nowhat
Gold Member
(A few disclaimers first: apologies beforehand for the upcoming wall of text, I started to write a small rant and got completely carried away - there's so much wasted potential here that it's maddening. There's a TL;DR at the end of the second post. Played this on a PS4 Pro, no idea if there are differences between platforms. Didn't spend any time with the online functionality. And obviously there will be SPOILERS.)
Why would I want to play a game that had a mixed reception at best among fans, and is more (in)famous for trying to shove microtransactions into what essentially is a single-player game (causing such an uproar that they eventually removed them from the game)? Three reasons really. First of all, I got Shadow of Mordor on release, and started it a few times, but never got too far with it. I liked it, but it never really grabbed my attention. Sold it along with my OG PS4. But afterwards I've been thinking, maybe I just didn't give the game a proper chance? After all, I like Arkham-style combat (up to a point), Middle-earth seems like a potential setting and the "nemesis system" is an original concept, we should have more of those. So the sequel may be worth considering.
Second, the update that removed the MTs was just recently released. I don't applaud Monolith/WB for doing so (why were they there in the first place, and why with all the bad PR it took them this long?), but what got my attention was that according to the developers, the endgame "will be improved with new narrative elements and streamlined for a more cohesive experience". Going by reviews and comments, previously it was such a mind-numbing grind that paying for a few orcs may seem like a good option, if you want to get to the end. So not only did they get rid of MTs, they also fixed the game? Surely this cannot be?
And third, I have some time off work, was bored and it was on sale, that definitely played a part too. And now here I am with 100% of the story completed and 76% overall, I have given the game plenty of time to prove itself. So without further ado:
STORY: I tried to come up with something positive here, but it's very hard. The writing is mostly quite terrible. First I thought I'd call it bad fanfiction, but as bad as that can get (and it sure can), at least the authors are usually enthusiastic about the source material and lore. Here this is evidently not the case. I wouldn't so much mind playing fast and loose with the lore (which the game does, oh boy), but this feels like it was written by a committee of people, all of which had only seen the movies (but not read the books) and with little understanding of how narrative works. I can picture the first brainstorming session: "You know... there's that ring, right? And it's like super powerful, no one can defeat the one that has the ring. So I was thinking... what if we add another ring, that's like as powerful, if not more?" "Hmm, so like the first Iron Man movie?" "Exactly!" "I like it! Let's roll with that and start writing, we'll have the interns google up some names of places and people later so the nerds don't get too worked up." The end result feels like a generic fantasy story (emphasis on the "generic"), just set in Middle-earth.
But if we ignore the artistic freedom taken with the lore and feel (and I'm not saying the feel shouldn't be gritty, the world is - just that the story doesn't feel "Tolkienish" at all), there are fundamental narrative issues too. There are basically five story branches (represented in the five main quest categories), that do intersect a bit, but not really. And once they're over, it's like they never even existed. One moment I should be caring about what happens to Gondor, but the next - uhh, nothing more to do, so I guess they're fine now? I felt pretty much no emotional connection to most of the characters. In the beginning of the game we're introduced to General Castamir, leader of Minas Ithil. Soon after he is kidnapped by orcs. The player goes off to a rescue mission alone with his daughter (of course, why wait for backup?). The General is rescued. Turns out he was a traitor and an idiot, and he is killed. Am I supposed to feel something for him? I just met the guy, had seen him on-screen like for a minute or so. Ditto for his daughter too - she gets some more screen time, but still I hardly know her. Just because we've crouched in the same bush for a bit doesn't make us friends. And what essentially sounds like a single quest is spread across multiple ones, killing any sense of urgency.
Ignorance of narrative structure is also evident in how the game presents itself (I wouldn't nitpick about this otherwise, but the game uses these terms so I think it's fair game). First we have a prologue and Act 1, that essentially introduces the setting, main characters and some themes. So far so good. Then we have Act 2, that pretty much is the entire game. There the player may learn bits about the story, in a semi-arbitrary order - while quests in a "main" story branch appear somewhat in order, the player may jump between branches at will. Or not, much of it is still optional. And again, thanks to the open world design (that doesn't even try to bridge narrative gaps), there's absolutely no sense of urgency. Still, that's Act 2, telling pretty much all of the story there's to be told. And then there's Act 3, which basically is some cutscenes and a couple of bossfights. That's just not how it works. Or sure, if you are creative enough, you can ignore the basic structure; these writers are not.
Still, not everything needs to be a literary masterpiece, and on average, video games aren't. What's essential though is having a protagonist that is likeable, or at the very least interesting. Talion is neither. He rivals Aiden Pearce from the original Watch Dogs as the most bland protagonist ever. It's not that the other characters would be that good - they're not - but Talion is just so much worse that he sticks out like a sore thumb. His dialogue is just awful, and this isn't helped by some really out of place oneliners he blurts every now and then. I think it's telling that story-wise, the only branch I moderately liked was the one involving Brûz, Ratbag and Ranger, three orcs. What happens in it isn't special: first half of the branch is pretty much a tutorial on how to manage orcs/take over fortresses, the second half is Brûz double-crossing Talion and kidnapping Ranger, with Talion and Ratbag seeking to make an example of Brûz for other potential traitors and free Ranger. But why it works, at all, is thanks to the three orcs having something that Talion sorely lacks: a personality.
