The nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor is bananas!!

[Outcast107]

Let me retell the tale of Otha the Ugly.

Otha was a Uruk low rank captain, out on patrol to kill something, anything really that would please his bloodlust. Until a Ranger name Talion came along and fought him one and on. While Talion was still new to the whole wraith powers, he fell to Otha blade once. Gaining the low captain some power within the horde.

Talion, angered by this, sought out the orc to end his lowly life. They fought but due to his minions nearby push Talion back. Talion would come back to claim the orc head again and again, each time getting closer to ending the orc life. Until one fight, with no minions to back him up, Talion slice up his already ugly face with his blade, ending the orc life. At least, what Talion thought at first. While out hunting for another orc captain, Otha ambush him for revenge and almost killed the Wraith.

With quick thinking, he mention to held off both orcs, causing both to flee away while their minions held off Talion. Time and time again, Talion and Otha clash against each other. With either one winning, or running away. Until Talion cut off the Orc's ugly head and finally ended his life.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

My goodness after reading this thread im watching my download of shadows of mordor on steam with bated breath.

 

[ScaredScorpion]

I had this happen to me with an Uruk named Mozu the Proud. Except he came back. All the time. He's come back 7 times so far, haven't been able to put him down for good yet.

Maybe he's a cat, gotta kill him 9 times

I've had a few memorable uruks. One I encountered when he was a low level captain, when I looked at his stats I found he was afraid of almost everything (Caragors, Ghuls, Morgai Flies, and Burning). I felt kinda sorry for him so I decided to make him a warchief later, I continued on with the story and eventually he was promoted to a warchief. When I came back I decided to make him even stronger, so I sent him a death threat or 2 and started branding captains making them attempt to betray him. Whenever they tried I killed them making him stronger. Eventually he was level 20 and I decided it was time to collect, got my first level 25 rune from him.

Another favourite was finding an uruk that was afraid of betrayal... let that sink in for a moment... so I made him a warchief as well, branded his bodyguard and the fight was over before it began

 

[sXeth]

Spoiler: The once handsome Tharak the Rash

Tharak here killed me once in my early days. In successive battles, I've assaulted his mind with wraith magic, stabbed him in the throat, thrown him off a cliff. He had a couple of minor victories, forcing me to flee his forces. In our last encounter, I lit him on fire with explosives, and let my Caragor finish the work on his face.

His most recent arrival, showing up to ambush me while I entangled with my other longtime rival, Ushgol Ghul Hunter, who has escaped my final blow on three prior occasions by means of having a squad of hunters show up to cover his retreat. Joined by a third captain, they forced my retreat, though Ushgol decided to pursue me alone rather foolishly, and was quickly assaulted, and with no cover fire, fell to my arrows as he retreated.

 

[EmperorZinyak]

Just wanted to say that the game is very well optimized on PC. I just got it and it runs perfectly at 60 fps on a mix of ultra/high textures with my crappy r7 260x.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Lugdash Scar Artist was the bane of my existence. I lowly mook archer that managed to get in a lucky shot and started to climb up the ranks. Seeking revenge I searched him and ran him through with my sword, as well as scaring up his face. Now the score was even and Lugdash wanted revenge. He began to hunt me and a game of cat mouse began. I would kill him, he would come and kill me (I think he came back around six times) He would show up at the worst of times, usually after a long battle with other Captains and after fighting Cragars. The worst though was when he along with Udnuk the Hateful showed up as I fought Tugog the Guardian. His ability to sense me my downfall.

Angry I began to seek and attack Lugdash, now a Level 20 captain, with poisoned arrows. I attacked his Trial by Ordeal (died) his Feast (died) his Recruitment (died), and almost every time I would almost die after one or two hits by his powerful bow and his poison. The worst part though was the pity. See Lugdash would not finish opponents who he felt did not put him a good fight, so often on the verge of death he would walk away. Now finally I found him by the Black Gate and I put my sword right through his skull. Satisfied I walked away, only to find an hour later he was back, wearing a bag. Now we fought in the ruins of Mordor. After a long battle I gave a mighty heave of my sword and I rendered his head from his shoulders. But I did not feel the satisfaction I thought I would. Instead I felt empty. I had been hunting him so long now that he had become more than just an Uruk, more than something to be slain. He had become a rival, and a reflection of myself. We were both Scar Artists and I miss him. May he find new skin for his artistry in the afterlife.

