Gameplay Demo - Shadow of Mordor, or Assassin's Creed V: Middle Earth

[Quindiana Jones]

The video also mentions open world-iness, if I recall correctly.

In which case, party time.

[Kalevala]

By that they could mean you can travel anywhere throughout the specific area it is set in at any time, though. It might not/probably doesn't mean Middle-earth entirely. Don't get me wrong, I'd love that. It just seems too good to be true.

Not to mention that some areas have little of interest going on at this point in the timeline.

[Skyblade]

I think it's going to be very heavily based in Mordor, rather than most of Middle Earth. Also, if Talion was one of the guards of the Black Gate, I'm not sure it bodes well for his overall survival.

I wonder how much the wraith powers are going to corrupt Talion. Will it just be a story thing, or will your use of them actually help determine how far he falls?

[Quindiana Jones]

By that they could mean you can travel anywhere throughout the specific area it is set in at any time, though. It might not/probably doesn't mean Middle-earth entirely. Don't get me wrong, I'd love that. It just seems too good to be true.

Not to mention that some areas have little of interest going on at this point in the timeline.

Oh yeah, I get that, I was referring to large arenas for open-ended stealth, exploration and preparation being AMAZING.

[Kalevala]

Oh, certainly. I'd still be more than okay with that.

I'm not quite convinced enough to pre-order, but I'm definitely looking forward to this release.

[Skyblade]

Oh, certainly. I'd still be more than okay with that.

I'm not quite convinced enough to pre-order, but I'm definitely looking forward to this release.

That was listed as pre-alpha footage. Can you even preorder it that early on?

[Kalevala]

Bolivar mentioned pre-ordering it in the first post. I just assumed. I can't imagine you even can yet, though.

Edit: Actually, you can. There's an option to do so on the game's website: https://www.shadowofmordor.com/preorder/

[Bolivar]

A bit of a semi-necro but the game is coming out this Tuesday and the review embargo ended today.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays...critic-reviews

The game is getting AMAZING reviews with 10 out of 21 outlets giving it 90+. I read the Polygon review and it had some good tidbits. This looked like a decent action game with the Nemesis system being a gigantic gimmick but they broke it down in a way that made it finally click:

As you encounter these enemies and defeat them or die to them, a relationship is formed. I began to recognize certain foes and was amazed at how well they remembered our previous encounters. 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 for Quin :

Shadow of Mordor also has all the requisite, expected attractions of a modern open-world game. Its two massive maps are beautiful, full of interesting landmarks and fun to navigate. There are collectibles that provide Lord of the Rings backstory to hunt down as well as plenty of sidequests and weapon challenges that test your skills. In 20 hours, I cleared just over 60 percent of everything in the game; I'll definitely be back to clean up the rest.

[Del Murder]

Yeah the reviews are coming in great. This is a must play for me now. Sounds amazing.

[Iceglow]

I was sold when I saw the RT video on this game.

[Vyk]

I've got a lot on my plate, sadly. But this one is definitely in line for me. I fell out of Assassin's Creed games and ones like it (Batman Arkham, etc.) there were just too many. This one puts a spin on things, and seems insanely interesting. Not a lot of LotR games I've enjoyed. War in the North was just about the best of them, and it was completely original storytelling. This one looks to join ranks with that game for me, as soon as I can find the time and money to give it a chance

[Skyblade]

So, the full game is out. It is very, very dangerous. I just wind up playing on and on and on. It is so much fun. All the randomly generated Orc Captains to kill. Sure, there's a story too, and it is decent enough (even if it does seem to be departing more and more from canon as we go), but I've mostly been hunting and killing Orc Captains.

I did get incredibly unlucky at first, running into a tracker Orc Captain right outside the initial spawn tower who kept killing me before I could figure out how the game fully worked and how to get away. It was such a rush going back and finally ending him.

