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Shadow of Mordor: One does not simply review a game

Started by CheechFU, 06 October, 2014, 12:51:02 AM

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CheechFU

The music is wonderful. 10/10 like some kind of bear mccreary battle star galactica score and the skyrim theme. It's great.
The graphics are nothing spectacular though.
Here it is in high settings


And again in ultra with the HD pack


Not exactly the next gen I was promised. I found the gameplay to be rather repetitive, it was an exciting adventure for about 2 minutes with the possibility of a cylon attack but I quickly grew bored


I thought perhaps I'd bought into the hype and got too excited by pre-order day one magic pants dlc so left it for a bit while I had a nice cup of tea but even after 2 cups of tea and a jaffa cake the outcome remained the same.
If you listen closely to this screenshot you can just about hear an orc or it could have been a cylon, the music was very misleading in that regard


All in all I give this game, shadow of mordor, 12 out of a possible ten points on a scale where one is a game and 12 is also a game. I think.
I can safely recommend this to anyone who enjoys 27 seconds of nice music in a loop that sounds vaguely like skyrim and space drama

shaolin_monkey

Do I sense sarcasm?

If it's any consolation, it's bloody awesome on the PS4. I thought the textures looked a bit dodgy until I realised they probably had to scale it back to fit so many damn orcs on the screen at one time. Seriously, they bloody swarm! 

Anyway, then I got to the second map, which is absolutely beautiful. I won't spoil it by saying why.

I've played this solidly all weekend. It's my new crack cocaine of gaming. 

Grugz

is this next gen only? they only had the ps4 and xbox one version at asda.
don't get into an argument with an idiot,he'll drag you down to his level then win with experience!

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,26167.0.html

ThryllSeekyr

I've been playing this of most of the day and would have to agree with the  person here who compared this game to the Batman: AA (All of them!) Combat, Stealth, Stealth Attacks!) and Assassin's Creed (Stealth, Stealth Attacks, Wall Climbing, and even that thing where he crouches on the end of those narrow out cropping's (It's almost disconcerting!) and is able to drop insanely long distances to the ground without much damage!)

[spoiler]Regarding the character's sinister wraith abilities.....taken from the long dead Elf Lord. I was thinking of Ghostrider (Once he jumps on the Giant Warg's back!) and he has the drain ability.....while he hands it over to the elf lord to interrogate the various Orc's like he's using the penance stare.

I was going to mention a well known Dragonlance character, but I guess this is  payback for being a game based on the great grand daddy of all fantasy.

I agree that graphics could have been much better and it only seems to be the protagonist who seems to have least amount of textures.

All the Orc's disgustingly well rendered and textured and aside their individual personalities, strengths, weakness's, abilities. Each one of the Orc Elite's has a distinct appearance, voice  and facial ticks.

Well Done there  :D

I like the their ranking system where a Orc who kills the Ranger dude, gets to challenge a high ranking Orc to
a one hit kill duel (No, he just attacks and kills them!) I' not sure if this is random or predetermined. There is also a power vacuum when your Ranger kills one of the Orc Elite's.

However they did some did appear to look alike after assuming the head wear of the Orc they knocked out.

I also like the intelligence gathering aspect with interrogating orcs. Sure, it's easy when you have the ghost of a ancient elven warrior helping you. Yet, finding out about the other unknown Orcs in the hierarchy and then using torture and snooping around their head quarters to find out their strength's/weakness's. It didn't make a differance to me when I just spammed the left and right mouse button, with Cntrl, Shift, SpaceBar and F and would eventually wear them down anyway. Besides I couldn't bothered with remembering what to use on who.

Atleast that part of the game seemed to be the most original.

I'm partically impressed with opening scenes and how the Ranger remembered training with his murdered son and this part became the combat tutorial. As simple as it was and then he see's his wife's corpse and remembers sneaking up on her and giving her kiss.

For some reason,  I wondered if this was possible to do with the Orcs. You know, it's not like they wouldn't be above doing anything his wife wouldn't agree to do and I'm pretty sure one of those Elite's is either a very messed up looking female of the species or they play for the other team.

