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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor |OT| One Title to rule them all

L

LurkerPrime

Member
Levyne said:
CMoFjUW.png


I feel terrible
Click to expand...

Do not fret! Playing SoM will make you feel better.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
Man, that's some high praise from GamesRadar:

But that hardly matters the overall package is this phenomenal. Shadow of Mordor isn't just the greatest Lord of the Rings game to date--it's also one of the most entertaining open-world adventures around.
Click to expand...
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
I was hoping we would get more screenshots. :( Of the PS4 AND PC versions. Kotaku posted a couple of the PS4 version, and Game Informer showed some downsized screens, but that's about it.

Edit: I like this one:

u09qq6t6t1euih7kmgn3.jpg
 
EventHorizon

EventHorizon

Member
I've said it before, but I think Shadow of Mordor is proving that the true next gen feature is procedurally generated gameplay. The Nemesis system will be the new horde mode that will be copied in many future games. Also if No Man's Sky can pull it off, it will show up a lot of bigger budgeted games.
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Bought it already for PC and have a 780. Good hardware but I think I'll get the PS4 version as well just so I can plug away and worry less about bugs and issues that usually launch with PC games. That and I want to have this game on my PS4 to play whenever the mood strikes. So excited.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
bigboss370 said:
this game has a season pass? whats in the season pass?
Click to expand...

Exclusive ‘Guardians of the Flaming Eye’ Orc Warband mission
Players will face Sauron’s elite Defenders before the Black Gate and earn the Rising Flame rune.

Early access to the ‘Trials of War’ challenge series
Players will test their skills against select legions of Sauron’s forces in this series of challenge modes and build their legend as gamers post their best score on the Challenge Leaderboard.

All new story missions with hours of gameplay
Lord of the Hunt – Hunt the wild beasts of Mordor as player’s discover hidden lairs, earn unique runes, and face off against powerful monsters.
The Bright Lord – Play as Celebrimbor, the great Elven smith of the Second Age, and battle against Sauron and the might of his forces.

Access to future content
Including runes, skins, and additional future add-on content.

MSRP: $24.99
 
H

Hrothgar

Member
My wallet weeps, in order to play this I need to buy a new graphics card. There goes my plan to wait for The Witcher 3 before upgrading.
 
BouncyFrag

BouncyFrag

Member
Just saw the review thread. Anyone else grinning uncontrollably rom ear to ear? As a big Tolkien fan, this could possibly be my game of the forever.
129-66.gif
 
D

DarkoMaledictus

Tier Whore
VanWinkle said:
Exclusive ‘Guardians of the Flaming Eye’ Orc Warband mission
Players will face Sauron’s elite Defenders before the Black Gate and earn the Rising Flame rune.

Early access to the ‘Trials of War’ challenge series
Players will test their skills against select legions of Sauron’s forces in this series of challenge modes and build their legend as gamers post their best score on the Challenge Leaderboard.

All new story missions with hours of gameplay
Lord of the Hunt – Hunt the wild beasts of Mordor as player’s discover hidden lairs, earn unique runes, and face off against powerful monsters.
The Bright Lord – Play as Celebrimbor, the great Elven smith of the Second Age, and battle against Sauron and the might of his forces.

Access to future content
Including runes, skins, and additional future add-on content.

MSRP: $24.99
Click to expand...

Well season pass bought with 25% voucher. Hope it's worth it!
 
C

Cronox

Banned
LurkerPrime said:
You shall not Season Pass.

It's my biggest balrog in gaming.
Click to expand...

Forgive me GAF, for I have season passed... for $33 with the game on the buy/sell community thread. I don't feel too bad about it.

Also, I'm glad the review scores justify my pre-order.

And that 6 gig graphics setting is exactly why I'm waiting for the 8 gig variants of the GTX 970 before upgrading my 670.
 
G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Yay! I can finally talk about how good this game is! The short version is that it's REAL good - a very strong Game of the Year candidate.

