Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC/PS4/XB1/PS3/360)

[Cichy]

I've spent hours doing the side missions and getting intel than I checked main mission progress and it was @24% lol. Still got bunch of stuff to collect and not even half way now

[Cail]

This game is so much fun

[Odesseiron]

Game is fun so far, only put like 2 hours into it.

The ultra graphics settings aren't that serious. I have everything maxed and have a gtx 680 and it's still almost 60 fps.

[Boyiee]

Game is fun so far, only put like 2 hours into it.

The ultra graphics settings aren't that serious. I have everything maxed and have a gtx 680 and it's still almost 60 fps.

1080p? Are textures installed? Cause they require 6GB vram.

[Prothescar]

You can run them without 6GB of VRAM, but texture popin will be more prevalent as your system RAM will need to be utilized which slows down the process. When your GPU runs out of VRAM, it will seek system RAM instead, but they act differently and will not be as efficient as each other.

[brozy]

Played about 12 hours so far with about 10 of them just going about shanking and decapitating all the captains and replacement captains its a wonder that there are actually any uruks left to take their place.

[KoalaTrap]

Having a blast as well. I love all the orc dialogue. Especially their own convos when they're not aware of you.
Makes me want grog.

[Cichy]

got the ability that allows you to use 2 finishing moves, I'm murdering 2 orcs now every 5 hits

[Cail]

Having a blast as well. I love all the orc dialogue. Especially their own convos when they're not aware of you.
Makes me want grog.

Yea its pretty great haha

[Cichy]

So beat the story mode @26 hours in and just wanted to give you guys head up you can finish up stuff you missed even after you beat the last mission. I still have some outcast and hunt missions to finish.
I absolutely loved the game and being a huge fan of LOTR I was concerned this gonna be a huge miss. However, I thought they really did well setting this in the universe and being respectful of the mythology. They really gave me that feeling of middle earth I wanted. The last encounter was bit disappointing and felt rushed but I guess there may be DLC to fix that. I saw some reviewers giving the story negative marks but I liked it and wished there would be more to explore story wise.

[Boyiee]

So beat the story mode @26 hours in and just wanted to give you guys head up you can finish up stuff you missed even after you beat the last mission. I still have some outcast and hunt missions to finish.
I absolutely loved the game and being a huge fan of LOTR I was concerned this gonna be a huge miss. However, I thought they really did well setting this in the universe and being respectful of the mythology. They really gave me that feeling of middle earth I wanted. The last encounter was bit disappointing and felt rushed but I guess there may be DLC to fix that. I saw some reviewers giving the story negative marks but I liked it and wished there would be more to explore story wise.

Is there a lot of replay value?

[Mina]

So beat the story mode @26 hours in and just wanted to give you guys head up you can finish up stuff you missed even after you beat the last mission. I still have some outcast and hunt missions to finish.
I absolutely loved the game and being a huge fan of LOTR I was concerned this gonna be a huge miss. However, I thought they really did well setting this in the universe and being respectful of the mythology. They really gave me that feeling of middle earth I wanted. The last encounter was bit disappointing and felt rushed but I guess there may be DLC to fix that. I saw some reviewers giving the story negative marks but I liked it and wished there would be more to explore story wise.

Thank you for this. In the BG newsletter my biggest concern was a lot of times games that are based after books or movies aren't enough of a quality for me to invest into. Now that I know it was given a gold star to a fan of LOTR I can feel better about picking this up when my funds come around.

[Cichy]

Is there a lot of replay value?

I would say yes, I still haven't touched the open ended challenge mode and there will be more stuff in the DLCs. Also, I took the path of least resistance while killing the warchiefs and now I'm gonna go back and try to redo that. There's an option where you can deliver a death treat to them and they will surround themself with bunch of protection so should be interesting.

[Abandon]

yummy death treats

[Cichy]

Thank you for this. In the BG newsletter my biggest concern was a lot of times games that are based after books or movies aren't enough of a quality for me to invest into. Now that I know it was given a gold star to a fan of LOTR I can feel better about picking this up when my funds come around.

