Okay, now that it's been out for a bit, general thoughts on Shadow of Mordor?

[Oly J]

Hi, so I finished the game a few days ago and thought I'd like to compare thoughts on all the experiences of those playing it, along with any specific stories or pet peeves people have.

my opinion on the game for the most part (I imagine) is much the same as many others.

The combat is very good and can make for a very intense situation.
the climbing mechanic is basically what you'd expect though I thought it could stand to be a bit less easy, I mean, I know the climbing is not what the player is probably going to be there for, and maybe it's the result of me playing all the Assassin's Creed games, but I actually had to adjust to how easy it was, and at first I felt, not "insulted" but certainly patronized a bit. this feeling of irritation went away once I got used to it though,

though speaking of Assassin's Creed there is one thing about those game I wish was in here that isn't really. This is a tiny nitpick I admit but, you know in AC when you're fighting people and you launch an attack, even if the attack connects, if the enemy is still alive they're shown to parry your weapon, but they stumble with it so you know you've hit them. Whereas in Shadow of Mordor you can just slash away and after taking 5 very deep cuts from a very large sword, the Uruk is still standing, that bothered me a bit at first, and even after having got used to it, I do sort of wish they'd went with the parry approach, I know the Uruk Hai in general would probably be able to tank a slash or two, particularly in armour but some of the more scrawny ones definitely would not.

Other than that though, I really enjoyed the game, I've clocked 30 hours on it on Steam (so far) and very little of that at a time was story missions (oh I didn't much care for the story by the way,) I did like the Dwarf hunter, but not much else, Gollum was good, but he felt crowbarred in to me. I'm not an expert on the Lore, but it doesn't feel like he needs to be there beyond "OMG IT'S GOLLUM" though the voice actor did a damn good imitation considering it wasn't Andy Serkis

oh and was there ever actually any doubt that there's gonna be a sequel to this? didn't think so.


Story aside though, very enjoyable game, I've had some very fun feuds with Uruk captains and War chiefs (branding is also fun), and I'm working on maxing out Talion just so I can see everything he can do, and set myself the challenge of taking on the biggest hoard I can find.

so yeah, now you know my thoughts, what are yours?

 

[Elfgore]

The combat is fun and challenging early on. Sadly as you level up, you become so OP it isn't even really fair for the Uruks. I can still be hurt by massive, diverse waves of Uruks. But anything less and I just own them. The climbing is basic. You go up and down, no fancy directional jumping like in Assassin's Creed. It works, but it could always be more.

The story was pretty meh. I really didn't care for it. I enjoyed a few of the characters, the dwarf was good and I really liked Ratbag. Other than that, all forgettable. The two boss battles were an abomination though. One, the easiest stealth segment in the entire game. The other, literally seven button presses.

The nemesis system is fantastic and is why I have forty hours put into the game. I've had some great times with the Orcs, sadly none as good as Flak the Crow, but still good. I think I've built up all Warchiefs under my control about... seven times now. I've enjoyed each section of it.

This has been on of my favorite games released this year and next to Warriors Orochi has given me the most enjoyment. It's been a game I've been recommending like crazy.

And for you OP, for non-stop Uruk-slaying action, just run into a stronghold. The Uruks will not stop spawning and you can just keep on massacring them.

 

[Oly J]

snip

oh my god I totally forgot about Ratbag, yeah he was awesome. Yeah, I wondered about the strongholds, for some reason I thought you'd be able to take them, or at least shut them down, but no, it makes sense that doesn't happen.

with the inclusion of a season pass (I didn't buy it but noticed it was there) I am very curious about DLC, I hope there are some good expansions, a new map to traverse maybe? god I hope so

 

[josemlopes]

Too easy, too generic and the only worthwhile thing about it is the Nemesis System that should have been in a better game to take better advantage of it (I barely saw it in action because of how easy it was).

 

[Baron Tanks]

Too easy, too generic and the only worthwhile thing about it is the Nemesis System that should have been in a better game to take better advantage of it (I barely saw it in action because of how easy it was).