PRESENTATION/TECH: I thought the game looked quite good on the whole. There are some low-quality textures to be seen occasionally, the HDR implementation is underwhelming and dynamic resolution scaling can be noticeable occasionally (mostly not though, especially during gameplay). It's not the most pretty or technologically advanced game out there, but it works very well for what it is trying to do. Different regions of the world map look different (up to a point at least), which is always appreciated. The orc designs can be absolutely endearing. Also loading times (for a console open-world game) are decent, quite often fast travel takes longer. Performance-wise, I played the game entirely using the "quality mode", and while there were moments where the game seemed to ponder a bit what to do next, during gameplay it seemed to be pretty solid 30fps.
The soundtrack is of the typical epic orchestrated variety often found in fantasy films/games, and while it is utterly forgettable (I just spent several hours playing the game, and couldn't hum a single tune no matter how I tried), it works very well within the game. The sounds themselves are quite good if nothing special. We've all heard metal clanging on metal before, but there's a decent amount of samples used, so you're not hearing just the same sounds over and over again. One nice little touch is how the game utilizes the DS4 speaker - when for example meeting an orc captain, and you're grinding your weapons together, that grinding sound is output through the controller. A little thing, but as that feature of the controller is woefully underutilized, glad to see developers finding some use for it. Voicework is for the most part good - some of the orcs are great, some of the more major characters can be less convincing, but on average, pretty good voices.
It's clearly an AAA game with high production values and good tech. I only have two major complaints in this department: while the character models look good, the facial models and especially animation/lip sync can look really off. Many games are guilty of this, and I'm not expecting Naughty Dog-level animation in an open-world game; just that as the dialogue itself can already be quite bad and unnatural, it isn't helped at all by a delivery straight from the uncanny valley. And then there's Talion. I generally like Troy Baker as a VA, he usually does a decent job in any given role, sometimes exceptional. But here he is just completely off the mark. The godawful lines he's given surely have something to do with it, but his performance isn't helping at all either.
UI: normally, I wouldn't comment on the UI, but this one is pretty bad. It doesn't look bad, mind you (although the map is pretty rubbish, at least as far as functionality is concerned), but using it is very fiddly. Many common tasks seem to require way too many button presses. For example, if you're past the very beginning, you don't want to keep those normal weapons/armour you get as loot, there's no reason to. So you destroy that junk to get some Mirian. In order to do so, you must first navigate to the item in question (all placed in a single scrollable row - the legendary ones are on their own row at the very least. Then press square, i.e. "Modify Gear". Then you get to choose whether you want to destroy that item (gaining X Mirian), or upgrade to the player's level (costing Y Mirian). Why aren't both options visible immediately? There's enough space to display "*square* Upgrade (-123 Mirian)" and "*triangle* Destroy (+123 Mirian)", with a lot to spare even. When user presses either button, a modal confirmation is shown, where what the user is about to do is explained in more detail.
Speaking of inventory management, no one is forcing developers to include RPG elements in games, and I know this isn't a proper RPG (or try to be even). However. If you're going to give us gear that not only changes base stats (attack/health/etc), but may also include other effects, I should bloody well be able to see what active effects my current gear provides in one go. Not too much ask, is it? But at least the HUD is customizable - most options are simple on/off toggles, but that's more than what many games offer, so kudos for that.
GAMEPLAY: this, in its very core, is where the game shines for me, I really enjoyed the basic gameplay. The world/environment traversal is very pleasant, and not just pushing a stick forward. New skills like double jump help with this and unlockable skills later on in the game like Shadow Strike make it even more fun. Sure, at times when climbing it may be hard to get the character to move exactly in the direction you want, occasionally you may run into small glitches with the environment and you may end up climbing a wall instead of running past it because your trajectory was just a little bit off, but this is true for any game with similar free roaming/running. The mounts I'm not a particular fan of, especially controlling a drake sucks, but the option is there if you're so inclined (with a proper skill).
And it is fun to annoy/tease/torture the orcs. Poisoning their drinks, possessing a few to get them fighting among themselves, opening cages or dropping baits to get Caragors to wreak havoc, shooting arrows at fires to get them to explode (not very logical, but hey, it's fun still) and so on, there are many ways to make an orc's life miserable. Early in the game this involves more sneaking around camps, but with later skill unlocks/upgrades pretty much everything can be done remotely. If anything, it would be nice to have actual traps to place, not just relying on what's in the environment, but what is available here enables all kinds of mischief already.
Speaking of skills and upgrades, this game naturally has a skill tree too (what game doesn't nowadays). I actually think it's quite good. Each skill has two or three upgrades available, and what I really like is that you can have only one upgrade active/skill at any given time. This makes you choose your upgrades according to your playstyle/the enemy you're facing, instead of just maxing out your favourite skills and using only those all the time. It's not perfect by any means - some upgrades are of dubious value ("Silent Runner" for example, running while crouched is already plenty fast and silent), some things you may have wanted but didn't know were available may be in odd places (why is "Mind Breaker", i.e. dominate orcs faster, an upgrade to "Treasure Hunter", i.e. auto loot pickup?) and some upgrades are just so desirable I wonder why the other upgrades even exist for the same skill (who wouldn't use "Fatal Counter", i.e. instakill grunts with a perfect counter - unless you really enjoy grinding out low-level mobs).