The basic formula (Assassin's Creed traversal + Batman Arkham's combat + Orcs!) is already really damn compelling, but there's three elements to SoM that people don't know about that really send the experience over-the-top and make it an AAA must-have:

1) The execution of all the game's "little elements" is almost completely perfect. Writing and acting are great, even though they didn't need to be. The stealth system has a neat tweak - you see an outline of yourself, like a ghost, when you break line-of-sight with pursuing orcs. That outline is where enemies last saw you, which helps you plan an escape route, and confirms in an unobtrusive way that you did indeed escape their vision. Game is full of polish and intelligent, tiny design elements like this.

2) The game's upgrade tree is full of real, meaningful upgrades that make you dramatically more powerful and badass, all the way through to the end of the game. You'll want them all, and it's a genuinely hard choice to decide where to drop each new ability point. These aren't ticky-tacky upgrades like 20% more damage. It's stuff like the pinning the enemies to the ground with arrows, or stunning enemies any time you vault over them, or doubling the speed of your counter-attacks, or unlocking a limited time "berserk mode." You'll want all these things.

By the end of the game you will feel genuinely more powerful in a real and dramatic way, and it isn't thanks to a bigger health pool or damage output. It's through all the additional combat tricks at your disposal.

3) Shadow of Mordor might be the first third-person sandbox game to truly let players tackle a challenge the way that THEY want. I can't emphasize to you how different/fresh and important this feels.

Imagine GTA 5's heists or Batman's detective work, but without the on-rails, scripted choices. Instead you just plan the heist within the rules of the sandbox - tailing the owner, casing the place, etc. All without mission objectives - the mission objective would just be "rob this business" and you're left to sort it out. Without planning, you'll fail. That's what the final ~1/3rd of Shadow of Mordor is like, once you're kitted out.

Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his Captain bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).

The game just says "take out these warchiefs" and it's up to you to build in the sub-goals that let you accomplish this goal. And they're not really optional - without prep, the Warchiefs are too strong to take down. It's an awesome feeling. And although it doesn't feel half-baked, it's easy to imagine this open-ended design and enemy manipulation being taken much farther in sequels.

Very small potential cons that didn't detract from my enjoyment:

- Game world is not big.
- Read Dead-style hunting/gathering challenges are half-baked. Should have been cut.
- Controls are extremely complex - all four face buttons and triggers do something, and there are 3 separate actions mapped to pressing two face buttons simultaneously. D-Pad does important stuff too. It's crazy at first, although you adjust with time.
 
I

ironcreed

Banned
VanWinkle said:
Man, that's some high praise from GamesRadar:
Click to expand...

I think Monolith must have forged this game in the fires of Mount Doom or something. As it honestly sounds quite precious.

No, but seriously. Some amazingly high praise being tossed around. This is on it's way to some GOTY awards for sure.
 
R

Regret Truth

Member
GDJustin said:
Yay! I can finally talk about how good this game is! The short version is that it's REAL good - a very strong Game of the Year candidate.

The basic formula (Assassin's Creed traversal + Batman Arkham's combat + Orcs!) is already really damn compelling, but there's three elements to SoM that people don't know about that really send the experience over-the-top and make it an AAA must-have:

1) The execution of all the game's "little elements" is almost completely perfect. Writing and acting are great, even though they didn't need to be. The stealth system has a neat tweak - you see an outline of yourself, like a ghost, when you break line-of-sight with pursuing orcs. That outline is where enemies last saw you, which helps you plan an escape route, and confirms in an unobtrusive way that you did indeed escape their vision. Game is full of polish and intelligent, tiny design elements like this.

2) The game's upgrade tree is full of real, meaningful upgrades that make you dramatically more powerful and badass, all the way through to the end of the game. You'll want them all, and it's a genuinely hard choice to decide where to drop each new ability point. These aren't ticky-tacky upgrades like 20% more damage. It's stuff like the pinning the enemies to the ground with arrows, or stunning enemies any time you vault over them, or doubling the speed of your counter-attacks, or unlocking a limited time "berserk mode." You'll want all these things.

