henke on 19/8/2014 at 08:20
I'd given this one a blind eye because Lord of the Rings games have never been my cup of tea. But this new one, developed by Monolith, is actually doing a lot of things I like.
[video=youtube;JxH3O89b46k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxH3O89b46k[/video]
The core gameplay (skip to 8:10 if you just wanna see that) doesn't do anything we haven't sen before. The world navigation and combat look fun enough, didn't see much of the stealth in this video. Not sure what system it's played on in the video, but the graphics look quite last-gen. Probably the most unique and impressive feature of the game is the "Nemesis system" which handles the structure of the enemy army. The various warchiefs are all named characters with their own personalities and memories of previous events. You can use them to learn weaknesses of the other chiefs or turn them against eachother. When you die time moves forward before you're resurrected and while you're dead internal powerstruggles among the enemy play out. It all seems quite organic and should lead to some interesting emergent gameplay.
Release date is just a little over a month away.
gkkiller on 20/8/2014 at 12:24
Probably will buy this because
1) dad and brother are huge LOTR fans
2) Nemesis system sounds fun
3) even if it is allegedly an Assassins' Creed ripoff, I like the AC games
henke on 26/9/2014 at 14:50
Welp, (PS4) reviews are starting to come in and they are looking (
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor) quite positive, I read Polygon's (
http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/26/6254177/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review-lord-of-the-rings-ps4-xbox-one) glowing 9.5 review of it this morning and now I'm having a hard time keeping my creditcard in my wallet. I particularly like their descriptions of the nemesis system.
Quote:
At one point, I defeated a smaller Orc captain named Norsko of the Welts with a single arrow shot through his eye. The next time Norsko showed up, he had a metal plate over that same eye and promised revenge for the injury.
In another instance, I became overwhelmed and ran away from a berserker named Ratanak the Thunderer. Every time Ratanak and I crossed paths afterward, he was certain to remind me of my cowardice. He even developed a trait that made him more likely to hunt me down of his own volition, which led him to popping up at the worst times, trying to impede my progress mid-mission. It would have been frustrating if it wasn't so damn cool.
And the bottomline:
Quote:
The gameplay foundation of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is very strong, which makes it all the more incredible that it's also the least exciting thing about the game. Most video games choose to either tell you a story or give you a world in which you can create your own stories; very rarely are these two paths mixed, and even more rarely with any success.
Shadow of Mordor is that ultimate rarity. It tells a fun little story that would be enough to hold up most games on its own. But it also provides all of the tools to ensure that the most interesting tales to come out of the game will be the ones that were not scripted.
edit: fuck it. I ordered it! THIS LOOKS BAAAAAAALLLSS HYYYYYYYYYYPPPPPPEEEEEEEE
Mr. Tibbs on 26/9/2014 at 21:30
Pretty much the only new AAA game I'm looking forward to this year (I'm definitely going to pick up GTA V, too). It sounds like an anecdote generator.
Quote:
Embargo is over, so real talk: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is one of the best games I have ever played
(
https://twitter.com/dhindes/status/515359550812086273) Dan Hindes, Gamespot/Sneaky Bastards. He was right on the money with Dishonored & Thief (2014), so I'm extremely excited for Mordor.
Tony_Tarantula on 27/9/2014 at 04:47
I'll pick this up once the TTLG verdict is in. As bad as some of y'alls taste is, it's still infinitely higher and better thought out than your average games journalist's is......even if they aren't in bed(sometimes literally) with the developers.
faetal on 29/9/2014 at 05:11
I'll probably wait for a sale due to my ridiculous backlog, but it sounds wonderful :)
[EDIT] The gameplay video above is awesome. The whole sequence within the stronghold looks insane. Combat seems to be the lovechild of Arkham Asylum and Assassin's Creed.
Phatose on 1/10/2014 at 05:14
Well, I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far.
The combat is directly ripped from Batman: Arkham, and it works just as well here. Assasin's Creed is clearly the movement source, and that works just as well, right down to the death from above/below. You can sneak through groups of uruk, or slaughter your way through and either method is enjoyable.
That said, the much ballyhooed nemesis system doesn't seem to actually do much. It pops up a name and an unskippable cutscene every time you run into a captain, but it's far too easy a game so far to call anybody a nemesis, simply because captains don't survive encounters with me.
I'm enjoying the game, but this whole Nemesis thing seem to be based on the idea that I'd lose battles quite a bit, or at least leave survivors.
faetal on 1/10/2014 at 05:33
Maybe you're just too much of a badass?
henke on 1/10/2014 at 06:40
Sounds good Phatose. :)
Hopefully you're just having an easy time cause it's early on. I hear the game changes quite a bit at the middle, tho I'm not sure how. And I'm trying to avoid reading too much or watching any more videos before I get my hands on it.
My PS4 copy will probably arrive next week.
