Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

[lamaros]

I think it just depends upon how fast you go through the main quest.  I went to the second map at around 20 hours in and was just barely breaking into the third tier of skills.  Most of my weapons had three runes, but they weren't very good runes.

I guess you're expected to go through the main quest quicker, but then there's not much in the game that tells you that. I'm about 15 hours in, with a few epic runes and a few level three skills, but there is a lot more to do in the first area still.

Game is awesome, but I do agree that is feels a bit tech demo-y.

[Azazel]

It's a sandbox that doesn't cockblock you from the different tiers of skills (just some specific ones). You go to the second area when you want to push the story that way.

There are a couple of the final dagger missions that are shitting me. One where they want you to get 5 caragor kills while rescuing the guys to a time limit. Actually, there's a sword one that's similarly annoying, though I can't remember if I finished it or not since I had a couple of tries.

[Merusk]

It's a sandbox that doesn't cockblock you from the different tiers of skills (just some specific ones). You go to the second area when you want to push the story that way.

There are a couple of the final dagger missions that are shitting me. One where they want you to get 5 caragor kills while rescuing the guys to a time limit. Actually, there's a sword one that's similarly annoying, though I can't remember if I finished it or not since I had a couple of tries.

The caragor mission would be stupid easy if you did it with the auto-mount shot. I did it before I unlocked that, and here's how:

The mission that fucked me up the longest was the "brutalize this guy" in one of the strongholds in the first area.  I'd get up on a roof behind the speaking orc, totally undetected and then when I dropped-down to brutalize I'd either get seen or it would mistarget one of the orcs in the crowd, blowing the last 5 mins of run-up. It took me 5 runs to finally get it.

[Maledict]

Loved this at first, but its very quickly hit the "second island" syndrome a lot of open world games have. I've reached the second area, and it just...more orcs. endless orcs. Also the difficulty has basically vanished since whenver I run into a tough captain I can just activate the sword special move and hit him with 15 combat finishers in a row to hack his head off.

[Pezzle]

You can decide not to use certain abilities.  I made it to the second map on game two.  On map one the final warchief I fought was immune to range, stealth, and combat finishers.  My combo was up in the 150's more than once fighting him and a swarm of orcs.  Finally got him down and his head came off.  I hope I never see that one again.  Dropped some relic that can cause head explosions when you kill with a wraith punch?  Epic   

[lamaros]

You can brutalize from stealth from up high.

There is nothing really challenging in this game, hopefully some further content addresses this.

[Merusk]

You can brutalize from stealth from up high.

Yeah, trying that was how it was always mistargeting. Drop down.... and hit orc in crowd.  Fuck.

[Azazel]

Loved this at first, but its very quickly hit the "second island" syndrome a lot of open world games have. I've reached the second area, and it just...more orcs. endless orcs. Also the difficulty has basically vanished since whenver I run into a tough captain I can just activate the sword special move and hit him with 15 combat finishers in a row to hack his head off.

There is a bit of that. I've now got all of the abilities, and I'll finish the story, but I don't know if I'll finish some of the timed challenges - since I find the time limits too frustrating since I want to have fun, not wrestle with the controls (something Assassins Creed has issues with as well). I'll play with it through this weekend and kill a bunch of captains, but after that it might be shelf time, since that's all there is to the game after a certain point, really. The caragors handle horribly, and I hate QTE-games, so I've got no urge to ride another rancor, shit - WoW did that style of mini-game better.

So great game for a playthrough - but no long-term legs. Still worth what I paid for it and I've had a lot of fun with it. I haven't put this kind of time into a game in what seems like years.... and certainly this year.

[lamaros]

If its game of the year it is only because it is a shit year for games.

It is a fine game, but it really needs a stronger story and/or role playing element for me. Open world epicness or rails fun, at the moment it's just potential and doesn't really hit either of them.

[Azazel]

It's a lot of fun, but it's shallow as fuck once you hit the point of "second island". I had a play around with the "Challenge Mode" and it was as horrible as I'd expected. Time limits in open-world games can go fuck themselves.

[schild]

This is not GOTY material.

If there was an award to give away for best "new system" of the year, this would certainly win it.

[lamaros]

This is not GOTY material.

