The Bright Lord DLC

[Swotam]

Never played this DLC in the original game (although I do own it) and after finally playing it I’ve got to say I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable. I was really looking forward to playing Celebrimbor’s story, and I was really disappointed in what the DLC offered.
 

One of the really fun things about the main game is that you can turn Talion into a complete badass Orc-killing machine by the time you get him fully upgraded, and it seems like with this DLC they took out all the “fun stuff” and left you with “this is how the game would have been if we forced you to play without the useful skills”. Considering that Celebrimbor is supposed to be a total badass in his own right, and he’s got a full skill tree, I frankly found him to be pretty weak and didn’t find the primary gameplay loop at all enjoyable. The missions were basically just “brand the captain” and then “brand the warchief’, while the final battle was incredibly annoying and way too drawn out. Way too much nonsense going on at once, especially all the ranged spam, melee mobbing, and endless spawns. Just not much good to say about it, to me anyway.

 

It’s even more disappointing when you compare it to Lord of the Hunt, which was generally a pretty fun time. Stealth caragors, projectile-vomiting Graugs, somewhat witty repartee between Talion and his dwarf friend, etc. The Lord of the Hunt come across like Aragorn and Gimli’s Excellent Hunting Adventure, and there’s far more fun to be had as a player. The Bright Lord, not so much, you just wonder when it’s going to end...

 

YMMV and to each their own.

 

/rant

Edited November 15, 2020 by Swotam
More words

[papert0wng1rl]

I find both DLCs are sort of same, and very much in the same vein as the base game. I understand that the developers probably put a lot of thought into Nemesis system, but every time the main goal is to brand the stupid 5 war chiefs. Though I do intend to finish the 100%, I am going to take a break for bit, because I just don't enjoy it much anymore. 

[Cerber108]

Yeah, Celebrimbor was weak as hell, no one-time combo-breaking immunity, no double ult. Those two things change gameplay completely.

[drfk168]

I just finished the campaign and loved it, but my enjoyment level has dropped considerably playing The Bright Lord for 3-4 hours. I agree, Celebrimbor isn't as fun to play as Talion.

 

My biggest issue is the huge difficulty spike, however. The Press the Advantage mission where you have to maintain at least 10 Followers for 2 minutes is a massive pain in the ass, as is the one where you have to get 50 kills in a few minutes by your followers. They feel very unbalanced compared to the difficultly of the campaign.