OK, I’m gonna see if I can tackle this one.
The orc bosses exist in an hierarchy. Each has a power level that represents their general strength. Each has strengths and weaknesses that correspond to your powers, as well as additional attributes. In order to learn their info, you have you obtain intel. One intel gets you info on one orc boss (the matrix has like, maybe 20-25 of them?). Killing a boss nets you a loot drop (runes that you can slot into your 3 weapons).
There are 6 superbosses at the top, called Warchiefs. Warchiefs are unique in that you can’t just find them on the map, you have to draw them out with a mission that exploits a particular mechanic (at random - like, kill 20 dudes in open combat, or stealth kill 6 high value targets, or whatever). They can also have bodyguards, other bosses that will join them when you draw them out. If you get the intel, you can isolate and pick off their bodyguards beforehand.
The orcs are jockeying for position among themselves. Over time, missions will spawn on the map relating to orc boss power struggles. Sometimes two bosses will fight each other straight up. Sometimes one is executing another. Sometimes one is throwing a party, or is on a hunt, or whatever. Successfully interrupt their event and they will lose power. Allow them to complete their event and they will gain power.
The fewer orc bosses there are to fill out the hierarchy, the fewer enemies you’ll find wandering around the map.
All of this links in with death. Unlike basically all other open world games, death has a consequence: while you are gone, orcs will promote to fill vacant positions in the hierarchy. All the static power struggle events that you left on the map will fire and succeed. A Warchief you were trying to isolate may re-recruit bodyguards that you culled. And so on.
Now, that mechanic links in with the leveling curve. Early on you are quite weak. You don’t have a lot of open combat tools and middling-sized groups of orcs can kill you if you’re not careful. Some higher-tier bosses will seem unkillable, because you don’t yet have access to enough tools to exploit their weaknesses.
About halfway through the game, just as you’re getting more proficient at killing, the game throws a whole new curveball at you: branding. This allows you put orcs under your thrall. You can use it on bosses and throw them back out into the wild. You can turn a Warchief’s bodyguard into a Manchurian Candidate, ready to flip and fight on your behalf when you engage. If you can brand a Warchief, you can actually call them out at will and use them repeatedly to suck out all the intel you want.
This all converges with some truly ridiculous endgame powers to make you an unstoppable murder god, which is a pretty exhilirating feeling after starting out relatively fragile. AND THEN, when killing basically anyone is easy, the game gives you a score attack arcade mode, which challenges you to kill bosses in the coolest and/or most efficient ways by exploiting your full suite of skills.
It’s kind of great.
Game looks like absolute dogshit though.
