Wow, I'm astonished at how underwhelmed I was by the final act of this game. After getting the brand ability I thought things would really open up but nope
that's pretty much the end of the game
I don't feel like I learned anything about anything. The Nemesis system while intriguing was hardly contextualized in an interesting way. The only way it really interacted with the missions was with Ratbag which I took for a tutorial and the branding of war chiefs which I expected to be a stepping stone to something even more grand. I'm sure Mordor 2 will be better but for this game at least, what the fuck?
On the other hand I just picked up this game on Christmas and I have to say I'm genuinely impressed with the Nemesis system.
I have no problem admitting when I was wrong, and I was definitely wrong when I claimed "it will be just shitty level scaling under a new marketing name". It's not, not even close.
It's an interesting system that I can't wait to see expanded even more in future (eventual?) titles.
Of course, it has its limitations and in the long run you'll start noticing some repetition, but it's still noteworthy. Uruk's dynamic hierarchy, an *enormous* amount of aesthetic differentiation and their ability to memorize their previous interactions with you (in a simplified way, of course, but it works) all contribute together to make mooks feel like real characters who play a part in your story. Sometimes even a memorable one.
Before I familiarized with the system enough to learn how to exploit every single weakness the game even manage to give me my actual nemesis.
This fucker of a hunter captain started as immune to melee attacks (which were at first the only subsystem I was somewhat familiar with) and opened his way into becoming a virtually un-killable beast just kicking me on my teeth every single time.
He wasn't just hard to kill, he also dealt a shit-ton of damage with his poisonous spear, and he turned constantly out of nowhere even when I was facing other commanders.
He became my nightmare until I had a chance to exploit his only actual weakness, which was fire and explosive stuff.
And of course he never stopped remembering me how many times he already kicked my ass or forced me to retreat.
When I finally got how to deal with him and managed to kill the sucker I cheered, then I had to stop for a moment to realize "Goddammit, how cool was that?".
Now, for the bad parts. What I liked the least about the game (beside the dull plot and the long-term sense of repetition, which to be fair is almost inevitable) was the Assassin's Creed-inspired collect-a-thon garbage.
I get it's optional stuff, but Jesus Christ, when you are designing a world and your idea to fill the map is "We should totally put in dozens and dozens of shiny spots that reward you with 50 exp each one", you need to stop and reconsider what you are doing.
Coming just out of Dragon Age: Inquisition forced me to think how much this shitty way to design content is becoming popular for some inexplicable reasons.
The worst part: not a single one of these boring activities lead to any climax with a final reward. They are literally there just to be there.
Here's my suggestion, dear game designers: the next time you feel like you need to hide "treasures" in the game map, don't bother with hundreds. Put in ten-twenty of them at most, but be sure that finding them is a bit more challenging/interesting and the reward a bit more exciting (alternate weapons?, unique upgrades? alternate outfits, maybe even with their unique bonus/malus? etc).
You'll be surprised by how much more "filled with cool stuff" the world will actually feel, even if there is factually more empty space.
P.S. Oh, and yes, the final act is extremely underwhelming. I expected something on a much larger scale and exciting, after spending hours building an army, and what I got was
a small scale team battle 5 vs 5 and facing the generic villain with a couple of QTE
I bought the Season Pass today, couldn't wait for a sale on it on the PSN. I loved the questline with Torvin and can't wait to go hunt again with him.
As for the main mission, I'm already to that last one but I'm trying to clean up some stuff on the map before doing it.
I don't see what the fuss is all about for the Nemesus system. It's cool and all but it's not THAT mindblowing.
Also, branding is cool but I never use it unless the mission makes me. I don't get why would anyone bother with branding when you can just be killing.
So in the end, the best part of the game is the fighting. It's stylish as hell, from the sounds to the animations. I love the bow abilities that allow you to cross the whole fucking map just by aiming at a very distant enemy. It's sexy as hell.
I also like the lore in the game and ever since I started it, I felt the need to rewatch me some extended version of LOTR. The CGI cutscenes are very nice and made me wish for a TV show that would show the rising of Sauron.
It may not be "mindblowing" (whatever that means) but it's a pretty solid example of "system-driven" gameplay that supports the narrative a lot while not taking away player agency, like the dynamic galaxy in Space Rangers 2.
Which is definitely something worthy of some praise, in an industry where a lot of people seem to think that heavily scripted setpieces are the only way to deliver a story.
