brandon! FJB
Lets Go Brandon! FJB

Its the same as the regular game, but youre playing a gimped version of Talion. Weaker, less powers, etc. And its stand alone, so you have to launch it from the main menu, which I HATE!

EddyQTooReal
EddyQTooReal

******SPOILERS*********

It's not bad.
About 4-5 hrs worth of playtime. Story is fine enough. New characters are likeable. Eltariel feels OP as fuck, especially when it comes to crowd control, but that can be thrown out the window if you're facing a Captain with an immunity to her light damage (Still, not difficult to kill a captain as long as u manage and plan out ur attacks like a smart player).
Boss fight felt underwhelming cuz I really wanted Talion, the badass, to assist me and use his green-glowey powers to mess them up too. It wasn't too difficult either, cause once you get an understanding of her skills and when to utilize it, it really makes her unkillable, and holy shit, her light skill is OP.
The only really EPIC thing bout this DLC was the interactions and the cinematics w Talion. Solidifies himself as a fuckin chad even when he's not the main character. Oh, and you also get those cool Orcs as a reward in your garrison after you're finished w the dlc.
7/10

McFlinders
McFlinders

The Blade of Galadriel dlc is BAD. In the first game you can recruit anyone you want while in this game you are forced to recruit these people you might not like. There is only one time when you get an option and it is between two people. The worst part is that you cant even interact with the nemisis system at all with them. It is a good 4 hours of story but that's all it is, story. In my opinion the reason I liked Shadow of War was because of the different orks you could mess around with and the story you could create with them. This game doesent allow that it forces its own story upon you and when your done the game they'rs nothing to do, they're is no end game at all. you are just forced to be satisfied in the end with this completly different ending to Shadow of War end with Etriel being the person keeping the dark forces at bay instead of Talion. Also this wouldnt be worth 20 dollars. I got this game in the full expansion pack but it was not that fun.

XenonTheFriend
XenonTheFriend

Way to go to ruin the story of two entire games in one single DLC. Way to go to ruin our favorite character and replace him with a random ass She Elf, like why? Why make Talion so cool and then ruin him in a single DLC. Instead of building upon the ending of the original game, as that ending is cool, instead they went all around and made the protagonist of TWO FREAKING GAMES a bad guy, 10/10 story

UltraXFo Jedi Guardian
UltraXFo Jedi …

This DLC was a great addition to the game and would definitely recommend it. It is shorter than the base game but its a DLC after all. There are missions to obtain elf weapons and I did them all. Great DLC but would recommend buying the definitive edition as it includes everything.

Jaladen
Jaladen

finished the main story for this in 2 hours and it was extremely boring. This DLC is so terrible I mean 15 bucks for 2 hours? there isnt anything fun about this you do few quests where you attack forts but in differant ways and thats all, three bosses and two of them are talion pretty much for talions boss fights its the exact same thing its way to easy and then the nazgul sisters are annoying and make me want to put my fingers in a blender while fighting them. In the end this is a horrible dlc and just so you know shadow of war is my favorite game of all time but this dlc is just truly terrible.

JustinW101
JustinW101

The story isn't canon and it shouldn't be viewed as such. That said, for what is is, the story is good. This DLC is the more narrative of the two main story expansions, and it's pretty fun as well. While the nemesis system is put on the backburner, the orcs you encounter are riddled with life and more than make up for the lack of variation. In a DLC most will only play once, these scripted encounters actually make a lot of sense. Overall, a pretty great time. Don't listen to the negative reviews.

Small Bird
Small Bird

Shadow of war is one of my favorite games but this dlc sucks so much that I felt I had to leave a review. I mean, come on. Talion is so much more likeable than Eltariel that they could have just made the entire dlc just a 2 hour video of Talion taking a shit and I would have enjoyed it so much more. It just fucking blows.

¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!
¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!

The Blade of Galadriel is the first of two story expansions for Shadow of War. Taking place after the events in the main game, you play as Eltariel, as she wields the New Ring in order to help Talion during the years of the Shadow Wars. It's a relatively short story, which took me around 4 hours to beat, and it reuses the regions from the main game.

The gameplay differences come from Eltariel having her own light-based abilities, as well as refusing to use the New Ring to dominate the Orcs. Instead, you recruit a handful of Orc Captains by helping them, and in turn, they help you defend or attack the different fortresses. The main antagonists of this DLC are two rogue Nazgûl, and just like the main story, it takes certain liberties with the lore. As far as the characterization goes, I can say I really liked the Captains you can recruit, each one is unique in their own way, and after you beat the DLC, you can use them as Captains in the main game.

Overall, I enjoyed this DLC, so I can recommend it.

