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What are Your Thoughts on Shadow of Mordor?

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September 30, 2014 5:54:45 PM

Just got the game today and am more than impressed! This is truly an amazing game that without doubt was underhyped. It has an Assasins Creed-style gameplay but instead of being in Italy you go around Mordor hunting down orc cheifs and upgrading your weaponry and abilities. I love the move combinations and the graphics are gorgeous. Thoughts?

More about : thoughts shadow mordor

September 30, 2014 8:04:16 PM

Combat system is literally copied from Batman. Climbing and running are literally copied from Assassins Creed. Everything else is.. Orcs and more Orcs.

Solid game, nothing amazing.

Also if someone is wondering about benchmarks on solid GTX770 2GB there you go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJxIURGwl6g&src_vid=3-c...
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October 1, 2014 7:36:31 PM

Having a lot of fun at it so far. While this does draw a few superficial elements from the games mentioned, it manages to be original and offer a whole lot more than either of them do.

Monolith were brought in on AC 1&2 to help specifically with animations, and they were the ones that came up with the air assassinate move in that game. I don't think they get enough credit for originality of such mechanics.

Yeah you can ride a Graug, a bit like commandeering Titans. Hopefully they don't steer like drunken monkeys like Titans did. And you don't see Talion bouncing around automatically, going faster and farther like B-Man does. Literally copied? Hardly.

I think the incentives they drew from other games is overstated really. SoM is a standout title this year, and not for being a follower. It was voted best at E3, is already getting consistent rave reviews, and even has the skeptical recanting.

The best part is, it has something few games have and even fewer devs try to achieve, a truly ever changing AI hierarchy system in Nemesis. Then again, Monolith have always been known for their complex AI.
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October 2, 2014 1:28:21 PM

Frag Maniac said:
Having a lot of fun at it so far. While this does draw a few superficial elements from the games mentioned, it manages to be original and offer a whole lot more than either of them do.

Monolith were brought in on AC 1&2 to help specifically with animations, and they were the ones that came up with the air assassinate move in that game. I don't think they get enough credit for originality of such mechanics.

Yeah you can ride a Graug, a bit like commandeering Titans. Hopefully they don't steer like drunken monkeys like Titans did. And you don't see Talion bouncing around automatically, going faster and farther like B-Man does. Literally copied? Hardly.

I think the incentives they drew from other games is overstated really. SoM is a standout title this year, and not for being a follower. It was voted best at E3, is already getting consistent rave reviews, and even has the skeptical recanting.

The best part is, it has something few games have and even fewer devs try to achieve, a truly ever changing AI hierarchy system in Nemesis. Then again, Monolith have always been known for their complex AI.


I love the AI, and how each orc is very unique. I really get mad when people say a game like this is a copy of Assasins Creed. Aren't all FPS games a copy then of the first FPS game? What SOM does is takes elements from other games like Assasins Creed and expands upon them and makes them greater. From what I hear, Assasins Creed does not nearly have as many move combinations as SOM does. I think Shadow of Mordor has a lot more strategy involved in fights against orcs rather than tapping x and killing British soldiers.
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October 2, 2014 2:16:31 PM

Shadow of Mordor is tapping B and the mashing X though :p 

It's not a bad game, but as soon as i picked it up I was all "This is exactly like assassin's creed."

That's because Assassin's Creed was kind of the first to have gameplay like that, so the FPS is all the same argument is true there as well. (So is an RTS is all the same argument, give or take.)

I mean, SOM has a nice random bad guy creation system (I think anyways) but it feels somewhat daunting that these guys will never stay dead, and I even had one guy I killed actually come back and was all "Hey I'm gonna pay you back for this scar you left on my face!" even though i'm pretty sure I just stabbed him through the head/neck/heart a couple times.

I also don't think Assassin's Creed had the handy "Press Y to parry now" popup over guy's heads, they just had a shimmer/movement to signal that you needed to parry them.

I've really only played AC1 and 2 though.
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October 2, 2014 5:39:29 PM

Comparisons aside.................



I love it, looks beautiful. Nemesis system is revolutionary. To add it has one of my favorite genres incorporated into the game... Win, Win for me.
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October 2, 2014 7:15:40 PM

James Mason said:
Shadow of Mordor is tapping B and the mashing X though :p 

It's not a bad game, but as soon as i picked it up I was all "This is exactly like assassin's creed."