Egh, I wish I could disagree more with you, but alas. I had some fun with the gameplay and the Nemesis system, but, and I assume this is recognisable for a good many of you, as an Arkham veteran the combat went from not all that challenging to completely unengaging and that's with only 75% of the ability tree unlocked. The lack of difficulty is normally not a problem for me (read: Assassin's Creed games) and I love the power fantasy element of it in most games. The problem is that being good at this game totally undermines the Nemesis system and steals its thunder. When you have hardly any recurring Uruks and the ones that do are being easily defeated again and again, the suspension of disbelief required to make the Nemesis system work is shattered. When you get the branding it is fun to have a Warchief be sabotaged by your mindcontrolled Uruks, but not needing them at all and being able to handle Warchiefs by yourself defeats the purpose. There is no need to take out bodyguards, no need to make them your sleeper agents and no need to study a warchiefs weaknesses if you can just handle yourself in the combat.

Now that was a semi-lenthy discourse on the Nemesis system, mostly because you can see its potential and it pains me to admit that it didn't get a chance to shine. The rest of the game is just such a horribly bland and drab affair, its lack of inspiration feels like an insult. Surely a lot more could be done with this setting and I'm not even going to discuss whether or not this is in line with the vision people have of Middle-Earth, since that never interests me anyway. I also really disliked the blabbering of our token Dwarf companion, I do not see how he is more than just an annoying cliché. People seem to love him to, so have at it my friends. However, despite all my complaints, the game still manages to take a massive dump on everything it seemingly tried to build up in its last half hour. It really is a greatest hits show of everything wrong with this game:

Spoiler: The last 30 minutes

From the Black hand's commandos which are laughably easy (some died before their cursory introduction speech), to the terrible 'fight' with The Tower (which right before the end of the game exposes the weaknesses of the stealth system one last painful time) to the last QTE scene, it was all quite terrible and all the worst aspects of the game leaving you at the end. Also, the ending hinted at the whole game being inconsequential anyway (narratively speaking), without showing you how or why.

The more you touch the game and reflect on it, the poorer it comes across. It's a real shame of the potential and the first 10 hours of the game, which were a genuine good time. I guess I could say as a closing statement something that is perhaps the biggest slight, yet in my opinion rings totally true:

I'm not even angry, I'm disappointed

 

[Greg White]

I liked the game. It may not be something I go back to as a standby, but I may play it again.

The challenges were the best part, though helping that one retarded orc become warboss and then killing off the other 4 was great fun, plus I got to see some of Mordor than just the wasteland.

 

[DrGonzo]

I liked the game but the story was a letdown.I couldnt tell you any of the supporting character names at all. The Nemesis system is kinda cool but after a while it lost its luster for me. The combat is ripped straight from the Batman games (complete with stun and beatdown abilities) but its still fun here and feels like a pretty good fit for the game. The environments were kind of a letdown, nothing felt very organic and there wasnt a whole lot of landmarks to make things interesting.

Overall I would give it probably a 7 in retrospect. Mechanically it works pretty damn well but it feels kinda souless after everything is said and done. Like a mish-mash of other games that cant really seem to find its own identity.

 

[pyramid head grape]

IT would be nice to have more over-powered orges too many died to almost no effort and remove Shadow Strike as it was unbeileveable!

all in all the earily parts of the game where some hard cookies, but only beacause I didn't unlock some of the abilitys namely Shadow Strike!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I've never played it but I've seen some videos about it. I want to play it, but since it's on the new AND old consoles I'm not sure if I should wait a year or more to get it for a new console or wait a year or so for the price to drop anyway. I've been having that problem with most 2014 games actually...I didn't think that problem would exist at this point. Anyway, I'm really interested by the warring-faction thing going on...I want a specific Orc to hate my guts and want me dead! Angry Joe made it look like a ton of fun to finally kill a rival.

 

[Pr0]

I went in with low expectations and those expectations were exceeded.

I think for what the game is, which is a fluid, well designed orgy of combat built into a world story that is relatively acceptable, characters that at least fill expected story roles and what not...its not a bad game all told.

Its certainly no worse than the crap Ubisoft has been putting out lately.

Its a solid 4 of 5 on my scale, all the right elements are there, but the story and relatively expected characters in the storyline drag it down a bit from true greatness.

 

[James0026]

I like the game! The graphics for this game looked very good.

 

[Hofstadter]

It was ok, though I just didnt have the will to play it after the second map. I finished taming the Draug and I felt like I had seen everything the game had to offer.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I wouldn't call it game of the year or anything, but I did have an awful lot of fun with it. I put over a hundred hours into the game according to the time counter thingy.