Hephaestus
Hephaestus

I suprised myself by rooting against the blonde hot chick and simping for Talion but here we are, this dlc was a great way to see more of Talion.

BirdOfPray
BirdOfPray

%100 completed. 3 hours of content, Definetly not worth as a seperate DLC. I bought the whole package with bundle so it came with it. You play as Eltariel and she has only "Light" skill that is different from the main game. I don't recommend it because they sold the continuation of the story in a seperate cash grab way. If you bought it with bundle you're in luck. If not just watch the cinematics on youtube. You won't miss a single thing.

SPOILER BELOW

Third game is gonna definetly follow Eltariel's path as she is on the way to find Celebrimbor as seen in the ending cinematic.

Marauder Gaming
Marauder Gaming

I reject this DLC and substitute my own

Ratham
Ratham

It's not great but it's not bad. Handful of missions as her with a few unique new powers. If you enjoy the stealth/combat in this game you'll probably have a decent time.

98° | Ibrahim Pasha ズ
98° | Ibrahim …

A she-elf can not defeat talion

WrathOfWolf
WrathOfWolf

Great dlc, that continues story of main game. New combat mechanic is nicely made and story is entertaining. On the other hand equipement obtaining is very repeatitive and equipement challenges are not too varied. Playtime is not very long and normal price is insanely high, so i recommend to buy it on sale.

nah
nah

A good DLC, playing as Eltariel is refreshing because of some of the new combat mechanics.

Matty Stardust
Matty Stardust

The story in this is really bad. The combat feels wrong and rubbish as do the characters and their interactions. I hated going from playing Talion and having set up strong fortresses to the game suddenly deciding he was weak and all his fortresses were failing for story reasons.

Eltariel was an interesting character and feel like they could have done something really nice with her but by kinda shoe horning her into the end of Talions story gave her no chance to shine

EPSTEIN
EPSTEIN

Not gonna start about the forced virtue signaling but the story line makes no sense. Talion's story is all but destroyed with this travesty.
The character feel lifeless and tasteless like grog but if you are into that....
F@(k that elf whore.

Tenuriel
Tenuriel

Got the dlc in the defintive Edition and gave it a try. The new Light mechanic is fun to use pretty broken vs grunts and useless vs most bosses. The worst thing are the "equipment challanges". Those captains are immune to everything except 1 thing and you have to use it or the become really cheesy. It's just bad lazy desing.

Hexton
Hexton

As mentioned by others, the light-mechanics doesn't work for me, either. Capts, which are immune to almost anything, combinded with idiotic problems, that you die, because you vault 10 times at a 1" step, while getting murdered is not for me.

zeCarpet
zeCarpet

I fully completed everything in this DLC in literally 3 hours. Its not worth buying at all holy shit

Schmeature
Schmeature

I refuse this story this should not be cannon or they should find a way to bring back some people

dark_ronnie
dark_ronnie

decent fun, if you want more after finishing the main game

Stale coocie
Stale coocie

The story doesn't make any sense.

Dominus
Dominus

Although I had some fun in it, this is not a DLC worth your time or money at full price.

What I liked:
- Story is okay, it's not good, but it's not terrible - it's bearable since the DLC only lasts a few hours.
- Special orc captains that have unique personalities (you can bring them into Talion's game after completing the DLC).
- Legendary gear sets are all really cool and fun to play around with (they look good too).
- Eltariel's light abilities are fun for crowd control.

What I disliked:
- Story is extremely short - if you skip all the side missions the story may take 2 hours max to finish.
- Story missions are extremely easy. The orc captains you get are just too good for both conquest and defense so you never have to worry about failing a mission since your captains can just do all the heavy lifting for you. Your overpowered captains will also randomly show up during your non-fortress missions making them just boring to play.
- Gameplay is very limited due to enemy captain immunity and your focus on light abilities.
- Eltariel is not very likable (especially coming from Talion's story) and her character development during this DLC feels rushed and doesn't make much sense.

Overall, this was a disappointing DLC. At full price of $15, it is definitely not worth it. On sale though, if you have the funds and a couple hours, it is an okay experience.

OutSider
OutSider

Lazy work on this DLC, there is 5 sets in this but just 2 models, they change only the colors

WombatCroquet
WombatCroquet

Not even worth the summer sale price. If you didn't like Eltariel in the main campaign you won't find any reason to like her here. Mostly makes light of the series with "comical" orcs and ruins Talion's story line. An impressive feat considering the scant 3 hour play time.

Only reason to get it is the gameplay tweaks for Eltariel's light abilities but orc flashlight tag is not as good as the base game's playstyle.

