Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

[schild]

1. My computer runs this flawlessly.
2. This is the most fun I've had since Demon's Souls with an action game.
3. Middle Earth fucking sucks.

[Phildo]

If WBPlay's extra skin had been the WB frog, I would be all about it.

[Maven]

Welp, guess I'm picking this up on PC. Is your machine high-end, schild? Based on TotalBiscuit's review, the strength of the gameplay makes up for any lack of graphical splendor.

[schild]

Game is actually gorgeous.

i7 870@ 2.93GHz
GeForce GTX 760 (4GB variant)

[Sobelius]

Game is actually gorgeous.

Yes. Yes it is.

A few reviewers out there seem to be grasping at straws for something negative to say in a review by stating the game is visually "ho hum".  I'm running on full HD ultra textures and getting avg 103 fps (Radeon R9 290X 4GB) and there is simply nothing ho-hum to me about the visuals in this game. The *only* thing I have not liked so far is the default key mapping for the PC port.

[schild]

The only thing I don't like about the game is sometimes it's hard to see where you're looking if you're in wraith view at the edge of a tower. A small gripe, since I could easily drop halfway down the tower and do the same shit I'm already doing.

Well, that and the fact it's a fucking LOTR game. Goddamnit I can not get over that.

[Maven]

The Tolkien estate thanks you for your patronage.

[Teleku]

The only thing I don't like about the game is sometimes it's hard to see where you're looking if you're in wraith view at the edge of a tower. A small gripe, since I could easily drop halfway down the tower and do the same shit I'm already doing.

Well, that and the fact it's a fucking LOTR game. Goddamnit I can not get over that.

Out of curiosity, why is this such an issue to you?  You've been raging against that fact all thread.

[lamaros]

schild requires a requisite level of rage in order to maintain power throughout the day. Hyper love fests have proven to be his undoing in the past (I Am Legend, Hellgate: London), and the later model schild is careful not to fall in to this trap (Demon's Souls is the exception that proves the rule).

[Threash]

It's too bad the name orcs must die was already taken.

[Rasix]

This is really good.  I don't mind the LOTRness, it beats some hack calling everything Orx or Dragyns and pretending they're being original.

I'm using a controller and everything's fine with that except for my aiming with the bow.  

[schild]

The only thing I don't like about the game is sometimes it's hard to see where you're looking if you're in wraith view at the edge of a tower. A small gripe, since I could easily drop halfway down the tower and do the same shit I'm already doing.

Well, that and the fact it's a fucking LOTR game. Goddamnit I can not get over that.

Out of curiosity, why is this such an issue to you?  You've been raging against that fact all thread.

Because for every one good game we get from a license, it gives the license holders and publishers the idea that HEY, IT'S SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE IT'S LOTR and we get a run of absolutely shitty LOTR games.

No.

This game would've gotten 10s across the board had it been new IP. Guaranteed. It would've been praised as the second coming of Christ's Lord, Rockstar. Grand Theft Medieval is something everyone has wanted for fucking YEARS. So much so that people pretended Mount & Blade was a good game (no, fuckoff).

And finally, it wouldn't have had to be filled with LOTR tropes and they could've gone hog wild on cooler shit. They managed to make Middle Earth kind of cool here. The amount of emotion coming from these orcs is fantastic.

But at the end of the day, they're orcs. I hope someone lifts the Nemesis system and makes a vastly superior game with actual loot and shit.

[Rasix]

If this game had a baby with Dead Rising(and removed all of the Japanese influenced bullshit), I'd never stop playing.  So yah, I guess loot or at least a wider variety of weapons and character visuals could improve it.

This could be one of those instances where a very good game turns into something completely fantastic as a sequel.  There's so much to build with here.

[Threash]

I think i just got hit on by a gay orc.  Something "the friendly", when engaging he went "we don't have to fight, I'm not like those other orcs!"  and when he ran off "we are destined to meet again under different circumstances".

[Maven]

This could be one of those instances where a very good game turns into something completely fantastic as a sequel.  There's so much to build with here.