That's because Assassin's Creed was kind of the first to have gameplay like that, so the FPS is all the same argument is true there as well. (So is an RTS is all the same argument, give or take.)

I mean, SOM has a nice random bad guy creation system (I think anyways) but it feels somewhat daunting that these guys will never stay dead, and I even had one guy I killed actually come back and was all "Hey I'm gonna pay you back for this scar you left on my face!" even though i'm pretty sure I just stabbed him through the head/neck/heart a couple times.

I also don't think Assassin's Creed had the handy "Press Y to parry now" popup over guy's heads, they just had a shimmer/movement to signal that you needed to parry them.

I've really only played AC1 and 2 though.

I don't see how you could say SOM is taping two buttons. Not sure how far you have gotten, but from the Upgrades menu you can unlock so many move combinations of various types. It takes a lot of button-strategy and visual reflexes to fight off hordes of orcs well.
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October 2, 2014 8:11:17 PM

turkey3_scratch said:
James Mason said:
Shadow of Mordor is tapping B and the mashing X though :p 

It's not a bad game, but as soon as i picked it up I was all "This is exactly like assassin's creed."

That's because Assassin's Creed was kind of the first to have gameplay like that, so the FPS is all the same argument is true there as well. (So is an RTS is all the same argument, give or take.)

I mean, SOM has a nice random bad guy creation system (I think anyways) but it feels somewhat daunting that these guys will never stay dead, and I even had one guy I killed actually come back and was all "Hey I'm gonna pay you back for this scar you left on my face!" even though i'm pretty sure I just stabbed him through the head/neck/heart a couple times.

I also don't think Assassin's Creed had the handy "Press Y to parry now" popup over guy's heads, they just had a shimmer/movement to signal that you needed to parry them.

I've really only played AC1 and 2 though.

I don't see how you could say SOM is taping two buttons. Not sure how far you have gotten, but from the Upgrades menu you can unlock so many move combinations of various types. It takes a lot of button-strategy and visual reflexes to fight off hordes of orcs well.


Ehhh, maybe for a weaker gamer. But I'm a semi-pro MOBA gamer, so keeping track of tons of little tiny things is easy for me.
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October 2, 2014 8:21:12 PM

@ Turkey,
^Yes, yes, do some upgrades and you will see the simplicity is only the beginning. And lets not forget you also have the option of retreating within the mission area and going with a ranged attack, scaling structures and doing drop attacks, exploding fires or barrels with arrows, dropping bait or breaking cages with arrows to get help from Caragors, shooting Morgai Fly nests with arrows, etc.

The game just has more than AC right from the start, and I'd say the same in comparing it to Arkham, no disrespect to Rocksteady because I love their work.

@James,
Your claims don't even ring true with what you're now saying, so I call BS. I doubt you've even played the game enough to unlock all or even half of the moves.

If you're the pro gamer you claim to be, you'd not have much problem doing that very quickly. Your calling it a 2 button game makes it obvious your time spent with it has been at best, shallow, maybe even noobish.
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October 2, 2014 8:25:45 PM

Frag Maniac said:
^Yes, yes, do some upgrades and you will see the simplicity is only the beginning. And lets not forget you also have the option of retreating within the mission area and going with a range attack, scaling structures and doing drop attacks, exploding fires or barrels with arrows, dropping bait or breaking cages with arrows to get help from Caragors, shooting Morgai Fly nests with arrows, etc.

The game just has more than AC right from the start, and I'd say the same in comparing it to Arkham, no disrespect to Rocksteady because I love their work.


I remember using ranged weapons in AC1, and Definitely in AC2. In AC you're not KOS to every NPC in the world like you are in SOM, so they gave you environmental options that focused more on stealth, rather than the pure destruction that SOM gives.

If I don't upgrade my weapons can I just use easy mode then? I noticed the fights already got much easier once I got the in combat execution upgrade.

@Edit, did I say i had completed the game? I played it for a few hours, felt a lot of AC reminiscence and the draw to come back isn't that strong. If what I encounter in the first few hours of the game isn't engrossing, that's more the developer's fault than mine.
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October 2, 2014 9:25:51 PM

"I played it for a few hours, felt a lot of AC reminiscence..."

