VIDEO Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014)

That or those involved with the press release don't know what they're talking about. Which wouldn't surprise me given the game's entire premise.

 

When in doubt, google-fu.

 

Yeah even in the gameplay trailer the narrator says it takes place after Sauron goes to Mordor after the events of the Hobbit.

 

Hmm. There was a line in the article I read that goes "after 2,000 years, Sauron returns to Mordor and takes everything from [Talion]." If the date of the game is around 3000 Third Age like you all are saying, then 2,000 years ago would be... nothing, in terms of Sauron's activities. The way I read it was 2,000 years after the Battle of Dagorlad at the end of the Second Age, which is right around the time that the Ringwraiths take Minas Ithil and the border fortresses of Mordor. Border fortresses like the Black Gate, where Talion is said to be stationed. Clearly there is some misunderstanding that the developers need to clarify, but if you all are right about it being set around the time of the movies and the consequent disregard for the source material, they can forget about having my business.

 

tjace, you are overthinking this. All you need to know is the game is a shameless Assassin's Creed clone, cynically trying to capitalise on the gormless spending habits of AC and LOTR fans.

Lore be damned, it just has to offer the L337 killz.

 

I don't usually base my purchases off of reviews but this game is getting some damn near perfect reviews. IGN gave it a 9.3 and got a perfect score from Joystiq.

Been waiting awhile for this game and I'm happy knowing that I'm going to have to pay my respects to my bank account on Tuesday.

 

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this one as well. I probably won't be able to get it until sometime in the middle of October, though.

 

Pretty excited for Tuesday.

 

http://www.gamesreviews.com/news/09/totalbiscuit-reveals-shadow-mordor-code-branding-deal/

Them reviews are starting to look awful suspect...

 

Developers/Publishers giving kickbacks for good reviews?! Perish the thought. Utterly impossible!

 

Got the game. I'm 6 hours into it, and it's pretty fun. I'd say my expectations were met with. Although it pretty much is a copy and paste of the Batman Arkham combat style and Assassin's Creed free-running, but I see it as a good thing.

In this day and age of gaming, I imagine stuff like this isn't anything new. That's why I don't base my purchases from reviews, it's only if I need something fresh to play and if I've been paid the week before.

 

I'm right there with you. I had no idea the combat mechanics were going to be essentially copy/paste from the recent Batman games, and I was pleasantly surprised. Still only a couple few hours into it myself, but my initial reaction was "This game is fun as ****!" I lost count of how many times my mouth went agape when watching some of the executions. While it was fun to watch Batman pull out some Jiu Jitsu on the thugs, there is something just much more satisfying watching the ranger find new and interesting places to ram a sword through an orc.

I've seen people express concerns regarding the length of the story, or the game in and of itself, and how it might now warrant a full-price purchase. I would submit that based on my experience so far, this "game" delivers exactly what a video game should deliver. Intuitive controls, simple yet engaging combat, a narrative that does well at keeping the game moving along, but also allows you to walk off the beaten path and still feel like its worth your time, and plain sword stabbing, head chopping fun.

Would recommend.

 

I'd love to see Monolith do a Star Wars game. Combat was really fun in this game.

 

Finished this yesterday. Had a good deal of fun with it. While the combat is taken from the Arkham games almost entirely - even the unlocks are mostly the same - how many games have managed to implement the free-flow combat system well? Lots of crap tie-in games tried - the recent TMNT game did as did the Kick-Ass game (neither of which I actually bought, thankfully). It's a damn satisfying combat system, and I'd be happy to see it in more games, and innovated upon in the future.

There was one problem with the game though - Brutalize is completely broken. You use it and every Orc in line-of-sight flees in terror, allowing you to one-hit kill them with throwing knives in the back. Doesn't work on Captains/Warchiefs.

The nemesis system was pretty fun, though the game was pretty easy so I didn't get to see it's full effects, what with the Orc Captains dying almost 100% of the time I'd come into contact with one. Maps were well-detailed, and the story was steeped in the feel of Middle-Earth. There are some lore inconsistencies, but the feel is what's most important IMO - I guess I'm just glad to get a good Middle-Earth game (LEGO Lord of the Rings notwithstanding).

Very much looking forward to the DLC set in the Second Age.

 

Still slogging my way through it. Getting the flu sure slows down your progress.

Was not aware of this DLC. Very interested to see how they bring that time period to life.

One of my "dream" games (dream = never going to happen) would be a hack n slash a la Dynasty Warriors set in the First Age with all them Simarillion characters.

 

Well, I got all the collectibles in the game, and it gave me absolutely nothing gameplay wise. All I got was just a couple trophies.

 

Chance the Jedi The artifacts all give you some really nice lore and conversations between Talion and... I guess I should simply call him the Wraith? Is using his name a spoiler? Compared to collectibles in other games, I looked forward to all 42 of these.

The Ithildin should have given something more substantial though. I had 6k extra Mirian leftover after unlocking everything at the end of the game - the 50 Mirian reward wasn't worth picking them up.

 

I personally found the combat (PC) to be far too simplistic, all you really have to do to defeat large groups/captains is click left and right mouse as fast as possible. In the event of a war chief or captain with unblockable attacks, press space. I'm about 6 hours in and I think I need to up the difficulty as much as possible. Overall I think it's a decent AC clone with some notable coolness. But, alas I haven't finished a game in a long time now...

 

I'm.. struggling with this one. Mordor's just not interesting enough a landscape to captivate me the way the AC games did, and whilst it's fun and the story's decent I played too many side missions and as a result got over the whole experience.

With AC2, you can walk Firenze and Roma and compare them back to AC2 and its add-ons. With Mordor... it's all much of muchness so far.

It's not a bad game, it just lacks depth and having variety with the terrain would have been better in my view.

 

Is the story as much of a disgrace to Tolkien's work as it appeared to be?

 

Eh, I was never that enamoured of Tolkien's storytelling as others, so it's not something I've paid sufficient attention to. However, I'm sure a number of very overweight people have blog posts lamenting the assault on canon that is the story.

 

Can elves be wraiths? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought not.

 

So just to add my $0.02 on this game after having played through about 70% of it, it's likely to be a one time play for me. I love Tolkien and this game just doesn't feel Tolkien to me. It also has a really slow start but once you get going and start leveling up, the gameplay gets a bit better. In any case, the gameplay really just boils down to how many orcs you can slaughter and how easy it is to do it. I don't see much point in it other than that. The nemesis system is interesting at first but honestly it gets boring after a while.

So yeah, I'll be trading this game in as soon as I finish the campaign. I'm thinking of picking up Farcry 4 instead. The videos for that game look pretty good so far.

 

The game is so good that I haven't even bothered to finish it.

 

I'm struggling so hard to care about this game, much less finish it.