On the other hand, one thing the skill tree gets right (and many games don't) is not locking expected/obvious functionality behind skills. Along the lines of "Hey, you know now how to silently kill someone! Would you like to spend some upgrade points to learn how to do it from a slightly more elevated position?". There's a very comprehensive toolset at the player's disposal very early in the game, the skills are mostly non-essential (but convenient/fun) features. The game hands out skill points like candy, so it's very possible to max out everything in a single game if you grind it out (I didn't). Once you reach the endgame, you get some new skills (some old ones are removed too) and it's possible to boost individual stats little by little, if you find nothing more appealing in the menu. Not ideal, but got to spend those skill points somewhere I guess. All in all, I've seen way worse skill trees.
COMBAT: while this is not the stealthiest of stealth games by any means, lacking even basic things like disposing/hiding bodies, discreetly taking out some key enemies plays an important part of the game, it may even be required depending on the mission. And you can do quite a bit of damage while remaining undetected. But once we get to the action, if you've played any of the Arkham games, you know the drill. The button layout is pretty much identical for the basic stuff, you can even get a skill to throw a batara... I mean, a dagger, with a flick of the left trigger. Incoming attacks must be countered or dodged (if you don't get to attack before the enemy's attack lands). Low-level grunts will accept a beating in any which way you please, but higher-level enemies may be immune to a particular attack, so you may need to strike from the side/stun first/climb over, whatnot. While there are no gadgets as such, at least to a similar extent, the Arkham influence is undeniable.
Which is not a bad thing in itself, it's a tried and tested formula, and at first the combat feels good. It makes for some nice cinematic action scenes, especially combined with the occasional Execution or such. But as you play more, it becomes evident that the game is way too forgiving when it comes to the combat mechanics (at least on normal difficulty - I know, I could ramp up the difficulty, but I guess "normal" is the intended one by the developers for regular people to play?). While the concept of a "perfect counter" exists, you can press triangle to counter any time the prompt is visible, and you will, from almost any move. Counter cancels whatever you are doing. Dodge works in a similar fashion, you can dodge pretty much any time (some moves cannot be countered). This may not seem like a negative thing at first, but it quickly becomes just too button-mashy. According to the developers, they wanted to "move the game from the more solitary player experience to one that captured the epic battles shown in The Lord of the Rings films".
But what works on film for a couple of hours may not work in a game that lasts dozens of hours (except Legolas surfing on a shield while shooting orcs with a bow, that doesn't work anywhere). There are later on the game large battles with orcs also on the player's side, but even very high-level orcs still seem to be rather high-maintenance. You will probably need to be darting across the battlefield, micromanaging even very mundane details ("You've noticed there are archers on the roof - why don't you guys, I dunno, consider killing them? Oh fuck it, I'll do it myself then"). If you're in the midst of such an "epic battle" and you're absolutely swarmed by enemies, using something like ranged weapons may be right out, there's simply no time. Barring some special skills (which require that you have accumulated at least some "Might") attack/counter/dodge, with the occasional stun thrown in, is what you are able to do. By being so lenient with the timing, the game allows for such large chaotic encounters. But I'm not so sure such encounters are that fun, at least to the extent present in the game. My thumbs seem to agree.
Only fighting the Nazgûl changes things a bit, but in my opinion for the worse. It's still a combination of attack/counter/dodge/stun, but now the timing has to be much more precise, making for more challenging combat. But the challenge really isn't the timing - the window is much shorter, but still very much doable. The challenge comes from the fact that they keep teleporting all over the place, often off-camera, then they suddenly pull you close and go on an attack spree, leaving you rolling around like an idiot trying to keep out of the way of the attacks and somehow keep the camera in a sane position. Then waiting for that one brief prompt to press a button, but you also have to try to figure out from which off-screen position the attack is coming from. It's much easier to register a button prompt in time if it's in the center of the screen, as opposed to the edges. It's more difficult than fighting orcs, for sure, but is it more enjoyable, in my opinion not.
So while the combat started enjoyable enough, towards the end of the game I found myself avoiding random encounters, just because in the end it always plays so much the same - the risk for the player to die is quite low, but OTOH, there may be just so many orcs to deal with that it takes a while to bash all of their heads in.
