When comparing The Crew 2 vs Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Slant community recommends Middle-earth: Shadow of War for most people. In the question“What are the best open world games for PS4?” Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ranked 20th while The Crew 2 is ranked 39th. The most important reason people chose Middle-earth: Shadow of War is:
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders. For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother. Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easy to join races just about anywhere
Jumping into a race is simple and fast. All you have to do is pick which city you want to race in, and you can find a match within a short time. The Crew 2 is great for dropping in for a quick run and then dropping out whenever you want.
Pro You can switch freely between driving a car, a speed boat, and a plane
The best part about The Crew 2 is getting to change your vehicle type on-the-fly. While racing around on the road with a normal race car, for example, if you go flying off of a ramp at high speed over a lake, you can switch to your speed boat with a few simple button presses. Then, while zipping through the water, when you're about to reach land, you can change to your plane and fly for as long as you want. When you find a street to land on, you can go back to your car. It's a fun and innovative concept that lets you cross stretches of land in different ways.
Pro Slick and clean visuals
Everything looks nice and polished. Paint on your vehicles gleam in the sunlight, the weather is realistic, and the locations you race around in all look amazing. While character models in story cutscenes aren't as well-done, they're still fine. The devs did a great job at making the game pleasing to the eye.
Pro Huge map of the United States to race around
The Crew 2 features a giant open world set in major cities across the US. Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and more are here for you to drive around in during races and free exploration. The cities are all true-to-life recreations of the actual locations, with recognizable landmarks and buildings. You can go anywhere you want within the available locales, driving around, joining races, and making your own fun along the way.
Pro Character connections make for a compelling experience
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders.
For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother.
Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Pro Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood
As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims.
Pro Satisfying combat
Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations.
If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow.
If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc.
Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with.
Pro You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion
As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while.
For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs.
Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands.
Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun.
Cons
Con Plane and boat racing aren't that enjoyable
Compared to the arcadey fun of driving cars and bikes on roads, steering speed boats in the water and planes in the air isn't as engaging. Races by boats are pretty boring, where you just go from point A to B with only a few turns to make. The flying controls are imprecise, like how the game sometimes doesn't register when you correctly pull off a loop or barrel roll, and you end up not getting points for them. It's a cool concept to switch between three methods of racing, but it's obvious that the devs didn't spend as much time refining these two.
Con Thin story
There's not much of a narrative here. Basically, it's up to you to win races and gain social media followers for fame. The story doesn't even try to pull you in, and it knows that it's less important than the gameplay. So if you're looking for even a halfway decent plot in a game, you won't find one here.
Con Online-only means you need to have a good connection to play
The Crew 2 is always-online, which means you need a solid internet connection in order to play. If you don't have stable internet, then you're probably better off not purchasing the game, since your performance during races depends on how well your connection holds up. If you're constantly lagging and/or rubberbanding, then you're going to have a bad time.
Con The world is barren and empty
Even though the open world is massive, most of it is wasted space. The cities you drive around don't feel lived-in, as if they only exist for cars, boats, and planes instead of actual people. It's just a nice copy of the US without any recreation of the history and culture of the locations, serving as empty sandboxes for gameplay. Having more detail and fine touches throughout the maps would have gone a long way to make these places feel more meaningful and worthwhile.
Con Can get repetitive
The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition.
Con Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay
Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene.