The nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor is bananas!!

[Blitsie]

I must admit, when I initially heard of the nemesis system I was very skeptical, making every bog-standard mook unique and able to organically grow into something terrifying? Hah, like that will ever be possible..

(TL;DR at the end)

...And that is when I met Noruk the Skinner. Quite a silly looking orc really, lacking in a nose and quite honestly, any intimidating features, he was part of this one captain's entourage who I was planning to eliminate. Surprisingly, things only went south after I beheaded the captain since I underestimated the sheer size of the mob accompanying him and had barely a sliver of health left when I got down to the last three orcs, one of which was him. I mistimed a counter and got brought down by one orc, only to have him deliver the killing blow, which sadly, I also failed to counter.

A quick visit to the Sauron's Army screen showed him now joining the ranks as a new captain, "meh" I thought, "he won't last long", and went on doing other missions, one of which was a duel between two random captains. I proceeded to waste both of them and who do I run into? Noruk who was busy chilling with another captain just outside the area, it was here when his personality traits finally showed: he was a coward, and let the army of orcs surrounding him do the dirty work. The addition of another captain made him quite confident though, and rightly so, because what ensued was a tag team match where I got absolutely destroyed by the two before the surrounding army could even touch me.

Now its personal, forget the main quest, forget everything, this orc is going down and going down hard. After respawning I got notified he is recruiting more orcs at a nearby stronghold and bolted off towards him to finally end things. I get there and I rush headfirst past the mob surrounding him, gunning straight for his throat, swords clash into a struggle and he insults me for dying so much, now ITS REALLY PERSONAL. In a blind rage I throw him back and start wailing into the orcs surrounding me instead, I want this to be a one-on-one between us and nothing will stop me from achieving that.

What ensued was the most epic fight I've ever had in a game, one orc sounded the alarm and the number quickly grew from 20 odd orcs to over 50 of them just flooding from every hole in the ruin, surrounding me. Rain started falling, getting heavier and the sky darker as lightning drowns out the sound of steel against steel and orcs screaming. Like the spirit of vengeance I am, I danced through the orcs with ferocious poise, beheading and dodging and stabbing, one by one they fell as Noruk just stood behind witnessing the slaughter. 20 minutes passed before that fight ended.

Fatigued, I stood over the corpses of many, but far from done, I started slowly walking to Noruk. Scared shitless I bet, he blew into a horn, a call for help, but a futile attempt sadly, for nary an orc was left in this place but him. Before he could draw his sword I was already cutting away at him, hit after hit, jab after jab, he finally collapsed to the floor and had no choice but to accept his fate. Unfortunately his health was still too much and he countered my killing blow, taking a dagger in the side instead of the face, pushing me away. At this rate his cowardice showed and he started booting it, "not happening!" I said to myself as I chased him, only to see I was indeed wrong as two elite captains showed up (both with mobs) to save the day and started wailing away at me. Sadly I was overwhelmed and had no choice but to run away myself. Bruised, battered, I stood on top of a tower, looking out into the horizon in utter defeat, swearing that next time, Noruk, you will perish by my hand.

As of current time, he's been doing tons of executions (never a duel, always the easy way, like the coward he is) which has helped him grow in considerable power, he's become well established and quite feared within the ranks, as other orcs literally talk about him when I pass them. I've been growing in power myself though and now see he's hosting a feast to celebrate, hopefully this will be his last one ever...

Gosh this game is freaking awesome, how a random mook I couldn't care less about randomly became something so memorable, something that I so freaking hate (yet love) is just crazy. Hats off to you Monolith, you guys really nailed it just like you said.

You guys also loving this game as much as I am right now?

TL;DR: Random mook killed me, became a captain and minor character, killed me again, he got stronger, I got pissed, I set out for revenge and failed, now planning second try. He proceeded to become the most memorable boss and character ever for me. All of this completely random and not-scripted and extremely well executed. Anyone else also loving this as much as I am?