You know I think they hit the right note with the game because they do not heavily rely on the popular characters from the books. I mean you meet Gollum but that's it.
I remember there use to be a fellowship game back on ps2 or something that wasn't based on the movies and it sucked pretty bad. This reminds you more of the movies because the enemy and armor design is very much similar to what you would see from Peter Jacksons crew. For me it was almost like a good side story PJ would make but it does not rely on the movies at all to pick up some sort of slack. It's a good game on it's own and it's a story that stands on its own.

[Necronus]

This is gonna be a wordy one, but it describes my first 5 hours and how the Nemesis system makes it feel personal, for anyone who wanted to really get an idea how it works or for anyone who's played but wanted to see how different their play through was from mine. It's basically a story of how being not so great at this game and the Nemesis system made for a long night for me. TLDR though, awesome game.

Spoiler: show

I'm loving and hating (in a good way) the nemesis system. VERY early on, like within 5 minutes of leaving the starting tower and approaching the second one to the NE of it, I encountered a Captain (only Power 2) and engaged. Was still getting used to things with 0 abilities and runes, so I wasn't able to finish him too quickly. Before I knew it, I turned to strike a supporting Uruk, but its no regular one, its Captain #2, so I have to juggle them both. First one enters green state, but the second is still being a nuisance so I start hitting him when BAM, third Captain comes out of nowhere. I get all of 2 swings on him and turn to hit what I think is Captain #1 .... NOPE, a 4th captain joins the fray and Captain #1 finishes me from behind. All 4 gained a 1 Power while #1 gains 2, every one of them is promoted and overthrows a prior captain. I'm frustrated, but the Nemesis graph shows that all 4 are from basically opposite corners of the map, so I figure I won't have to worry about them.


I run back to the second tower and activate it then jump down below. There's a wandering party of 4 orcs, in a ruined building (the one RIGHT next to it with the insect hive) ... I sneak kill 3 of 'em, when the fourth sees me and engages, luring 2 nearby orcs ... I figure, no prob. Kill 2 of em and start hitting the third when I see an attack from behind ... I hit triangle to counter to face him and next thing I know I'm in a mini-cutscene with a Captain who's surprised to see me alive (yup, Captain #1). So I'm like, wow, you're still around here .. time to kill you for good. I use the stun move and launch into a combo, when the other orc naturally recovers and comes from behind. Except .. its not him, its Captain #3 from earlier and I'm basically like "you've gotta be kidding me". Once again, I'm playing juggle the captains when ... DUN DUN DUN, Captains #2 and #4 run up together, I figuratively crap my pants, and 5 seconds later Sauron suddenly has an elite corp of Power 4-6 orcs as Veteran Captains.

So, I jump down from the tower and walk to the nearest cliff. There's a SINGLE orc yelling at a slave and I managed to pick up the falling assassination ability in my failures from the basic orcs. So I lock on and dive. Man, I wish I had done the first mission where u lean you can check for Captains in Wraith form because .... yup, I just landed on Captain #1 who's sneak attack immune. But he's alone ... there wasn't an orc on the map at all, I made sure of it even when I wasn't expecting a Captain .. so I figure, I'm about to get some sweet revenge (also, his comment about me being alive is new, I'm pleasantly surprised at that moment that it didn't replay the old one) and go to town on him .. but he's notably harder. I manage to get off maybe a single attack chain in when .... yeah, you already know the story .... Captains #2 and #3 show up and slaughter me. Well, at least #4 wasn't around .. but now they're getting scary.

I'm gonna skip ahead here, but lets just say, the next two maybe three times I jump off the tower ... Moe, Larry, Curly, and Burnface McGee show up and slaughter me several more times all while I'm simply trying to avoid orcs and get to the first mission. I call him Burnface because in the 4th encounter, he actually showed up third just as I was hitting another captain and I pushed him into a fire ... now he bitches about how I burned him (I love the built in "history"). So yeah, Captain #1 and Captain #2 end up around 11~13 power while the other 2 end up around 7~8 (since those two didn't show up every time). All in the first like 40 or so minutes of the game ... I'm mad .. but in a good way ... screw the story ... I want BLOOD.