 

[Austin93]

I have a story to add, one of an orc I've taken to calling Mr. Frog-Lips. He's actually called something Frog-Blood, but I can never remember his name. Anyway, he tended to favour poisoned throwing spears that dealt quite a bit of damage. Coupled with the poison, they got me to within one hit of death whenever he hit me. Needless to say, my first encounter with him didn't last long.

Alright I thought, time to hunt this guy down. Rounds 2 and 3 didn't go much better for me though, so I decided first I'll need some information on him. That's when I saw this might be a difficult task. Invulnerable to stealth, ranged, combat damage and finishers and he had the trait that makes them able to kill mounts really easily. On my own, one on one with nothing else around, I literally could not do damage to this guy. I could stun him into oblivion, but that was about it. The only thing I had going for me and the only weakness he had was a fear of burning. Only problem was he was about 150 ft from the nearest fire.

So I lead him on a merry chase, dodging spears all the while, to this fire place, finally getting him close to it and detonating it. The fear kicked in, I grabbed him and threw him off a nearby edge, kind of my signature move at that point alongside repeated shiving. Finally, he was dead, gone, forever wiped from this mortal plane.

Or not ...

See, this was the first orc that ever came back for me. I didn't know it was possible up until now, I really thought he'd gone for good. Next thing you know, here is again, exact same place with some scars on his face talking about how "that little fall couldn't kill me." Luckily for me, I knew how to deal with him and this time I decided a good repeated stabbing was in order.

... and he came back again, this time with a bag on his head. This is where I learned about the Battle Hardened trait. This trait means if you don't kill them with some sort of finisher, they will come back. I decided I wasn't going to make the mistake a third time, left him without a head. So far he hasn't been back, but I still go into wraith vision whenever I'm in that area, just in case.

 

[zumbledum]

I had a ranged orc as my nemisis. mozu the elder i think it was, he had a pita trait of not giving killing blows he would just mock me and leave. at the time i was wondering if the game was cheating and these fights were no win scenarios (he was ranged and one arrow dropped me), and not wanting to spoil anything but stuff happened later in the story that made me pretty sure i was right.

I like the system though i think its better in the trials of war than the main game. i ended up having the top two ranks of both maps branded by the end and so had nothing of merit to bother hunting, oops.

It needs some changing , the bodyguard betrayal for example is just massively OP. it moves a warchief out of his fortified area and puts him alone against you with just his bodyguards (which you can pre brand) making any hunt trivial. but if you resist doing that storming big strongholds without going into a phase mission is damn fine fun!

 

[Albino Boo]

Reading these posts has got me interested in the game. Just one quick question, are the controls optimised for keyboard and mouse or more like assassin's creed and works better with a controller?

 

[Blitsie]

Thanks again for all these stories guys, gosh I can't help but grin like an idiot reading them all. The nemesis system in this game is really one of the best things I've encountered in gaming in a long while. Lugdash the Scar Artist especially touched me, what could've been a friendship forged from a honorable rivalry will never be, in a different time you two would've made great friends I bet

Still on the prowl for Noruk sadly, he's been on the down low lately but has grown immensely powerful, I fear he may have shook off his cowardice since he's not as deathly afraid of Caragors anymore and has got a whole laundry list of strengths now. Currently started a small rivalry with another orc that got a lucky blow on me, thought I'd make things fun by luring a graug to the stronghold he was resting in and ended up taking out tons of captains, but not him (bastard fled). Better be swift because my general dicking around and dying has had him move up the ranks right next to Noruk, would be very bad for me if I run into both of them while trying to behead Noruk.

Also, luring that Graug into a stronghold was the damn best thing I've ever done, its too funny for words how quickly that place empties out once that thing just starts letting loose in those cramped quarters there.

 

[zumbledum]

Reading these posts has got me interested in the game. Just one quick question, are the controls optimised for keyboard and mouse or more like assassin's creed and works better with a controller?

keyboard and mouse is fine , everything's rebind able. there are a lot of buttons and some are hard to reach but i just rebound those to mouse thumb buttons , feels just fine.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I'm currently stalking some lucky little archer by the name of Morzug. Was a poxy little thing that landed a killing bow on me whilst I was murdering his captain. His captain ended up duelling and moving up the ranks and Morzug, the little bastard, got a cushy job in a stronghold with some Caragors at his back. Through a series of unfortunate events, he's gotten stronger and some new strengths and I've gotten more determined to kill him. It just seems that everytime I get close to jamming a sword through his throat something gets in the way...