 

[Sleepy Sol]

It's definitely the best part of the game for me. Seeing the tiny little uruk that just happened to get the last shot on you rise in the ranks is pretty hilarious.

I think my most hilarious moment was killing a warchief, seeing his bodyguard get promoted to warchief immediately while he was fleeing in fear, and subsequently killing him as well in a few seconds.

If I remember correctly that put one of my Branded captains in his place, so...pretty sweet deal. I love the different personalities present in all the uruks and all of the voice work is top notch.

 

[Blitsie]

Hahaha, supposedly they also sometimes say that they didn't want to be put in the captain position because of you straight up murdering everyone the whole time. Its great how the game is jam packed with tiny details like that.

I must admit I haven't reached the second half of the game yet though, currently just having too much fun messing about with the captains, but man that branding feature sounds crazy fun.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Yeah. I'm loving the Nemesis system. It makes it feel as though the world isn't just being acted upon. It acts with you and sometimes without you.

 

[Tyran107]

While that is a very good story, and I do like how a simple orc peon can gain power and work up the ranks, I was very disappointed in the system overall. My main issue being the fact that none of the power players/duels/recruitment/etc. are actually carried out unless you specifically do a time skip or go to the missions. As long as you don't die the orcs never progress no matter how much time you waste faffing about or doing missions. This was made painfully obvious when I realised at one point when hunting down the first group of warchiefs that there wasn't a single captain alive. There were 5 chiefs and a field of dead captains on the army screen with no replacements to be found unless I told the game to advance time.

 

[Elfgore]

Similar story of my own. I'm gonna tell it anyway since it's so awesome.

This is the story of Flak the Crow. Who went all the way from lowly spear-thrower, to elite captain. Talion was doing a raid on an Uruk stronghold. Talion made a few mistakes and found himself in dire straights. While trying to escape, an Uruk spear-thrower got him in the back. Not giving him time to defend himself, the Uruk threw another spear. Slaying the mighty ranger. Flak then was promoted to captain. Flak immediately took a challenge to become a warchief's bodyguard. Even with Talion interfering, his challenge was a success and he even made Talion flee. Talion returned, this time to claim his life. Talion miscalculated his attack and ended up killing one of his guards. This made the second time Flak claimed Talion's life. The next time, Talion did not make a mistake. He slayed Flak with a knife to the neck. Talion continued on his way, only to have Flak the Crow return from the dead. His face now changed with scars and a metal plate. Talion managed to easily dispatch of Flak this time. Breaking into his mind for intel, then breaking it. Flak then returned again, this time brain-damaged. Unable to even form simple sentences, Flak merely stated "Kill." Before fighting Talion. This time, Talion cut off Flak's head. So ending the tale of Flak the Crow, Captain of Mordor.

That was easily the coolest of my stories. I've had some good ones with one Uruk being a poet. I'm mad I got him so early. He would have been my first pick for warchief.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Well damn.

I guess I'm getting this game then. I'm holding you responsible for putting me out $50

 

[VoidWanderer]

I really hope other games take this system to their games like people did with the Batman fighting system

 

[Jak2364]

Dammit people, stop making me regret buying Destiny instead of this!

Seriously though, I wish I had looked at this game more before I bought Destiny...The nemesis system sounds awesome. Is there a lot of content in it? Does it feel like a full experience?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Dammit people, stop making me regret buying Destiny instead of this!

Seriously though, I wish I had looked at this game more before I bought Destiny...The nemesis system sounds awesome. Is there a lot of content in it? Does it feel like a full experience?

It is very suspension of disbelief dependent. If you can maintain a narrative in your head as to why things are happening as they are then it probably looks cool as hell.
But I am personally not a fan of RNG content and to me it plainly looks like randomly generated NPCs moving on a board at random, you can manipulate that board to some extent but a solid story that does not make, it is all very by the numbers.

You could probably equate that to Destiny, as long as you believe there is a good reason for the grind then there always will be, but if you peek behind the curtain that sham quickly becomes transparent.

 

[Blacklight28]

Dammit people, stop making me regret buying Destiny instead of this!

Seriously though, I wish I had looked at this game more before I bought Destiny...The nemesis system sounds awesome. Is there a lot of content in it? Does it feel like a full experience?

I've put about 9 or so hours into it so far and some of the smaller details are still surprising me. I attacked a warchief but unfortunately his bodyguard managed to get the better of me. The next time I ran into that particular orc I thought, wait a moment, does he look uglier than usual? The game had remembered that I'd been favoring a particular magic stun attack and added a disfigurement to the orc's face, which he even commented on.

There are points in the nemesis system that can get a bit tedious and you can see it start to repeat itself, but overall it's difficult not to get sucked in and building grudges against some of these guys.

 

[halisme]

Let me tell you the tail of Lugnug the Stout.

There was once a simple Uruk named Lugnug. He was a simple Orc, and was helping his friend, Mushlug become Warchief in a Caragor hunt. Talion came, intending to kill Mushlug, but Lugnug wouldn't let his friend be killed, and managed to kill Talion, him becoming a captain and gaining the title, the Stout. Lugnug always stayed by his friend's side, acting as a bodyguard, all the while getting stronger by hosting feasts and duels.
Eventually Talion came from Mushlug, sneaking into his base and killing his supporters to draw him out. Lugnug stayed by his friend, till Talion descended upon them, dropping down on Mushlug and killing him in one go. Lugnug was angered by this, and charged at Talion, forcing the ranger to flee, but not before burning Lugnug's face.
Lugnug continued his work, rising in power, longing for the day he'd get to kill Talion, and they would meet again, but this time, the Uruk would not be the victor. He was hoasting a feast, one that could only be assumed was to mourn his friend, when Talion attacked. Their blades met, and Lugnug cursed Talion, revealing the burn marks upon his face. Instead of claiming his vengeance, he was knocked unconscious by Talion, who had cut off his arm and left him for dead.
He visited his friend, by the name of Draza the Blacksmith, having a metal claw put on his arm to replace his hand. He was given good chance to test it, as Talion arrived. Once again, he almost felled Talion, but was delayed when a piece of Caragor bait was dropped, attracting the beasts and allowing Talion to escape.
The game of cat and mouse continued, neither managing to kill the other, but Lugnug getting more wounded, his skin turning pale, scars marking his flesh, and his face getting so badly burned he covered it with a burlap sack. One night, Lugnug was on patrol, killing the Ghuls that attacked him, till Talion came. The pair duelled, exchanging blows and cuts till morning, and only one of them stood. Lugnug, had won, and claimed the title of warchief.
This lead Talion to gain strength, becoming more skilled and learning the ability to brand others. He found both of his nemesis's bodyguards, corrupting them before having one of his warchiefs declare a riot on Lugnug. Talion arrived to see the fight begin, activating his sleeper agents and having them strike their former lord in the back.
Lugnug would not bare this insolence, and he cut his foes down one by one, till only the rival warchief, and one of Lugnug's former bodyguards was left. Talion descended now, with the intention of giving Lugnug the demise he deserved. and this time, he would win. He knocked his rival to the ground, the Uruk declaring he had been a worthy foe, and he would take his death well. Talion struck, decapitating Lugnug and sending his head to the floor.

Yes, the nemesis system is awesome.

 

[Blitsie]

Dammit people, stop making me regret buying Destiny instead of this!

Seriously though, I wish I had looked at this game more before I bought Destiny...The nemesis system sounds awesome. Is there a lot of content in it? Does it feel like a full experience?