Now, even as I write this I have no idea if Captains from different regions always hang out like that, or if I happened to be in a bad place in the first encounter which made all 4 actively seek me out, but they ALWAYS showed up within 4-5 sword bashes to the face of each others arrival. Hell, I even marked #1 in order to keep an eye on my radar and he was always off the radar til one of the other three showed up, then bam, he'd be there 20 seconds later.

But wait, if I haven't bored you yet (I realize I'm no Brill Weave) ... there's more to this story. So I decide to totally stealth my way to the Slaver mission because I'm paranoid they'll show up if I so much as catch a glance from an orc near the tower (maybe they've got IPhone6's, lol, what do I know.) I make it, start the mission, do the mission, and kill the Slaver Captain. YAY! Progress, I've achieved prog ... SUNUVA BITCH ... Captain #2 attacks me from behind ... quickly followed by the other three and yup ... I died. But I kill one before I fall, so yay?. I'm thinking, screw you nemesis system, screw you.

But then a calm. I'm about 90 mins in and I've died about once every 10 minutes to these fools, who apparently may as well be Saurons right hand men, but the next ~3 hours go smooth. I off some other Captains, I do two story missions (including Ratbag), I do side missions and collect some artifacts. Game finally decides to let them stay in their 4 corners of the map, out of sight, out of mind. Anyone familiar with the mission where you meet Ratbag may recall an archery challenge outside the stronghold. For those who aren't, basically you have to shoot bad guys while you stay in a fixed circle away from them. I get about 3/4 of the necessary targets killed when I get pulled out of archery mode and into a chat sequence with .... fucking Captain #2 ... REALLY? .... turns out hes powerful enough now that one hit takes over half my life ... I foolishly try to remain in the circle, but alas, he solos me and gets promoted to Sauron Jesus or something.

I respawn, and decide to get out of Dodge. So I flee the castle area, aggro a crapton of orcs and ... aggro Captain #2 ... again. But this time, I beat his ass BAD. I don't suck like in the first 40 minutes of the game, and I'm not trying to stay in a mission circle. He's doomed and I get him down to critical REAL quick ... only problem is theres about 300 other orcs because our battle alerted the rest of the castle. So I parry about 10 of them and he decides to flee. I sit up on my couch, and I begin to chase him down with a look of murder in my eyes. I chase him really far, but don't lose him and manage to pin him down. I only aggro'd about 50 orcs on the way ... I'll be fine. And, in the end, I was. I murdered him in cold blood and didn't even worry about interrogations or anything. This bitch was DEAD, and he was so powerful the rune he dropped was Epic.

So, here draws the end of my tale. I head back to area around the tower from the beginning of the story, where my first 4-5 murders took place, and I take a quick sidestep into a different archery mission where you shoot other archers on cliffs. I'm feeling proud and figure I'll bang this out before I finally go to bed. The mission takes place under a tent and nothing can possibly .... go .... wrong .... ohhaicaptains. Yup, Captain 1 and 3 show up as if to get revenge, but they actually approached from both sides of the tent, so the camera was swinging around wildly and I wasn't doing so hot. I manage to get out, lock sword with an orc and .... by all that is unholy in this universe, its Captain #2. Except this time his head is literally wrapped in bandages like a mummy. Huh, whaddya know, turns out dead don't always mean dead. And it turns out that while violently murdering an already dead captain again, you can also enter tunnel vision and forget about Captain #1 who kills you from behind the moment you take off Captain #2's head for good.

So at the end of this story, Captain #2 is finally dead ... for real. And Captain #3 (and maybe #4) are dead as well. But Captain #1 ... well, lets just say he's my next visit after I submit this post. Hope you enjoyed.

[Cichy]

This is gonna be a wordy one, but it describes my first 5 hours and how the Nemesis system makes it feel personal, for anyone who wanted to really get an idea how it works or for anyone who's played but wanted to see how different their play through was from mine. It's basically a story of how being not so great at this game and the Nemesis system made for a long night for me. TLDR though, awesome game.