 

[Albino Boo]

Reading these posts has got me interested in the game. Just one quick question, are the controls optimised for keyboard and mouse or more like assassin's creed and works better with a controller?

keyboard and mouse is fine , everything's rebind able. there are a lot of buttons and some are hard to reach but i just rebound those to mouse thumb buttons , feels just fine.

Thanks for the info, going to buy this one when I get home

 

[happyninja42]

The interesting thing about these posts, is the manifestation of a feeling of vengeance in the players. Which I find very intriguing, considering that's the driving force of the protagonist as well. To see that the game is able to foster that same motivation in the player is quite impressive.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

So I went after one of the War chiefs, a guy with an impressive list of special attacks, invulnerability to both ranged and combat attacks and no obvious environmental weakness. His one real drawback? His ability to get instant killed by sneak attacks. In order to kill him the mission is to prevent his recruitment drive. I start on a ledge about 30 meters out, a rope running straight over the open space in which this impressive war chief and his equally impressive entourage of captains are pressing other Uruks into service. All I had to do was walk onto that rope, get above him and drop into his face, broken blade first. Kind of anti-climactic really, considering how important the guy was supposed to be.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I was just pursuing Bolg Corpse Grinder, a totally randomly-picked Captain to target. I snuck around his meagre defences but realised I hadn't gained intel on his strengths and weaknesses. I caused a particularly explosive distraction to send his close guard into disarray, then pounced with an attempted stealth attack from above. He shrugged it off and we locked swords briefly, before he turned tail and ran. I attempted to pursue him but got surrounded by his battalion after one of them rang the alarm. Bolg escaped with his life while I fought valiantly against a horde of Uruk, but despite taking down many foes and claiming their scalps and recovering from last-ditch near-death situations a good few times I was eventually finished by a lowly Uruk named Gluk.

Gluk used the praise of defeating the Gravewalker to challenge another Uruk Captain and defeated him, earning him a spot in Sauron's army as Gluk the Choker, while Bolg Corpse Grinder, coward though he was, received acclaim equal to a promotion and a new station at West Garrison... guess where I'm going now.

The coward will not be so lucky as to escape my wrath twice.

The more I play this game the more I love the little details of this whole system.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Can't afford it today, and there are too many games already purchased in the near future to grab it, but you guys have successfully sold me on a FUTURE purchase of Shadows of Mordor. You bastards.

 

[Blitsie]

The interesting thing about these posts, is the manifestation of a feeling of vengeance in the players. Which I find very intriguing, considering that's the driving force of the protagonist as well. To see that the game is able to foster that same motivation in the player is quite impressive.

Like you won't believe, when that orc takes you down or escapes your clutches for the fourth or fifth time and all you can do is watch how he grows in power while you have no choice but to nurse your wounds, you just can't help but make things personal and go out on a vendetta against that orc. I think its also the fact that when you generally lose, it is because you plainly just weren't good enough at that moment and he genuinely bested you which further adds to it, sort of like restoring your honor or something like that. Each orc having its own personality too helps a lot.

 

[happyninja42]

The interesting thing about these posts, is the manifestation of a feeling of vengeance in the players. Which I find very intriguing, considering that's the driving force of the protagonist as well. To see that the game is able to foster that same motivation in the player is quite impressive.

Like you won't believe, when that orc takes you down or escapes your clutches for the fourth or fifth time and all you can do is watch how he grows in power while you have no choice but to nurse your wounds, you just can't help but make things personal and go out on a vendetta against that orc. I think its also the fact that when you generally lose, it is because you plainly just weren't good enough at that moment and he genuinely bested you which further adds to it, sort of like restoring your honor or something like that. Each orc having its own personality too helps a lot.

Which I like. The biggest thing I want out of my games is emotional involvement. The games that stand out for me as my favorites, and the ones that actually effected me personally on a fundamental level, are the ones that were able to evoke a true emotional response from me.

Not just "fuck this game! the mechanics suck in this fight! gah i hate this guy!" kind of thing. But the "holy shit, that group of people blew up my fucking planet!! and now they're attacking the last of my race in cryogenic sleep! OH HELL NO!!" like Homeworld did for me. So I like that the game has been able to generate a world and system dynamic enough, and fertile enough to let that type of engagement grow. I will definitely be buying this game...next year when it's on sale. xD

 

[MailOrderClone]

The nemesis system sounds amazing and I hope that it's something that we get to see in more games going forward.