Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Phildo]

The combat is really easy, except for when it isn't.  There was one side mission that I died on a bunch of times, and I just got the living shit kicked out of me by one of the warchiefs because he had an ability to attract more bodyguards, and was also stationed in the middle of a stronghold so I got swarmed.  His only weakness was combat finishers, and I find it pretty hard to aim those at a specific guy when there are 30 of them right on top of me.

[bhodi]

Well, you do have two "I Win" buttons when things get rough - infinite execution and infinite stealth execution. And the arrow one I guess which I've never used.

[Sky]

I propose we of f13 begin wearing green ribbons to signify our support for our fallen orc brothers in these bleak times of genocide.

(trying to wait for steam sale)

[Merusk]

So is the story interesting or tacked on garbage, you guys need to come to a consensus!

I'm about 1/3 through and I think the story, while simplistic, is fine so far. And there's a lot of Middle-earth lore baked into the game which will likely appeal to Tolkien nerds.

This is my take, too.  It's not going to be some deep moral/ philosophical tale.  You're a ranger who can't die and is bound to a mystery elf spirit. You kill orcs. Along the way you have story-based adventures with a bumbling orc in a mutually exploitative relationship with you and some refugees.

These guys are focusing on the story, apparently, and I'm not. I haven't even made it past the first section of the game because I'm killing shitloads of orcs.

[Trippy]

Well, you do have two "I Win" buttons when things get rough - infinite execution and infinite stealth execution. And the arrow one I guess which I've never used.

Those three "I win" powers take a ton of Mirian (M) to acquire. They also don't work against bosses like this motherfucker in my game:



I'm not far enough to have unlocked the Fire Arrow tier yet nor do I have brand so he's basically unkillable unless I somehow manage to blow him up in multiple campfires/barrels (a single one likely wouldn't kill him even with his vulnerability).

[Khaldun]

Holy fuck, but I'm sick of shit like "I hate Tolkien lore and don't like Lord of the Rings and don't like Assassin's Creed and don't like Arkham Asylum, so I'm really bored with this game and it seems too easy, it should come preloaded as much harder and also with an option to turn off all the visuals and cutscenes so it's just wireframes beating on each other" stuff. If this is "gamers", let me out.

[Threash]

Well, you do have two "I Win" buttons when things get rough - infinite execution and infinite stealth execution. And the arrow one I guess which I've never used.

Those three "I win" powers take a ton of Mirian (M) to acquire. They also don't work against bosses like this motherfucker in my game:



I'm not far enough to have unlocked the Fire Arrow tier yet nor do I have brand so he's basically unkillable unless I somehow manage to blow him up in multiple campfires/barrels (a single one likely wouldn't kill him even with his vulnerability).

Actually you just have to hit him with one barrel, once he becomes "terrified" all the other immunities go away.  Except ranged immunity.

[Trippy]

Oh cool, thanks for the tip. The other issue is he's level 18 He's not a Warchief, fortunately, but he is a bodyguard. I was planning skipping that Warchief but maybe I'll try and kill him cause that Warchief has an easier draw out task than the other two.

[Sobelius]

So is the story interesting or tacked on garbage, you guys need to come to a consensus!

I should probably note that I don't give a shit about middle earth lore and never have. My eyes just skip over names and places with too many vowels that all sound the same. I give Tolkien his due for the influence / creation of the genre, but I'm not a linguist and I don't think he created a particularly compelling world. The game does nothing to bring what little world he has to life. Names seem sprinkled haphazardly in. Look, MORDOR. You recognize that one, right?

I'm no Tolkien super-fan, but I can understand how someone not interested in it would find it bland. I'm the kind of fan who knows that "Barad" means "tower", and that because Tolkien was a linguist he built a world with a mythology that supported the languages he invented. I appreciate the way the game pays subtle nods to this without demanding you really know it in order to play it.

Gollem is wedged in for no good reason.