Which is literally true  ;)

I'm far from done with this game despite it's shocking similarity to those other games I've mentioned above and I've merely just scratched the surface. I got him killed many times and especially doing the Dagger quest. Where he had to stealth kill 10 Orc overseers. It has to be one hit kill and it can even be performed after you have attacked or otherwise aggravated them. Providing you have managed to stun them or have them turn their back on him. I had nine cleanly done stealth kills and it was tenth one that I botched forcing into a fight that eventually attracted a small horde of them that overwhelmed him in the end.

I didn't get that dagger, but I think I got three of the important Orcs.

[/spoiler]

Goaty


ThryllSeekyr

#5
Quote from: Goaty on 06 October, 2014, 04:11:23 PM


You just baited me there...and think that thing he does when he places his hand over of the orc's face and kind of Spock's Mind Meld.

Middle Panel remind me about something I said about the Thor sequel.

Yet looking at the last panel, and think maybe humans are just very messed up looking female orcs.


Goaty

Quote from: Grugz on 06 October, 2014, 11:48:54 AM
is this next gen only? they only had the ps4 and xbox one version at asda.

PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will be on 21st Nov.

Grugz

don't get into an argument with an idiot,he'll drag you down to his level then win with experience!

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,26167.0.html

ThryllSeekyr

Did anyone get it that's he's kind of emo with that hair cut and style......


TordelBack

Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 07 October, 2014, 12:57:00 PM
Did anyone get it that's he's kind of emo with that hair cut and style......


-Tries not to look at TS's current avatar-

shaolin_monkey

I played this game relentlessly over the weekend, completing 50% of the story, and doing all side missions on the first map.  Unfortunately things like work, sleep, food etc have gotten in the way, and I only managed 2 hours on it last night. 

This is the kind of game I could happily book time off work to just play and play and play. 

On a side note, I did notice on Sunday night I was getting serious cramp in my hands, mostly due to the poxy PS4 controller, which I still hate.  I never had that problem on long gaming sessions with the Xbox.

ThryllSeekyr

Quote from: TordelBack on 07 October, 2014, 01:15:33 PM
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 07 October, 2014, 12:57:00 PM
Did anyone get it that's he's kind of emo with that hair cut and style......


-Tries not to look at TS's current avatar-

That's me you know!

Looking down at the bear I'm drinking in open air city bar.

I don't really have the perfectly coiffed ranger hair style he sports, it's just that I had previously left he barber (Some cute blond girl! :)) who also washed my hair as well as a hair/beard trim.

ThryllSeekyr

#12
I played more of this today and this time I had better grasp of how combat works and I think I'm danger of finishing this game before I play any more Elite Dangerous.

It's hard to put down.

Although that thing that happens when you are hit hard  and have lost all your health and you need to wind up by moving the mouse in a circle and then pressing the indicated button.

Most of the time I screw this up badly and you can see this on video once I load both of them up.


I just keeping thinking while Emo-Ranger is laying into a mob of Uruks with his sword, this could be Slaine laying into mob of Druneswords/Mid-Guard-Bezerks/Formorians/Cythron's with Brainbiter while his trusty companion Ukko his in the brush avoiding all damage waiting for word from Slaine.......



DWARF......MY AXE after he throws it, taking out the legs from under several hostiles standing together in a group.



Couldn't find relevant image of Slaine throwing his axe......but the pic above do ;)

Where he ever stealthly leaves his position and swiftly retrieves it for his larger companion before being caught unawares. This would always work of course.

Kind of like the Red Branch Knight equivalent  of a Jedi-Knight using his force powers to summon a thrown Light-Sabre to back to his hand to take out the many pairs of legs of those Pre-Storm-Trooper Droid Patrol. 

Yes, the is force is really made up of many tiny little Dwarves (Just like Ukko!) willing to guess the bidding of their Jedi-Masters.

Oh, really sorry about the Science-Fiction film and semi-real/semi-mythical-fantasy comic genre crossover analogy if this offends.

Now for some more Uruk slaying fun.....

shaolin_monkey

Just completed Shadow of Mordor, and I mean COMPLETED it - all beasts hunted, all slaves free, all herbs gathered, all Captains dominated, all story complete.

I can't remember the last time I absorbed a game so completely. I haven't actually completed a game in years.  It's a sign of how good it is, and it is absolutely superb!  Stealth, combat, wraith magic, tactics, open world exploration, fantastic storyline, great characters, and so much more. 

Recommended!

maryanddavid