By the end of the game you will feel genuinely more powerful in a real and dramatic way, and it isn't thanks to a bigger health pool or damage output. It's through all the additional combat tricks at your disposal.

3) Shadow of Mordor might be the first third-person sandbox game to truly let players tackle a challenge the way that THEY want. I can't emphasize to you how different/fresh and important this feels.

Imagine GTA 5's heists or Batman's detective work, but without the on-rails, scripted choices. Instead you just plan the heist within the rules of the sandbox - tailing the owner, casing the place, etc. All without mission objectives - the mission objective would just be "rob this business" and you're left to sort it out. Without planning, you'll fail. That's what the final ~1/3rd of Shadow of Mordor is like, once you're kitted out.

Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).

The game just says "take out these warchiefs" and it's up to you to build in the sub-goals that let you accomplish this goal. And they're not really optional - without prep, they're too strong to take down. It's an awesome feeling. And although it doesn't feel half-baked, it's easy to imagine this open-ended design and enemy manipulation being taken much farther in sequels.

Very small potential cons that didn't detract from my enjoyment:

- Game world is not big.
- Read Dead-style hunting/gathering challenges are half-baked. Should have been cut.
- Controls are extremely complex - all four face buttons and triggers do something, and there are 3 separate actions mapped to pressing two face buttons simultaneously. D-Pad does important stuff too. It's crazy at first, although you adjust with time.
Click to expand...
411.gif
 
C

Cow Goes Moo

Member
GDJustin said:
Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his Captain bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).
Click to expand...

mmmm, excellent

I'm getting pretty hyped, might even buy the season pass if this continues
 
I

ironcreed

Banned
GDJustin said:
Yay! I can finally talk about how good this game is! The short version is that it's REAL good - a very strong Game of the Year candidate.

The basic formula (Assassin's Creed traversal + Batman Arkham's combat + Orcs!) is already really damn compelling, but there's three elements to SoM that people don't know about that really send the experience over-the-top and make it an AAA must-have:

1) The execution of all the game's "little elements" is almost completely perfect. Writing and acting are great, even though they didn't need to be. The stealth system has a neat tweak - you see an outline of yourself, like a ghost, when you break line-of-sight with pursuing orcs. That outline is where enemies last saw you, which helps you plan an escape route, and confirms in an unobtrusive way that you did indeed escape their vision. Game is full of polish and intelligent, tiny design elements like this.

2) The game's upgrade tree is full of real, meaningful upgrades that make you dramatically more powerful and badass, all the way through to the end of the game. You'll want them all, and it's a genuinely hard choice to decide where to drop each new ability point. These aren't ticky-tacky upgrades like 20% more damage. It's stuff like the pinning the enemies to the ground with arrows, or stunning enemies any time you vault over them, or doubling the speed of your counter-attacks, or unlocking a limited time "berserk mode." You'll want all these things.

By the end of the game you will feel genuinely more powerful in a real and dramatic way, and it isn't thanks to a bigger health pool or damage output. It's through all the additional combat tricks at your disposal.

3) Shadow of Mordor might be the first third-person sandbox game to truly let players tackle a challenge the way that THEY want. I can't emphasize to you how different/fresh and important this feels.

Imagine GTA 5's heists or Batman's detective work, but without the on-rails, scripted choices. Instead you just plan the heist within the rules of the sandbox - tailing the owner, casing the place, etc. All without mission objectives - the mission objective would just be "rob this business" and you're left to sort it out. Without planning, you'll fail. That's what the final ~1/3rd of Shadow of Mordor is like, once you're kitted out.

Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his Captain bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).

The game just says "take out these warchiefs" and it's up to you to build in the sub-goals that let you accomplish this goal. And they're not really optional - without prep, the Warchiefs are too strong to take down. It's an awesome feeling. And although it doesn't feel half-baked, it's easy to imagine this open-ended design and enemy manipulation being taken much farther in sequels.

