Current Events > Started Middle-earth: Shadows of Mordor. Anything to keep in mind?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not familiar with lotr lore at all, only watched the original trilogy.
---

The story is mostly nonsense even to lotr fans so don't worry about it just consider it fanfiction by people who like the series.

---

Are there difficulty settings? I just clicked new game and it immediately thrust me onto the world map, no context no nothing.
---

saspa posted...

Are there difficulty settings? I just clicked new game and it immediately thrust me onto the world map, no context no nothing.

There's only one difficulty, and it's a pretty easy game. Including difficulty modes and a dozen other things, Shadows of War is honestly way better tbh.

---

I have shadow of war for free so that's something to look forward to if I end up liking shadow of mordor.

Is this game like assassin's creed/arkham and other open worlds? I'm getting similar vibes when I open the world map and see looking towers to unlock to open the map, quests on the map and stuff like that.
---

CommunismFTW posted...

The story is mostly nonsense even to lotr fans so don't worry about it just consider it fanfiction by people who like the series.

Lol at including Gollum, though I guess that makes sense considering his popularity in the series.

If that be the case they should just include that dragon from the hobbit as well, that would be a cool boss to face.

But anything else regarding battle system? Is there a bomb or Area of effect attack for when I'm absolutely swarmed by orcs? I literally killed like 50, and then 50 more showed up. And I even tried to position myself near an explosive barrel to take them all in one fell swoop, but more kept coming. It's like the cops from those gta games back in the day, they don't relent so you just run away after a while.
---

You'll get some OP powers in the skill tree. But if you're in a stronghold there will basically be infinite orcs.

But game play wise it's just standard Arkham/ Assassin's Creed combat with a bow and some other gimmicks. It's a cool game, but not really fit its basic mechanics if that makes sense. I won't spoil more if you're truly blind.

---

Yeah it took a while to "get into" combat even though it's basically arkham. When I first heard the game was a mix of arkham and ac I thought I'd probably like the games.

It's got collectibles scattered around the map, same as AC. Not sure if there's a benefit to collecting those herbs and flowers beyond restoring health in the moment.

What's annoying is that I'm always at complete health when I get one of those herbs/flowers, when I actually need them during a battle with orcs where my health gets low because I screwed up in wanting to execute uruks immediately and be done with it.

Are there potions and stuff in the game? Anyway to restore health in the heat of battle? I tried draining but it just replenishes the white bar, which I guess is my arrows? Still unsure what that's about
---

Yeah in the first game you can't really capture bases like you can in some games wo enemies will just keep spawning. Then the second game is all about capturing stuff

---

Drain I am pretty sure does heal you but healing might come with a certain level of plot progression. There are also runes that can give healing on combo chains and stuff

---

Keep this in mind:

The game is an absolute blast and honestly one of my all time faves

But also keep this in mind:

The game might seem a bit overwhelming at first, especially when you get cornered in a fort, but as you level up and learn new abilities, you become super OP and it gets easier.

---

I do love getting super OP so that's good, looking forward to it.

I'm now in the new area and learned to control orcs power? Is that the one you meant? Well as long as "building an orc army" doesn't resort to some RTS type gameplay, not into that.

Although I will say having to deal with a whole other section of captains and war chiefs seems like it can get tedious so took a break to not feel burned out.
---

Lol wow we're playing as the guy that made the very rings from lord of the rings?

I can see why some people call it fanfiction, other than the inclusion of gollum there's also doing the whole saruman possesses someone thing
---

Ok so in the heat of the moment how am I supposed to know which are my orcs? They're not helping me and I just died after an endless horde at a stronghold and 3 captains wouldn't die.

I actually wasted my executions on my own party members, it's kinda frustrating
---

The story is dumb, ignore it

DOn't be afraid to run away if overwhelmed

Game is easy

---

Well you don't play as Kelloggsbooberry. You're just possessed by him.

It's a serviceable series, but it gets kind of silly.