Oh, and by the way yes, Shadow Strike is an incredibly cool and fast way to move quickly across the map.
It may not be "mindblowing" (whatever that means) but it's a pretty solid example of "system-driven" gameplay that supports the narrative a lot while not taking away player agency, like the dynamic galaxy in Space Rangers 2.
Which is definitely something worthy of some praise, in an industry where a lot of people seem to think that heavily scripted setpieces are the only way to deliver a story.
Oh, and by the way yes, Shadow Strike is an incredibly cool and fast way to move quickly across the map.
The Nemesis system was also an example of a developer talking big about a gameplay feature and actually delivering on all their promises, it did exactly what Monolith said it would do. It says a lot that when they first started talking about it, most people responded with a collective "Yeah...sure guys. We'll see." and just wrote the game off - hence the complete and utter lack of hype around the game's release. So imagine everyone's surprise when the game hits and gets stellar reviews, that's how successful the Nemesis System was.
The Nemesis system was also an example of a developer talking big about a gameplay feature and actually delivering on all their promises, it did exactly what Monolith said it would do. It says a lot that when they first started talking about it, most people responded with a collective "Yeah...sure guys. We'll see." and just wrote the game off - hence the complete and utter lack of hype around the game's release. So imagine everyone's surprise when the game hits and gets stellar reviews, that's how successful the Nemesis System was.
Yeah, as I pointed in my previous post, I was one of these persons who expected it to be just something simple and dull like level scaling, re-branded as a cool new feature for marketing reasons.
It wasn't and I was completely wrong about it. Which I'm very glad for, just to be clear.
Of course, it's not a technical miracle, just pretty damn good, so in the long run you start to learn its limitations and exploit them.
Especially once you get few upgrades and master the system a bit better, these captains/warchiefs start to feel a lot less intimidating and easy to overcome.
But for some hours the illusion of forging your own story and your own characters works and it works pretty well, which is more than you could say for a lot of similar games.
Alright, finished the game today and my opinions are a little bit more mixed now.
The Nemesis system is really only good IF you die a lot. Or at least enough. Then you get to develop relationship with randomly generated Uruks.
But if you don't, then it could have been a static army or Uruks and the experience would have been exactly the same. Find intel, defeat Captain, next.
And sadly I didn't die that much in this game (seriously, you run at least ten times faster, you kill Uruks by dozens, you have a ton of options to one shot everyone AND you know the weakness of your enemies, it's really hard to lose a battle). And certainly nowhere near enough to develop any kind of relationship with any Uruk. Sometimes, a captain comes by that I killed before, he says something coolish and I kill him again. End of story.
So, yeah, pretty cool system but again, it didn't offer any particular excitement for me. I feel like something is off in the balance of the game. Talion is powerful but not his enemies. I barely even used runes on my equipment, I didn't have any incentive. I was already destroying everything that crossed my path.
Finished the story mode today and overall it was... ok.
Like others have said the powers you get towards the end of the game are a bit pointless as the game is nearly over before you can really use them and really appreciate them.
I also got increasingly annoyed at the constant arrival of new captains during battles with Warchiefs - not only because it made it a lot harder but because the constant introducing of characters broke up the gameplay.
I'm also really annoyed that Ratbag was written out of the game so needlessly. He should have moved up the ranks until he was one of the final War Chiefs that you invade Sauron's base with at the end of the game rather than killed off and never mentioned again.
The less said about the QTE final boss, the better.
You can fight your way through that giant army and try to Combat Brand the warchief if you want. You can also stealth your way through the stronghold and try to Stealth Brand them.
Or, you can do it the way I did, which is to find one of their bodyguards, Brand that bodyguard, then order him to Betray the warchief. That will initiate a mission where you can go in and help your Branded captain take down the warchief, and he'll become the warchief himself, and you will have branded a warchief through a neat indirect method.
Fuck, this sounds fun as hell, since Im returning to this game after an atrocious AC unity experience I will do this method, so I brand a captain and then I will make him betray the warchief.
Just finished the game and while I enjoyed the whole experience (hell I platinumed it) I came to rant about the ending
as a massive LOTR fan the ending was massively bullshit to canon. I mean I'm not usually picky about canon and nothing up to that last mission bother me but damn was the last 5 minutes stupid, both story wise and mechanically. It also seemingly wants to be set in mordor for the inevitable sequel? Ruins my dream of shadow of angmar
I got a PS4 a few days ago, and I've been playing SoM ever since. I've spent at least 10% of my time in the game fiddling around with Photo Mode. Which leads me to my question.
