Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra
 
I finished it, had 91% completion and 20 hours, but think it's overrated by Rafiki 01/28/2015, 11:32am PST
I agree that the first half of the game is really drab visually, but the second half is much nicer because they actually introduce grass and vegetation.

The game is super polished and, like you said, there's a lot of good ideas. This is one of the few games I've played that feels like it's a world that exists and is lived in. Things at least have the illusion of happening organically on their own, as opposed to a scripted level where things just happen like clockwork.

The big reason I think it's overrated is they make you too powerful and that trivializes just about everything once you figure out the limitations of the gameplay. You practically have godmode from the beginning. Using a bow puts you in bullet time, a single charged arrow headshot kills an orc, and you can get a rune to add to your bow that refills huge chunks of your bullet time meter on a kill. I got that rune really early in the game, so every time it tasked me with invading a stronghold or confronting a captain with an entourage, I just walk up, snipe everyone before they even realized anything was happening, and then finish the objective. There was the option of dropping beehives to scare enemies, meat carcasses to attract caragors, and releasing caged caragors to attack mobs, but why bother unless you're going for a secondary mission objective, achievement, or happen to be low on arrows?

They give you stealth and an environment that's practically limitless and how you scale and it sneak around, orcs patrol around and are randomly generated into the world so if you die you can't rely on memorizing exact locations and patrol routes, but then they give you x-ray vision that literally lets you see to the horizon defeating any challenge with stealth. Just run up, check x-ray vision, run where the orcs aren't, check x-ray vision again, repeat. Maybe snipe an orc in x-ray vision from a mile away with your hitscan bullet time arrows. I think one thing they got right with x-ray vision was making it more or less impossible to navigate the environment while it was on so that, unlike Batman, I didn't leave it on all the time, but I honestly think it should have been removed altogether. On top of all that, an enemy's cone of vision and awareness is ridiculously low. Early in the game I saw some orcs marching some slaves, so I snuck up and shanked one with another about an arm's length away, and he didn't notice. Then I took him out and the 3rd orc remaining. It was cool at first, but then you realize that's almost every stealth encounter. You can wipe out whole militias standing within feet of each other and nobody notices.

As for combat, it's incredible to be surrounded by 20-30 enemies and gives you the sensation of being caught in a huge overwhelming sword battle, and the combat animation is great, but it doesn't take long to realize those 30 orcs are going to stand around and take turns trying to attack you. MAYBE 2 at a time will attack, but even if they do you just press the counterattack button and you're guaranteed to block them. Generally you can attack an enemy twice before you need to counterattack, so there's the combat pattern: attack, attack, counterattack, execute when your combo meter is full, repeat until everyone is dead. The most difficult part of huge fights are the crossbowmen and spear throwers on the outside because they just snipe at you and there's no way to block or counter so they'll whittle your health down if you aren't careful. And then you can unlock an ability that stuns an enemy when you vault over them and an AOE stun.

The military promotion aspect honestly didn't do much for me either. It was neat idea, but I didn't notice any major difference between lowly captains and warchiefs, beyond fewer vulnerabilities. It was just as easy to take them down in combat.

I liked the game enough to finish it and put as much time into as I did, but if they make another they need to scale back how powerful you are.
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Shadow of Mordor is swording for Batmans cowl by Gutsby 09/30/2014, 5:59pm PDT NEW
    I was sick of Batman after Arkham Asylum, so I should have known better. by Worm 10/02/2014, 1:05am PDT NEW
        I kind of like that element. by Gutsby 10/02/2014, 8:22am PDT NEW
            This is sort of sounding like Outcast NT by Entropy Stew 10/02/2014, 8:33am PDT NEW
                Bought it. Love it by Entropy Stew 10/13/2014, 11:33am PDT NEW
    It's more of a garden than a sandbox by Entropy Stew 10/13/2014, 11:44am PDT NEW
    I took on my first vendetta mission by Rafiki 01/25/2015, 12:25pm PST NEW
        This game has the 2nd lamest ending of all time after RAGE by Rafiki 01/27/2015, 8:58pm PST NEW
            Is there an option to just use an eagle to fly the ring of power into mt. doom? by dr. no 01/28/2015, 12:49am PST NEW
    I've also played this for a couple hours, and I agree with the things you say by Eurotrash 01/28/2015, 9:57am PST NEW
        I finished it, had 91% completion and 20 hours, but think it's overrated by Rafiki 01/28/2015, 11:32am PST NEW
            Isn't there a game mode that limits you to only the first level of unlocks? NT by Entropy Stew 01/28/2015, 11:50am PST NEW
            This is exactly how I felt about the game toward the end. NT by Gutsby 01/29/2015, 6:27am PST NEW
    There is a quicktime event where you can praise Boromir by Leaped Frog 01/28/2015, 12:51pm PST NEW
    What in the FUCK is with the resurrecting Orc Captains?! by WITTGENSTEIN 09/18/2015, 9:23pm PDT NEW
 
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