---

I really dug the nemesis system stuff and I think Shadow of War expanded upon that greatly supposedly

I really enjoyed it tbh, especially the online portion.. never actually beat it lol I dont think Id run out to go play SoM as much as I enjoyed War though

It's arkham asylum with gore and a badass revenge system

It's not a difficult game. The stealth makes things super easy for the most part.

I would just suggest you don't underestimate the band leaders. They can be super tanky and hard to take down, especially the ones with poison weapons. So really make use of the thing they're scared of, do your research.

---

It's copy pasted Arkham with gore, a cool setting, and the nemesis system.

Best way to have fun with the game is to play around with the nemesis system.

Let a basic bitch Uruk kill you so he gets promoted to captain, then manipulate things behind the scenes so he gets promoted up to war chief then show up and ruin his day.

Brainwash all the bodyguards of a war chief and have them turn on him.

Harass the same Uruk over and over, especially if they have the "undying" title, and watch as their appearance changes depending on how you finish them each time. Prosthetic limbs when you lop one off, covered in rags once you burn them up, etc.

Oh yeah, and make sure you brainwash/take out the archers. Those guys will ruin your day otherwise.

---

I hated when the Orcs captains are immune to everything.

---

I gotta play Shadow of War some time. Honestly when I first tried it I had played Shadow of Mordor too recently. The game felt to similar to play back to back.

---

L...Lol what. Is this game over in just like, 15ish hours? I thought it was gonna be long like a wrpg or at least bigger like ac origins.
---

Beat it 100% with the dlc. HLTB puts that at ~40 hours. Plus the gameplay doesn't change very much over that time span aside from getting ridiculously OP.

---

Shadow of War is way bigger, plus it has some quality of life improvements. I still enjoy the first game even though there really isn't much to it. The Nemesis System is neat, though I wish they did more with it in the first game. The best/most memorable thing that could happen is you end up running into the same uruk a bunch of times. I also ended up doing a deeper dive where you're cultivating uruks to make them as strong as possible or trying to make them look a certain way with their color scheme and/or scars, which I found pretty fun. You can also import your top Nemesis and Ally into Shadow of War with the Nemesis Forge and they'll show up at certain points in the story.

---

The sequel is way worse

---

I just started the sequel to see what it was like.

Can we talk about how fucking annoying western developers are with how tiny they make their video game text? Like jesus christ the appendix is unreadable.

Do these devs not realize we're playing these games on a tv, not on a computer monitor? We're not squinting to read tiny ass text font from a couple meters away.
---

UnfairRepresent posted...

The sequel is way worse

Nah, it's better. Still a dumb plot, but there's more tools to play around with in the combat and the Nemesis system (the real reason to play the games) is expanded.

I'll probably make a second topic for shadow of war, but so far it does seem like they improved some of the mechanics over mordor
---

Game is fun af. You become a one man army, and it never gets old slaying orcs.

Final boss fight is....well, it's not really even a fight.
---

If you want a difficulty spike after beating the main game then I suggest moving on to shadows of war, or getting the celebrimbor dlc, that acts as a "hard mode" of sorts

---

dib153 posted...

If you want a difficulty spike after beating the main game then I suggest moving on to shadows of war, or getting the celebrimbor dlc, that acts as a "hard mode" of sorts

Mighta mentioned it but I already beat the lord of the hunt campaign and the bright lord campaign. I was expecting those to be super short so it wasn't a surprise there, it's just the main campaign that felt absurdly unfinished to me.

If that's what you meant by celebi's dlc, I don't know if it's necessarily harder, both have their ups and downs. You lose the ability to slow down time, but you can literally summon orcs to your side, and drain them, and summon them again. It's like having healing items in your inventory, something the main game didn't have.

And I took advantage of shadow strike stealth a lot more, I had to. It was very fun to be able teleport through a crack in the wall if I had an orc in my reticle. Also there's the fact that I'm literally wielding the one ring so... yeah. You'd think I'd be more powerful, but the boost in strength it gives me is pretty good and charges up fast if I make sure to brand enough orcs.
---