Shadows of Mordor

[L]imey;1041145193 said:
I've spent a ton of time murdering orc captains (in fact, there are none left on my screen right now, just the warchiefs)

I never get these awesome epic runes I see in some of the screenshots.

I haven't done that much of the story line (just enough to kill 1 warchief and replace him with ratbag) and 2 or 3 in the gollum story line.

Is it later on in the main story that these types of runes become available?
Click to expand...

It's mostly random, but there are ways of increasing your chances of getting one...

http://www.ign.com/wikis/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor/Epic_Runes
 
Ah I see. I don't have the death threat or even the brand function yet (I've been totally distracted by side missions and stuff) I just got the arrow teleport thing, so I'll work on the story some so I can unlock some more of this stuff.
 
I'm surprised I like this game so much. I can't wait to get off work and go play!

Seriously though, this game recommends 6gb of vram to run ultra textures... at 1080p? LOL

I actually had the setting at ultra using my 780 Lightning (1440p) and it ran fine, definitely maxed out my vram, but I backed it off to high, and now it uses 2800-2900mb. Crazy. I've only seen usage like that on heavily modded Skyrim so far.
 
Don't worry I don't think you ever run out of captains or warchiefs, I killed so many and more just eventually get promoted up the ranks. I had the warchiefs cleared for a short while then the spots eventually got filled again. Usually by someone that got lucky and killed me, which started a vicious cycled of really wanting the warchief dead and made me avoid continuing the storyline even longer.
 
Its fun to use warchiefs weakness to kill them. Had problems with killing one of those - died like 4 times to him, and he got to like 22 power. Was totally invincible - weapon master, immune to stealth and ranged attacks. Till finally I read his description and figured he is afraid of caraghorns. Dominated one, rode it into battle and then 1 minute later he was dead.

Also I love the side missions. Finding all the artifacts and elven marks, doing weapon challenges. They greatly enhance the lore and help you understand a lot of things that go on in Mordor.

BTW - pre industrialized Mordor looks great. Much different of what became of it, once Sauron set his foot there.
 
Check out the rps review. Love the idea is turning orcs to your side. And it sounds like it's a must to help with the game nearing the end.

Hoping to pick this up soon
 
The best part of the game is having a Orc look at you and issue his retreat dialog only to get cross-bowed by a dominated bodyguard! :D
 
Parja said:
How do you figure? In a group, you can't get the full flurry off fast enough to get to the finisher without getting hit.
Click to expand...

angles and movement. keep vaulting until youre at an outer edge, then start killing. I completed the gladiator pit challenge first time, got the bonus as well with like 107x streak.
 
Q-BZ said:
I bet this will easily be Dark Horse of the Year at minimum for a lot of people and review outlets.

It's a triumphant return for Monolith. This is a game a lot of people including myself really didn't give a hoot worth of attention to until a week or so before its release. Suddenly the videos went out, early reviews going out, Twitch... and it was like "holy shit, where did this come from?"

A very pleasant surprise.
Click to expand...

I think their Twitch stream preview really helped. They seemed very comfortable with the camera on themselves.
 
Droc said:
No proper SLi profile yet?
Click to expand...

cageymaru said:
Got to give Nvidia some time to make one. Contrary to what people think, AMD and Nvidia need time to make a proper working driver for games. :)
Click to expand...

I think the trick for now was to add the game manually in the NVidia panel and select Alternate Frame Rendering 2.

Cant check for certain as I'm not on my main PC atm. :(
 
I decided to brutalize some random orc earlier, plunged my knife into him about 5 times as he screamed bloody murder... and the instant before the final blow lands a fucking caragor comes out of nowhere, rips him from my hands, and tosses him around like a ragdoll.

Funniest thing I've seen so far.
 
That's awesome

My favorite moment so far was pretty awful. I stealth branded a single orc, went up to a high vantage point at a camp and told him to attack. The moment everyone turned towards him I made his head explode.

I'm living the wraith lifestyle, man.
 
So, I don't think I was the only one, for people that were getting stuck.

I restarted. Every time you enter a new area switch to Wraith mode and scan the area for Captains. Then go through and get the intel locations on every captain. Play through the story mode a bit or side quests whatever.