Spoiler: show

I'm loving and hating (in a good way) the nemesis system. VERY early on, like within 5 minutes of leaving the starting tower and approaching the second one to the NE of it, I encountered a Captain (only Power 2) and engaged. Was still getting used to things with 0 abilities and runes, so I wasn't able to finish him too quickly. Before I knew it, I turned to strike a supporting Uruk, but its no regular one, its Captain #2, so I have to juggle them both. First one enters green state, but the second is still being a nuisance so I start hitting him when BAM, third Captain comes out of nowhere. I get all of 2 swings on him and turn to hit what I think is Captain #1 .... NOPE, a 4th captain joins the fray and Captain #1 finishes me from behind. All 4 gained a 1 Power while #1 gains 2, every one of them is promoted and overthrows a prior captain. I'm frustrated, but the Nemesis graph shows that all 4 are from basically opposite corners of the map, so I figure I won't have to worry about them.


I run back to the second tower and activate it then jump down below. There's a wandering party of 4 orcs, in a ruined building (the one RIGHT next to it with the insect hive) ... I sneak kill 3 of 'em, when the fourth sees me and engages, luring 2 nearby orcs ... I figure, no prob. Kill 2 of em and start hitting the third when I see an attack from behind ... I hit triangle to counter to face him and next thing I know I'm in a mini-cutscene with a Captain who's surprised to see me alive (yup, Captain #1). So I'm like, wow, you're still around here .. time to kill you for good. I use the stun move and launch into a combo, when the other orc naturally recovers and comes from behind. Except .. its not him, its Captain #3 from earlier and I'm basically like "you've gotta be kidding me". Once again, I'm playing juggle the captains when ... DUN DUN DUN, Captains #2 and #4 run up together, I figuratively crap my pants, and 5 seconds later Sauron suddenly has an elite corp of Power 4-6 orcs as Veteran Captains.

So, I jump down from the tower and walk to the nearest cliff. There's a SINGLE orc yelling at a slave and I managed to pick up the falling assassination ability in my failures from the basic orcs. So I lock on and dive. Man, I wish I had done the first mission where u lean you can check for Captains in Wraith form because .... yup, I just landed on Captain #1 who's sneak attack immune. But he's alone ... there wasn't an orc on the map at all, I made sure of it even when I wasn't expecting a Captain .. so I figure, I'm about to get some sweet revenge (also, his comment about me being alive is new, I'm pleasantly surprised at that moment that it didn't replay the old one) and go to town on him .. but he's notably harder. I manage to get off maybe a single attack chain in when .... yeah, you already know the story .... Captains #2 and #3 show up and slaughter me. Well, at least #4 wasn't around .. but now they're getting scary.

I'm gonna skip ahead here, but lets just say, the next two maybe three times I jump off the tower ... Moe, Larry, Curly, and Burnface McGee show up and slaughter me several more times all while I'm simply trying to avoid orcs and get to the first mission. I call him Burnface because in the 4th encounter, he actually showed up third just as I was hitting another captain and I pushed him into a fire ... now he bitches about how I burned him (I love the built in "history"). So yeah, Captain #1 and Captain #2 end up around 11~13 power while the other 2 end up around 7~8 (since those two didn't show up every time). All in the first like 40 or so minutes of the game ... I'm mad .. but in a good way ... screw the story ... I want BLOOD.

Now, even as I write this I have no idea if Captains from different regions always hang out like that, or if I happened to be in a bad place in the first encounter which made all 4 actively seek me out, but they ALWAYS showed up within 4-5 sword bashes to the face of each others arrival. Hell, I even marked #1 in order to keep an eye on my radar and he was always off the radar til one of the other three showed up, then bam, he'd be there 20 seconds later.

But wait, if I haven't bored you yet (I realize I'm no Brill Weave) ... there's more to this story. So I decide to totally stealth my way to the Slaver mission because I'm paranoid they'll show up if I so much as catch a glance from an orc near the tower (maybe they've got IPhone6's, lol, what do I know.) I make it, start the mission, do the mission, and kill the Slaver Captain. YAY! Progress, I've achieved prog ... SUNUVA BITCH ... Captain #2 attacks me from behind ... quickly followed by the other three and yup ... I died. But I kill one before I fall, so yay?. I'm thinking, screw you nemesis system, screw you.