Surprisingly full so far, the orcs get their own randomly assigned strengths and weaknesses (which give them their own personality), one captain I dealt with was deathly afraid of Caragors (those hyena monster things) so I decided to ride one right into him and before anyone could even react he was already running like a bat out of hell, its quite hilarious. Another one actually gets enraged at the sight of them, making him harder to kill. I also heard of one player having a disgruntled orc captain actively stalk him.

The orcs also constantly vie for power and the situations they get into are put up as event missions on the map, which range from having a feast (where you can go poison the grog) to a duel to even orcish rituals where they show off their power by fighting a beast, its up to you to interfere or not, since they resolve themselves regardless and could result in either a dead captain or a stronger one. Sadly, like Tyran107 says, it all flows organically till a certain extent, where you will have to skip a day (done via map) to have things progress on the hierarchy, but its not too bad. All in all, there's a lot to the system and the less you know walking in, the more awesome and surprising its going to be.

Outside the nemesis system you have quite a bit to do too, ranging from various side missions to hunting and herb gathering challenges, even the collectibles are great because you actually get something out of collecting them, whether its a bit of interesting backstory or a new insignia on a mysterious door, you're actually compelled to get them. Overall its just a great game for me so far, not a huge long one from what I've seen, but a great 25-30 hour romp that I will definitely be replaying a lot throughout the years.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

I must suck at the game. >_> The Nemesis system seems to not get fully utilized by me, since I tend to kill the captains left and right after the initial difficulties I had with the game. <_< Heck, since I got the "Poison Grog" ability, I've accidentally killed 4 captains by it. Hilarious, but saddening.

But yeah, I got myself a little too overpowered by the first couple hours of the game, I have just made Ratbag warchief and I'm already close to being fully upgraded in abilities, health, arrows, focus, and weapons. Maybe I'm just too good as the ranger and "skip time" some.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Stuff like this makes me want to stick with this game. I bought it on Friday and haven't played it much because every time I try to go anywhere or do anything I seem to just randomly run into Orc Captains around every fucking corner. It's like I accidentally ran into a fucking club meeting of the bastards. Every combat encounter seems to end up with like 2 of the enemies being Captains, apropos of nothing, so I always have to brick it as fast as I can or else get my arse absolutely handed to me on a decorative platter.

Not saying it's not fun, just a tad irritating when you want to do something only to randomly bump into multiple Captains that just happened to all be hanging around the exact same spot for no reason.

But I will say my favourite Captain in my game so far is the one that I stood on a clifftop and watched get absolutely pounded into dust by a random giant troll that he mysteriously decided to try and fight one-on-one. That was pretty bizarre.

 

[Azahul]

Surprisingly full so far, the orcs get their own randomly assigned strengths and weaknesses (which give them their own personality), one captain I dealt with was deathly afraid of Caragors (those hyena monster things) so I decided to ride one right into him and before anyone could even react he was already running like a bat out of hell, its quite hilarious. Another one actually gets enraged at the sight of them, making him harder to kill. I also heard of one player having a disgruntled orc captain actively stalk him.

That certainly happened to me. He was the only captain in the Sea of Nurnen I hadn't got around to dominating. I went in to fight him, but a Caragor got mixed up in the battle and et him. Weirdly, when I let myself get killed by a passing grunt, the grunt challenged one of my captains instead of just taking the vacant spot. A little while later, that captain showed up again from the dead, covered in scars from Caragor claws, and chased me across a fortress with alarm bells ringing. Eventually I lured him away from the pack of grunts following him and made him mine, but it was a helluva chase.

I finished the game yesterday, including most of the side missions (didn't get around to tracking down all the Outcast things, but I did all the weapon challenges and then went and dominated every Captain on both maps). My favourite character, without a doubt, was Mogg the Gutless. When I first met him he was a lowly Defender who managed to kill me. Upon being promoted to captain, he only went up to Rank 4. When I gathered some intel and looked at his strengths and weaknesses, I had to laugh. He had no Strengths. At all. On top of that, he had four weaknesses (stealth, combat finishers, ranged attacks, mount attacks) and no fewer than seven separate fears (burning, caragors, graug, betrayal, morgul flies, ghuls, and of another nearby captain whose name I forgot).

