Shadows of Mordor worth 30 bucks on Steam?

A

atreidesgoldenpath

Gawd
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Trying to decide.. Not much into gaming for awhile now... But I spent many years playing LOTRO... Any thoughts on this one?
 
Easily worth it.

My personal Dark Horse of the Year and some outlets gave it GOTY outright.
 
Depends How much Tolkien nerd you are. If you take his words as bible, know Silmarilion by heart, and can immediately mention the differences between movies and books, then plot of this game will make you hate WB as much as Gollum hated Bilbo - it breaks a lot of lore facts.

But if you don't mind lore, then you get one of the best games of this year. Its like assassin creed + batman mechanics and is a lot of fun and definitely worth buying
 
I just want to know why this game is such a shameless rip-off of the Arkham games.
 
Megalith said:
I just want to know why this game is such a shameless rip-off of the Arkham games.
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Because the Arkham combat system is excellent and works beautifully in this game? I don't understand this whole fixation some people have on "You can't borrow ideas and mechanics from another game even when they fit". The game plays great, it's world is well done, most importantly it's fun. It also borrows heavily from Assassin's Creed and the combination of elements created a very good and surprising game. In some ways I think it does Arkham combat better than the Arkham games and it is going to be one of the games that Arkham Knight gets compared against.
 
If you want a combination of Assassin's Creed and Middle-Earth then this is the game. Its probably one of my favorite of the year. I ended up really liking this game alot.
 
Well I am the guy who has not watched any of the Hobbit movies in protest over Peter Jackson's story modifications of the Lord of the Rings.

But like I said I enjoyed LOTRO for a long time until they introduced the store and went free to play. Thanks for the input!
 
atreidesgoldenpath said:
Well I am the guy who has not watched any of the Hobbit movies in protest over Peter Jackson's story modifications of the Lord of the Rings.

But like I said I enjoyed LOTRO for a long time until they introduced the store and went free to play. Thanks for the input!
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Let's put it this way: There is an eleven wraith that gives you your powers. If that doesn't make you run away cursing about ignoring lore than you'll be fine with the plot.
 
Eshelmen said:
How long is the campaign?
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That depends entirely on how much side stuff you do and how much time you spend setting things up with the Nemesis system. I have ten hours in the game and have not beat it yet (ended updoing a PC upgrade and haven't reinstalled it due to several other games catching my attention), though I'm close to the end due to barreling through a bunch of main missions for a bit. There are 20-something (23-24, something like that) main missions and if you barrel your way through them I'd say you could beat them in five or six hours, maybe seven. The side content is really compelling and fun in a way that a lot of other open world games don't seem to hit though. Messing around with the Nemesis system is a blast as well, it is the mechanic that really makes the game work. It's something I can totally see other developers looking at and trying to use in their own games in the future.
 
Eshelmen said:
How long is the campaign?
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At 98% complete, I think we have 25 - 30 hours in it. There's a ton of side stuff to do. Eve after you beat the game, you can still keep killing and destroying the ranks of Uruks. The combat and stuff is so fun, I could easily spend hours running around and taking out there camps and strongholds. Once you have your guy maxed in skills and stuff, he's a blast. You get some crazy skills that allow you to literally take out an army. And it's fucking fun.

I still have it installed and still boot it up just to kill stuff. My son plays it all the time. Well worth the money, and I paid full price. Oh, and it's a beautiful game on max settings as well.
 
I think differently.

The combat is fun but it gets dull after a while (think sleeping dogs/ass creed/batman arkham). The nemesis system is pretty awesome but .... I wish they did more with it. Due to the combat system, the nemesis system sort of falls a bit because it's so easy to beat pretty much any of the guys at the higher lvls, there are times they can do you in, but it's rare.

That said, if you don't care about tolkien lore, and I can't say I do (though I do like tolkien stuff) it's something you should play.

I enjoyed the living crap out of it, personally, but after a while of faffing about, I finished the story and just didn't feel like playing anymore. Story sucks too if you require a good one.

It's a wonder why WB pulled that review crap they did for it.

EDIT: Oh yea... this game would hav ebeen ABSOLUTELY amazing, if it was moddable.
 
pothb said:
I think differently.

The combat is fun but it gets dull after a while (think sleeping dogs/ass creed/batman arkham). The nemesis system is pretty awesome but .... I wish they did more with it. Due to the combat system, the nemesis system sort of falls a bit because it's so easy to beat pretty much any of the guys at the higher lvls, there are times they can do you in, but it's rare.

That said, if you don't care about tolkien lore, and I can't say I do (though I do like tolkien stuff) it's something you should play.