Basically, ALWAYS scan with wraith mode before walking more than 30 seconds. A ton of the early captains can be killed in one shot with arrows/stealth/finishing move/caragor.

I think that is why I was getting raped so bad, I was just running to whatever destination not paying attention to who might pop up.

I think I've only died twice and I'm on the third tier of Abilities or whatevs. WAY more in line with where I should be :D
 
aeonrevolution said:
I think that is why I was getting raped so bad, I was just running to whatever destination not paying attention to who might pop up.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I stealth run everywhere and don't bother checking for captains unless I'm entering a stronghold. I've been surprised a number of times by that orc I tried to stealth kill being a captain, it makes the game a lot more fun for me. As long as you're not in a stronghold getting surrounded by 50 orcs it's usually not bad. Probably one of the best abilities to get early on is the vault stun, flipping over a captain and getting a flurry in charges your combo streak fast.

Once you get to the higher levels you get a 5 hit combo giving you finisher access, and you can use your finishers twice. That plus getting a critical hit counts as 3x for your combos. It's pretty easy to hit 3 times and then brand two orcs, rinse and repeat and soon it's your army vs. theirs.
 
I love not scanning and just randomly running into Strongholds and fighting whatever captains show up.
 
Hamateer said:
angles and movement. keep vaulting until youre at an outer edge, then start killing. I completed the gladiator pit challenge first time, got the bonus as well with like 107x streak.
Click to expand...

Vaulting in there is a waste of time. They're all just "standard" Uruk's, so you just spam the attack button, parry when one of them tries to attack, and hit your finisher when you get another 8 hits in the streak. One of the easiest challenges in the game, as long as you don't overthink it.
 
Parja said:
Vaulting in there is a waste of time. They're all just "standard" Uruk's, so you just spam the attack button, parry when one of them tries to attack, and hit your finisher when you get another 8 hits in the streak. One of the easiest challenges in the game, as long as you don't overthink it.
Click to expand...

I'd rather vault or dodge, I hardly ever parry.

Was the hammer boss difficult for everyone else? I think I saw him mentioned as incredibly difficult in the follow up RPS piece and was surprised, he was easy for me, just headshotted him to hell.
 
Hamateer said:
I'd rather vault or dodge, I hardly ever parry.

Was the hammer boss difficult for everyone else? I think I saw him mentioned as incredibly difficult in the follow up RPS piece and was surprised, he was easy for me, just headshotted him to hell.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
I just finally entered the more lush, second world area last night. 22 hours of gameplay so far. I bet I break 40 when I'm done.
 
2560x1440 @108hz with 90+ fps ALL THE TIME. Max game settings. I knew 4gb videocards would be the way to go!

I5-2500K
R9 290 (reference)
Catalyst 14.4 WHQL

This game runs astonishingly well! I may even try the HD textures!
 
Last edited:
Pastuch said:
2560x1440 @108hz with 90+ fps ALL THE TIME. Max game settings. I knew 4gb videocards would be the way to go!

I5-2500K
R9 290 (reference)
Catalyst 14.4 WHQL

This game runs astonishingly well! I may even try the HD textures!
Click to expand...

i7-3770
R9 290 (reference)
Catalyst 14.9 -- 2560x1440

Everything ultra (incl. texture pack) I get:

Average FPS: 53.84
Max FPS: 226.15
Min FPS: 17.57

Everything high:

Average FPS: 60.13
Max FPS: 238.29
Min FPS: 26.9

Very hard to believe you get 90 "ALL THE TIME".

(Benchmarks run with game restart between change of settings)
 
Game is pretty entertaining, I like it a lot.. there is a lot to do.. Most of the time I don't like doing side missions but I find them fun in this game. I gotta admit the combat is really fun. It really makes me feel like a ranger. Once you get executions after your hit strike combo is up it gets a lot of fun haha, plus brutalize sneak attacks are always fun.

Feels like mordor too.. I had a line or orcs marching through randomly... snuck behind each one and stealth killed. So. Fun.



BTW I am playing at 2560x1440 with the HD pack and everything maxed and it runs 65+ fps at all times with my 980.


edit:

is there a way to tell that my ultra textures are on? I know that you can set ultra and it'll just run high if theyre not in there...
 