QUESTS: if there's ever an award for most low-effort quest design ever, this game is a worthy contender for the title. It's not that no effort went to them - some of the more "important" quests feature cutscenes too, but the template is almost always the same:
He is shown initially as heading a cult of sorts, later on his followers resurrect him only to be killed for one final time by the protagonist. But many questions remain. What is this cult? What are they after? Are there any remaining members? Questions like these could have been answered along the way, as the player chases him across Mordor. But no. What happens in every fucking quest is: the player needs to first "purify" (hold circle for a while and try not to get hit) x amount of totems used in the necromancy ritual, in order to stop the undead from spawning. Then the player must kill everything that still moves. There are very slight variations of this, like having to kill undead archers first before going for the totems, or having to kill orcs trying to torch a tree after taking care of the totems, but that's pretty much it. And many quests are spent with this. There would have been so much opportunity to make this more interesting. Who is Zog? And still, what of the cult, what is it, where is it now? But no. Once the final quest in the branch is over, problem solved, cult dissolved I'm assuming, because no one seems to give them any thought after that.
This is just so low-effort quest design that it seems downright cynical, especially in a game that's supposed to have a story. I actually wouldn't have minded to have some bog-standard fetch quests in the game, if they were combined with some story and character development/interaction. Something along the lines of "Ranger has had a tummy ache for a long time, so he and Ratbag go out on a quest to find Ranger's favourite orc-chow that is out of stock in all nearby stores. During the quest they visit many locations, get sent on various fool's errands across Mordor and exchange some hilarious banter along the way. Eventually they're able to source the right food for Ranger, his digestion is back to normal, the end". I would rather play that than the majority of the quests on offer here.
But to some, it seems that the one original concept the franchise has going on for itself is all that is needed, so onward to
THE ORCS AND THE "NEMESIS SYSTEM": the orcs are undeniably the real stars of the show here - ironically enough, with just a few spoken lines they're able to appear more interesting than most of the main cast. And I really like the different designs - especially among the captains, some are just amazing. There are also various "factions" and "professions", so to speak. So on a quick glance, it appears that there's quite a bit of variety in there.
Sadly, this is not the case really. When it comes to the grunts, their appearance may vary a bit, but their behaviour falls into one from a handful of possible roles. Size does play some part, some moves are only executed by the largest ones, but in the end there's very little actual variety. The same is true for the captains as well. Again, some moves are reserved for the really big fellas, the "profession" (if any) may indicate for example poisoned weapons, but beyond that, it's just a random sampling of strengths and weaknesses (based in part on the orc's level I'm assuming, higher level orcs seem to have fewer of the latter). Even some moves that seem physically impossible for the smallest orcs (like blocking the player from jumping over the orc) are executed just fine by tiny captains, if the RNG has deemed it should have the skill.
This I think is a huge problem. The orcs are the main enemy after all, most of the game is spent fighting orcs. The game would benefit a lot from more variety there. More different kinds of grunts at the very least. But I wouldn't mind more captain types either. More specific weaknesses for example. Specific weak spots (not head or feet) that must be hit with a ranged weapon. Massively vulnerable when hit from the side, but nigh indestructible from front or back. Or something, I'm not a game designer nor do I play one on the TV, but that would be a great improvement. As is, there actually is so little variation that towards the end of the game I stopped looking at the intel altogether, unless facing a captain way above my level. Why bother, it takes like few seconds to notice "ah, that movement pattern, that attack pattern, probably vulnerable to X". It's annoying to fight two captains right one after another, both looking completely different and belonging to different factions, yet behaving identically. I've had it happen quite a few times, because the amount of available parameters just isn't really that big.
So what about the "nemesis system" then? I really like the concept. As an idea, having even a bit more personal adversary than "guy with a shotgun #251" is appealing. I just don't think the execution here is still quite there yet. Yes, your old opponents will remember your previous encounter and taunt you accordingly. They are able to gain abilities and change in appearance if they move in the ranks. And sure enough, it is amusing when an orc who you just recently literally split in half jumps in front of you, all wrapped in metal plates but still alive and kicking, and starts giving you shit. And there are also internal conflicts which shuffle the ranks every now and then, without the player's intervention.
This is all well and good, but it's also quite a shallow system in the end. It's just orcs having some skirmishes when the RNG sees so fit. Sure, you can send your own converts to target specific individuals, join in on the fun too - or just kill off random captains and watch the ranks regroup. But after toying around with it for a while, I just used the army view to figure out which key captains I should take out before storming a fort and skipped the nemesis system altogether (if I fell in the hand of a captain I always tried to respond in kind though).
That is not to say the system wouldn't have potential, it does. But I think it needs some more depth to it. How about for example making the orc factions more meaningful? An orc being attacked by a member of a rival faction could suddenly receive help from a member of the same faction? Or you, the player, has secured the fort in the area. But in addition to having to take care of the fort, you have to maintain a high enough "Orc Satisfaction Index". Disposable cannon fodder they may be, but get enough of them together and they start to organize and demand their rights. Let your OSI drop low enough and watch your captains jump ship. Conversely, maintain a high OSI and you may get new recruits just based on the working conditions. Just two contrived examples, but with some refinement I think the nemesis system could be turned into something great. As of now, despite the orcs having some quips suitable for various outcomes of encounters, there is more an illusion of complexity than actual complexity.
But maybe it's just me, I've never been that into sandbox gameplay. Such people definitely exist though, many enjoy creating their own "emergent narrative" to go along with it. For them, what's being offered right now with the nemesis system and the radiant orc quests may be all that's needed for hours and hours of entertainment, and that's great.
