Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Zombra]

Why is Mordor brown and brightly lit? The name means "Black Land" or "Land of Darkness" in the lore, and many of the warped creatures of Mordor couldn't bear the sun.
As a child, long before the movies, I read Lord of the Rings and this is exactly how I imagined Mordor, except even more vague, shadowed, and mysterious. I may have seen an illustration somewhere as well.

For whatever it's worth, they talk about this some in the interviews. Shadow is set decades before Lord of the Rings, when Sauron's darkity evil hasn't consumed the land yet. Sounds like it doesn't hold together to me if the freaking name means darkity dark ... but in case it makes you feel better, or worse, this was a conscious decision by the devs and they have a rationale for it.

 

[Castanova]

Game looks amusing but I'd wait for a <$10 price point and by that time I'll have forgotten about it and no longer care.

 

[cvv]

Game looks amusing but I'd wait for a <$10 price point and by that time I'll have forgotten about it and no longer care.

This.
Plus, two words: Assassin's Creed Unity and Dragon Age Inquisition. Two console games pretty much fill my yearly quota. Twice.

 

[Siveon]

Game looks amusing but I'd wait for a <$10 price point and by that time I'll have forgotten about it and no longer care.

This.
Plus, two words: Assassin's Creed Unity and Dragon Age Inquisition. Two console games pretty much fill my yearly quota. Twice.

I doubt those two games will be much better.

Also, that's seven words.

 

[DalekFlay]

Dragon Age won't be better, probably won't even be good, but I can convince myself I need to play it a lot more than I can this game, for some reason.

 

[Drakron]

Shadow is set decades before Lord of the Rings, when Sauron's darkity evil hasn't consumed the land yet.

Maybe but even then there is no real evidence the place was like that, I mean Sauron was defeated in the Third age and for about 3000 years he wasnt in Mordor but the place wasnt know as "happy happy green land of fun and the occasional mount doom eruption", the Ringwraiths were already in Mordor before Sauron returned and the fortifications build to keep him out were already conquered well before his return.

There is no way this game makes sense, unless it takes place not decades but a millennium when the Ringwraiths returned to Mordor.

 

[Lhynn]

Didnt this shit get released today?

 

[Zombra]

Shadow is set decades before Lord of the Rings, when Sauron's darkity evil hasn't consumed the land yet.

Maybe but even then there is no real evidence the place was like that, I mean Sauron was defeated in the Third age and for about 3000 years he wasnt in Mordor but the place wasnt know as "happy happy green land of fun and the occasional mount doom eruption", the Ringwraiths were already in Mordor before Sauron returned and the fortifications build to keep him out were already conquered well before his return.

Hey mister, don't argue with me about it, I'm just passing on the intel that the devs do have some explanation for it. I don't really have a horse in this race as I'm not particularly an LOTR fan. If you really want to argue about it, I'm sure Monolith has a forum somewhere.

Didnt this shit get released today?

Yeah. 33GB download. My old school connection has about 40 hours to go

 

[Lemming42]

I really want to get this, but I'm 100% sure that about 10 minutes in I'll hate it and have wasted a lot of money.

I'll wait for the price drop, whenever it comes.

 

[Lhynn]

Yeah. 33GB download. My old school connection has about 40 hours to go

Gonna be waiting for your monocled review then.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Game looks amusing but I'd wait for a <$10 price point and by that time I'll have forgotten about it and no longer care.

This.
Plus, two words: Assassin's Creed Unity and Dragon Age Inquisition. Two console games pretty much fill my yearly quota. Twice.

My fucking sides.

 

[Zombra]

Yeah. 33GB download. My old school connection has about 40 hours to go

Gonna be waiting for your monocled review then.

Do my best I seem to be the only chump on here willing to admit I bought this thing.

 

[Turisas]

Right, some initial thoughts:

It's very much like Assassin's Creed in terms of general gameplay, combat and side activities. No parkour to speak of (no fall damage and you can scale even large vertical obstacles like cliff faces effortlessly, Talion mostly just jumps the gaps where assu creedu would take his time to climb - not realistic, but less of a drag) and combat at least early on is much simpler, but you still have the large open world full of stuff to do. The orcs are cool of course but some variety wouldn't hurt (hoping more enemy types show up later on), you can quite easily dispose of larger groups and the bosses I've fought so far haven't been that special. The only type of loot is in the form of rune upgrades to your sword/bow/dagger, which give all sorts of bonuses. And you can break down the shitty ones for xp which is nice.

Performance issues were overstated it seems, playing at 1920x1200 all maxed out with ultra textures, and it's at constant 60 fps (I've got OC'ed 780/2500K and 8GB ram).

Here you can see the world map and a in-game shot for reference of scale:
a.pomf.se/iwewbo.png at the center of the map, looking west
a.pomf.se/kohbak.png

Not massive by any means, but it ought to be fine. Apparently there's a separate zone later on, but no idea if that's as big as this first one.