Actually the reason Gollum is in the game makes an incredible amount of sense. He's looking for the Ring he lost and the re-emergence of Sauron in Mordor would seem to draw him there instinctively.

And they constantly drop quotes from the book like sage wisdom and I just have to groan.

Other than the standard lines of "one Ring to Rule them all and in the darkness bind them" I haven't recognized any quotes from the books.

Blah blah somethor did a thing in tothien and it made the murdrocs mad and they had been guarding the wall of holtrash for thousands of years ever since the llithids appeared and oh my god I just don't care.

OK -- we get it. You don't care. If you care this little for a game that has done its best not to shove "lore" down a player's throat, I can't imagine how making it any other way would have engaged you. No problem. For the casual fan like myself, though, I'm enjoying the way they've brought what is essentially the dry "Silmarillion stuff" to life.

And the hero? I smoulder with generic rage might as well been made for him. He's a completely uninteresting cardboard cutout who lost his wife and son to orcs who were cut down / sacrificed in front of him and oh my god I still don't care. A dwarf sidekick who's all bluster? How original! What really, adding the 'number killed competition' from the movie? Lathering it on a bit thick aren't you?

Completely cardboard? A little harsh. His comments/dialog seems to be on the mark, and also a bit downplayed so that he becomes whatever I as a player envision him to be. As so many reviews have said -- after a while the game and its character-rich villains make each fight/rivalry/vendetta feel unique to the player -- so it's kind of nice not having the main character say/think things that have nothing to do with how my own experience of the game -- and my own emotional response -- is unfolding. Bottom line -- if Talion seems a bit bland compared to, say, smartass Nathan Drake, I honestly think it's by design.

Haven't made it to the dwarf sidekick yet, but have heard/seen the hints of a dwarf being involved.

This game is a great orc murdering simulator, though. A++ would murder orcs again.

Completely agree. And it's also a fantastic ethnographic study of orc/uruk society. The sequel will be called "Uruks in the Mist" and you play an Elven version of Dian Fossey.

[Sobelius]

So is the story interesting or tacked on garbage, you guys need to come to a consensus!

I'm in the "interesting" camp. It's there - it's engaging to me (as a casual Tolkien fan). And for anyone not interested in it, it doesn't require you to pay any attention to it if you just want to enjoy the stories that unfold as you make/break your various nemeses.

Some reviewers are doing a great job of telling us their own stories (this review comes to mind: http://kotaku.com/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-the-kotaku-review-1639361008). Unlike Destiny's claim that players will develop their own stories in the game, this game actually delivers on that idea. In spades.  My own tales in the game revolve more around how many times I've been eaten by Caragorns and less about getting killed by Captains. I definitely spend most of my time in stealth and the orcs talk about it all the time -- referring to my tendency to strike unseen and kill them before they even know what hit them. They also call me a coward for skulking about so much. Fair enough.

[Ruvaldt]

So I planned on picking up a PS4 early next year when Bloodborne came out, but in a moment of weakness I got one this weekend along with this game.  I'm not disappointed.

You're right about the stories, Sobelius.  The first orc captain who killed me has become my nemesis as we've killed one another back and forth.  First, he killed me.  Then later I spotted him at random while in a stronghold and managed to kill him while being swarmed...I wasn't going to let him get away even after the alarm sounded and I was surrounded by ten+ orcs.  I actually yelled at the screen as he died and fell off of a cliff.  Later, while I was hunting down another captain, he returned and said something like "You left me for dead!  Now it's time for you to pay, yada yada" and he kills me a second time!  Now he's stronger than ever and a bodyguard for a warchief.  It's going to be delicious when I finally track him down and finish him...

I watched a few videos. Looks more Infamous than Assassins Creed. I actually finished Infamous. Enjoyed it.

You're not wrong.  The climbing/running around vibe really is more Infamous than Assassin's Creed.  Which is a good thing.  I was OK with the parkoury stuff in Infamous, but never enjoyed scaling walls, etc in the AC games.  The only other comparison to AC I can think of is the stealth element, but that's so generic that I don't even compare it to AC anymore, and you don't have to stealth all the time anyway.  The combat is definitely like Arkham Asylum/City though.