(continued in the next post)
Why would I want to play a game that had a mixed reception at best among fans, and is more (in)famous for trying to shove microtransactions into what essentially is a single-player game (causing such an uproar that they eventually removed them from the game)? Three reasons really. First of all, I got Shadow of Mordor on release, and started it a few times, but never got too far with it. I liked it, but it never really grabbed my attention. Sold it along with my OG PS4. But afterwards I've been thinking, maybe I just didn't give the game a proper chance? After all, I like Arkham-style combat (up to a point), Middle-earth seems like a potential setting and the "nemesis system" is an original concept, we should have more of those. So the sequel may be worth considering.
Second, the update that removed the MTs was just recently released. I don't applaud Monolith/WB for doing so (why were they there in the first place, and why with all the bad PR it took them this long?), but what got my attention was that according to the developers, the endgame "will be improved with new narrative elements and streamlined for a more cohesive experience". Going by reviews and comments, previously it was such a mind-numbing grind that paying for a few orcs may seem like a good option, if you want to get to the end. So not only did they get rid of MTs, they also fixed the game? Surely this cannot be?
And third, I have some time off work, was bored and it was on sale, that definitely played a part too. And now here I am with 100% of the story completed and 76% overall, I have given the game plenty of time to prove itself. So without further ado:
STORY: I tried to come up with something positive here, but it's very hard. The writing is mostly quite terrible. First I thought I'd call it bad fanfiction, but as bad as that can get (and it sure can), at least the authors are usually enthusiastic about the source material and lore. Here this is evidently not the case. I wouldn't so much mind playing fast and loose with the lore (which the game does, oh boy), but this feels like it was written by a committee of people, all of which had only seen the movies (but not read the books) and with little understanding of how narrative works. I can picture the first brainstorming session: "You know... there's that ring, right? And it's like super powerful, no one can defeat the one that has the ring. So I was thinking... what if we add another ring, that's like as powerful, if not more?" "Hmm, so like the first Iron Man movie?" "Exactly!" "I like it! Let's roll with that and start writing, we'll have the interns google up some names of places and people later so the nerds don't get too worked up." The end result feels like a generic fantasy story (emphasis on the "generic"), just set in Middle-earth.
But if we ignore the artistic freedom taken with the lore and feel (and I'm not saying the feel shouldn't be gritty, the world is - just that the story doesn't feel "Tolkienish" at all), there are fundamental narrative issues too. There are basically five story branches (represented in the five main quest categories), that do intersect a bit, but not really. And once they're over, it's like they never even existed. One moment I should be caring about what happens to Gondor, but the next - uhh, nothing more to do, so I guess they're fine now? I felt pretty much no emotional connection to most of the characters. In the beginning of the game we're introduced to General Castamir, leader of Minas Ithil. Soon after he is kidnapped by orcs. The player goes off to a rescue mission alone with his daughter (of course, why wait for backup?). The General is rescued. Turns out he was a traitor and an idiot, and he is killed. Am I supposed to feel something for him? I just met the guy, had seen him on-screen like for a minute or so. Ditto for his daughter too - she gets some more screen time, but still I hardly know her. Just because we've crouched in the same bush for a bit doesn't make us friends. And what essentially sounds like a single quest is spread across multiple ones, killing any sense of urgency.
Ignorance of narrative structure is also evident in how the game presents itself (I wouldn't nitpick about this otherwise, but the game uses these terms so I think it's fair game). First we have a prologue and Act 1, that essentially introduces the setting, main characters and some themes. So far so good. Then we have Act 2, that pretty much is the entire game. There the player may learn bits about the story, in a semi-arbitrary order - while quests in a "main" story branch appear somewhat in order, the player may jump between branches at will. Or not, much of it is still optional. And again, thanks to the open world design (that doesn't even try to bridge narrative gaps), there's absolutely no sense of urgency. Still, that's Act 2, telling pretty much all of the story there's to be told. And then there's Act 3, which basically is some cutscenes and a couple of bossfights. That's just not how it works. Or sure, if you are creative enough, you can ignore the basic structure; these writers are not.
Still, not everything needs to be a literary masterpiece, and on average, video games aren't. What's essential though is having a protagonist that is likeable, or at the very least interesting. Talion is neither. He rivals Aiden Pearce from the original Watch Dogs as the most bland protagonist ever. It's not that the other characters would be that good - they're not - but Talion is just so much worse that he sticks out like a sore thumb. His dialogue is just awful, and this isn't helped by some really out of place oneliners he blurts every now and then. I think it's telling that story-wise, the only branch I moderately liked was the one involving Brûz, Ratbag and Ranger, three orcs. What happens in it isn't special: first half of the branch is pretty much a tutorial on how to manage orcs/take over fortresses, the second half is Brûz double-crossing Talion and kidnapping Ranger, with Talion and Ratbag seeking to make an example of Brûz for other potential traitors and free Ranger. But why it works, at all, is thanks to the three orcs having something that Talion sorely lacks: a personality.