Very small potential cons that didn't detract from my enjoyment:

- Game world is not big.
- Read Dead-style hunting/gathering challenges are half-baked. Should have been cut.
- Controls are extremely complex - all four face buttons and triggers do something, and there are 3 separate actions mapped to pressing two face buttons simultaneously. D-Pad does important stuff too. It's crazy at first, although you adjust with time.
Click to expand...

It all sounds really incredible. Thank you for sharing.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
GDJustin said:
Yay! I can finally talk about how good this game is! The short version is that it's REAL good - a very strong Game of the Year candidate.

The basic formula (Assassin's Creed traversal + Batman Arkham's combat + Orcs!) is already really damn compelling, but there's three elements to SoM that people don't know about that really send the experience over-the-top and make it an AAA must-have:

1) The execution of all the game's "little elements" is almost completely perfect. Writing and acting are great, even though they didn't need to be. The stealth system has a neat tweak - you see an outline of yourself, like a ghost, when you break line-of-sight with pursuing orcs. That outline is where enemies last saw you, which helps you plan an escape route, and confirms in an unobtrusive way that you did indeed escape their vision. Game is full of polish and intelligent, tiny design elements like this.

2) The game's upgrade tree is full of real, meaningful upgrades that make you dramatically more powerful and badass, all the way through to the end of the game. You'll want them all, and it's a genuinely hard choice to decide where to drop each new ability point. These aren't ticky-tacky upgrades like 20% more damage. It's stuff like the pinning the enemies to the ground with arrows, or stunning enemies any time you vault over them, or doubling the speed of your counter-attacks, or unlocking a limited time "berserk mode." You'll want all these things.

By the end of the game you will feel genuinely more powerful in a real and dramatic way, and it isn't thanks to a bigger health pool or damage output. It's through all the additional combat tricks at your disposal.

3) Shadow of Mordor might be the first third-person sandbox game to truly let players tackle a challenge the way that THEY want. I can't emphasize to you how different/fresh and important this feels.

Imagine GTA 5's heists or Batman's detective work, but without the on-rails, scripted choices. Instead you just plan the heist within the rules of the sandbox - tailing the owner, casing the place, etc. All without mission objectives - the mission objective would just be "rob this business" and you're left to sort it out. Without planning, you'll fail. That's what the final ~1/3rd of Shadow of Mordor is like, once you're kitted out.

Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his Captain bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).

The game just says "take out these warchiefs" and it's up to you to build in the sub-goals that let you accomplish this goal. And they're not really optional - without prep, the Warchiefs are too strong to take down. It's an awesome feeling. And although it doesn't feel half-baked, it's easy to imagine this open-ended design and enemy manipulation being taken much farther in sequels.

Very small potential cons that didn't detract from my enjoyment:

- Game world is not big.
- Read Dead-style hunting/gathering challenges are half-baked. Should have been cut.
- Controls are extremely complex - all four face buttons and triggers do something, and there are 3 separate actions mapped to pressing two face buttons simultaneously. D-Pad does important stuff too. It's crazy at first, although you adjust with time.
Click to expand...

ibxt3DznGu2QIT.gif
 
D

Death Metalist

Member
GDJustin said:
Yay! I can finally talk about how good this game is! The short version is that it's REAL good - a very strong Game of the Year candidate.

The basic formula (Assassin's Creed traversal + Batman Arkham's combat + Orcs!) is already really damn compelling, but there's three elements to SoM that people don't know about that really send the experience over-the-top and make it an AAA must-have:

1) The execution of all the game's "little elements" is almost completely perfect. Writing and acting are great, even though they didn't need to be. The stealth system has a neat tweak - you see an outline of yourself, like a ghost, when you break line-of-sight with pursuing orcs. That outline is where enemies last saw you, which helps you plan an escape route, and confirms in an unobtrusive way that you did indeed escape their vision. Game is full of polish and intelligent, tiny design elements like this.

