Shadow of Mordor wasn't bad. In fact, all reviews agreed the Nemesis System is amazing. Shadow of War, with its microtransactions that were later removed, was the problematic one. I only bought it long after the transactions were removed so I never got to experience them and was overall very happy with the game, having spent aboit 200 hours on it.

Nah, that game is pretty great and easy to recommend. I played it through with DLC 100% maybe 18 months ago. The combat and traversal is Arkham-esqe and fun, the Nemesis system keeps the challenge fresher than most games, the characters and upgrades are interesting enough, art and graphics and sound hold up, and the story goes surprisingly far into the heart of Middle-Earth lore.