Well, suffice to say, I had to have him on my side. I tracked down Mogg and tried to Dominate him. It was a long and hilariously delicate battle, with me trying to avoid using any attack that might kill him due to his weaknesses. When he got down to low health he bolted, and got away. I had to track him down a second time and repeat the process. That time it worked, I dominated him. I then made him the bodyguard of one of the Warchiefs and had him carry out a betrayal. Thanks to my help, it succeeded.

And then things got really fun. Upon becoming Warchief, Mogg "the Gutless" suddenly got a whole lot bolder. Specifically, his new strength, his first one ever, was the "Fearless" trait. The poor runt, scared of everything, would now fight like a pitbull and never falter in the name of his master, Talion. At this point he was still only rank 11. I was so impressed that I sent him on 9 riot missions against lower ranking captains in order to level him up to the maximum rank of 20. And in every story mission where you bring your dominated Warchiefs with you, Mogg the Gutless stood at the forefront and led the assembled forces of Talion into battle. I ended the game with him still standing. He has three bodyguards, no weaknesses besides his Branding, and an impressive list of positive traits. At some point he copped some pretty nasty scarring that means he now has a metal plate hammered into his head. Watching the poor little weasel actually rise to that level of power has been a pure joy, far more interesting than the game's own story.

 

[Amaror]

I remember on particular ork. For the first few attempts at some warchiefs lives i was acting kind of dump and didn't kill the bodyguards beforehand. After a while i realized i had to kill the bodyguards and did it with everyone except one. It was an unfurtunate situation, because i even helped him advance at some point, because i killed the ork, he was in the process of executing.
Now this particular ork had advanced from a berserker, meaning he could block all my regular attacks. Additionaly he had a power of 23 (!!!) now and had gained a lot of strengths.

- Berserker meant regular attacks were always blocked.
- Battle master meant combat finishers were blocked.
- One strength made it impossible to jump over him.
- Another strength made it impossible to stun him.
- He was also immune to stealth finishers.

I eventually took him down by repeatedly shooting him in the face, running away, draining a random ork, and repeat. But damn there was a great history of failed attempts at his life. He was also very ugly, since i burned him trying to kill him during a hunt, but he managed to finish the hunt while i was attacking him, which meant he gained new power and healed himself, then killed me to get even more power.
It was crazy fun. A really great system that creates really memorable moments.

 

[The_Darkness]

There's supposedly a mild downgrade of the Nemesis system on X360 and PS3. Does anyone know how much of a difference that makes? Otherwise - yes, I want this game, and I'm glad to hear that the Nemesis system is as awesome as it sounds.

 

[Zipa]

Stuff like this makes me want to stick with this game. I bought it on Friday and haven't played it much because every time I try to go anywhere or do anything I seem to just randomly run into Orc Captains around every fucking corner. It's like I accidentally ran into a fucking club meeting of the bastards. Every combat encounter seems to end up with like 2 of the enemies being Captains, apropos of nothing, so I always have to brick it as fast as I can or else get my arse absolutely handed to me on a decorative platter.

Not saying it's not fun, just a tad irritating when you want to do something only to randomly bump into multiple Captains that just happened to all be hanging around the exact same spot for no reason.

But I will say my favourite Captain in my game so far is the one that I stood on a clifftop and watched get absolutely pounded into dust by a random giant troll that he mysteriously decided to try and fight one-on-one. That was pretty bizarre.

If it helps you can use spoiler for those that haven't played the game

Spoiler

ghost mode

to identify who is a captain.

 

[gigastar]

Things do get considerably more interesting when you unlock branding.

Nice ittle cruelties like setting a warchief on 3 of his own bodyguards.

That and once, a random orc that i branded made captain.