Worth a try if you don't mind the likes of AC and the Arkham series (it even has detective-eagle-wraith ranger vision), it's pretty much more of the same. Tolkien nerds best avoid this though, or they might pop a vein.

 

[Blaine]

I'm going to guess this is Gollum, who they clearly shoehorned in for brand recognition and so on.

Apparently there's a separate zone later on, but no idea if that's as big as this first one.

Yeah, it goes from pissbloom to a lush forest.

In the second act, you transition from the bleak, brown map to a refreshingly greener-looking area of Mordor.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

the Nemesis system sounds fucking cool, even if the rest of the game sucks I hope it becomes an open-world standard.

 

[J_C]

the Nemesis system sounds fucking cool, even if the rest of the game sucks I hope it becomes an open-world standard.

The things I read about this feature is pretty amazing. And to think about that a shitty console game came up with the idea...

 

[praetor]

any cliff notes about this nemesis system?

 

[DeepOcean]

The Nemesis system looks interesting but let's see if this branding mechanic amount to something because if it is just another way of killing orcs, as I suspect it is, it would be just pointless. The brown/grey generic elven ruins look so boring. When I think on Mordor, I think, at least, on ominous looking medieval fantasy strongholds. So you feel there is something fucked up in there. I don't care if those brown ruins and lush forests make sense lorewise, half of the fun of Lord of the Rings is the ominous feel that Mordor had. You read all the books just expecting the moment Frodo goes to Mordor. You understand the fear Frodo feels with the idea of going on there. This game looks like batman decided to have fun with some orc ants and watch them fighting each other just for fun.

 

[Blaine]

If you burn a noteworthy uruk's face or poke out his eye, he gets butthurt and the wound will be visible the next time you meet him. If you fight him, there'll be a slo-mo, zoomed-in, dramatic moment where he gets right in your face and explains exactly how he's gonna fuck you up for making him butthurt.

If a peon kills you in combat, he gets XP and levels up, is promoted, and gets cooler armor and weapons. He'll gloat or something the next time he sees you. If he kills you again, he gets promoted, leveled up, and geared up again.

It's a bit gimmicky, but an interesting gimmick nonetheless I don't recall encountering before.

 

[felipepepe]

Din's Curse had somehting similar, with enmies fighting amongs then, leveling up and even rulling floors of the dungeon.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

If you burn a noteworthy uruk's face or poke out his eye, he gets butthurt and the wound will be visible the next time you meet him. If you fight him, there'll be a slo-mo, zoomed-in, dramatic moment where he gets right in your face and explains exactly how he's gonna fuck you up for making him butthurt.

If a peon kills you in combat, he gets XP and levels up, is promoted, and gets cooler armor and weapons. He'll gloat or something the next time he sees you. If he kills you again, he gets promoted, leveled up, and geared up again.

It's a bit gimmicky, but an interesting gimmick nonetheless I don't recall encountering before.

Hm, so if the player doesn't suck at the game's piss-easy combat and doesn't waste time mutilating orcs and letting them live (why would anyone, except for the gimmick?), he'll never notice the gimmick is even there? Sounds like a pointless marketing schtick.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If a peon kills you in combat, he gets XP and levels up, is promoted, and gets cooler armor and weapons. He'll gloat or something the next time he sees you. If he kills you again, he gets promoted, leveled up, and geared up again.

i dun geddit. Is the player character an immortal who comes back after a while? (though in that case the peon would probably run the fuck away instead of gloating)

Would make more sense if you played multiple characters that can stay dead permanently and the dude gloated about killing one of your companions. It would still be a jab at the player's failure, but not using cartoon logic.

 

[Zombra]

Hm, so if the player doesn't suck at the game's piss-easy combat

Where'd you get that? From watching expert devs playing their own game on deliberately gimped difficulty so they can control what they show? Reviews all talk about repeatedly getting killed, and none talk about how easy it all is. Of course you are uber leet and always roflstomp everything, so yes, for you the feature won't have much mileage.

i dun geddit. Is the player character an immortal who comes back after a while? (though in that case the peon would run the fuck away instead of gloating)

Yes. The hero is a magical elf ghost who can't die. As stupid as this is storywise, it seems nice for gameplay as failure is built into the design instead of just making you load a save.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Oh. That was the first absurd idea that came to mind, totally didn't expect to be right

But yes, in gameplay terms it sounds kewl. Should allow them to make the game harder since dying repeatedly just makes the game more interesting.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I've been reading stories about people who get griefed constantly by one or two archer/assassin orcs who love to ambush them after they're worn out from battle and kill them, getting stronger and levelling up every time, as well as getting promoted and rising to become Warchiefs or whatever on the backs of their victorious vendetta against the player. Basically NPCs who act like griefers in MMOs, and getting stronger every time means that the game keeps getting harder and they keep getting more efficient until the player comes up with some arcane strategy to dispose of them, turns other orcs against them in a bloody coup, or just gets incredibly lucky/skilled in battle and gets rid of them for good. It's a gimmick, but it seems to be one with genuine and far-reaching gameplay implications