melmer

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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I opened a bunch of tabs and read this without context haha.

 

That's fair, my answer to most problems in life is to send death threats.

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Yeah that seemed weirdly out of place to me too.  I mean, if people in real life want to do that then fine, I have no problem with that.  But in this game it feels strange, like she should have been wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans with it.

 

My problem with the story is it feels really disjointed.  I'm not even sure when this game is supposed to be taking place.  It has to be after The Hobbit and before The Fellowship of the Ring because of Gollum and Sauron but then I feel like some of the details seem to contradict that maybe?  I'm not super familiar with TLotR mythos.  I read and seen the trilogy (though not The Hobbit) and I started reading the Silmarillion but didn't get very far.  I know a bit about the background (like who Celebrimbor is and who the two wizards various artifacts refer to likely are) but not enough to really have a good understanding of everything in the game.  The whole thing feels like a fanfic to me.

It's been a while since I've been serious about LotR, but when I was serious (read all the books, even the ones that were finished by his son, and played the pen and paper RPG.) I was pretty damn serious. It seems to fit in fairly well with the books. Keep in mind that Bilbo is fairly young (30s I think) in The Hobbit and he's celebrating his 111st birthday in Fellowship of the ring. There's plenty of time in there to play with. If I had to guess by looking at dates from Wikipedia, I'd say this takes place approximately 10 years after The Hobbit.

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I think it's more the direction of the greenery, rather than the idea of a more lush Mordor that isn't sitting with me. Just feels out of place and (to no fault of the games) doesn't hold up as well on my low settings, so has kind of detracted from the game experience. I think with a slight color adjustment and direction change to make it feel a little more gnarly and dark, it would have fit the vibe of the game a tad more. The muddy, puddle ridden terrain of Udun just look far more impressive than a green grass texture with little bits of low poly mesh swaying. Again, just a directional shift with the same concept could have looked cooler.

 

The strongholds on the second map are super cool though, I really enjoy that. 

 

And oof.

The white girl with the dreads, god damn, that is some horrifying hair decisions in this

 

I feel like her hair decisions weren't that far away from the costuming choices from the LoTR books for the people from Rohan. I was basically fine with it. The crazy shock blonde was a little stark. There are at least a few contingents of Men that don't really get touched on beyond a mention in LoTR. 

 

I also felt fine with the way they set directed the setting. The Sea of Nurnen is way off to the southeast. Mt Doom and Barad Dur are basically snuggle buddles with Minas Tirith by comparison.

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Not saying it isn't thematically appropriate, I just think it looks really dumb.

 

Finally got brand and...erm...

 

Still having fun, but I'm going to get nitpicky. It was Talion that just suddenly suggested "Oh, we should just brand some dudes so we can get our cake and eat it to". So... you were aware you had this power the entire time and decided not to use? Kind of dumb.

 

Also, brand. Not exactly the best name, it's possession. When I heard about the power, I thought you were beating the crap out of an orc and having them swear fealty to you, sort of like Ratbag(man I wished they kept him around). The supernatural, possession thing kind of just detracts from the power fantasy for me, but that's just me. Also, I was hoping it was literally branding them, like a cow, that would have been cooler. Again, if there is ever a sequel, just let me be a cool orc captain or a saruman type collecting my own orc army.

 

edit: Just to expand on this train of thought. I like the nemesis system and when they introduced Ratbag and knowing, vaguely, about the brand system I guess I constructed a feature that isn't quite there. As I take out the hierarchy, I supposed  I was going to install my own Orcs as captains, then by taking out their bosses, eventually make them Warchiefs, thus supplanting the Mordor hierarchy. To me that seemed really cool and political, but I had it a bit wrong.

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You do in fact brand them with a blue spiritual hand print on the face, so I guess that's why they chose the name. It has to be an invisible mark to everyone else, or else why would any other orcs follow them?

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The white girl with the dreads, god damn, that is some horrifying hair decisions in this

I think they're braids, which I think isn't quite as bad.

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I have 3 achievements left: completing the survival challenges, completing the hunting challenges, and starting a riot by commanding one warchief to attack another.