After a cursory search I couldn't find one so I'll ask: is there a dedicated Photo Mode thread?
I got a PS4 a few days ago, and I've been playing SoM ever since. I've spent at least 10% of my time in the game fiddling around with Photo Mode. Which leads me to my question.
After a cursory search I couldn't find one so I'll ask: is there a dedicated Photo Mode thread?
Both Challenges down, Im up to the Ithildin and objects hunt, will nto last long, and after that is the miscelanous ones like get a level 25 rune god damn.
Started this up on PS4 a few days a ago. I'm loving it. The nemesis system is very cool, the combat is simple,b ut satisfying and it has the best stealth (I.e. Not a bunch of trial and error BS) of any game I can recall. I'm taking my time doing side missions and finding artifacts and doing a main mission here and there.
Hi everyone, sorry for the dumb question, but: how is the PS3 version? especially in terms of possible bugs, tearing framerate issues. A friend of mine didn't "know" the game and I suggested it due to its tastes, but I don't know if the PS3 version stands up decently. He has just PS3.
I finally finished all the story missions. I laughed at Talion's final line before the credit roll.
I think I'm going to go for the platinum trophy, completing the side stuff isn't too bad as I love the combat mechanics.
Hi everyone, sorry for the dumb question, but: how is the PS3 version? especially in terms of possible bugs, tearing framerate issues. A friend of mine didn't "know" the game and I suggested it due to its tastes, but I don't know if the PS3 version stands up decently. He has just PS3.
I love this game but it can be very frustrating. Incredibly frustrating even.
I want to kill this Captain (which has no bodyguards), but he just won't die. Why? Because when I start to fight him, a thousand orcs arrive + some other captains just randomly pop up. How the hell am I supposed to brand him?
Last time I got him to low health, but branding him is just impossible since a simple hit from an orc is enough to interrupt the process.
What am I doing wrong? His weakness is "fear of caragors" and "damaged by finishers".
Frankly, I find this a bit unfair.
The fact that if he hits me, I'm almost insta-killed is unfair as well. He shoots three flaming arrows in quick succession and just annihilates me.
I love this game but it can be very frustrating. Incredibly frustrating even.
I want to kill this Captain (which has no bodyguards), but he just won't die. Why? Because when I start to fight him, a thousand orcs arrive + some other captains just randomly pop up. How the hell am I supposed to brand him?
Last time I got him to low health, but branding him is just impossible since a simple hit from an orc is enough to interrupt the process.
What am I doing wrong? His weakness is "fear of caragors" and "damaged by finishers".
Frankly, I find this a bit unfair.
The fact that if he hits me, I'm almost insta-killed is unfair as well. He shoots three flaming arrows in quick succession and just annihilates me.
Where's he hanging out? If a bunch of of other guys are showing up to the fight, it sounds like he's probably in one of the strongholds. Maybe release a caragor from a cage (or shoot down some bait) to send the guy running and then you can get him separated from his crew.
I've noticed even if you clear out an area, there will still sometimes be hordes of orcs that pop in as soon as your back is turned. It can be very frustrating after you've spent time methodically clearing out an area in preparation for a warchief or captain fight.
I love this game but it can be very frustrating. Incredibly frustrating even.
I want to kill this Captain (which has no bodyguards), but he just won't die. Why? Because when I start to fight him, a thousand orcs arrive + some other captains just randomly pop up. How the hell am I supposed to brand him?
Last time I got him to low health, but branding him is just impossible since a simple hit from an orc is enough to interrupt the process.
What am I doing wrong? His weakness is "fear of caragors" and "damaged by finishers".
Frankly, I find this a bit unfair.
The fact that if he hits me, I'm almost insta-killed is unfair as well. He shoots three flaming arrows in quick succession and just annihilates me.
Regarding the hordes of orcs, keep an eye out for the orc who is running away to light the signal torch. If you make sure to snipe him, you can usually avoid the giant hordes. Keep a close watch because even after you take out the first orc, others will make attempts to light the fire.
Does the captain have immunity to stealth? If not, attack from above and you can reduce his health a bit, which will help getting him down to the level where you can brand him. You can also try using Shadow Strike for this purpose, again if he isn't immune to it.
I've noticed even if you clear out an area, there will still sometimes be hordes of orcs that pop in as soon as your back is turned. It can be very frustrating after you've spent time methodically clearing out an area in preparation for a warchief or captain fight.