[Trippy]

Oh cool, thanks for the tip. The other issue is he's level 18 He's not a Warchief, fortunately, but he is a bodyguard. I was planning skipping that Warchief but maybe I'll try and kill him cause that Warchief has an easier draw out task than the other two.

Dammit almost had him. Got him near a campfire and managed to do some damage to him but he outran me cause of his Fast Runner skill. I knew I should've put a point in to Pin In Place.

[Maledict]

Doesn't work if they are immune to ranged unfortunately, even if they are frightened of burning and on fire.

[01101010]

Oh cool, thanks for the tip. The other issue is he's level 18 He's not a Warchief, fortunately, but he is a bodyguard. I was planning skipping that Warchief but maybe I'll try and kill him cause that Warchief has an easier draw out task than the other two.

Dammit almost had him. Got him near a campfire and managed to do some damage to him but he outran me cause of his Fast Runner skill. I knew I should've put a point in to Pin In Place.

I find I use shadow strike/execute way more now than pin. YMMV though. For me, unlocking shadow execute is making me take all the bow skills next for more arrows and longer focus... that ability is too much fun.

[Merusk]

Also won't work on guys immune to ranged.

Immune to ranged is the biggest PITA from that standpoint, which is why I went for the "20 seconds of executes" skill and abuse the shit out of the "do x to stun" skills.

Throw a guy out of the melee, E to stun, then flurry him to death.   If you try to do this in the middle of a pack you always get some fucker that comes up behind right before the flurry execute that needs to be parried or he'll interrupt you anyway.   Taking Blademaster for the 5-hit instead of 8-hit execute has made ALL the difference here.

[bhodi]

Actually the reason Gollum is in the game makes an incredible amount of sense. He's looking for the Ring he lost and the re-emergence of Sauron in Mordor would seem to draw him there instinctively.

The game takes place between the hobbit and the trilogy. Gollum already knows exactly where the ring is because when they torture him, he screams out Bag-end which sends the ring-wraiths hunting there and starts the entire lord of the rings trilogy in motion. He was added because they were throwing things people would recognize into the game, sense or no. I don't begrudge it; if you're playing a x-men game you'd better have Wolverine and Storm lined up for the player to interact with and if you have a wild west game, you'd better believe Wild Bill and Wyatt Earp show up at some point.

Other than the standard lines of "one Ring to Rule them all and in the darkness bind them" I haven't recognized any quotes from the books.

"Not all who wonder are lost" was there. There were a couple more but I don't remember them, except that they didn't fit the mood or tone of the scene at all and were clearly inserts.


The biggest disservice plot-wise was the grim-faced protagonist staring out at you from a loading screen while musing about his past. There was a lot of meat there and I might have enjoyed it in a different format. In terms of combat, though, I picked up a rune that gave me +elf shot for branding. So you can just shadowstrike + combat brand the adds until they're all gone. The combat is very lopsided; it starts out quite difficult but you end up an unstoppable juggernaut by the midpoint of the game as you get some of these abilities. I'm also not a huge fan of the branding, since branded chiefs don't randomly show up - I feel like branding should have been kept to plot missions because it makes the whole nemesis system a bit less fun.

[Teleku]

Actually the reason Gollum is in the game makes an incredible amount of sense. He's looking for the Ring he lost and the re-emergence of Sauron in Mordor would seem to draw him there instinctively.

The game takes place between the hobbit and the trilogy. Gollum already knows exactly where the ring is because when they torture him, he screams out Bag-end which sends the ring-wraiths hunting there and starts the entire lord of the rings trilogy in motion. He was added because they were throwing things people would recognize into the game, sense or no. I don't begrudge it; if you're playing a x-men game you'd better have Wolverine and Storm lined up for the player to interact with and if you have a wild west game, you'd better believe Wild Bill and Wyatt Earp show up at some point.