The progression is really good. I'd argue that the super abilities for your weapons are probably overpowered. I mean, getting unlimited stealth kills for twenty seconds is just broken (especially since I found the Epic Rune that makes it thirty seconds). Normally, unless a captain is weak to Stealth, a Stealth Attack won't kill them instantly, only remove a quarter of their health. But you can do it over and over and over, and no one can stop you because you're invisible.

Fortunately, the immunities and strengths do change randomly, so that won't work against all foes. But then you unlock the ability that gives you unlimited Fire Arrows and Time Slow, or unlimited sword executions, and it just gets ridiculous. Fun, but ridiculous.

I do like how well tied together everything is. Mid-fight, you can switch to your bow, using the slow time to get a shot off, which continues your hit combo and can one shot with a charged headshot. Or you can knock foes away, and grab one and start shanking him with your knife. There is a lot of fluidity to the combat if you want to play it that way, and it does make things easier.

Alarms suck. There is just no end to the stream of Orcs that they summon, and reinforcement kills get you just 1 Exp a kill. The problem is that a Captain in a Stronghold is probably going to trigger an alarm because it's hard to get them completely alone. Then you have to figure out some way to grab the Rune he drops while fighting hundreds of foes. So know how to use distractions and explosives.

I only just reached the second area, and I discovered a whole new army of Captains to kill! Since I had completely depopulated the original army set at least four times, that works for me. Time to figure out their new strengths and weaknesses and go back to killing.

[Bolivar]

As Skyblade pointed out, this is one of those open world games in which you could spend a ton of time without even touching the story. Not because it has endless sidequests like TES but because the gameplay is so visceral and it's engrossing to get caught up in the procedurally-generated Orc power struggles. The Nemesis system isn't just about Orcs remembering you and getting in the way of your objectives at the worst possible time, it's about you doing the same to them in turn. Their ambitions and conflicts exist and progress beyond what you're doing and it makes Mordor feel more alive than other open world games. I like how player failure is part of the storytelling, as some no-name Orc with the final blow gets a name, becomes a captain, and sets about on his journey to recruit followers and rise through the ranks, as you obsess over exacting your revenge, gathering Intel about him, and hunting him down in the middle of an event for all Mordor to see. I know for a while, a lot of game journalists have speculated if we will ever get a truly procedurally-generated story, where the game dynamically crafts unique narratives around the players actions.

This is that game.

I have about 70% completion with 25 hours. I find it hilarious how Ubisoft is making excuses for Watch Dogs with Assassin's Creed 1 analogies, claiming great franchises need to stumble in their first installment to find their footing. Shadow of Mordor is a rare example when a new series gets everything right on its first outing and brings an innovative new game system with it. I don't know if this is better than Infamous Second Son as far as 2014 open-world action games go. But I can say I will be playing the leaderboard-enabled challenge mode long after I finish the main story and will definitely be buying the DLC chapters as well.

[Skyblade]

The thing is, there is really not much need for the story in this game, beyond the initial scenes that get you into it. Part of the role of the story in this sort of game is to give context to the situation. "Why am I killing these guys?", "Why am I not killing these others?", etcetera. In this game, you already have that context, because you're in the Lord of the Rings universe. They're orcs, they're working for Sauron, you are going to kill them. Yes, you need a little bit of explanation about the captains and your own wraith abilities, but that's it.

As Bolivar said, the game truly does a great job of building its own story through the procedurally generated content. Pushing orcs through the ranks, manipulating their power struggles, getting revenge on those who killed you, or stalking and orchestrating against a warchief and his bodyguards.



Remember how the fun part of Assassin's Creed was the actual assassinations? Stalking through the land, finding your target, plotting a route to him, finding a way through his bodyguards, making the kill, and getting away?

Now imagine that the games had an infinite number of those. They're all randomly generated, placed in random areas of the map and given random patrols. They also have random strengths and weaknesses so that you are encouraged to approach each one differently.

That's what Shadow of Mordor did, and it is glorious.