I enjoyed the living crap out of it, personally, but after a while of faffing about, I finished the story and just didn't feel like playing anymore. Story sucks too if you require a good one.

It's a wonder why WB pulled that review crap they did for it.

EDIT: Oh yea... this game would hav ebeen ABSOLUTELY amazing, if it was moddable.
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It's wasn't WB that pulled it, it was the PR firm they hired to handle Youtube and content like that. That crap was something that only Youtube people had to deal with, on the more "traditional" review side it was handled by completely different people and those issues didn't come up.
 
Derangel said:
It's wasn't WB that pulled it, it was the PR firm they hired to handle Youtube and content like that. That crap was something that only Youtube people had to deal with, on the more "traditional" review side it was handled by completely different people and those issues didn't come up.
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Really? I didn't think PR companies would pull it without WB's say so. Seems like a stupid thing to do... as it gains the PR company nothing. Unless PR companies can go to companies like WB and say, see look? We made your game look good, but that sounds idiotic and unlikely.
 
pothb said:
Really? I didn't think PR companies would pull it without WB's say so. Seems like a stupid thing to do... as it gains the PR company nothing. Unless PR companies can go to companies like WB and say, see look? We made your game look good, but that sounds idiotic and unlikely.
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According to people like TotalBiscuit it isn't the first time that firm has been a pain to Youtubers. In general I think publishers kind of allow PR firms a bit of freedom, trusting them to do what they do best. In terms of PR fuck ups from firms like this the review embargo issue for SoM is pretty small. I'm not sure why these PR issues keeping happening, outside of cases of extreme ignorance on everyone's part. Companies still seem to be playing catch-up with how information travels on the internet and either willfully or not are constantly ignorant of how trying to protect their image in extreme ways can effect them. I don't know if it was WB themselves or another PR firm but there were review issues with the first two Arkhram games as well, with PR allowing publications to break embargo if they would promise a good score (or something that essentially meant the same thing, been too long for me to remember all of the details).
 
Megalith said:
I just want to know why this game is such a shameless rip-off of the Arkham games.
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Because, according to Giant Bomb, the game was originally a Batman game set in the Nolan universe. Nolan pulled the plug and WB salvaged the game thus turning it into Shadow of Mordor.
 
Derangel said:
According to people like TotalBiscuit it isn't the first time that firm has been a pain to Youtubers. In general I think publishers kind of allow PR firms a bit of freedom, trusting them to do what they do best. In terms of PR fuck ups from firms like this the review embargo issue for SoM is pretty small. I'm not sure why these PR issues keeping happening, outside of cases of extreme ignorance on everyone's part. Companies still seem to be playing catch-up with how information travels on the internet and either willfully or not are constantly ignorant of how trying to protect their image in extreme ways can effect them. I don't know if it was WB themselves or another PR firm but there were review issues with the first two Arkhram games as well, with PR allowing publications to break embargo if they would promise a good score (or something that essentially meant the same thing, been too long for me to remember all of the details).
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Like I said, seems extremely idiotic. Didn't know about the arkham games receiving the same treatment. And no worries on the memory thing, I have horrible memories and frequently have to recheck things myself.
 
As I was playing the game it was easily my favorite of the year, I got about 30 hours out of it. But I did try going back to the game to do the DLC and I couldn't get back into it. It still ranks as my top game of the year as far as game I enjoyed the most. Although I didn't play many games this year, it generally looked like a bad year for gaming. Next year looks a whole lot better.
 
Derangel said:
Because the Arkham combat system is excellent and works beautifully in this game? I don't understand this whole fixation some people have on "You can't borrow ideas and mechanics from another game even when they fit". The game plays great, it's world is well done, most importantly it's fun. It also borrows heavily from Assassin's Creed and the combination of elements created a very good and surprising game. In some ways I think it does Arkham combat better than the Arkham games and it is going to be one of the games that Arkham Knight gets compared against.
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Agree 100% here. If every game was completely unique, we'd have a lot less games. It's the same reason why every FPS has had the same controller layout since COD2. If a certain mechanic works, and works well, there is nothing wrong with other developers using the same concepts in their games. Furthermore, it's not as if Batman's gameplay is particularly unique. It works well, but at it heart the game is just a hack-n-slash game with a batman skin. It's not as if they created some groundbreaking new type of game and Mordor ripped it off.

And to answer the OP, the game is worth every bit of $30. It's worth more. It's a wonderful game.
 
fochkoph said:
Because, according to Giant Bomb, the game was originally a Batman game set in the Nolan universe. Nolan pulled the plug and WB salvaged the game thus turning it into Shadow of Mordor.
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Thank Goodness. Nolans Batman is an abortion and just awful. Batman Arkham combat system is phenomenal. I wish Witcher used it.
 
