Poll: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. First Impressions?

[higgs20]

I want to believe guys, I want to believe. I guess that puts me in the cautiously optimistic range for the moment.

It looks like it could be a stellar mix of mechanics I already know and love, like the Ass Creed style climby-runny goodness that makes (most of) the creed games so fun to play and navigate around and the acrobatic, combo based combat that attracted me to the Arkham games with a few new interesting ideas thrown into the mix to spice things up a bit. The idea of the creating double agents and assassins within enemy ranks is all very in keeping with the gorilla warfare I would Imagine you'd have to employ when facing down a large armed an armored enemy. plus the nemesis system seems like at the very least a novel idea, if it's pulled off right it could add a bit of weight to combat decisions and add a little depth to stop the enemies becoming 'generic orc filth A'

In short, I'm excited and I probably shouldn't be. it's too early for that shit really, so what does everyone think? Is it a good idea? A terrible attempt to shoehorn LORT into the assassins creed format? let the world (well, the Escapist forum) know!

 

[Smooth Operator]

I'm really sick of the AC mechanics so I am not happy with this, then they added permanent x-ray mode, QTE combat, flashy attack telegraphing,... just no expense spared to make it really fucking annoying.
Nor am I happy with their intent to procedurally generate and warp the main characters... how about you just get a good writer and do shit properly.

I get it, they are pulling together all the most popular gaming tropes in an attempt to create next smash hit, but that sort of design by pie-chart I find plain awful.

 

[BrotherRool]

It doesn't seem very LOTR'y at all, the protagonist doesn't move like a ranger should. Instead of feeling aware and focused the animation and design seems to be going for 'badass and doesn't care'. He literally struts. So that bothers me a lot, and of course the escapist article nailed it when they said the story felt like fan-fiction. But then I haven't played a Lord of the Rings game with a decent story unless it was directly copying the film. It's really hard not to make it feel like fan-fiction.

I do like that they're going to try some new things, and the under cover in enemy territory seems cool. Assassins Creed has always had great gameplay and it's actually a lot of fun sticking that into an enemy setting, particularly an entirely hostile one.


It's great they're trying something new with the nemesis system, but I'm pretty sure it's going to suck. They did a lot of talking and all I heard was 'lack of meaningful encounters'. There's just going to be a list of triggers for everything you do and then when you fight an enemy he'll say 'You'll pay for [trigger]' and then he'll die like every other boss

 

[josemlopes]

It doesnt look like LOTR but it does look like a cool game, the best would be to drop the LOTR name and world but the name itself sells so that wont happen.

Either way I liked what I saw, I am just hoping that it has actuall stealth and not the kind that is in AC. Since this uses procedurall content the quality and longevity really depend a lot on the amount of variables, what we saw now looked cool but if all assassinations mean that the assassin will just stand in a room next to the target, remove 10% of health and die then it will become very repetitive very soon.

 

[black_knight1337]

Nor am I happy with their intent to procedurally generate and warp the main characters... how about you just get a good writer and do shit properly.

Procedurally generated content isn't a "proper" way of doing things? Sure it's riskier than having everything done through the usual means but if it gets done right the rewards are huge. I mean, who doesn't want a game which can be played over and over and deliver different and good stories every time(Well, for a while at least).

OT: I think it's looking pretty good. Having some QTEs is a bit of a downer but otherwise I'm looking forward to it. Gameplay looks very Arkham/Assassin's Creed which is good and the nemesis system sounds great. Just hoping they can pull off the procedurally generated content properly.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I'm not sold on it yet and it's definitely not the The Lord of the Rings game I was hoping for. A lot of the mechanics are good, sure, like the Assassin's Creed climbing and Eagle Vision and the Batman combat system but watching the gameplay demo did feel like I was watching a game made by a group of people who just took mechanics from popular games without any thought. On top of that, I'm not sure I buy the touted Nemesis system and I'm not sure how much of it will just be a gimmick. Still, hopefully it'll be fun and if it looks decent I'll pick it up but right now it hasn't excited me.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Well, it's about Middle Earth after all, that alone is enough to get it on my radar.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Cautiously optimistic. While other people may dislike the Arkham-Assassin-Dishonored type gameplay, I think it looks fun. It's still not the type of LotR game I've been wanting for a while.