Last edited:
Pastuch said:
2560x1440 @108hz with 90+ fps ALL THE TIME. Max game settings. I knew 4gb videocards would be the way to go!

I5-2500K
R9 290 (reference)
Catalyst 14.4 WHQL

This game runs astonishingly well! I may even try the HD textures!
Click to expand...

Really? Something must be wrong with my rig. I'm at 1440p and with autodetected settings ( not ultra textures ) the benchmark gives me 60fps.
 
Phlorge said:
Game is pretty entertaining, I like it a lot.. there is a lot to do.. Most of the time I don't like doing side missions but I find them fun in this game. I gotta admit the combat is really fun. It really makes me feel like a ranger. Once you get executions after your hit strike combo is up it gets a lot of fun haha, plus brutalize sneak attacks are always fun.

Feels like mordor too.. I had a line or orcs marching through randomly... snuck behind each one and stealth killed. So. Fun.



BTW I am playing at 2560x1440 with the HD pack and everything maxed and it runs 65+ fps at all times with my 980.


edit:

is there a way to tell that my ultra textures are on? I know that you can set ultra and it'll just run high if theyre not in there...
Click to expand...
Check memory and swap file usage with High textures on and Ultra textures on. Ultra textures are going to be swapped out of VRAM with a 4GB card, especially at 1440p.
 
We should all run the bench and post our results with our hardware and settings. That dude with the reference 290 does not avg 90fps @1440p, just sayin.
 
Just fought the first Black Captain, pretty easy fight. Unlocked the 2nd land. I think I did most of the side quests in Mordor, but will have to go back and look.

Still really enjoying it.
 
Should we make a separate thread for results?

Running high preset, 1080p
Stock 3770k
Stock 7870
14.9 drivers

Average: 65.07
Max: 211.26
Min: 13.36

I think everyone should run the high preset and throw in the ultra along with it if they run that. It'd be a good apples to apples comparison just to see the impact on a single system.
 
[L]imey;1041147367 said:
Just fought the first Black Captain, pretty easy fight. Unlocked the 2nd land. I think I did most of the side quests in Mordor, but will have to go back and look.

Still really enjoying it.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to getting to the second area.

Wonder if the DLC expansions will bring even moar lands, beasts, enemy types. My money is ready.
 
Without skipping EVERYTHING, how long does it take to get to this second zone everyone's on about?
 
BiH115 said:
Without skipping EVERYTHING, how long does it take to get to this second zone everyone's on about?
Click to expand...

I'm not a completionist by any stretch, but taking my time it took about 8 hours for me to get to the second zone. If I had been trying to rush it -- you could do it a lot quicker. Once you get some key skills, combat picks up noticeably.

That's my only gripe is that by the second zone you are nearing a state where you are such a badass that it trivializes combat. I mean, it's still fun, but a lot of the early challenge is gone. The fact that it turns into basically Pokemon/eugenics for Uruk's at that point is a lot of fun though and I hope there is an expansion or DLC later on that expands on this later - army building is a lot of fun.
 
BiH115 said:
Without skipping EVERYTHING, how long does it take to get to this second zone everyone's on about?
Click to expand...

I think I'm around 12 hours in. I'm still in the first area with stuff to do. I'm a completionist, though.
 
My bench results, hardware in sig, 1440p

ultra preset (incl textures):

high: 235
avg: 69
low: 23

Very high preset:

high: 412
avg: 80
low: 54
 
when it shows your progress, it says 20 main story missions, is that for the zone or for the entire game?
 
Phlorge said:
when it shows your progress, it says 20 main story missions, is that for the zone or for the entire game?
Click to expand...
For the zone, I think. In TB's video it showed he had 16/20 main missions completed in the first zone. I hardly think that there would be only 4 in the whole rest of the game. It was funny though that TB thought that the first zone was the entire game, proclaiming that the whole game could be completed in around 8 hours :D.
 
Armenius said:
For the zone, I think. In TB's video it showed he had 16/20 main missions completed in the first zone. I hardly think that there would be only 4 in the whole rest of the game. It was funny though that TB thought that the first zone was the entire game, proclaiming that the whole game could be completed in around 8 hours :D.
Click to expand...

That is what I would've thought too.. had no idea! makes me want to play a lot more actually
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top