Your thoughts on Shadow of Mordor?

[Lythrilux]

I am planning on picking this up as soon as a new copy is available in my area. For those of you who have been playing the game, how is it? What's it like?

[damon8r351]

If you're a Tolkien purist, you're going to need to suspend your disbelief when they show Mordor with trees in it and Mount Doom covered in snow, especially when this is supposed to take place between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. I played about the first 15 minutes and it wasn't bad. People say the combat is like the Arkham games, but I've never touched those, so the closest I can compare it to is that it's nearly like the modified combat system in the later Assassin's Creed games. Orcs aren't going to surround you and attack one at a time like in Assassin's Creed though. Let's be honest, the game has a lot of similarities to Assassin's Creed in the way they do missions and the way things are set up. I'm not saying it's Assassin's Creed: Shadows of Middle-earth, but if you've played a lot of Assassin's Creed games you're going to encounter quite a bit in this game that will already be familiar to you. The game seems like it kind of thrusts you headlong into the story without really properly introducing the bad guys that you're already plotting the downfall of, I'm assuming that since I've only done the first 15 minutes that more gets explained later. I'd say it's definitely a game to give a shot.

[Saltyie]

If you're a Tolkien purist, you're going to need to suspend your disbelief when they show Mordor with trees in it and Mount Doom covered in snow, especially when this is supposed to take place between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.

I'm not a Tolkien purist, but it's been 2,500 years since Orcs (or Uruks) inhabited Mordor (Does it show Mordor in the Hobbit?), so nature has taken it back. It all changes back after the first 10 minutes. Or is that not possible because magic wizardry? A few things that anger the purists is the game says Celebrimbor crafted all the rings, when in canon he only crafted the elven ones, and there's a few others,

 

If you've read the books and watched the films, or never seen a LOTR related thing in your life, I think you'll enjoy the story. If you're the kinda guy that gets irritated by minor inconsistencies like what Frodo ate for breakfast, you probably won't like some of it. The combat is enjoyable, and very batman-esque, you even have special combos after getting a certain hit streak and such. There's a lot of content, but if you aren't interested in the Nemesis system don't expect to play for more than 20 hours. The climbing/stealth mechanics are assassin's creedy, and the combat is batman, and the lore is LOTR, it's great!

[damon8r351]

I'm not a Tolkien purist, but it's been 2,500 years since Orcs (or Uruks) inhabited Mordor (Does it show Mordor in the Hobbit?), so nature has taken it back. 

 

Pretty sure it was clear in the books that Mordor stayed a wasteland after the Last Alliance, but it's been a little bit since I've read the books. I can already see that I'm going to have to keep telling myself to not pick it apart and just play, because I'm worse than a Harry Potter fanatic when it comes to Lord of the Rings lore.

Edited October 1, 2014 by damon8r351

[DrBloodmoney]

I hadnt been super interested in it until today, when I noticed it got a five star review in Giant Bomb (thry are fairly rare - the last games to get a 5 star were South Park and Super Mario 3D World) so that at least has piqued my interest - reckon ill be checking out some footage tonight...

[EvenstarII]

I'm a huge Tolkien fan (not sure I'd use the word purist) & I enjoy the game so far. I've read the books & have seen the movies, but it doesn't bother me if there are a few inconsistencies. I like to see people take the lore from Middle Earth & put their spin on it in a game (or otherwise). Especially if the game is really good. So far this is the best Tolkien inspired game I have played (personally speaking). Middle Earth is full of lore & legends -- lore & legends tend to always have inconsistencies. That's what legend is... a story that gets passed down & depending on the perspective it is told from, there may be differences here & there. 

[DrBloodmoney]

I'm a huge Tolkien fan (not sure I'd use the word purist) & I enjoy the game so far. I've read the books & have seen the movies, but it doesn't bother me if there are a few inconsistencies. I like to see people take the lore from Middle Earth & put their spin on it in a game (or otherwise). Especially if the game is really good. So far this is the best Tolkien inspired game I have played (personally speaking). Middle Earth is full of lore & legends -- lore & legends tend to always have inconsistencies. That's what legend is... a story that gets passed down & depending on the perspective it is told from, there may be differences here & there. 

 

Yup - that's what Tolkien wanted - for his mythology to form the basis for many different people to draw from and create their own spins on it

[A12]

The dev's were defiantly "inspired" by several games when it came to the combat, movement and story mechanics.