That's it in a nutshell like we said. You didn't really give it enough time to progress beyond it's simple beginnings. At best it's a knee jerk opinion that misrepresents what the game really is.
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October 2, 2014 10:00:26 PM

Even, then, after only a few hours, I already know
Spoiler
the wraith is Sauron

So there isn't much more reason to play. And i've only seen the movies, never read the books, and this is my first LOTR game.

Even before
Spoiler
gollum
showed up.

I have 24 years of game and movie experience, they all start to blend together. If having "more cool ways to kill guys" is really what you consider indepth game play, then you haven't been around for very long.
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October 3, 2014 4:03:56 AM

Actually the game begins ton get really difficult killing some of the warcheifs. They haven about 50 orcs with them.
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October 3, 2014 4:05:22 AM

Also, as to your spoiler, I figured that out early also. Also remember according to the books Sauron was supposed to be pretty much the most beautiful man, so he could actually be the blonde elf shown in the clips.
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October 3, 2014 4:20:51 AM

It brings nothing new to the table in terms of combat no, but its an exiting engine that works. The Nemesis system is what makes this game stand out from the crowd, a concept which seemed difficult to pull off on paper but they seemed to have nailed it.
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October 3, 2014 6:14:35 AM

I haven't played it but have seen plenty on youtube to get an impression of the game and, as one of the youtubers stated: "At the end of the day it's all about killing orcs". That is where the game seems to suffer. It's all combat which is very similar to AC and Arkham with a few more animations and possibilities of course.
I enjoyed Arkham the first couple of times I've played it but it quickly became repetetive to me. The combat system feels and looks great but it really doesn't take long before you are using the same combinations and every fight start to feel the same. I will definetely buy the game but only on sales because I already know now that it won't have any replay value for me by just looking at the gameplay.
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October 3, 2014 6:36:04 AM

Richyse7en said:
Comparisons aside.................



I love it, looks beautiful. Nemesis system is revolutionary. To add it has one of my favorite genres incorporated into the game... Win, Win for me.


The Nemesis system is a very good idea, and for a first go, pretty well implemented, but still rough around the edges. But yes, refined over a few years, and this could be a huge advance forward in enemy behavior in open world games.
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October 3, 2014 6:38:44 AM

Spoiler
It's not Sauron

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October 3, 2014 7:40:21 AM

Mahisse said:
I haven't played it but have seen plenty on youtube to get an impression of the game and, as one of the youtubers stated: "At the end of the day it's all about killing orcs". That is where the game seems to suffer. It's all combat which is very similar to AC and Arkham with a few more animations and possibilities of course.
I enjoyed Arkham the first couple of times I've played it but it quickly became repetetive to me. The combat system feels and looks great but it really doesn't take long before you are using the same combinations and every fight start to feel the same. I will definetely buy the game but only on sales because I already know now that it won't have any replay value for me by just looking at the gameplay.


I don't understand; people love Assasin's Creed, then they say this game is similar to AC, and therefore they don't want it. Just because a game takes ideas from other games does not mean it is bad. Shadow of Mordor improves upoin those elements a great deal. For example, there is a lot more to fighting in SOM than there is in AC with many more move sets.
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October 3, 2014 8:57:44 PM

Richyse7en said:
It brings nothing new to the table in terms of combat no, but its an exiting engine that works. The Nemesis system is what makes this game stand out from the crowd, a concept which seemed difficult to pull off on paper but they seemed to have nailed it.


Since people are erroneously calling it a AC/Arkham clone, like hell it doesn't.

And JM's still droning on like it has nothing new in other ways. I guess in that 3 hrs he was somehow clueless about how Nemesis works.

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October 6, 2014 11:51:43 AM

Frag Maniac said:


Since people are erroneously calling it a AC/Arkham clone, like hell it doesn't.

And JM's still droning on like it has nothing new in other ways. I guess in that 3 hrs he was somehow clueless about how Nemesis works.


The named mobs i kill respawn endlessly like it's an mmo.
what's supposed to be so impressive about that?
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October 7, 2014 3:45:31 PM

Okay, ell I beat then final mission on yet am only 37% through. That means there is a huge post game and a lot more stuff to do afterwards!
Spoiler

Oh, and the wrath is not Sauron like you guys all though so in the beginning. If you follow the books like me, after you kill Sauron's human form in the video game his spirit form still dwells at Barad Dür.
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October 7, 2014 4:26:34 PM

James Mason said:
The named mobs i kill respawn endlessly like it's an mmo.
what's supposed to be so impressive about that?