Elasmo
Elasmo

the alternate universe where talion becomes bilbo baggins and fucking dies

Gravity
Gravity

If you're gonna get it, get it with the Definitive edition bundle of the main game.

Its super short, the character only has one new mechanic that kinda sucks, and the side quests are all whittling away at captains for 20 min because they are immune to every damage type you have except for one, all for re-skinned gear that you don't need and will probably never use.

daniellems916
daniellems916

I think this makes for a light dlc. I wouldn't pay full price. I got it with the rest at summer sale. I like the contrast of her idealogy to Talion's. It is nice to see the way of conquering without dominating. It shows there is more to the Uruks than a few random interesting characters. It shows they have more depth. Sure, she doesn't have much character, and her abilities are boring. It would be nice to know more about who she was before and after like we did Talion, giving him a family. What are her motives other than being a pawn? But overall, I enjoyed the dlc and it's different take on the world. Killing for the gear is repetitive and boring, but the main quests is entertaining. Go for it if you are a completitionist or into characters and humor, otherwise likely avoid.

DarkLordNoodlez
DarkLordNoodlez

Aside from the orcs that you collect by playing story missions it's bad. They were too lazy to remove stuff the orcs say when they see you, so you'll here them refer to you as "him" sometimes. The new tech tree is terrible and lazy with low effort behind it. It doesn't even fit with the main story well. The gem system was essentially removed (now there is only 1 type of gem now so it's literally just a single buff you can get with no customization). Even the missions feel less inspired and more like sidequests than real ones. And even though i said the story related orcs are good the ones in the missions that get you armor aren't unique at all. I have encountered orcs with the same exact name and design as them in the regular game.

Bastard
Bastard

do not buy this unless its 80% off.

XzibitusaK
XzibitusaK

I don't even know how to review this awful DLC.
The Blade of Galadriel is quite oof. It's not good.
It's truly a bad DLC, but I did enjoy certain parts.
The orcs for example: Really fun, they are great.
As far as the new combat system goes: It's nice.
It's only around 3 or 4 hours of extra gameplay.
And yeah, the story is awful. I didn't enjoy that.
I actually did enjoy the gameplay itself. So yea.
Would I recommend this DLC? Nah, It's terrible.
Especially for the price of 14,99€. Really awful.
It's alright if you get the cool definitive edition.
But don't buy this DLC in particular separately.
It is a waste of money for such a tiny addition.
The gameplay was fine in my opinion, but yea.
In my opinion: It's only worth around 3€ or so.
Overpriced experience gets a negative review.

new clash season....
new clash season....

With the power of friendship, we can all defeat Sauron! :D

tl;dr dont even bother with your time unless you have nothing better to do, its boring, its repetitive and certainly not worth £12.

This is a horrible DLC, story is weak and makes no sense half the time (e.g. "I took talions ring since I could dominate the Nazgul with them and potentially sauron, but now I'll never use said ability against Uruks, thats too much! I'll instead MAKE FRIENDS with the Uruks and have them fight Sauron for me, no biggie!), the combat is unique and fun as a gimmick when ORCS ARENT COMPLETELY RESISTANT TO IT. Whats the point? Eltariel can't do much damage outside of her light abilities, making fighting Uruks that have said resistance a long pain.

honestly the only thing i liked was hearing talions voice again. Troy Baker did an incredible job with him, 10/10.

Ole-Marius
Ole-Marius

fun new gameplay, get it through pass

onewhofound
onewhofound

Even if you really liked the original game I would almost not recommend playing this even if you got it for free. There isn't much story to it, and the captains you have to kill are incredibly annoying and sometimes outright impossible. All of them are immune to everything except for one thing, and if you can't inflict that kind of damage well you are fucked. Especially hard because many the neat abilities and customization you had access to as Talion in the main game have now vanished, replaced by a single mechanic, Light. So if you have an enemy who is vulnerable to poison or fire or ice well you are out of luck.

Same for there being essentially no drakes in the game, which are of course still required for gear challenges. Worst of all, you can't even dominate orcs, which was the best part of the base game and is inexplicably removed.

One of those games I don't think the devs ever played.

2/5 only because fighting regular orcs is still fun.

Compassionate727
Compassionate727

I mostly agree with the other reviews here, so I'm not going to say much. I just want to say that I played this on Gravewalker difficulty (the maximum) and really enjoyed the sidequest orcs. Many of them have numerous immunities and they all have one major weakness that you can exploit to make the fight significantly easier. In a way, they're like puzzles. The constant mass chaos of Talion's campaign was fun, but having a single tough nut to crack was also a refreshing change of pace.