PRESENTATION/TECH: I thought the game looked quite good on the whole. There are some low-quality textures to be seen occasionally, the HDR implementation is underwhelming and dynamic resolution scaling can be noticeable occasionally (mostly not though, especially during gameplay). It's not the most pretty or technologically advanced game out there, but it works very well for what it is trying to do. Different regions of the world map look different (up to a point at least), which is always appreciated. The orc designs can be absolutely endearing. Also loading times (for a console open-world game) are decent, quite often fast travel takes longer. Performance-wise, I played the game entirely using the "quality mode", and while there were moments where the game seemed to ponder a bit what to do next, during gameplay it seemed to be pretty solid 30fps.
The soundtrack is of the typical epic orchestrated variety often found in fantasy films/games, and while it is utterly forgettable (I just spent several hours playing the game, and couldn't hum a single tune no matter how I tried), it works very well within the game. The sounds themselves are quite good if nothing special. We've all heard metal clanging on metal before, but there's a decent amount of samples used, so you're not hearing just the same sounds over and over again. One nice little touch is how the game utilizes the DS4 speaker - when for example meeting an orc captain, and you're grinding your weapons together, that grinding sound is output through the controller. A little thing, but as that feature of the controller is woefully underutilized, glad to see developers finding some use for it. Voicework is for the most part good - some of the orcs are great, some of the more major characters can be less convincing, but on average, pretty good voices.
It's clearly an AAA game with high production values and good tech. I only have two major complaints in this department: while the character models look good, the facial models and especially animation/lip sync can look really off. Many games are guilty of this, and I'm not expecting Naughty Dog-level animation in an open-world game; just that as the dialogue itself can already be quite bad and unnatural, it isn't helped at all by a delivery straight from the uncanny valley. And then there's Talion. I generally like Troy Baker as a VA, he usually does a decent job in any given role, sometimes exceptional. But here he is just completely off the mark. The godawful lines he's given surely have something to do with it, but his performance isn't helping at all either.
UI: normally, I wouldn't comment on the UI, but this one is pretty bad. It doesn't look bad, mind you (although the map is pretty rubbish, at least as far as functionality is concerned), but using it is very fiddly. Many common tasks seem to require way too many button presses. For example, if you're past the very beginning, you don't want to keep those normal weapons/armour you get as loot, there's no reason to. So you destroy that junk to get some Mirian. In order to do so, you must first navigate to the item in question (all placed in a single scrollable row - the legendary ones are on their own row at the very least. Then press square, i.e. "Modify Gear". Then you get to choose whether you want to destroy that item (gaining X Mirian), or upgrade to the player's level (costing Y Mirian). Why aren't both options visible immediately? There's enough space to display "*square* Upgrade (-123 Mirian)" and "*triangle* Destroy (+123 Mirian)", with a lot to spare even. When user presses either button, a modal confirmation is shown, where what the user is about to do is explained in more detail.
Speaking of inventory management, no one is forcing developers to include RPG elements in games, and I know this isn't a proper RPG (or try to be even). However. If you're going to give us gear that not only changes base stats (attack/health/etc), but may also include other effects, I should bloody well be able to see what active effects my current gear provides in one go. Not too much ask, is it? But at least the HUD is customizable - most options are simple on/off toggles, but that's more than what many games offer, so kudos for that.
GAMEPLAY: this, in its very core, is where the game shines for me, I really enjoyed the basic gameplay. The world/environment traversal is very pleasant, and not just pushing a stick forward. New skills like double jump help with this and unlockable skills later on in the game like Shadow Strike make it even more fun. Sure, at times when climbing it may be hard to get the character to move exactly in the direction you want, occasionally you may run into small glitches with the environment and you may end up climbing a wall instead of running past it because your trajectory was just a little bit off, but this is true for any game with similar free roaming/running. The mounts I'm not a particular fan of, especially controlling a drake sucks, but the option is there if you're so inclined (with a proper skill).
And it is fun to annoy/tease/torture the orcs. Poisoning their drinks, possessing a few to get them fighting among themselves, opening cages or dropping baits to get Caragors to wreak havoc, shooting arrows at fires to get them to explode (not very logical, but hey, it's fun still) and so on, there are many ways to make an orc's life miserable. Early in the game this involves more sneaking around camps, but with later skill unlocks/upgrades pretty much everything can be done remotely. If anything, it would be nice to have actual traps to place, not just relying on what's in the environment, but what is available here enables all kinds of mischief already.
Speaking of skills and upgrades, this game naturally has a skill tree too (what game doesn't nowadays). I actually think it's quite good. Each skill has two or three upgrades available, and what I really like is that you can have only one upgrade active/skill at any given time. This makes you choose your upgrades according to your playstyle/the enemy you're facing, instead of just maxing out your favourite skills and using only those all the time. It's not perfect by any means - some upgrades are of dubious value ("Silent Runner" for example, running while crouched is already plenty fast and silent), some things you may have wanted but didn't know were available may be in odd places (why is "Mind Breaker", i.e. dominate orcs faster, an upgrade to "Treasure Hunter", i.e. auto loot pickup?) and some upgrades are just so desirable I wonder why the other upgrades even exist for the same skill (who wouldn't use "Fatal Counter", i.e. instakill grunts with a perfect counter - unless you really enjoy grinding out low-level mobs).