 

Some thoughts on the nemesis system.  While I really like it and think its the best part of the game, I wish it had more.  I like how the strengths and weaknesses play a part in fighting the captains, but a lot of the time I feel like it doesn't matter that much.  I will grant it does create some interesting emergent events, such as the time a captain I was hunting ended up running away from some caragors and straight into my glowing hand.  What I'd really like is for the system to have some effect beyond combat and a bit more political or espionage.  Like if I control a bodyguard for a warchief, I could have an alternate way of drawing him out or maybe my lackey could smuggle me in so I could assassinate the chief and install him as leader.  Or if I controlled a beast-tamer captain I could summon caragors or have more caragor cages available to unleash.  I can see a lot of interesting stuff the system could do if they expanded on it in future versions.

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Not saying it isn't thematically appropriate, I just think it looks really dumb.

 

Finally got brand and...erm...

 

Still having fun, but I'm going to get nitpicky. It was Talion that just suddenly suggested "Oh, we should just brand some dudes so we can get our cake and eat it to". So... you were aware you had this power the entire time and decided not to use? Kind of dumb.

 

Also, brand. Not exactly the best name, it's possession. When I heard about the power, I thought you were beating the crap out of an orc and having them swear fealty to you, sort of like Ratbag(man I wished they kept him around). The supernatural, possession thing kind of just detracts from the power fantasy for me, but that's just me. Also, I was hoping it was literally branding them, like a cow, that would have been cooler. Again, if there is ever a sequel, just let me be a cool orc captain or a saruman type collecting my own orc army.

 

edit: Just to expand on this train of thought. I like the nemesis system and when they introduced Ratbag and knowing, vaguely, about the brand system I guess I constructed a feature that isn't quite there. As I take out the hierarchy, I supposed  I was going to install my own Orcs as captains, then by taking out their bosses, eventually make them Warchiefs, thus supplanting the Mordor hierarchy. To me that seemed really cool and political, but I had it a bit wrong.

 

You're branding their mind.

 

What you described as your expanded train of thought is literally what the overarching mission for the second half of the map is.

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Finished the game last night. Loved it. The pacing is quite good, as they don't give you the whole gameplay system from the start, and not even the whole map. And in opposite of other people here, I enjoyed the second map way more visually, so pretty.

The story is unremarkable, but wasn't bad in my opinion. It's a cliche hero's journey, but it didn't hurt the game.

My favorite game of this year so far.

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I should note that for all my complaining, I really liked it. So much so that I'm thinking about actually setting up OBS and streaming some post-storyline play. I figure since everyone's nemesis system looks different, it could be something unique to watch.

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You're branding their mind.

 

What you described as your expanded train of thought is literally what the overarching mission for the second half of the map is.

Maybe I am too early into the second map, because it hasn't seemed to play out like that yet, it just seems like I brand some dudes and they will fight for me if I get into a fight. They also don't stay branded, it seems, if I leave the area and come back or start a mission... at least one mission I started seemed to reset them.

 

And Dewar, you make a good point. And hearing how it may become a little more political later on the map, I'll nitpick this one little thing to a very specific and totally stupid level. I just wanted Orcs with personality to brand, so maybe its just the fact their eyes glow bothers me, I dunno, it's stupid I know.

 

Also, totally in agreement with SecretAsianMan about the system, it's why I hope they really expand this concept for later games, because it's super cool and a really solid first iteration, but I'm greedy and want more from it down the road.

 

I treated the Fable series similiarly. I liked Fable 1, did it give me everything I want? No. So Fable 2 came out and it was awesome, bigger, and I thought really great. But still room for improvement, so I  figured by Fable 3-5, it would be a really amazing game. Sadly they decided to can the series, crap into a bag, and sell it as Fable 3. But the idea of investing in the idea of a series was there.

 

I feel the same way about Mordor, even if it's the same game and not a lotr thing, so I am on board.

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Maybe I am too early into the second map, because it hasn't seemed to play out like that yet, it just seems like I brand some dudes and they will fight for me if I get into a fight. They also don't stay branded, it seems, if I leave the area and come back or start a mission... at least one mission I started seemed to reset them.

 

And Dewar, you make a good point. And hearing how it may become a little more political later on the map, I'll nitpick this one little thing to a very specific and totally stupid level. I just wanted Orcs with personality to brand, so maybe its just the fact their eyes glow bothers me, I dunno, it's stupid I know.

 

Also, totally in agreement with SecretAsianMan about the system, it's why I hope they really expand this concept for later games, because it's super cool and a really solid first iteration, but I'm greedy and want more from it down the road.