It's definitely not just "more of the same," so I can see why people found it disappointing, and I would skip this in favor of Baranor's campaign if that is what you are looking for. But if you are interested in a novel experience using many of the same mechanics, this is the way to go.

Desmondlucy
Desmondlucy

- This Expansion contradicted the main story. After Sauron fight she goes after Talion there is no space in between.
- 2 Nazguls sisters they were fine but not interesting.
- Orcs were unfunny, they tried to have some wierd commentary probably on diffrent ppl.
+ It was nice to use the light.

Butcher Pete
Butcher Pete

The only thing decent about this expansion is Krimp the Enchanted, everything else is cringe and doesn't make sense. The writing is just awful. To add to that, the gameplay also doesn't make sense. The new character class is entirely support based, but you cannot possess orcs like you can with Talion, meaning you don't have enough allies (except in scripted battles where the game GIVES you allies) to make all your AOE healing actually work for you. Then all the enemies are incredible damage sponges... which doesn't make the game hard because you have infinite healing. It just makes battles against enemies with too many resistances drag on instead of being an actual challenge.

Wei Wei
Wei Wei

If you want to simp you might as well look up Rule 34. Don't waste your time and money on this piece of trash.

..spdrag..
..spdrag..

There was nothing to dislike. It's a short extension to the story of dark talion and elthariel.

ⒼⓄⒷⓁⒾⓃ
ⒼⓄⒷⓁⒾⓃ

This DLC was honestly garbage. Don't get it.
Story line is bad
New orcs are bad

If you get this with the bundle I would not recommend playing this DLC.

SexyDuckOnRampage
SexyDuckOnRampage

It took me 3 hours to finish it, while playing it casually and taking my time, if you buy it on a sale for 1€ then sure but otherwise you are going to regret it.

The story was bad and i felt like the creators wanted to finish this as fast as possible.

Spirits
Spirits

Unlike the other DLC, this one actually adds a bit of story to the main plot of the game, revisiting Mordor at the end of the epilogue as Eltariel. I think it also provides nice closure for Talion & Eltariel, nothing that will surprise you, but it's still nice to see it happen on screen.

Gameplay-wise, it's streamlined Shadow of War. You go to a region, recruit a few individual orcs, defend or storm a castle, repeat. There's legendary loot you can get, but if you don't care, you don't need it at all and can just power through the story. I think the devs just had some ideas for handcrafted orc characters and wanted them in. Unfortunately you get to spend very little time with those special orcs until the final mission comes, but it's better than the game outstaying it's welcome.

To be honest, if you're buying Shadow of War now, you're probably buying the definitive edition on sale anyway, right? On it's own at 15€, it's a hard sell. I'd recommend it at like 50% off at least.

Andvien
Andvien

Pretty much the same - get gear, recruit orcs and capture forts. She has some new attack abilities that don't always work depending how close the target is, which is annoying. Game play is fun but story is ok. I really don't like how Galadriel is so cruel to her and the orcs seem a bit wacky but fun.

Agent OOE
Agent OOE

I'm about half way through this campaign, and I really wanted to like it, given how good the main game was. But, they really screwed this up.

First: This elf girl is weak. And not just the, oh you're at the beginning of the game weak, I mean weak and you pretty much stay that way. The powers you're given are mediocre at best. I like the concepts behind them, but they're useless in most cases.

Second; In relation to the first, the captains are OP. Not as in they're tough to beat, but they make them immune to almost every ability you have and method of attack. For example, I literally just finished a side quest to get armor from a captain. He was immune to light (your source of magic), arrows, frost, beasts, poison, and vigilant against stealth. The only 2 things he was vulnerable to were fire and executions. Well, the area I was fighting him in had no explosives, so I was left with executions. Well, he adapter to be vaulting over him to hit him from behind, and since he's arrow proof, I couldn't shoot him or freeze him in place. He also had a shield that would block every attack even if I tried to hit him from behind. It took me over a half an hour to beat this captain. The only way I was able to pull it off, was I had to keep retreating, shooting the captain every now and then to keep him following me, until I reached an area that had some explosives or spiders. Granted he's immune to poison, but the spiders distracted him. I managed to get one hit in every now and then. Eventually I ended up coming to an area that had meat hanging for a graug. Now, he's beast immune too, but the graug served a distraction. When the graug hit the captain, it would throw him off balance. I didn't land a hit every time because of his shield, but once in a while I would manage to hit him in the back and unload on him as long as I could. I also had to keep healing myself when the hits didn't land. I managed to hit him enough to be able to pull of an execution, and he countered it. So, now the one of 2 attacks he's vulnerable to, he's no longer vulnerable to, and this is after shooting all of the explosives in the area to damage him. So I literally spent the rest of the time getting in hits where I could, until he finally died. Thankfully, I had the upgrade that healed allies when I healed myself, so the graug managed to live through it as well to help me out.