It's ok. Plenty repetitive, but then it is an Assassin's Creed style game. Combat's largely unchallenging until you get some higher-tier bosses with more interesting attribute combinations - at the very start of the game I was exploring and accidentally ran into an encounter that escalated into a 4 Captain fight, with me at the starting level and theirs ranging from mine to 8 or 10 or thereabouts. I had no idea what I was doing and still made a mess of them just by remembering to parry when the prompt showed up, it was pretty unexciting. I lost my save file though and had to go back and get back to not only where I was but where my girlfriend was. That was not fun. No replayability to the game.

I don't think comparing it to the Arkham games is a great idea. I loved the first two, but this is nothing like it. The combat is... similar. But it has its janky moments - the fact that you can't have distinct binds for your bow and your block and lead to some frustrating moments where you're aiming an arrow at a guy instead of parrying the attack you meant to, for one example. I don't like not being able to bind controls with a good degree of personalisation. There's nowhere near the story or variety in the side missions that there are in the Arkham games. It's mostly AC's "go here, kill this HVT, get some rewards, unlock a new thing". Pretty superficial. Especially if we're going to include The Witcher in comparisons.
 
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I've been enjoying it on my PS4. I can only play for a little bit at a time though as you pretty much do the same thing over and over, still fun though.
 
Just got this on sale for 40 bucks new at gamestop.

The combat is so addicting!
I've spent my first 6 or 7 hours tonight just doing side missions. Haven't even touched the main missions yet. This nemesis system is pretty cool. It seems to be getting easier yet not. Lol

I wish there was a stat page to see how many uroks I've taken out.
 
What the heck? I don't see this game on sale on steam for $30. Its says $49.99 for me?

Do I need a code or something? What gives?
 
Motley said:
What the heck? I don't see this game on sale on steam for $30. Its says $49.99 for me?

Do I need a code or something? What gives?
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it was only on sale at that price for a few days during the Steam Holiday sale which ended on Jan 2nd
 
Oh you godda be kidding me, I missed the holiday sale by one day. SON OF A BIATCH!!!
 
WB made both games, is this really that big a surprise? I'm enjoying the hell out of the game, but then again, I loved all of the batman games too.
 
boss99 said:
WB made both games, is this really that big a surprise? I'm enjoying the hell out of the game, but then again, I loved all of the batman games too.
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I find the combat to be a little more fluid and a lot more satisfying. I've chopped off SOOOO many Uruk heads....and it never gets old.
 
I don't know if it's just me, but I found this game a big fat "meh". I found the gameplay drudgery and the graphics uninspired, especially when compared to its very close and superior brother Batman games. I found it an experience of continual button mashing and repitition for me.

On the other hand, the whole boss improvement and skill tree is handled well. Also, the story is very good and pulls you in from the first scene.

Maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea, but I'd say hold off until below $20.
 
I bought a boxed copy on the PC for $20 during an Amazon sale, and it's easily one of my favorites for 2014.

I really like it. Planning out assassinations, hitting orc camps and dealing with the orcs rising in power is very innovative. Grudge match-ups in particular put a new spin on this type of game. Love it.
 
harmattan said:
I don't know if it's just me, but I found this game a big fat "meh". I found the gameplay drudgery and the graphics uninspired.
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Same here. I found nothing "extraordinary" about this game. The whole game is uninspired, the graphics is outright poor imho. And the nemesis system is just rubbing it into your face when you fail.

I can't even say the game was a big disappointment, because I didn't expect much from a movie licensed game to begin with.

It's safe to say that I wouldn't spend time with it even if it was for free.
 
I enjoyed the hell out of this game.
I found the parkour better than AC.
I found the combat better than the Arkham series.
The side missions and the strongholds system reminded me a lot of Far Cry 3.
The Nemesis system was a blast. Made each boss encounter extremely personal.
The only thing is that the ending was really underwhelming, and the story in itself + lore liberties weren’t handled well and felt uninspired.
It’s my GOTY still, no doubt.
 
It's probably one of my favorite open world games so far, although I am enjoying Watch Dogs. I hated AC1, loved AC2 all the way through to AC3 which I didn't even finish and that kind of killed AC for me, never really started AC4 and didn't even buy Unity.

The only Arkham game I finished was Asylum. I have Origins but have barely started it and didn't even buy City.

My lil bro got Mordor for his b-day and it's by far my favorite game this year (I played it on Xbox One). I'm at 99% completion just need to finish the gathering stuff. I absolutely loved it, highly addicting, and the Nemesis system is awesome.

I think it's well worth full retail, tbh.
 
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