I'm taking the story like TFU, it's right in the middle of everything, so it really doesn't bother the pre or post stories.

Overall - imho, 4.9 of 5. Fun game, worth the time. Maybe a bit short. But of course DLC...

[KratosTheMighty]

Also it has been stated some where, that this game isn't cannon with the rest of Tolkien lore... so the liberties they take won't even have a lasting effect on Tolkien's original work.... All in all though, a good game, is a good game... and this game has piqued my interest. 

[HaSoOoN-MHD]

Nevermind.

Edited June 18, 2015 by HaSoOoN-MHD

[dtrexofgaming]

I think this is a  great example of unfair difficulty in a game. This is the batman combat system, where the combat flows but is slow. This isn't a flaw in arkham. However, Arkham didn't have 30 enemies and 7 captains(bosses) all attack you at the same time! The game expects you to be able to take on an insane amount of enemies and you just can't because this isnt a hack and slash, its the arkham system. Other than this its a pretty decent game but this honestly ruined the experience for me. 

 

A dirrect example of what I said before:

You have to kill 4 warchiefs later on in the game. 2 of them were fair enough but the other 2 were completely fucked.

I'll just stick to talking about one of them to keep this decently short.
One of them has you going up against one of the warchiefs. In order to call his attention you must get alarms running, and kill 35 orcs without dying. This is bad but it gets worse. After you do this the warchief comes out and you dont have to do the 35 orc thing again. When the warchief comes out he has 4 captains surrounding him. If you havent played the game captains are the equivelent to a boss in arkham city imo. These captains are all amune to 6ish diffrent attacks and normally only one thing works well.

Anyway, you have two options now if you restart so you don't have to do the 35 orcs thing. You can fight the warchief upfront and have to deal with a bunch of orcs or Lure him back to a safer area and lure in 6ish more captains. The 6ish captains would still come in the other way but not as fast. Honestly it feels unfair as hell because I have to remember all 10 of these guys stuff they are ammune to and stuff they have as a weakness. I also have to counter about 4 diffrent orcs at the exact same time, and if I do one I'll still get hit by another. If this game wasn't so unfair at points it would be really fun but sadly its unballenced as hell.

Also why did they give us an open world to have fun in if I cant travel 3 feet without getting attacked by a pack of 5 orcs. 

Alright I've been at this long enough. I would strongly reccomend you don't buy this game until the price drops, but hey, just my opinion.

[Jakeisquite16]

I think this is a  great example of unfair difficulty in a game. This is the batman combat system, where the combat flows but is slow. This isn't a flaw in arkham. However, Arkham didn't have 30 enemies and 7 captains(bosses) all attack you at the same time! The game expects you to be able to take on an insane amount of enemies and you just can't because this isnt a hack and slash, its the arkham system. Other than this its a pretty decent game but this honestly ruined the experience for me. 

 

A dirrect example of what I said before:

You have to kill 4 warchiefs later on in the game. 2 of them were fair enough but the other 2 were completely fucked.

I'll just stick to talking about one of them to keep this decently short.

One of them has you going up against one of the warchiefs. In order to call his attention you must get alarms running, and kill 35 orcs without dying. This is bad but it gets worse. After you do this the warchief comes out and you dont have to do the 35 orc thing again. When the warchief comes out he has 4 captains surrounding him. If you havent played the game captains are the equivelent to a boss in arkham city imo. These captains are all amune to 6ish diffrent attacks and normally only one thing works well.

Anyway, you have two options now if you restart so you don't have to do the 35 orcs thing. You can fight the warchief upfront and have to deal with a bunch of orcs or Lure him back to a safer area and lure in 6ish more captains. The 6ish captains would still come in the other way but not as fast. Honestly it feels unfair as hell because I have to remember all 10 of these guys stuff they are ammune to and stuff they have as a weakness. I also have to counter about 4 diffrent orcs at the exact same time, and if I do one I'll still get hit by another. If this game wasn't so unfair at points it would be really fun but sadly its unballenced as hell.

Also why did they give us an open world to have fun in if I cant travel 3 feet without getting attacked by a pack of 5 orcs. 

Alright I've been at this long enough. I would strongly reccomend you don't buy this game until the price drops, but hey, just my opinion.

The game actually tells you to kill the warchief's bodyguards though before you attack the warchief and shows how many bodyguards he has. Going into a fight against a warchief that has 4 bodyguards is your fault not the games because you can kill them before you attack the warchief.