On the other hand, one thing the skill tree gets right (and many games don't) is not locking expected/obvious functionality behind skills. Along the lines of "Hey, you know now how to silently kill someone! Would you like to spend some upgrade points to learn how to do it from a slightly more elevated position?". There's a very comprehensive toolset at the player's disposal very early in the game, the skills are mostly non-essential (but convenient/fun) features. The game hands out skill points like candy, so it's very possible to max out everything in a single game if you grind it out (I didn't). Once you reach the endgame, you get some new skills (some old ones are removed too) and it's possible to boost individual stats little by little, if you find nothing more appealing in the menu. Not ideal, but got to spend those skill points somewhere I guess. All in all, I've seen way worse skill trees.
COMBAT: while this is not the stealthiest of stealth games by any means, lacking even basic things like disposing/hiding bodies, discreetly taking out some key enemies plays an important part of the game, it may even be required depending on the mission. And you can do quite a bit of damage while remaining undetected. But once we get to the action, if you've played any of the Arkham games, you know the drill. The button layout is pretty much identical for the basic stuff, you can even get a skill to throw a batara... I mean, a dagger, with a flick of the left trigger. Incoming attacks must be countered or dodged (if you don't get to attack before the enemy's attack lands). Low-level grunts will accept a beating in any which way you please, but higher-level enemies may be immune to a particular attack, so you may need to strike from the side/stun first/climb over, whatnot. While there are no gadgets as such, at least to a similar extent, the Arkham influence is undeniable.
Which is not a bad thing in itself, it's a tried and tested formula, and at first the combat feels good. It makes for some nice cinematic action scenes, especially combined with the occasional Execution or such. But as you play more, it becomes evident that the game is way too forgiving when it comes to the combat mechanics (at least on normal difficulty - I know, I could ramp up the difficulty, but I guess "normal" is the intended one by the developers for regular people to play?). While the concept of a "perfect counter" exists, you can press triangle to counter any time the prompt is visible, and you will, from almost any move. Counter cancels whatever you are doing. Dodge works in a similar fashion, you can dodge pretty much any time (some moves cannot be countered). This may not seem like a negative thing at first, but it quickly becomes just too button-mashy. According to the developers, they wanted to "move the game from the more solitary player experience to one that captured the epic battles shown in The Lord of the Rings films".
But what works on film for a couple of hours may not work in a game that lasts dozens of hours (except Legolas surfing on a shield while shooting orcs with a bow, that doesn't work anywhere). There are later on the game large battles with orcs also on the player's side, but even very high-level orcs still seem to be rather high-maintenance. You will probably need to be darting across the battlefield, micromanaging even very mundane details ("You've noticed there are archers on the roof - why don't you guys, I dunno, consider killing them? Oh fuck it, I'll do it myself then"). If you're in the midst of such an "epic battle" and you're absolutely swarmed by enemies, using something like ranged weapons may be right out, there's simply no time. Barring some special skills (which require that you have accumulated at least some "Might") attack/counter/dodge, with the occasional stun thrown in, is what you are able to do. By being so lenient with the timing, the game allows for such large chaotic encounters. But I'm not so sure such encounters are that fun, at least to the extent present in the game. My thumbs seem to agree.
Only fighting the Nazgûl changes things a bit, but in my opinion for the worse. It's still a combination of attack/counter/dodge/stun, but now the timing has to be much more precise, making for more challenging combat. But the challenge really isn't the timing - the window is much shorter, but still very much doable. The challenge comes from the fact that they keep teleporting all over the place, often off-camera, then they suddenly pull you close and go on an attack spree, leaving you rolling around like an idiot trying to keep out of the way of the attacks and somehow keep the camera in a sane position. Then waiting for that one brief prompt to press a button, but you also have to try to figure out from which off-screen position the attack is coming from. It's much easier to register a button prompt in time if it's in the center of the screen, as opposed to the edges. It's more difficult than fighting orcs, for sure, but is it more enjoyable, in my opinion not.
So while the combat started enjoyable enough, towards the end of the game I found myself avoiding random encounters, just because in the end it always plays so much the same - the risk for the player to die is quite low, but OTOH, there may be just so many orcs to deal with that it takes a while to bash all of their heads in.
QUESTS: if there's ever an award for most low-effort quest design ever, this game is a worthy contender for the title. It's not that no effort went to them - some of the more "important" quests feature cutscenes too, but the template is almost always the same:
- Player travels to the map marker for the quest and initiates the quest
- Opening cutscene (optional)
- Player must first complete some prerequisite tasks - there may be some optional tasks too, but the payoff is usually quite minimal (along the lines of few hundred Mirian or a gem)
- Player must then fight a mob of enemies and/or bosses
- Repeat previous two steps as many times as required
- Closing cutscene (optional)
He is shown initially as heading a cult of sorts, later on his followers resurrect him only to be killed for one final time by the protagonist. But many questions remain. What is this cult? What are they after? Are there any remaining members? Questions like these could have been answered along the way, as the player chases him across Mordor. But no. What happens in every fucking quest is: the player needs to first "purify" (hold circle for a while and try not to get hit) x amount of totems used in the necromancy ritual, in order to stop the undead from spawning. Then the player must kill everything that still moves. There are very slight variations of this, like having to kill undead archers first before going for the totems, or having to kill orcs trying to torch a tree after taking care of the totems, but that's pretty much it. And many quests are spent with this. There would have been so much opportunity to make this more interesting. Who is Zog? And still, what of the cult, what is it, where is it now? But no. Once the final quest in the branch is over, problem solved, cult dissolved I'm assuming, because no one seems to give them any thought after that.
