Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Joe]

Anyone else playing / planning to play this? I've only played a couple of hours but it seems pretty cool. It's a mix of Assassin's Creed and the Batman Arkham games, set in the Lord of the Rings universe, only with a really cool AI nemesis system which sets it apart from any other open-world action game. It doesn't really matter whether you like the movies or not, this isn't really related to them other than being set in the same world. You can treat it like any other medieval fantasy-type game in that respect.

This video shows off the nemesis system:

I've only played for a few hours but I already had some pretty funny/cool encounters with an orc captain. He killed me a few times, I killed him a few times. I think he's dead for good now though.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

I'm playing it on PC right now and loving it. The nemesis system is really what makes the game, if you take that away it would be a solid but pretty standard Assassins style open world game. The combat I find very fluid and forgiving. It's very Arkham style action. But yeah man, that nemesis system makes for some great scenarios. I think we will see some variant of this in all major open world games going forward. This game does everything else right too though (so far anyway, I'm only a few hours in). The visuals are amazing (even on what I would consider a mid-low range gaming desktop I'm able to run with most settings on high, very well optimized for PC). I would say the weakest point of the game so far is the story, which I'm totally okay with because killing orcs is so much fun.

 

[Joe]

Oh yeah, to anyone who is considering getting it: don't buy it on PS3 or X360. Those versions don't have the nemesis system. Get it on PC/PS4/XB1.

 

[Joe]

So I've finished the main story, and am now gonna do 100% of the side stuff. Verdict on the game: 9.5/10

The main story was probably the weakest part, although as someone who is fascinated with the deeper parts of Tolkien lore, I appreciate some of the stuff they did here. But some of it seemed like a pointless tie-in with the films. Look, Gollum is here! For no real reason. But it was cool to see the origins of the One Ring, and Sauron being something other than a massive dude in spiky armor, and other such things.

The nemesis system only gets better as the game goes on and you gain the ability to dominate the minds of orcs, making them fight for you until they die. It's so much fun to slowly work up the orc chain of command, issuing death threats, branding various captains and eventually getting all the warchiefs on your side. The combat does get too easy towards the end, but it's so much fun to just brutalize hundreds of enemies.

Easily the best game I've played of 2014. Well, not EASILY, I mean Infamous Second Son was amazing too. But I really really recommend it, even if you don't give a shit about Lord of the Rings. If you've ever enjoyed Assassin's Creed, Batman Arkham ___, or really any open world game at all, you will like this.

 

[Tarvis]

Not a big fan of LOTR and stuff, but I hear game is really good. I'll probably pick it up when its in a Steam sale.

 

[Joe]

Do iiiiiit

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Its on sale for $0 right now in TPB!

 

[Joe]

Note, we at Zelda Xtreme do not officially endorse software piracy

 

[Tarvis]

 

[Joe]

Nor do we endorse...whatever the fuck that is

 

[Joe]

Man, I seriously fucking love the music when you end up fighting a Warchief. Just how it sounds like a thousand voices chanting their names. It's amazing.

 

[Joe]

Almost got platinum trophy on this. Just a few more cheevos and I'm done.

 

[Joe]

Aaaaaand platinum.

And my sig still ain't updating

 

[Tarvis]

Hopefully I will have a LOT more free time here in a week or so and can get that fixed right up.

 

[Joe]

Cool!