All in all though, I think it's a design crying out for a different license. I've said this to anyone who'll listen, but this feels like a Star Wars game to me. Or rather, what I'd like to see out of a Star Wars game. Substitute Mandalorians or Sith or heck even Droids for Uruk and make the protagonist of the story someone akin to Starkiller and his kinda good but kinda evil too so you can justify the more violent aspects of the combat and then you'd really have something.

As it is, it's a great game that I really enjoyed and I hope other companies rip off the ideas behind the Nemesis system. I'd like to see more of that in other games, in other genres even. And mostly, lets get someone on building that Star Wars game I talked about. Since EA holds the Star Wars license for the foreseeable future, I can only hope someone there is paying attention.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

I thought it was lots of fun. little on the easy side, but that's mostly because they gave you sooo many tools to use and i like having options like that. combat is really fun and that's coming from someone who hates the arkham games combat. the games story? crap and pretty thin, but the story you created in the game using the captains and what have you was really good. the comments yahtzee made about lone orc captains and all that i find very true. it was more fun for me to concoct scenarios and pit certain captains against one another. i think a better story under the hood would make it a game of the year contender for me so far. it's just fun to play. i'm not a difficulty snob i don't get off on how hard a game is, i don't like dark souls even a little i think it's combat is incredibly limited. the combat in this actually felt like entertainment, you know, recreational.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Too easy, too generic and the only worthwhile thing about it is the Nemesis System that should have been in a better game to take better advantage of it (I barely saw it in action because of how easy it was).

Egh, I wish I could disagree more with you, but alas. I had some fun with the gameplay and the Nemesis system, but, and I assume this is recognisable for a good many of you, as an Arkham veteran the combat went from not all that challenging to completely unengaging and that's with only 75% of the ability tree unlocked. The lack of difficulty is normally not a problem for me (read: Assassin's Creed games) and I love the power fantasy element of it in most games. The problem is that being good at this game totally undermines the Nemesis system and steals its thunder. When you have hardly any recurring Uruks and the ones that do are being easily defeated again and again, the suspension of disbelief required to make the Nemesis system work is shattered. When you get the branding it is fun to have a Warchief be sabotaged by your mindcontrolled Uruks, but not needing them at all and being able to handle Warchiefs by yourself defeats the purpose. There is no need to take out bodyguards, no need to make them your sleeper agents and no need to study a warchiefs weaknesses if you can just handle yourself in the combat.

Now that was a semi-lenthy discourse on the Nemesis system, mostly because you can see its potential and it pains me to admit that it didn't get a chance to shine. The rest of the game is just such a horribly bland and drab affair, its lack of inspiration feels like an insult. Surely a lot more could be done with this setting and I'm not even going to discuss whether or not this is in line with the vision people have of Middle-Earth, since that never interests me anyway. I also really disliked the blabbering of our token Dwarf companion, I do not see how he is more than just an annoying cliché. People seem to love him to, so have at it my friends. However, despite all my complaints, the game still manages to take a massive dump on everything it seemingly tried to build up in its last half hour. It really is a greatest hits show of everything wrong with this game:

Spoiler: The last 30 minutes

From the Black hand's commandos which are laughably easy (some died before their cursory introduction speech), to the terrible 'fight' with The Tower (which right before the end of the game exposes the weaknesses of the stealth system one last painful time) to the last QTE scene, it was all quite terrible and all the worst aspects of the game leaving you at the end. Also, the ending hinted at the whole game being inconsequential anyway (narratively speaking), without showing you how or why.

The more you touch the game and reflect on it, the poorer it comes across. It's a real shame of the potential and the first 10 hours of the game, which were a genuine good time. I guess I could say as a closing statement something that is perhaps the biggest slight, yet in my opinion rings totally true:

I'm not even angry, I'm disappointed

I am just quoting you because this is entirely how I feel about the game. The first 10 hours were a blast, a bit easy but engaging and great fun. The last 8 hours I had to force my way through in 40 minute segments because the game became too easy and too repetitive. The Nemesis system failed because I was too good at the game, due to my previous fascination with Arkham City. So instead of an engaging system where I was dying and taking revenge it became one long trail of dead captains as I never had any problems with taking them down or staying alive.

It was a good concept let down by a too easy combat system and a driving mechanic that relied on the player not being very good at the game.