This is just so low-effort quest design that it seems downright cynical, especially in a game that's supposed to have a story. I actually wouldn't have minded to have some bog-standard fetch quests in the game, if they were combined with some story and character development/interaction. Something along the lines of "Ranger has had a tummy ache for a long time, so he and Ratbag go out on a quest to find Ranger's favourite orc-chow that is out of stock in all nearby stores. During the quest they visit many locations, get sent on various fool's errands across Mordor and exchange some hilarious banter along the way. Eventually they're able to source the right food for Ranger, his digestion is back to normal, the end". I would rather play that than the majority of the quests on offer here.
But to some, it seems that the one original concept the franchise has going on for itself is all that is needed, so onward to
THE ORCS AND THE "NEMESIS SYSTEM": the orcs are undeniably the real stars of the show here - ironically enough, with just a few spoken lines they're able to appear more interesting than most of the main cast. And I really like the different designs - especially among the captains, some are just amazing. There are also various "factions" and "professions", so to speak. So on a quick glance, it appears that there's quite a bit of variety in there.
Sadly, this is not the case really. When it comes to the grunts, their appearance may vary a bit, but their behaviour falls into one from a handful of possible roles. Size does play some part, some moves are only executed by the largest ones, but in the end there's very little actual variety. The same is true for the captains as well. Again, some moves are reserved for the really big fellas, the "profession" (if any) may indicate for example poisoned weapons, but beyond that, it's just a random sampling of strengths and weaknesses (based in part on the orc's level I'm assuming, higher level orcs seem to have fewer of the latter). Even some moves that seem physically impossible for the smallest orcs (like blocking the player from jumping over the orc) are executed just fine by tiny captains, if the RNG has deemed it should have the skill.
This I think is a huge problem. The orcs are the main enemy after all, most of the game is spent fighting orcs. The game would benefit a lot from more variety there. More different kinds of grunts at the very least. But I wouldn't mind more captain types either. More specific weaknesses for example. Specific weak spots (not head or feet) that must be hit with a ranged weapon. Massively vulnerable when hit from the side, but nigh indestructible from front or back. Or something, I'm not a game designer nor do I play one on the TV, but that would be a great improvement. As is, there actually is so little variation that towards the end of the game I stopped looking at the intel altogether, unless facing a captain way above my level. Why bother, it takes like few seconds to notice "ah, that movement pattern, that attack pattern, probably vulnerable to X". It's annoying to fight two captains right one after another, both looking completely different and belonging to different factions, yet behaving identically. I've had it happen quite a few times, because the amount of available parameters just isn't really that big.
So what about the "nemesis system" then? I really like the concept. As an idea, having even a bit more personal adversary than "guy with a shotgun #251" is appealing. I just don't think the execution here is still quite there yet. Yes, your old opponents will remember your previous encounter and taunt you accordingly. They are able to gain abilities and change in appearance if they move in the ranks. And sure enough, it is amusing when an orc who you just recently literally split in half jumps in front of you, all wrapped in metal plates but still alive and kicking, and starts giving you shit. And there are also internal conflicts which shuffle the ranks every now and then, without the player's intervention.
This is all well and good, but it's also quite a shallow system in the end. It's just orcs having some skirmishes when the RNG sees so fit. Sure, you can send your own converts to target specific individuals, join in on the fun too - or just kill off random captains and watch the ranks regroup. But after toying around with it for a while, I just used the army view to figure out which key captains I should take out before storming a fort and skipped the nemesis system altogether (if I fell in the hand of a captain I always tried to respond in kind though).
That is not to say the system wouldn't have potential, it does. But I think it needs some more depth to it. How about for example making the orc factions more meaningful? An orc being attacked by a member of a rival faction could suddenly receive help from a member of the same faction? Or you, the player, has secured the fort in the area. But in addition to having to take care of the fort, you have to maintain a high enough "Orc Satisfaction Index". Disposable cannon fodder they may be, but get enough of them together and they start to organize and demand their rights. Let your OSI drop low enough and watch your captains jump ship. Conversely, maintain a high OSI and you may get new recruits just based on the working conditions. Just two contrived examples, but with some refinement I think the nemesis system could be turned into something great. As of now, despite the orcs having some quips suitable for various outcomes of encounters, there is more an illusion of complexity than actual complexity.
But maybe it's just me, I've never been that into sandbox gameplay. Such people definitely exist though, many enjoy creating their own "emergent narrative" to go along with it. For them, what's being offered right now with the nemesis system and the radiant orc quests may be all that's needed for hours and hours of entertainment, and that's great.
(continued in the next post)
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