 

I treated the Fable series similiarly. I liked Fable 1, did it give me everything I want? No. So Fable 2 came out and it was awesome, bigger, and I thought really great. But still room for improvement, so I  figured by Fable 3-5, it would be a really amazing game. Sadly they decided to can the series, crap into a bag, and sell it as Fable 3. But the idea of investing in the idea of a series was there.

 

I feel the same way about Mordor, even if it's the same game and not a lotr thing, so I am on board.

Captains, once branded, should never reset. Other orcs reset the same way that a dead orc would respawn (wandering too far away or starting a mission.)

I imagine the eye glow is supposed to just be visible to you. Frankly, when things get crazy toward the end of the game, you'll be thankful for the eye glow or else you wouldn't be able to tell your enemies from your allies.

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I think a glowy hand print on their face would be sufficent, but I don't want to get hung up on something so little and stupid.

 

I forgot to mention that on the second map, the day time rain colour grading and effects really sold me on the look of that area. At least on my medium visual quality settings, it added that extra bit of atmosphere, specular to objects, and spookiness the area needed. It looked fantastic.

 

Now to find out how to lock time of day and weather through a hack...

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Finished it 100%. A few achievements still to get, one of which is to collect all artifacts and listen to the story of them all :( which means I would have to play again and find them all again since I skipped some of the listening :(

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Yes, you can.

Hmm... How? Not from the menu that shows your progress.

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Yeah, its under the artifacts appendix.  You also don't have to listen to the entire thing, just hit play then back out.  I have only one more achievement left but I can't find a ghul matron for the life of me.

 

...nevermind.  Finished them all.

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I see why the eyes glow now... I take it all back...

 

So yeah, I dominated/branded this dude when I broke up his recruitment thing, figuring that was the end of it, nope, looks like the mission kept going and I got to help him recruit some dudes now that he was mine. There wasn't any kind of big tutorial for this, like in the past, so I thought that is kind of rad.

 

Curious how those other missions play out then.

 

edit: Oh, I guess they do tutorialize it, because the next mission I did took me through all of that. Which really goes to show the best parts of the game are the systems and how you get to discover them for yourself, not when they teach you, though its helpful, it seems like they are always a step behind me. The story is real dumb too, I mean who didn't know what was going on the first time they saw that zombie queen? Just dumb. 

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Having previously resolved to wait, I found myself facing a rainy long weekend, and thought sod it, it's as good a time as any to visit Mordor!

 

Like a lot of people, I love the Nemesis system. Dying a lot in the early hours meant a very lively reshuffling of the Uruk ranks! Knowing that you created some of the monsters you're facing by dying to them really adds a lot. There was one archer who has been a thorn in my side (pun sort-of-intended) for hours, after, killing me the first time, surviving numerous duels and assassination attempts by me and other Uruks, and even showing up and shooting me some more while I was fighting a different captain! I did finally manage to croak him, but I've had one other guy come back with a massive scar on his face, so I'm not going to assume he's dead just yet. Plus there's  a shield guy that now seems pretty much impossible to kill! I heard that 360 and PS3 versions miss out on the whole Nemesis system, which would be a terrible shame if true.

 

I've only done the first few missions, mostly dstracted by side stuff. I suppose I should go forward with the story,  especially since that unlocks new abilities.

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I'm not an expert on Lotr or anything, again just taking my knowledge from the movies, but did the lack of trolls and wargs in Mordor seem weird to anyone else? Or did the orcs just get those guys from somewhere else and they don't actually hang out in Mordor all the time?

 

It seems like Caragors are the wargs and the gruags are sort of trolls, just an odd distinction they made.

 

Anyhow, I could really see how they could get a lot of extra mileage out of different enemy types that way in future titles.

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I'm not an expert on Lotr or anything, again just taking my knowledge from the movies, but did the lack of trolls and wargs in Mordor seem weird to anyone else? Or did the orcs just get those guys from somewhere else and they don't actually hang out in Mordor all the time?

 

It seems like Caragors are the wargs and the gruags are sort of trolls, just an odd distinction they made.

 

Anyhow, I could really see how they could get a lot of extra mileage out of different enemy types that way in future titles.

 

Yeah I wondered about that too.  I'm no expert either but from what I can gather from Google, caragors and graugs don't exist in Tolkien's works and were invented for the game.  I have no problem with that but it is a bit odd that they wouldn't use things the original author created and are functionally identical.

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I wonder if it was a weird licensing thing, I heard that stuff, especially with Tolkien can get complicated.

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