Lastly: Eltariel is a very unlikable character. Not even close to the caliber of Tallion. I simply do not care about her, and honestly, they sort of diminish Tallion's character just by this campaign alone.

Verdict: The devs would have been better off making a DLC for Tallion's end, rather than it being an abrupt cutscene. This DLC is boring, frustrating, and all around not enjoyable at all. They had a good premise to start with for a spinoff game, but between the character, the weak powers, the ridiculous advantages they gave the captains to undermine literally every means of attack you have, completely ruined this game. I don't even feel like finishing it at this point.

Jokie155
Jokie155

Ignore the complaints. Tolkien-drones don't like female characters with actual development and presence after all.

Fontaine
Fontaine

Incredibly short at about 4 hours.
Worth it on sale for the closure of the story.
Gameplay is alright.

Amadeus
Amadeus

I recommend and enjoyed this DLC. You just need to have the right suggested equipment for those side gear missions. Though You dont need to do this since the story of Galadriel is easy and you have OP orcs.

Can't call a mount was a bit troublesome.

IdealPersona
IdealPersona

I cannot think of any reason to buy this. There's no new content from the base game, it's a just a slightly altered moveset with a mechanic that doesn't work on half the captains.

Keg
Keg

Do yourself a favor and skip this. I got curious and made a mistake even though I knew what it was about and how cringe it was. Dont make my mistake

Dallar
Dallar

It's alright. Powers are fun and different enough. New orcs are cool, unique and you can add them to the main campaign afterwards. Bored Galadriel backseat commenting on everything you do was pretty funny.

The plot is horrid. It somehow manages to contradict both books and game story, while simultaneously undermining the actions of both main characters. Like, wow.

Still worth it. As part of the season pass. On a sale.

Spaghettios
Spaghettios

Dominating orcs, that feature we added in the sequel to breathe new life into an otherwise pretty basic game? Ah yes. Let's remove it. Fucking genius.

N8ly
N8ly

It is shit. The story line doesn't make sense for me at least. Do I recommend it? No. But if you want to try to play the worst DLC in this game, then only buy it on sale.

playboi14
playboi14

An awful DLC that's only worth it on sale for $4. She plays absolutely awful with almost all captains and high level Ocs fully immune to her light attacks. Incredibly boring when most of her missions will involve fighting captains who are not only light immune but vault immune and arrow immune, leaving you with almost no way to beat them besides slogging it out.

DigbyFire(Void)
DigbyFire(Void)

This DLC may be one of the worst DLC's i've ever played. They removed all the charm from what made Shadow of War so great, the recruitment feature, and just straight up killed Talion, you know the main character we played as all through SoM and SoW, yeah how did that get past the board or whatever and they all said "Yeah, they'll love this!". This DLC has 0 Replay value due to the lack of interesting features to the game, all of it is just re-branded original movement with a few new features. All you need to do is play it once, complete it in 2 hours, never touch it again, and you ruin your perspective on this game. It's actually criminal what they did with this DLC and not even worth buying on sale. This adds nothing new to the story from what i can tell, and it's just BS filler. If you don't want to ruin your perspective and likeness of the game, AVOID. THIS. DLC.

Toadragon
Toadragon

This add-on has so much nonsense.
Two Nazgul who are women of another race of people. Which I don't know if there is in Tolkien but there is in our world.
Limited and few upgrades.
You have a limit on how strong you could be, so it makes the orcs' level meaningless. You can't brand them, only animals.
Orcs look like they came out of a circus.
You have a new ability to shine and the enemies disappear.
Balasan and bugs.
The story and the campaign are quite short.
The story ends in such a way that the main game and the bonus end become meaningless.
You play once and then it's pointless a second time.
A complete joke.

rakhzad
rakhzad

Sadly this dlc is not worth its price (even discounted) nor time. Got it with expansion pass and it is the weakest content included.
You get weakend, significantly and even all upgrades wont change much. Story is not entertaining, just few good moments (orcs of course). You cannot even mount beasts, not even dominate orcs. Immortal elf is far weaker than human with the same ring of power.
Some games are just much better than its so called improvements.

kriptexxx
kriptexxx

This DLC is bad. The only point of it is that it opens up the story for future sequels, because otherwise the main story is quite closed. I suggest you just go and watch the end of this DLC on youtube and that's all. Don't play it.

The story is mediocre and the player character is weak and just not fun to play.