Just started playing this last night; I've probably done about two hours so far. Haven't really done any story missions just yet; I've just been getting used to the controls and messing around sneaking up on Uruks. The controls are good, the Nemesis system is probably the stand-out aspect of the whole game and the combat is a lot of fun. My main gripe so far (besides the boring environment) is that finishing moves on downed enemies are really inconsistent - if I press R2 and □ to finish a downed enemy that enemy will not die unless the animation plays out in full, meaning that if I get hit or counter an attack the downed Uruk isn't dead even if Talion has stuck his sword into its chest, because the animation was interrupted 0.2 seconds before it completed.
Other than that minor gripe (which I also took issue with in the first two Batman games), I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Look forward to playing more tonight.
I guess I'm about seven hours in now. I've been concentrating a lot on side missions and pissing around hunting and killing Uruks and captains, but having done a few story missions last night I realise that as it introduces more systems and options the gameplay gets a lot better. I've done a couple of missions with
Ratbag
or whatever his name is, and I now have to go and kill the four Warchiefs. The combat and enemies are definitely the highlight of this game, and I like the way that even a small group of enemies can be dangerous and stealth really is genuinely useful. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hanging kills; it's so damn satisfying.
So GAF, any tips for the Mighty Doom trohy/achievement? (the one to get a level 25 rune)
What is the quickest way to "level up" a captain to 20? Do I need to purposely die over and over against him or do I keep advancing time until they level up to 20 and then choose the best fit to go after?
So GAF, any tips for the Mighty Doom trohy/achievement? (the one to get a level 25 rune)
What is the quickest way to "level up" a captain to 20? Do I need to purposely die over and over against him or do I keep advancing time until they level up to 20 and then choose the best fit to go after?
I've gone for this cheevo three times. Got the captain to level 20, graduated him to warchief, let him kill me for the revenge flag and then exploited his weakness prior to killing him. Each time I got an epic rune.
So GAF, any tips for the Mighty Doom trohy/achievement? (the one to get a level 25 rune)
What is the quickest way to "level up" a captain to 20? Do I need to purposely die over and over against him or do I keep advancing time until they level up to 20 and then choose the best fit to go after?
1. Keep challenging him and purposefully dying to level him up (he doesn't have to kill you himself to level up, anyone can... preferably one of his bodyguards)
2. Let him personally kill you at least once so he becomes a revenge target
3. Brand his bodyguards
4. Send him a death threat (more on this below)
5. Challenge him
6. Exploit his weakness (eg. fear of caragors)
7. Command his bodyguards (who you've branded) to kill him, and let one of them get the killing blow
The general advice is NOT to issue a death threat as it greatly increases your chances of getting an Epic rune rather than a level 25 one. However, if you issue a death threat and allow one of your branded orcs to deal the finishing blow, the whole Epic rune thing is nullified, and you'll get your level 25 one easily.
I had a similar bug happening this morning when i booted the game, it was running at a constant 15fps or lower and i had to restart the console to fix it, could be the same thing if it didn't fix itselft after a while
I've gone for this cheevo three times. Got the captain to level 20, graduated him to warchief, let him kill me for the revenge flag and then exploited his weakness prior to killing him. Each time I got an epic rune.
1. Keep challenging him and purposefully dying to level him up (he doesn't have to kill you himself to level up, anyone can... preferably one of his bodyguards)
2. Let him personally kill you at least once so he becomes a revenge target
3. Brand his bodyguards
4. Send him a death threat (more on this below)
5. Challenge him
6. Exploit his weakness (eg. fear of caragors)
7. Command his bodyguards (who you've branded) to kill him, and let one of them get the killing blow
The general advice is NOT to issue a death threat as it greatly increases your chances of getting an Epic rune rather than a level 25 one. However, if you issue a death threat and allow one of your branded orcs to deal the finishing blow, the whole Epic rune thing is nullified, and you'll get your level 25 one easily.
I've had this issue while playing on the PS4 a couple times. It can happen anytime, not necessarily near the end of the game. Closing application and restarting the game should do the trick.
However, if you issue a death threat and allow one of your branded orcs to deal the finishing blow, the whole Epic rune thing is nullified, and you'll get your level 25 one easily.
