The best moments of "Shadow of War" are entirely unplanned. Here's a typical encounter in "Shadow of War":
-I'm sneaking around, leaping from rooftop-to-rooftop, when I spot a Captain in the courtyard below.
-I leap down onto him, sometimes successful, with a sneak-attack from above.
-He recovers, screams in my face, and talks a bunch of mess. He's almost certainly got a Cockney accent, as so many orcs in "Shadow of War" do.
-The game pauses to focus in on him, offering his name and a bit of information about his immunities.
-If I'd found an informant beforehand, I'd' know his weaknesses as well. Sadly, I don't in this case, and that can mean the difference between a quick fight and a quick death.
This base cycle is the core gameplay "loop" of "Shadow of War." There are main story missions, which tend to be middling at best, but the orc bureaucracy is massive and ready for the dismantling. And the way to do that is through fights like the one described above, ad infinitum.