Lucid
Lucid

Like everyone else says, this elf is weak and you feel it everywhere you go. The main skill feels horrible to use (holding a button and trying to shine light left and right at orcs), and I was glad to finish the short DLC.

cetacean
cetacean

The story was decent enough, but the expansion was spoiled be enemy leaders that were almost immune to any strong attack. The only way to complete the mission sometimes was "death by a thousand cuts". If they had the regeneration trait too, it would have been complete by uninstall instead.

Small enemy spider
Small enemy spider

The Blade of Galadriel "Story Expansion" is terrible, here's why:

    • The combat sucks. If you though the combat in regular shadow of war was a bit repetitive then this game is far worse.
    • This DLC story completely takes a piss on the main story. Eltariel just taking the new ring and doing what Talion was doing already is redundant at best and insulting to Talions sacrifice at worst. Btw where the fuck was Galadriel to say "the dark lord and the bright lord are the same" in the first game, she could've literally saved Talion while Eltariel and Celebrimbor where betraying him.

3.5/10 a chore to play.

Combat

To elaborate on my first point, I first must say, personally I thought the rather simple combat of the series was okay, the game gave you enough variety to keep things a little interesting, but this game just makes it extremely simple and boring. You have two attacks that can actually hurt enemies : the regular slash (You no longer have the charged slash attack, nor the punch attack) and a single ranged attack (dagger throw is replaced with quick shot which is a lesser, shittier version of dagger throw that consumes arrows), everything else is tied to the new "light" ability. However, in making most of your abilities tied to light, it makes orcs immune to it immune to half of your might repertoire. All this combines to make the combat tedious and uninteresting since half of the time you will be mindlessly slashing with the occasional roll/counter.

The two main ways that you have to hurt enemies in this game are essentially worthless since half of all the captains will have "immune to ranged" or be a savage/shield bearer which makes them almost impossible to kill with your sword attacks and or ranged.
Now the new "light" ability is, I will admit, a nice concept, which I enjoyed for like the first quarter of the game, because after that the majority of captains had the "immune to light" ability and I couldn't use it on them. And the ones I could use it on became extremely easy, because the light ability is completely overpowered if you get the right upgrades and just spam it. They couldn't strike a balance between making the ability fun and making it fair, so they just limit when you can use it, which in turn makes you extremely weak against the enemy which you can't use it on. I really cannot understand why they would introduce a new ability and make it useless against most orcs, which also brings the lore question of why these random orcs can resist Galadriel's light. The nazgul can't resist it, but these random orcs can?

The worst example of this artificial difficulty was with an orc called "the snowflake" who was immune to arrows, light and a shield bearer. All of my ranged attacks were worthless, slash didn't do anything since he was always blocking (which in the main game is resolved with the punch attack) and most of my might abilities didn't do anything since they were tied to light. I had to run around the map in search for grog barrels or camp fires because he was literally impossible to kill otherwise.

Story

Spoiler warning, obviously.

If, like me, you only want to play the DLC to see what the important story developments are, here's a list:

    • Talion's "decades-long" resistance turns to "cutscences-long", as he just quotes the movies right before going against all that his character had built up until that moment and is killed by Eltariel.
    • Eltariel stays in Mordor to further ruin the lives of its inhabitants.
    • Celebrimbor escapes Sauron's hold after Frodo and his super friends destroy the ring (and Eltariel threatens to return in a sequel to fight Celebrimbor).
    • Galadriel sent a bunch of elves to systematically die in Mordor.
    • Ratbag is shot and killed by the mexican mafia.

To sum up my review of the story I have to say that I expected little and got worse.

The plot begins right after the ending of the first game, after utterly failing at everything as she usually does, Eltariel has her ring finger cut off and Celebrimbor is absorbed into Sauron. But before Eltariel is sent to the deepest abyss of Middle-Earth she grabs the new ring and runs off to find Talion and ruin his life, since she has already accomplished that with Celebrimbor.

Immediately after going to Minas Morgul, Galadriel just pops up to say that Celebrimbor was a waste of time since he was just like Sauron anyway (could've said that before Eltariel fucking killed Talion) and that now Eltariel has to kill Talion to prevent him from becoming stronger or something. She obviously fails and instead forges a temporary alliance with Talion so they can hold Mordor together until he turns evil. Throughout the story Talion is shown as extremely weak even though he took Minas Morgul in less than a day in the main game. He fails to protect his fortresses and has Eltariel pretty much do all of his hard work, further diminishing his "sacrifice" to hold back Mordor alone, since according to this DLC he always had Eltariel at his side (and eventually replace him).
And by the way, why did Eltariel never give the new ring to Talion? She wasn't mortally wounded by Sauron, she only had her fingers cut off. At any point she could've just replaced the power ring Talion had with the new ring and saved him from Sauron's influence, she just choose to keep it and then replace him.