But then a calm. I'm about 90 mins in and I've died about once every 10 minutes to these fools, who apparently may as well be Saurons right hand men, but the next ~3 hours go smooth. I off some other Captains, I do two story missions (including Ratbag), I do side missions and collect some artifacts. Game finally decides to let them stay in their 4 corners of the map, out of sight, out of mind. Anyone familiar with the mission where you meet Ratbag may recall an archery challenge outside the stronghold. For those who aren't, basically you have to shoot bad guys while you stay in a fixed circle away from them. I get about 3/4 of the necessary targets killed when I get pulled out of archery mode and into a chat sequence with .... fucking Captain #2 ... REALLY? .... turns out hes powerful enough now that one hit takes over half my life ... I foolishly try to remain in the circle, but alas, he solos me and gets promoted to Sauron Jesus or something.

I respawn, and decide to get out of Dodge. So I flee the castle area, aggro a crapton of orcs and ... aggro Captain #2 ... again. But this time, I beat his ass BAD. I don't suck like in the first 40 minutes of the game, and I'm not trying to stay in a mission circle. He's doomed and I get him down to critical REAL quick ... only problem is theres about 300 other orcs because our battle alerted the rest of the castle. So I parry about 10 of them and he decides to flee. I sit up on my couch, and I begin to chase him down with a look of murder in my eyes. I chase him really far, but don't lose him and manage to pin him down. I only aggro'd about 50 orcs on the way ... I'll be fine. And, in the end, I was. I murdered him in cold blood and didn't even worry about interrogations or anything. This bitch was DEAD, and he was so powerful the rune he dropped was Epic.

So, here draws the end of my tale. I head back to area around the tower from the beginning of the story, where my first 4-5 murders took place, and I take a quick sidestep into a different archery mission where you shoot other archers on cliffs. I'm feeling proud and figure I'll bang this out before I finally go to bed. The mission takes place under a tent and nothing can possibly .... go .... wrong .... ohhaicaptains. Yup, Captain 1 and 3 show up as if to get revenge, but they actually approached from both sides of the tent, so the camera was swinging around wildly and I wasn't doing so hot. I manage to get out, lock sword with an orc and .... by all that is unholy in this universe, its Captain #2. Except this time his head is literally wrapped in bandages like a mummy. Huh, whaddya know, turns out dead don't always mean dead. And it turns out that while violently murdering an already dead captain again, you can also enter tunnel vision and forget about Captain #1 who kills you from behind the moment you take off Captain #2's head for good.

So at the end of this story, Captain #2 is finally dead ... for real. And Captain #3 (and maybe #4) are dead as well. But Captain #1 ... well, lets just say he's my next visit after I submit this post. Hope you enjoyed.

Oh man the game really does create some unique situations that draw you into the world. Early on I died like 5 times to this one Uruk and he fucking skyrocketed through the ranks. At one point I was doing some sort of mission that involved Ghoul nest and I ran out of the cave so I have more room to run around. I was fighting the mother Ghoul or w/e and almost had her killed while this motherfucker shows up. Shoots me with an explosive arrow, kills me, and proceeds to talk shit. I was so pissed.

[Abandon]

this sounds amazing ,rofl

[Necronus]

Oh man the game really does create some unique situations that draw you into the world. Early on I died like 5 times to this one Uruk and he fucking skyrocketed through the ranks. At one point I was doing some sort of mission that involved Ghoul nest and I ran out of the cave so I have more room to run around. I was fighting the mother Ghoul or w/e and almost had her killed while this motherfucker shows up. Shoots me with an explosive arrow, kills me, and proceeds to talk shit. I was so pissed.

That's the shit that blew my mind. The ones who you get to know and who get to know you will straight up ruin a mission on you. It's personal. And the not really being dead, and the bitching about how they can only smell burnt skin, or how i gave one a permanent metal plate in his head ... or how you can die to one general 8 times and 6 or 7 of those times he has a completely different comment about you still being alive. Genius.

Also, glad I'm not the only one who earned a stalker while trying to figure out the controls.

[Cichy]

Also, glad I'm not the only one who earned a stalker while trying to figure out the controls.

I went in thinking the game was easier than it is. I was used Batman and AC being easy to either run away or muscle your way through any encounter. But this game you can't do that. It forces you to think about what you're getting into and you can't just YOLO everything.