The Lady of Lite

Back in 2018, I dismissed the Blade of Galadriel add-on as presumably diminished by the absence of Shadow of War's excellent Nemesis System. But despite that, Blade of Galadriel does have merits of its own, separate from Talion's big orc-conquering adventure.

Eltariel's light-element powers make for a couple interesting changes to combat: shining her elven flashlight into orcs' faces is a neat crowd-control trick, and wonderfully effective when bum-rushing an enemy party. Stunning a group then disintegrating them one by one is a fun, satisfying time.

(Though it is annoying that so many captains are conveniently immune to light.)

Oh, and though Eltarial doesn't "dominate" them like Talion, she does still meet plenty of orc captains with colorful personalities -- sometimes even on friendly terms. Her quest includes scripted missions to recruit helpful champions, and these weirdos - like an architecturally-minded Olog with a huge hammer and a pair of burn-damaged bomb enthusiasts - channel the same quirky energies that made Ratbag and Bruz such fun to work with.

Yeah, it's a relatively short story, not as engrossing as Shadow of War in mechanics nor in narrative ambition. (The DLC's ending cinematic, which reveals the origin of the "Rogue Nazgul", is even more bizarre than Shelob wearing a dress.) But, much like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Lord of the Hunt, it has enough new gameplay and enough entertaining writing to justify its running-length.