Then for some reason some new nazgul are introduced, which come from some oriental-themed land which is never mentioned anywhere (nor in books or the game itself). The nazgul sisters are of little importance, although the game pretends they are more powerful than Sauron. They appear in two cutscenes and they die in the last one.

Most of the game's story is spent interacting with premade personality orcs, like Ratbag in the first game. I will admit, they are fun to hang around, but they are not that special since your interactions with them are limited, or at least the game didn't tell me much about interacting with them. This is a shame because I actually would've liked to see what they could've done with them.

The ending is the shittiest part of the DLC because it completely diminishes Talion's sacrifice in the main game and instead chooses to have a very boring boss fight against him. The entirety of Talion's story is ruined because the devs wanted a cool final boss fight. In the original ending to Talion's story he fought back against the ring's influence for decades just so he could hold Mordor and give Middle-earth time to prepare for Sauron's return, in this game he just messes up multiple times and falls to the ring's influence in a matter of a few cutscences only for Eltariel to use the new ring to do exactly what Talion was already doing.

All in all, Talion's sacrifice was in vain (since he was easily replaceable), the nazgul sisters are lame (much like their bossfight), Eltariel is a threat to the stability of Middle-earth and Galadriel is incompetent, Ratbag should've been the main character of this DLC.

Badger
Badger

Have you ever wondered what if Talion was boring? this DLC is the answer to that.

The character is so F---ING boring, her entire abilities (light based) are useless and gimmicky, it takes forever to infuse enemies with lights and when you do infuse them they're pretty much dead at that point, so why bother, also 90% of captains are immune to light so yeah.

The abilities themselves are weak and therefore the character feels weak as hell, that, and the fact that the captains in this DLC are extremely unbalanced and are immune to almost everything, leaving you with only an option or two to kill them.

I played The Desolation of Mordor DLC before this one, and I'm genuinely surprised how they managed to make a human character with no magic powers have more interesting and fun gameplay than a character with some serious elf magic.

I ended up feeling extremely bored with this one and I dropped it after 1 hour, so I honestly wouldn't recommend getting this one, and the "mostly negative" overall reviews are justified tbh.

If you got it by default by buying the Definitive Edition (like I did) or by any other means, then sure, try it and judge by yourself, but if not, DO. NOT. GET. IT, not even on sale.

EnderCorePL
EnderCorePL

Talion was an absolute badass through the whole story, main character here has a personality of a dead fish.

Friendly Orcs were cool and I'm glad they expanded upon not all Orcs being horrible, but really that was the only thing story-wise I enjoyed. The new Nazguls felt kinda like they got pulled out of Sauron's ass and their fight was meh. They also did my boi Talion very dirty here, he essentially turned into a Nazgul in the matter of what probably accounts to days, which contradicts his story

Overall, it feels more like playing a fanfic than actual story expansion and I refuse to accept it as canon.

Also, new abilities suck and replace all the fun ones.

Eqqsquizitine Buble-Schwinslow
Eqqsquizitine …

It's really, really bad.
Take out all the good stuff from the base game, add in some awful stuff, and this is the end result.

Hunter
Hunter

It ain't fun. I don't get why this was such a major part of the story of Talion.

engineer gaming
engineer gaming

This DLC is just weird. It rapes the lore by those SHEnazgûls that came from some kind of Asia.
But the dumbest thing is, that Eltariel doesn't have to fight urûks to dominate them. They are even glad to serve to her. Like every single urûk in Mordor is a damn simp. And more, Eltariel is ridicously weak and fragile. Shame for an elven warrior.

Quevian
Quevian

Not very fun, To get Legendary gear for Eltariel you must face several orc captains who have 5-6 Immunities. No hunting/gathering information on targets. You show up to the mission location and they auto spawn against you in battle. They story is meh but that isnt why i play it. Eltariel also cant really use many other elemental damage relying on "Light' for most of her combo/kill potential but once again the 5-6 immunities almost always cover Light. So just get ready to left click.

tinycat01
tinycat01

I don't understand people who gave this expansion a negative rating. Sure it kinda sucks that you can't recruit orcs the way you can in the base game, but it is still very fun to run around murdering orcs, and the blinding mechanic is pretty cool. Also, like the the base game, and Desolation of Mordor, the cutscene's are awesome and very well acted. :)

ATubeSteak
ATubeSteak

Couldnt pull myself to finish this DLC. Didnt like the story or her lack of abilities.

JenCenDenton
JenCenDenton

It sucks. Spent 10 minutes running in a cave trying to damage a single captain immune to everything. Gave up.