You really don't get the concept of an ever changing hierarchy system do you?

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October 7, 2014 5:23:08 PM

Frag Maniac said:
James Mason said:
The named mobs i kill respawn endlessly like it's an mmo.
what's supposed to be so impressive about that?


You really don't get the concept of an ever changing hierarchy system do you?


Not to mention that if you are a huge Tolkien fan like me who both reads the books and has seen the movies a dozen times, you would know that Sauron's army is huge. It has hundreds of thousands of orcs, especially in the land of Mordor, so having more and more orcs come is realistic and true to the books. Look at the amount of orcs at the Battle of Minas Terith:

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October 8, 2014 2:47:15 PM

turkey3_scratch said:
Not to mention that if you are a huge Tolkien fan like me who both reads the books and has seen the movies a dozen times, you would know that Sauron's army is huge. It has hundreds of thousands of orcs, especially in the land of Mordor, so having more and more orcs come is realistic and true to the books. Look at the amount of orcs at the Battle of Minas Terith:


And IMO they've expertly spawned them in, I've yet to see one actually spawn like you can in some games that aren't polished well. And to have as many Orcs onscreen at once with as big a landscape as you see in the movies would have made most PCs (and certainly consoles) choke, so they had to be realistic with map size and bring Orcs onscreen in waves.

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October 9, 2014 6:18:51 AM

I havent played the game, but it looks pretty interesting to me. The gameplay itself, as mentioned, looks like Assassins Creed and Arkham smashed together, but the Nemesis system I think is the most interesting part of it.
Cant wait till the rest of the industry rips it off completely and these "political" systems start getting better and more common in games. I'd be willing to bet my left nut that whatever Assassins Creed comes after Unity is going to have something similar.
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October 9, 2014 8:04:09 AM

Frag Maniac said:
turkey3_scratch said:
Not to mention that if you are a huge Tolkien fan like me who both reads the books and has seen the movies a dozen times, you would know that Sauron's army is huge. It has hundreds of thousands of orcs, especially in the land of Mordor, so having more and more orcs come is realistic and true to the books. Look at the amount of orcs at the Battle of Minas Terith:


And IMO they've expertly spawned them in, I've yet to see one actually spawn like you can in some games that aren't polished well. And to have as many Orcs onscreen at once with as big a landscape as you see in the movies would have made most PCs (and certainly consoles) choke, so they had to be realistic with map size and bring Orcs onscreen in waves.


Yeah, I know that rendering 20000 orcs would be too much, but I was just trying to explain to him why more orcs keep coming, at least when you face orc chiefs that is. I am in the post-game right now and am only 37% through the game! Fancy that.
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October 9, 2014 1:41:11 PM

turkey3_scratch said:
Yeah, I know that rendering 20000 orcs would be too much, but I was just trying to explain to him why more orcs keep coming, at least when you face orc chiefs that is. I am in the post-game right now and am only 37% through the game! Fancy that.


My comments weren't actually in sole response to yours. Sorry, should have clarified. It's just that what you said about the multitude of Orcs in the movies reminded me a lot of how some claim the game by comparison looks "lifeless". Which just isn't true at all. A lot of people saying that haven't even played it.

I am choosing to progress in a balanced manner, so I'm at 75% completion @ roughly 35 hrs play time having just unlocked the "Lord of Mordor" story mission. I'm actually back at Udin now though to mop up a lot of side missions I left there.

I'm realizing if feels too unbalanced to go too far ahead, then go back, because all the enemies in Udin are now WAY lower in power rating than the ones in Nurn, making them feel too easy to kill.

The way side missions keep showing up though, I'm not even sure whether you can exhaust them, or if they continuously reappear for free roam play.

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October 9, 2014 8:12:05 PM

Hey guys, I forgot to ask something about this game.

I've been getting a short, thin, red horizontal line showing up on the upper left part of the screen, usually when there are TONS of Orcs after me.

I know it's not my display going buggy because it only happens in SoM and disappears when I go to the menu. The only way I can get it to completely disappear though, even after I regain anonymity, is if I exit and restart the game.

Is this a glitch or part of the game? If it IS part of the game, what the hell is it?
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October 12, 2014 1:49:50 AM

What nemesis system?
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