Actually he says "Baggins" (and "Shire") in movie.  All he knew after leaving the cave was that it was stolen by a guy named Baggins from the Shire.  He had no idea where that was (else he would have gone straight there), and went out searching.  Eventually he was drawn towards Mordor by the growing power of Sauron, before getting captured and tortured while looking about.  He then gave away to the only two pieces of information he knew.

[Sobelius]

I wonder how playable/enjoyable the game is if you never spend points on abilities and/or upgrade weapons with runes. Might be these two systems are the game's idea of difficulty tweakers?

[Shannow]

The sequel will be called "Uruks in the Mist" and you play an Elven version of Dian Fossey.

Not Uruks in the Mist, Cave Trolls in the Mist. I travel around Morder observing the Cave Trolls as they decimate the local Uruk population. It's hilarious.

[Maven]

So the consensus is... well worth $20 as a mass scale murder simulator, wait for the Steam Sale?

[Phildo]

The Elf buddy definitely yelled "fly, you fool" at one point.  Rough edges, but fantastic game overall.  I need to get the unlimited finisher ability next.

[01101010]

So the consensus is... well worth $20 as a mass scale murder simulator, wait for the Steam Sale?

Consensus? How long have you been around these parts?

I have no regrets buying this at cost. But if you are on the fence, yeah, wait for a sale after the wave breaks.

[Yegolev]

I don't have any regrets paying full price for this.  Besides the perceived value, I'm happy to encourage development of this type of game.

[Trippy]

I wonder how playable/enjoyable the game is if you never spend points on abilities and/or upgrade weapons with runes. Might be these two systems are the game's idea of difficulty tweakers?

They are but because of the random boss skill generator you can get into a situation early on where some bosses are simply unkillable if you don't spend points on certain abilities.

If you somehow manage to get far enough in the story to unlock brand you can in theory kill all bosses that way cause none are invulnerable to orcs attacking them.

[murdoc]

If you somehow manage to get far enough in the story to unlock brand you can in theory kill all bosses that way cause none are invulnerable to orcs attacking them.

http://youtu.be/YCjQrBT51Hg?t=1m8s

Spoilers maybe? Shows a possibility for later gameplay.

[Threash]

So the consensus is... well worth $20 as a mass scale murder simulator, wait for the Steam Sale?

Nope, i paid 75 bucks for the game and the season pass and don't regret it a bit.

[Trippy]

If you somehow manage to get far enough in the story to unlock brand you can in theory kill all bosses that way cause none are invulnerable to orcs attacking them.

http://youtu.be/YCjQrBT51Hg?t=1m8s

Spoilers maybe? Shows a possibility for later gameplay.

Yeah that's an ability you can get after you get brand.

[schild]

Ugh. Maybe I'll buy it at full price. Fuck you, internet people. At least it's an arbitrary $10 less on Steam.

[Rasix]

Ugh. Maybe I'll buy it at full price. Fuck you, internet people. At least it's an arbitrary $10 less on Steam.

Yes, fuck the internet.  I'm very close to purchasing this as well.  I didn't want to do this.

[Yegolev]

I got a $10 gift card when purchased at Target.

[bhodi]

It's really boring but if they are alone you can drain them over and over to kill them, even without brand.

[Ruvaldt]

I got a $10 gift card when purchased at Target.

Me too.  

It's worth full price even without the gift card.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, it's good. I'm really, really bad at the Batman type combat stuff and I'm still enjoying it.

[Maven]

I have a couple more obstacles -- last-last gen PC, no consoles, living off student loans. Otherwise I'd jump on this bandwagon. It does look fun.

TotalBiscuit shows off some gameplay.

I am concerned about the sharp decline in difficulty once you get to late game. Does the game continue in sandbox mode after you finish the 20th Story Mission?

[Fabricated]

I think this is Steam Sale material for me. It'll only be like $10-20 off tops by then but eh.