Anicat13
Anicat13

Think about everything you love/like about Shadow of War and just throw it out the window. The devs was like make sure every orc is immune to most of your abilities and have an even worst story. That's the DLC in a nutshell.

☭☭Marxism4Lyfe☭☭
☭☭Marxism4Lyfe☭☭

It's less than 3 hours with barely any new content and a horribly-paced story.

CaptainMorghan #SaveTf2
CaptainMorghan…

This dlc was a nice challenge, the restricted abilities forces you to adapt and use the elf's special abilities to the max as well as switching out skills and gear mid fights to capitalise on your opponent. honestly people seem to just be upset they cant button mash in this dlc which imo is a skill issue and has nothing to do with the quality of the dlc. Anyways I really enjoyed and it was totally worth it for 5$ on sale

jDANZ03
jDANZ03

Eltariel has an extremely repetitive moveset with far too many quick ranged options. Probably only worth it for the DLC Captains and Warchiefs. 3/10

p33nslayer1
p33nslayer1

If people are crying about hard orc captains to beat they're legit just bad. Most of them you can kill by just countering. It's legit braindead... stories cool tho.

LordSeaDoggo
LordSeaDoggo

I didn't pay much attention to the story as I am someone who seeks mostly gameplay in videogames so keep that in mind with my review.(I played the campaign on nemesis to full completion) I had a really fun time with this dlc, sure some of the orc captains you fight to get gear are maddeningly anoyying or laughably easy but the campaign itself is amazingly fun to me. I loved the amazingly diverse personality of the orcs you recruit, they made me laugh a lot and I wish that the main game had orcs like that. Overall I'd say its a must buy if you enjoyed the main campaign

Gannoh
Gannoh

They done cucked Talion in his own game

Sosa
Sosa

i only like it because you see dark talion, but other in that... no.... just no..

Skewr
Skewr

Played it for the completion, that was all.

Trashy character who's basically "cool" just for the sake of it and not through means or development. Eltarial has this constant holier than thou attitude and for some reason Galadriel has nothing to do but talk in her head all day.

Dumb story line that adds nothing and you keep much by ignoring it.

The captains are... Ok.

Meldrey
Meldrey

Bottom-tier fanfic.

I love Shadow of War - over 700 hours in this game.
...but not this DLC.

Fan and player betrayal.

Suddenly there's this end to Shadow of War where you're the bad person.
It doesn't matter how much work you've done. It doesn't matter what your history is. It doesn't matter if you are helpful to the Elfin cause.

All the goodness of your soul is taken by someone judgey-judgey, who you'd rather kill than become.

The most enjoyable parts about this DLC were seeing epic hardcore level Talion.

Playing as whatever-her-name felt like a betrayal the whole time.
I've personally known more loyal orcs than I've had lasting Elfin alliances.

Way to turn a player to the dark side of the ring.

Epic Plot Destroyer: orc friends

So she suddenly comes along.
She tells Talion he's a piece of trash even though he sacrificed his unlife endlessly to remain her ally.
Then she goes around Mordor, TALKING to various orcs.
Like, if that were an option, Talion can't talk to Orcs, too?
She doesn't even do creative stuff, she just shows up and the orcs are all friendly to her. An elf. Total bottom tier fanfic.

...but suddenly not Talion.

Somehow she's more loyal to her orc 'friends' than to Talion, who welcomed her. Like, why couldn't she just chat up Talion and convince him to stay ...whatever she needed to not betray him.

Deadman
Deadman

I wanted to give this a positive review but they really missed the mark on the most important thing here. They introduced new mechanics with infusing light in enemies and blinding them which was different and I found myself picking it up after a bit. The huge problem here is that most the enemies you encounter are immune to light. So this whole new mechanic they brought in for combat is completely useless and you instead have to resort to a very restrictive and repetitive set of moves to beat the captains.

This leads into my next point in that most enemies have a huge list of immunities, 5-6 or even 7 of them on the vast majority. This creates a problem where there is often only one way to actually fight a captain which makes the fights annoying when you have all your options taken away.

The worst one I encountered was a captain that was immune to everything except normal basic attacks. But better yet he was a defender and he had an epic counter trait so you couldn't even attack him from the front either. Also had vault breaker so you can't easily get behind him to attack. I had to spend the next 30 minutes cheesing the fight by running out of his area (which had no environmental weapons btw) so that he would deaggro off me and put his weapons away and turn his back on me. That way I was able to get a couple hits in before he went back to god mode. Rinse and repeat and it was a grueling task.

deadass
deadass

¿para que carajos me dan el poder de la luz cuando todos los putos capitanes son inmunes a la luz?
los sets son medio chotos tambien