The positive reception not only from critics but from players could make this Monolith's Assassin's Creed.

Hopefully without an increasingly convoluted story to justify the mechanics.

[Sobelius]

I think i just got hit on by a gay orc.  Something "the friendly", when engaging he went "we don't have to fight, I'm not like those other orcs!"  and when he ran off "we are destined to meet again under different circumstances".

Love it. Haven't heard that one yet.

[Sobelius]

This game would've gotten 10s across the board had it been new IP. Guaranteed. It would've been praised as the second coming of Christ's Lord, Rockstar. Grand Theft Medieval is something everyone has wanted for fucking YEARS.

I think I see your point. The game "Styx: Master of Shadows" was released on Steam today. Half the price of SoM, it's a stealth/thief/AC/Arkham game but heavy on the stealthing from the little I've played so far.  AFAIK the IP is new, the goblin dude you play is a foul-mouthed little monster with no compunctions about stealth-murdering a librarian (he mutters to himself as part of your not-so-sublte tutorial, "jump on the carpet to land softly, especially when the fucker you're going to kill is twice your size").

If the graphics and animation were the caliber of SoM, and if the elf and human enemies who control the prison/vault the goblin is trying to escape from/into had a chain of command like the nemesis system, it would be hailed as you indicated Schild. Instead, while it's a competent game so far (hey -- they mapped crouch to "c" by default!) , the unknown IP and slightly less than AAA graphics may mean it won't get noticed at all.

[Paelos]

I think i just got hit on by a gay orc.  Something "the friendly", when engaging he went "we don't have to fight, I'm not like those other orcs!"  and when he ran off "we are destined to meet again under different circumstances".

Those circumstances involve no pants.

[schild]

This game would've gotten 10s across the board had it been new IP. Guaranteed. It would've been praised as the second coming of Christ's Lord, Rockstar. Grand Theft Medieval is something everyone has wanted for fucking YEARS.

I think I see your point. The game "Styx: Master of Shadows" was released on Steam today. Half the price of SoM, it's a stealth/thief/AC/Arkham game but heavy on the stealthing from the little I've played so far.  AFAIK the IP is new, the goblin dude you play is a foul-mouthed little monster with no compunctions about stealth-murdering a librarian (he mutters to himself as part of your not-so-sublte tutorial, "jump on the carpet to land softly, especially when the fucker you're going to kill is twice your size").

If the graphics and animation were the caliber of SoM, and if the elf and human enemies who control the prison/vault the goblin is trying to escape from/into had a chain of command like the nemesis system, it would be hailed as you indicated Schild. Instead, while it's a competent game so far (hey -- they mapped crouch to "c" by default!) , the unknown IP and slightly less than AAA graphics may mean it won't get noticed at all.

Also, Styx was released by Focus. A company that is doomed to mediocrity forever.

[Phildo]

Dragyns

I may steal this for a band name.  Or possibly my firstborn.

[Ruvaldt]

I think I see your point. The game "Styx: Master of Shadows" was released on Steam today. Half the price of SoM, it's a stealth/thief/AC/Arkham game but heavy on the stealthing from the little I've played so far.  AFAIK the IP is new, the goblin dude you play is a foul-mouthed little monster with no compunctions about stealth-murdering a librarian (he mutters to himself as part of your not-so-sublte tutorial, "jump on the carpet to land softly, especially when the fucker you're going to kill is twice your size").

Also, Styx was released by Focus. A company that is doomed to mediocrity forever.

And it was developed by Cyanide, which has a pretty poor track record as well.  They almost managed to screw up Blood Bowl with an incredibly shitty UI, among other things.

As it happens though, Styx is not a new IP.  It's a prequel to Cyanide's Of Orcs and Men from '12.  It might as well be new though considering how many people actually played that game.

[lamaros]

The only thing I don't like about the game is sometimes it's hard to see where you're looking if you're in wraith view at the edge of a tower. A small gripe, since I could easily drop halfway down the tower and do the same shit I'm already doing.

Well, that and the fact it's a fucking LOTR game. Goddamnit I can not get over that.