If there was an award to give away for best "new system" of the year, this would certainly win it.

Best procedurally generated NPCs of all time award, to be sure.

There is a lot of work in this system, but a lot of it is just content and assets, so it's not likely it be co-opted for indie games too easily.

A lot of the stuff people talk about doesn't work when you don't allow things to come back from death, which means it doesn't work in a lot of other game. But for me those things aren't the real achievements anyhow.

The suggestion of a procedural political system is novel and awesome, and the systems that create characters and missions are pretty nifty. I do wonder just how much voice recording they have, and how flexible the orc character creation system is.

[schild]

The suggestion of a procedural political system is novel and awesome, and the systems that create characters and missions are pretty nifty. I do wonder just how much voice recording they have, and how flexible the orc character creation system is.

What they've done here is congeal an NPC society that passively and ACTIVELY interacts with the player and responds to their actions. This thing is infinitely adaptable to nearly any game design. It just required someone make the first version. Now that they have, the seed hath been planted.

[jakonovski]

Now watch the games industry ignore it all and do more sequels.

[MrHat]

A lot of the stuff people talk about doesn't work when you don't allow things to come back from death, which means it doesn't work in a lot of other game. But for me those things aren't the real achievements anyhow.

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

[01101010]

A lot of the stuff people talk about doesn't work when you don't allow things to come back from death, which means it doesn't work in a lot of other game. But for me those things aren't the real achievements anyhow.

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

[Phildo]

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

If you decapitate them, they don't come back.  Otherwise, they'll return bearing the scars of your previous encounter.

[MrHat]

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

If you decapitate them, they don't come back.  Otherwise, they'll return bearing the scars of your previous encounter.

That's cool except I'm fairly certain I ripped that one guy's throat out.

[01101010]

I just noticed last night that each one of my ORC captain boards has one slot with a dead orc laying there. The rest I have all branded. This slot with the dead orc is in the second row and no orc subordinate gets promoted to it, no matter how many times I hit the advance time button. This is on both maps now that I have branded everyone. been 3 days on one map and 1 day on the other with no promotions. Wonder if it has to do with having to have a nemesis available.

[lamaros]

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

If you decapitate them, they don't come back.  Otherwise, they'll return bearing the scars of your previous encounter.

May come back. Some die regardless I think.

[Rasix]

I branded my first orc captain last night.  I go do some stuff and he just randomly dies.  Does this happen often?  It didn't show anyone killing him, he just fell over.

[Yegolev]

Was he a smoker?

[Rasix]

I didn't check his medical history before enrolling him.  He didn't put up much of a fight.  Might have been a drive by caragoring.  Maybe I left him branded near a plant he was allergic to. 

[01101010]

I didn't check his medical history before enrolling him.  He didn't put up much of a fight.  Might have been a drive by caragoring.  Maybe I left him branded near a plant he was allergic to. 

Ranged orc might have took him out.

And yes, this happens...too often for my goals. It only seems to happen if I am actively in the area though. They get along just fine until I show up then the other orcs turn on the betrayer. I have also mistakenly killed a few myself by pushing the directional pad in the wrong direction and exploded a few captains in range of it... made me sad.

[Pezzle]

Accidentally threw my first branded captain off a cliff.  Ever since then those captains have gotten pretty clumsy... Must be faulty boots.  

[Ingmar]

Why do some of the captains come back from death but others don't? This confuses me.

If you decapitate them, they don't come back.  Otherwise, they'll return bearing the scars of your previous encounter.

I've had decapitated guys come back.

[Trippy]

They are not supposed to come back if they end up as a skull on a spike in the Army screen:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=24431.msg1322672#msg1322672

[Count Nerfedalot]

More mod madness: CIV4 FFH, WoW.

[Rasix]

[Maven]

Selfie mode added.


Annnnd /uninstall.

[Sky]

Annnnd /uninstall.

[Rasix]

Drama llama requires drama.

Or as a wiser man once said:

[Samwise]

[lamaros]

I've gotten over this pretty quickly, but I will have to take some selfies just to piss off Maven now.

[Trippy]

I can't handle L3 being a button other than run (and even then it's a pain) so I turned it off almost immediately after turning it on after the update.