 

[StormShaun]

Snip

Just a heads up, you may want to edit in the demon or gameplay trailer of the game.
Cause after I heard about it from some of the responses from here, I watched it and it changed my opinion from "Meh" to "On my radar".

So that would be good for the newcomers to the game and thread, it will also possibly back-up any good points about the game instead of the people focusing on the bad.

*Ahem*

Okay from what I saw, sure it was definitely similar to Assassins Creed, but that felt pretty unique ... it also said "sandbox" right? A explore-able Middle Earth sounds great. The terror part looked unique or fun at the very least ... and blood, lots of blood to see from them dirty orks.

Plus, that relation system certainly seems to make things interesting and personal.

BUT, it may have many faults that I do not know yet.
I'm worried about the main character and setting, especially since I see more potential for a game based after the damn main LotR books/movies.

Still, I will remain paranoid but keep it on my radar for now.

 

[Robert Marrs]

Keeping an eye on it. Not going to get excited though. Something tells me it will either be really good or a total flop.

 

[Saetha]

Yeah, I just looked up the gameplay videos online. It... frankly, it looks like Corvo Attano escaped into Westeros. When they started listing off the "Mulitple ways to reach your target" I could've sworn they were reciting the blurb from the back of the Dishonored box. And they've even got the "Left hand glows with supernatural assassin powers" thing. Also...is that what the game's going to look like? Isn't Middle Earth supposed to be... you know, pretty? Or atleast, not so brown? I'm not exactly versed in LOTR lore, but... the environments look awful. Maybe other areas in the game will be prettier? But then, why show-case that area in particular?

On the other hand, the Assassin's Creed-esque free-running looks neat, and so does the nemesis system and creating spies and assassins in enemy ranks. But if that's all the game's got to offer... Dunno. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm not exactly excited.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Procedurally generated content isn't a "proper" way of doing things? Sure it's riskier than having everything done through the usual means but if it gets done right the rewards are huge. I mean, who doesn't want a game which can be played over and over and deliver different and good stories every time(Well, for a while at least).

No it's not a proper way and there are no rewards, it's just a cheap way around paying designers, which is cool for games like Terraria/Minecraft/Starbound because they are cheap.

But when you do that in a game where it's all top production value that sort of thing feels shit, yes mathematically you get an infinite number of variations but practically you just get a whole lot of random nonsense, because a randomiser doesn't knows what makes a scene shine and a designer does.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's ripping off shit left and right.

That doesn't change the fact that it did a number on my hype meter. So yeah, colour me quite impressed.

The most impressive to me though was actually the facial animations on Ratbag.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If they can deliver on the promises in that trailer, then I will give it a shot. I just hope I can shut off the part of my brain that will be screaming about all the horrible things this game is going to do to the Lord of the Rings lore. Inner Wraith powers? Ugh...

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I'm skeptical, but it's ambitious enough to get on my radar.

Why'd they make Talion carry two swords like a witcher though, are they trying to make it look like everything in the game is a rip-off?

 

[Mikejames]

I don't know if I've enjoyed a Lord of The Rings game since the PS2 version of Return of The King back in middle school.
Assassin's Creed style isn't really what I imagine for this setting, but hey, maybe they'll do something interesting with it?

Nor am I happy with their intent to procedurally generate and warp the main characters... how about you just get a good writer and do shit properly.

I'm all for potential choices impacting a story, but I don't know about attempting to procedurally generate a whole cast of characters. From a cynical point of view I wouldn't imagine the changes to be very in-depth, if they're meant to be unique to every playthrough.