2) The game's upgrade tree is full of real, meaningful upgrades that make you dramatically more powerful and badass, all the way through to the end of the game. You'll want them all, and it's a genuinely hard choice to decide where to drop each new ability point. These aren't ticky-tacky upgrades like 20% more damage. It's stuff like the pinning the enemies to the ground with arrows, or stunning enemies any time you vault over them, or doubling the speed of your counter-attacks, or unlocking a limited time "berserk mode." You'll want all these things.

By the end of the game you will feel genuinely more powerful in a real and dramatic way, and it isn't thanks to a bigger health pool or damage output. It's through all the additional combat tricks at your disposal.

3) Shadow of Mordor might be the first third-person sandbox game to truly let players tackle a challenge the way that THEY want. I can't emphasize to you how different/fresh and important this feels.

Imagine GTA 5's heists or Batman's detective work, but without the on-rails, scripted choices. Instead you just plan the heist within the rules of the sandbox - tailing the owner, casing the place, etc. All without mission objectives - the mission objective would just be "rob this business" and you're left to sort it out. Without planning, you'll fail. That's what the final ~1/3rd of Shadow of Mordor is like, once you're kitted out.

Once you gain the ability to "brand" an Orc and make them fight for you, the Nemesis System, which I previously found pretty pointless and underwhelming, finally clicked. You can take a low-level Orc, Brand them so they'll fight for you on-command. Then you can manipulate the Nemesis System to raise that orc into a Warchief that commands and entire army of Orcs! Or you could gather intel on the existing Warchief and just take him out directly by learning his weaknesses. Or you could brand the archers that guard him and let them pelt him with arrows. Or you could brand his Captain bodyguards so they turn on him when you initiate combat (bonus points if you do this and one of the Warchief's fears is betrayal).

The game just says "take out these warchiefs" and it's up to you to build in the sub-goals that let you accomplish this goal. And they're not really optional - without prep, the Warchiefs are too strong to take down. It's an awesome feeling. And although it doesn't feel half-baked, it's easy to imagine this open-ended design and enemy manipulation being taken much farther in sequels.

Very small potential cons that didn't detract from my enjoyment:

- Game world is not big.
- Read Dead-style hunting/gathering challenges are half-baked. Should have been cut.
- Controls are extremely complex - all four face buttons and triggers do something, and there are 3 separate actions mapped to pressing two face buttons simultaneously. D-Pad does important stuff too. It's crazy at first, although you adjust with time.
Click to expand...


giphy.gif
 
D

DarkoMaledictus

Tier Whore
Cronox said:
Forgive me GAF, for I have season passed... for $33 with the game on the buy/sell community thread. I don't feel too bad about it.

Also, I'm glad the review scores justify my pre-order.

And that 6 gig graphics setting is exactly why I'm waiting for the 8 gig variants of the GTX 970 before upgrading my 670.
Click to expand...

I say wait till next year when a new architecture is revealed, the 980 is still using the old war horse and its about 10-20 % faster than a 780, not worth it.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
So glad I requested Tuesday and Wednesday off from work now! When I requested it a few weeks ago, I was thinking, "man, I really hope this was a worthwhile decision," lol.
 
G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
I want to emphasize that the open-ended sandbox scenario I outlined above doesn't happen until late in the game. Maybe (probably?) too late. Prior to that awesome twist, it's "merely" a very fun and polished third-person action/adventure with scripted campaign missions.

It's not that the game all feels like a tutorial leading up to the ability to Brand orcs. It's more like the game just keeps throwing surprises at you from beginning to end. "Wanna teleport into an enemy's face from anywhere? BAM now you can! Bet that'll change how you play." *5 hours later* "Wanna mount and ride those beasts instead of fighting them? You can do that now, too."

The open-ended, sandboxy orc takeovers are just the final and greatest example of this.
 
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