Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

[vonAchdorf]

Any game journo who puts this game on a 'Best of' list if it has loot boxes should be thrown into a gorilla pen.

Leave Harambe's brothers out of this mess.

 

[Abu Antar]

I don't fucking know anymore. Now they're saying you only need to be online when buying crates and stuff. Makes sense, I guess. Still not going to touch this.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I expect that it's like AC Booster packs - you can still play the game offline.

 

[Abu Antar]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-07-shadow-of-war-has-a-ranked-online-mode

Can't even be arsed to copy/paste the stuff anymore.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I'm hoping this has killed any interest that most people had for this game.

Unfortunately the gaming press seem to think the Nemesis system is the best thing that has ever happened to video games and will keep talking about this series despite its glaring flaws and mediocrity.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Not only the press, but also normies like it from what I see. I mean, even we talk about it here, even though it's not that impressive (and of course inferior to Guido H's original idea).

 

[Abu Antar]

The Nemesis system actually has potential if done right. I'll give them a thumb up for trying it out.

 

[Zombra]

Unfortunately the gaming press seem to think the Nemesis system is the best thing that has ever happened to video games and will keep talking about this series despite its glaring flaws and mediocrity.

Well ... it actually is a positive, revolutionary thing that should be talked about, and has a place in any conversation about open world design from here to eternity. That doesn't mean that anyone has to confuse the entire game for a masterpiece, and I don't think a lot of people actually do. No one says the original game has the best combat of all time, or the best cutscene-to-action pacing of all time, or whatever else.

 

[Zombra]

So I looked into the online components and ... they look fun. Handcrafted player-built fortresses, win/loss stats and so forth ... that all seems like it will work really well. Essentially it's a bare bones tool for player generated content, without the ability to insert atrocious fanfic, which is win/win. Complaints about "too easy" combat may go away if players start putting together unbeatable forts (which may or may not really be possible, I admit).

I'm particularly pleased that Vendetta missions have been deepened by adding a "draw them out first" component like War Chiefs in the first game; it's not just "run towards them and kill them" any more. I liked getting revenge on orcs who'd killed my Steam friends and it looks like it will be twice as satisfying now. It also makes me want to get my friends playing too. Smart marketing.

To be honest, after my initial skepticism, I'm not seeing any downside to these recent announcements. Even the "pay to win" real money loot boxes are just there so rich idiots can throw extra cash into it if they don't want to level up by playing the game. Unless there are popups or shit like that, I don't see how it will affect me at all.

 

[Mynon]

In the shadow of war, hype is rising...

 

[RuySan]

Never played Shadow of Morder, but absolutely loved Mad Max which is supposedly a clone of that game with new clothes. But without those fabulous clothes (that desert man....that desert is something) is there anything else?

 

[sullynathan]

Never played Shadow of Morder, but absolutely loved Mad Max which is supposedly a clone of that game with new clothes. But without those fabulous clothes (that desert man....that desert is something) is there anything else?

It had the nemesis system which was really the only good thing about it

 

[Zombra]

Never played Shadow of Morder, but absolutely loved Mad Max which is supposedly a clone of that game with new clothes. But without those fabulous clothes (that desert man....that desert is something) is there anything else?

I thought Mad Max was a true nothing checklist game: go to checkpoint, press button, go to next checkpoint. Mordor is much the same except better for two things: 1) Nemesis obviously. Recurring enemies, different strengths & weaknesses, it just feels like the orcs matter. 2) Fortresses with endless enemies. In Max you cleared out an area and you were done; in Mordor if the alarm goes off they keep coming so it continues to feel action packed; eventually you have to start thinking about escaping, or kill 200 guys fast enough to get some breathing space. It's about a thousand times more dynamic.

 

[RuySan]

But if it doesn't have that beautiful desert is automatically inferior

 

[Martius]

Never played Shadow of Morder, but absolutely loved Mad Max which is supposedly a clone of that game with new clothes. But without those fabulous clothes (that desert man....that desert is something) is there anything else?

To be fair both of these games are clones of Batman Arkham Games.

 

[sullynathan]

Mad Max
Shadow of Mordor
Spiderman 2018
Captain America Super Soldier

All arkham clones

 

[Ebonsword]

Never played Shadow of Morder, but absolutely loved Mad Max which is supposedly a clone of that game with new clothes. But without those fabulous clothes (that desert man....that desert is something) is there anything else?

To be fair both of these games are clones of Batman Arkham Games.

How can Shadow of Mordor be a clone when its main draw (the Nemesis system) isn't present in the Arkham games? (AFAIK, anyway--I only played Arkham Asylum.)

 

[Drakron]

How can Shadow of Mordor be a clone when its main draw (the Nemesis system) isn't present in the Arkham games? (AFAIK, anyway--I only played Arkham Asylum.)

Because it started as one.

 

[Excidium II]

The nemesis system is just a dynamic objective generator, how you complete those objectives is with typical arkham gameplay.

 

[DeepOcean]

At least they gain some points for making a dynamic objective generator and not "Collect 10 bear arses to get a reward!" type of shit that infects open world games now. Open world games offer a huge world but are in reality are static and predictable as fuck, the Nemesis system makes that shit slighly less pointless even if the execution on the previous game was very lacking and a superfluous gimmick at the end.

 

[Metro]

I don't get the hype over the nemesis system. They're all just a bunch of generic orcs.

 

[Zombra]

How can Shadow of Mordor be a clone when its main draw (the Nemesis system) isn't present in the Arkham games? (AFAIK, anyway--I only played Arkham Asylum.)

Because it started as one.

I guess that makes you the clone of a chicken then because you started as one.

Bawk bawk! Want some birdseed?

 

[Drakron]

How can Shadow of Mordor be a clone when its main draw (the Nemesis system) isn't present in the Arkham games? (AFAIK, anyway--I only played Arkham Asylum.)

Because it started as one.

I guess that makes you the clone of a chicken then because you started as one.

Bawk bawk! Want some birdseed?

Two things ...

One, that Batman Arkham is a bad brawler that is not.
Two, I checked and I found 2 reports that it did say it started as a Batman title as in the Nolan universe, but there was also a issue were a former Ubisoft dev accused it from using AssCred 2 code.

So pick is your poison, either it started as a Batman title that explains being somewhat a brawler that kinda isnt entirely suitable for a Middle Earth game or it being a AssCred ripoff that would explain "press Y to hug your wife" as well other very Ubisoft design.

Either way the sense of it being a Batman Arkham title lingers and considering it come about after Asylum and City ... well, its not as if Shadow of Mordor didnt feel derivative were its claim to originality was the Nemesis system that doesnt work every well in implementation and I would say it would work far better in a Batman title because of its B list Rogue Gallery and with changes.

Maybe you should be less butthurt about this game and considering I only said (perhaps wrongly) that it started as a Batman title, its not as if Batman Asylum was bad and there are worst games then the Arkham ones to clone from, such as AssCred.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

What a bad, bad game.
I don't mind a rape of a franchise if done tastefully, but there is nothing tasteful about those shitty prince of persia clones.

 

[Zombra]

I only said (perhaps wrongly) that it started as a Batman title, its not as if Batman Asylum was bad and there are worst games then the Arkham ones to clone from, such as AssCred.

You said Shadow of Mordor is a Batman clone. It isn't. It may have started with Batman combat, but even if it did, it became something else. Just like you started as a chicken clone but grew into something else. You said something dumb and I called you on it. That's it.