The orcs were the stars again in Shadow of War, especially one particular bastard

It's a testament to the strength of Monolith's orcs that they can even survive being stuffed into loot boxes, a fate more ignominious than anything Talion metes out with his swords. In a follow-up piece to his review, Andy Kelly noted that the presence of loot boxes hadn't really bothered him during his Shadow of War playthrough, largely because having them be loot drops made little sense in the first place, and the boxes never felt remotely essential. I felt the same way, and it's just as well because he was also correct about the orcs being by far the best thing in the game.

The game's actual star, Talion, remains a largely unloveable, uninteresting character—essentially a thrift store Aragon. There's some fun to be had from his unhealthy codependency with Celebrimbor, and I didn't even mind the sexy spider lady thing, but you don't play Shadow of War for grand narrative sweep. You play it to hear orcs run their mouths before you run th