Out of curiosity, why is this such an issue to you?  You've been raging against that fact all thread.

Because for every one good game we get from a license, it gives the license holders and publishers the idea that HEY, IT'S SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE IT'S LOTR and we get a run of absolutely shitty LOTR games.

No.

This game would've gotten 10s across the board had it been new IP. Guaranteed. It would've been praised as the second coming of Christ's Lord, Rockstar. Grand Theft Medieval is something everyone has wanted for fucking YEARS. So much so that people pretended Mount & Blade was a good game (no, fuckoff).

And finally, it wouldn't have had to be filled with LOTR tropes and they could've gone hog wild on cooler shit. They managed to make Middle Earth kind of cool here. The amount of emotion coming from these orcs is fantastic.

But at the end of the day, they're orcs. I hope someone lifts the Nemesis system and makes a vastly superior game with actual loot and shit.

Your commitment to loot=better game knows no bounds. As long as it's not random Diablo crap with 500 different types of modifiers I'm all aboard this time, though.

[schild]

Loot in this case is more of a Demon's Souls type of affair in which case "things that look neat as shit and have stats appropriate for different things in the game."

Not some random bullshit. I got really peeved when a dude became a captain and he had this kickass looking crossbow with skulls and shit shoved onto the pointy bits. And I'm sitting here with elf crap and Generic Sword With Bullshit Runes. I'd blame Tolkien but really this is a place where the designers could've taken some license. It doesn't help that most of the runes suck and that's the only "real" loot. Even some of the epic ones blow.

[Nija]

Runes blow? Sorry i cant hear you over the sound of my +10 seconds to the sword "I win" button and another rune that makes it charge up 2x as fast.

[schild]

I said "most." l2r.

[Wasted]

I have an inbuilt prejudice against LotR games, I just can't make myself care about playing in that world.  I got over it a little bit in LOTRO to try it but never really got into it mostly because of the world.

Maybe next steam sale I'll try this but I never even would have given this a second look except for all the buzz its getting.

[schild]

I have an inbuilt prejudice against LotR games, I just can't make myself care about playing in that world.

As someone with more hatred for Tolkien than is even reasonable, let me just say: They took lemons and made fucking kickass ice cream.

[Ingmar]

Clearly this needs a Star Wars version. 

[Azazel]

schild requires a requisite level of rage in order to maintain power throughout the day. Hyper love fests have proven to be his undoing in the past (I Am Legend, Hellgate: London), and the later model schild is careful not to fall in to this trap (Demon's Souls is the exception that proves the rule).

Hex.

[Azazel]

But at the end of the day, they're orcs. I hope someone lifts the Nemesis system and makes a vastly superior game with actual loot and shit.

Given the way people are splerging over it, I think it's going to be a new reasonably commonplace feature in open world games.

[schild]

God-willing.

Shame I can't think of a current open-world game that could adopt the system that I'd want to play.

Except Pokemon.

Just sayin.

(Edit: Scratch that, Bethesda should shove this the FUCK into Fallout 4 so fast heads spin)

[Sobelius]

Clearly this needs a Star Wars version. 

I was hoping Star Wars 1313 (the game set in the underworld of Coruscant) would have been this game. In fact, now that I think of it, I *really* want to play that kind of game. Full on hunter of bounty hunters (with equal viability in stealth/ranged/melee modes). Coruscant's "verticalness" would have been rich for platforming, mixed with underworld and offworld political figures ripe for the nemesis system... damn you, Disney, and your money grubbing Mickey Mouse paws...

[Sobelius]

Clearly this needs a Star Wars version. 

Also would have loved to see this style of game set in the world of REH's Conan. That IP (yes, I'm ignoring whatever FunCom did with it), would be perfect for an SoM-style franchise -- a ready-made setting replete with political states, kings, armies, sorcerers, stygian magic, death cults, monsters, and, uh, barbarians.

[lamaros]

No schild had it right. Put in a Bethsoft RPG. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, whatever. Would be fucking awesome.

[Threash]

Put it on fucking everything, its not going to make any game worse.  Fucking pac-man would be better with a nemesis system.