[dtrexofgaming]

The game actually tells you to kill the warchief's bodyguards though before you attack the warchief and shows how many bodyguards he has. Going into a fight against a warchief that has 4 bodyguards is your fault not the games because you can kill them before you attack the warchief.

Diffrent warchief, that one wasnt too bad

Edited October 10, 2014 by dtrexofgaming

[BDRick35]

i had actually no problems at all with killing the warchiefs ... most of them are even vulnurable to stealth kills so is wasn´t so hard.

 

i would recommend shadow of mordor but it is, still a bit repetetive after a while. 8/10

[seppa105]

I think this is a  great example of unfair difficulty in a game. This is the batman combat system, where the combat flows but is slow. This isn't a flaw in arkham. However, Arkham didn't have 30 enemies and 7 captains(bosses) all attack you at the same time! The game expects you to be able to take on an insane amount of enemies and you just can't because this isnt a hack and slash, its the arkham system. Other than this its a pretty decent game but this honestly ruined the experience for me. 

 

It may be Batman combat system but the game doesn't force you to play it like Batman. So i wouldn't call it great example of unfair difficulty if you try to do open fight againts warchief and tons of captains and normal uruks with hack and slash style, and lose. Use enviroment (detonate, flies, caragors) and exploit captains weaknesses and fears, kill bodyguards before going againts warchief. 

 

I really liked this game, but like fellow above me said, bit repetitive after a while. Little more variety on missions would be nice. Still i have spent 35 hours in Mordor and liked it. 9/10.

[JaneAusten69]

I am really enjoying this game.  It is the Arkham fighting style mixed with AC stealth and climbing mechanics.

 

Here are some games I really enjoyed on PS3 to give you reference:

 

-Arkham Series

-Darksiders Series

-Prince of Persia Series

-Read Dead Redemption

 

This game has elements of all those.  The open world feels a lot like Red Dead in the sense of collectibles and side missions.  I like Tolkien's work, but am not a purist.  I like the story, but the Nemesis system is what I like the most.  A poster above mentioned how the combat was flawed when you had to go up against a war chief and several captains at once.  However, those situations should be avoided.  The point of the game is to attack weaker enemies and gain intel on the stronger ones.  That way you can plan your attack strategically.   I predict that you will begin to see the Nemesis system used in future games.  It's really cool when you run into an Ork that you had previously fought and they remember you, and adjust their fighting style to yours.  I bought a PS4 specifically for this game and have not regretted it for a second.

[Redgrave]

Just beat it today. I really liked it. I never felt bored or felt like killing Captains and Warchiefs was repetitive even after a while. That's not to say it was perfect as it did have it's flaws (though minor imo) but it's one of the very few games I can say I was constantly entertained by it and almost didn't want it to end. I welcome either a sequel or another game like it.

[Carville87]

Loved this game, story ended quite abruptly and the last two boss fights were poor but man that nemesis system was so much fun. Thrak the Serpent YOUR MY BOY!!

[c0ldbludedkillah]

Love the game a lot 

[StrickenBiged]

I think the Nemesis system was awesome. Having enemies remember your previous encounters was brilliant. There was one Uruk Captain who I shot in the eye, but had to retreat from after the alarm was raised and I was overwhelmed. Next time I saw him he had some metal plate embedded in his head, covering the eye I had shot. It really helps you stay immersed in the world.

 

Fantastic game. My only criticism would be that it is a little short, and the last boss fights being QTE heavy sucked. I would have preferred that they'd found a way to incorporate the main combat systems more into those fights.

 

Overall, I'd give it a high 8/10. Definitely recommended if you're a fan of action games.

[Kazeh54]

Just beat it.

Amazing game. Never once got bored of it. I loved the fact you could play (in most cases) your own way. Either run in and cleave through waves of enemies or stealth it up with distractions and bow kills.

 

Also when you get the Brand ability.....just so satisfying to have an orc army and then 1 button and they all combust.

 

The only issue I had was the final boss. I was expecting a great battle. It sucked that it was like 4 or 5 QTE and then it's over. Overall the game was brilliant.

 

Anyone know if DLC will come?

[StrickenBiged]

DLC had better come. They've been selling Season Passes since launch!

[MrKend54l]

End Boss was ridiculous. The rest of the game was just briliant!

[Benfoxy83]

Vendetta mission is the only trophy required for someone to be online.

[J_Nagel30]

I thought it was an amazing game but the ending was really disappointing. Not the story or anything, but the final two boss "battles".