Finished this up last night, a bit over 31 hours. I liked it a lot, but ended up not going for 100% as it was getting a bit tedious toward the end. I found all the relics and other image things, did all the outcast missions, but didn't finish the weapon missions. The dagger ones got pretty tedious with the failure upon detection and no restart popup making you have to run back to the mission icon to restart every time. Only other gripe is the story didn't go anywhere really, and the last boss fights were pretty lame.
But overall it was a lot of fun to play. I loved the nemesis system and simple, but satisfying combat. Good sense of progression as you keep getting more powerful. I'm excited to see what they can do for a sequel now that they have the engine set and can hopefully focus more on story, enemy variety, bosses etc.
Wow, I'm astonished at how underwhelmed I was by the final act of this game. After getting the brand ability I thought things would really open up but nope
that's pretty much the end of the game
I don't feel like I learned anything about anything. The Nemesis system while intriguing was hardly contextualized in an interesting way. The only way it really interacted with the missions was with Ratbag which I took for a tutorial and the branding of war chiefs which I expected to be a stepping stone to something even more grand. I'm sure Mordor 2 will be better but for this game at least, what the fuck?
I also thought there was going to be a "grand third act" to this game. I was really enjoying everything up until the fight with The Tower. He looked so scary but
all you had to do was stealth kill him a few times. The Black Hand fight was also pure garbage.
I'm surprised this game was so revered here and on press sites because it really fell flat toward the end.
I think I'm about half way through the game and I'm loving it so far.
The only problem I have is that Mordor is the ugliest part of Middle Earth. Hopefully the inevitable sequel lets us explore more of the world. Can't wait.
I've probably done about ten hours so far. This is the kind of game where I'd really like a statistics screen so I can see the amount of time played, the number of bow & arrow kills, the number of sword kills, the number of 'dagger' kills (still find it weird how by their logic a sword with a broken blade = a dagger), number of stealth kills, number of death threats sent, number of captains/warchiefs killed, number of orcs who've killed each other, number of prisoners liberated, etc.
Anyway, I've just
defeated the Hammer of Sauron
. I found the whole
Ratbag arc
quite strange and pointless - he was
comic relief replete with goofy music in his cutscenes, and then before there's any payoff or resolution he's killed off and forgotten. Maybe it's to emphasise how little even the most highly-ranked Uruks mean to the Black Hand and his crew, but we didn't need Ratbag for that - could have been any random captain he killed. Have Celebrimbor tell Talion to kill the warchiefs to send the orc troops into disarray and there's basically no need for Ratbag to be in the game at all.
Anyway, besides that minor grumble I'm really enjoying it. I've been concentrating too much on side missions and hunting captains, so I'm trying to focus on the plot a bit now. I guess I'm nearly half way through, as I've got five of ten story trophies. Got 42% overall and I'm enjoying it so much I may try for the Platinum. It's just collecting stuff that's really going to drag, although I got the platty on Assassin's Creed 2 which was much more tedious than this with all the feathers.
I think I'm about half way through the game and I'm loving it so far.
The only problem I have is that Mordor is the ugliest part of Middle Earth. Hopefully the inevitable sequel lets us explore more of the world. Can't wait.
I love the locales from Fellowship the best; would love a wooded area with some ruins like in the battle near the end of that film. I'd also like to see some rivers and maybe a location like the dwarf city in Fellowship.
unlocking all of the forge towers. I've got almost all of the collectibles
in the first map and
I think I will try for the Platinum trophy as I'm really enjoying it.
Visually the second map is much more interesting, but I'd have been happy with just one map, perhaps a little larger and with more visual variety as I'm pretty sure this second map is going to be filled with the same kinds of quests as the first one.
unlocking all of the forge towers. I've got almost all of the collectibles
in the first map and
I think I will try for the Platinum trophy as I'm really enjoying it.
Visually the second map is much more interesting, but I'd have been happy with just one map, perhaps a little larger and with more visual variety as I'm pretty sure this second map is going to be filled with the same kinds of quests as the first one.
The game could really have benefitted from proper interior locations to break up the monotony. The ruins and caves just blend together after a while of playing.
In all honesty, almost every aspect aside from the core stealth, Nemesis and combat mechanics could have used more love, detail and polish.
I can definitely see why there's a bit of a backlash against this title's acclaim but it still manages to deliver excitement and entertainment in spades.
So I downloaded the game on PC and have a small problem with the game's resolution settings. For some reason the game is not showing me any of the DSR resolutions I've enabled in nvidia control panel. Does anyone know why this would be? The only options I see are 1080p(100%), 1600p(150%) and 2160p(200%).
