I don't usually preorder games and I think I was one of the few people that preordered this game, why does that matter? I was really excited for this game when it came out in 2014 and now 3 years later I am just getting around to finishing it.
The main issue I had that made me put the game down was mostly my fault, if you treat this game like a beat em up you get quickly overwhelmed and the whole game turns into a real brutal slog, I fell into this trap and took a "f" that game break.
The sequel brought me back and I had a lot more fun this time; the big difference was that I used all of the tools that the game provides, stealth, ranged combat, combo finishers, this tweak to how I approached the game massively changed how much fun I was having and allowed me to easily progress through the game. I honestly found the game to be a bit easy once I figured it out.
I was a bit disappointed by the nemesis system, it didn't really seem to make a big impact on my game at all.
The story was interesting, lots of middle earth lore.
I'm glad I came back to it, I enjoyed my time with it.