Hi all,
I've been looking at Shadow of Mordor and from everything I've read it looks like a pretty good RPG.

Anyone have any further info on it?

It's on sale right now on Steam for $19.99.

Thanks for putting up the trailer link oldman! Now that it's come down in price that's very tempting...

This one has been on my list for awhile, I'm interested to hear if anyone has played it as well.

Add me to that list!

Haven't played it myself, but will probably get around to it - sometime when I retire, lol.
My main interest in it though, is that Claudia Black voices Queen Marwen.
I know - silly - but I'm a huge fan of her and her voice.
Actually the game cast is quite impressive...

Well, the deal was too tempting to pass up. For basically twenty-bucks until 09/21 you get the Game of the Year version with all DLC and includes some virtual swag if you link your WBgames account with the game or register a new one. That seems like an awfully good deal for a triple-A release of this caliber, even if it is a year after the release date.

I've just started the game in Story Mode to get a feel for it - So far, it's beautiful. The only issue I've hit is a little audio glitch in the very beginning cinematics and tutorials where the sound cuts out for a second in regular intervals through the dialogue.

It's noticeable, but not a game breaker in my opinion - I've read that some folks lost audio altogether. I did a search on the glitch and the most popular recommendation to solving any audio issues is to make sure your DirectX audio drivers are all up to date. Mine are already updated, so we'll see if the issue crops up again, if so I'll research it further, but for now I haven't had it happen since the opening.

Other than that, it looks like an amazing game. Combat reminds me a bit of Witcher and the general feel of the cinematics is somewhat like Dragon Age, but with somewhat better graphics. I'll be playing more later this evening.

Oh, curses on you all! Like Trail, I simply couldn't resist. I probably won't have any time to play for quite awhile as I'm still madly canning, freezing and dehydrating stuff from the gardens.

I will be checking back to see what you think, Trail!

So, been playing for about 3 hours now and starting to enjoy the game. The tutorials in story mode are nicely done. Right now I'm moving about cautiously, using stealth mainly due to my ignorance of my quest targets and the game play. Key bindings are fairly similar to other games with the exception of the right mouse key. I'm used to that either controlling the camera and/or character movement direction or being used as an action/activation key. It is an activation key, but for a singular offense and I find myself hitting it at inopportune moments.

Tomorrow I'm going to scan the Interwebs for any discussions on reassigning key bindings. I don't want to build myself into a disadvantage so early into the game by changing key assignments. Need to learn more about attack combos and the various powers that the character seems to have.

I haven't run into the audio bug again, not sure if it's just because I haven't had any extended cinematics or if it's only a minor glitch during the introductory scenes.

Graphics are amazing and general character movement and combat is nicely done. So far, it's been fun, but I've barely scratched the surface.

As an FYI, related to the graphics - I'm running an i7-3.12GHz, 16GB RAM with a GeForce GTX960 and the settings that the game auto-selected for my PC are working out very well. It's definitely taking advantage of my vid-card from the lighting, flame and smoke/fog effects I'm seeing. Not sure what my FPS is, but haven't had any stuttering or slow downs.

I guess Trail that you have a fast ISP. I've been downloading now for 7 hours and have only scratched the surface of the huge 42 Gig game. I've gotten about 7 GB downloaded so at this rate it will be another 24 hours before it is downloaded.

Mine will take at least a week

Our speeds are pretty good here, probably because we are a stone's throw away from the city. It took a little over 5 hours for the download for me.

Oh Drac, you have the patience of a saint. I would be climbing the walls with internet speeds like that.

Oldman, it is an evil thing you've done, leading me astray from my determination to play only games I already own.

Now I have yet another fab game waiting to be played. The horror. The horror.

One of the disadvantages of living out in the country, Trail! I could live with the normal 5 - 7 Mbps download speed, but they throttle me back to about 1.5 Mbps after only 65 MB of download. My local wireless broadband has the best customer service ever, but they REALLY need to invest in upgrading their infrastructure!

It is evil, you don't just fight Orcs, you fight the Urak-hai and all manner of beasties. I just had the pleasure of watching my character get disemboweled after listening to the Uraks talk about which parts of a human are best to eat.


The more I play this, the more I think the developers were heavily influenced by the Witcher franchise. The overarching theme is very dark, there's plenty of conversation among the NPC's and combat is really similar. I haven't made it to anywhere civilized yet, not sure if I ever will considering the location and all. Just wondering how interaction between fellow human NPC's will be handled...

I get the feeling this is going to spawn some future, long Dark Side threads in our little population here.

Sorry Hagatha, I was really going to start on DA: Inquisition, but you know...because Internet.

Trail, as I said in another thread, you really have to be prepared to invest some time in DA:I. I played only two games and logged in almost 400 hours. I'm retired, so it doesn't matter, but for anyone with a job this sort of gameplay could nudge you into absentee territory.

Such a bummer. Do you still have to do a huge download if you buy the DVD?

I see that it is available on DVD at GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon, and probably more stores. If one has slow download and has one of these stores near them it might be advisable to pick up the DVD.

Too late for me though because I've already purchased the download from Steam and finally have 41 of the 42 GB downloaded. (As of this post I have about an hour left of download time)

Yay! Enjoy -- and let us know how it is. I love all things LOTR, so this should be a good one for me.

I know! Soooo many good games have come out in the last few years, it's terribly wonderful! I need someone to pay me to game and correspond on the forums...hmmmm....MaG?

Well I've gotten into this game for a while and unfortunately I don't think it's for me so I probably wasted my $20. I will say the graphics are great and the acting so far is adequate. Overall the look of the game is really good. That said it seems to me to be a glorified platform game. The quests I've been involved in so far are just go find the bad guys and kill them and then on to the next bad guy put simply. The game has no saves and no save points unless I've missed something which is almost a deal breaker for me.

All in all I just can't get interested in the game. Maybe you have to finish the first missions before it gets interesting I don't know but I'm not sure I want to find out especially since there are no save games. It looked so good in the gameplay videos too but .......................getting into the actual play really turned me off.

That's too bad. As you say, though, it may be a sleeper, starting out slowly. I've played games that started out (for me) interminably slowly but moved on to greatness -- the original Baldur's Gate 2 was like that for me. I found the opening dungeon to be an incredible bore.

Well, after putting in a decent amount of time and without giving too much of the plot line away, I've found that so far it's a bit like playing a cross between checkers and chess only you're one of the pieces and pretty much all the other major pieces want you dead. The main theme of the game is revenge and as oldman stated it is shaping up to be somewhat of a platform gamer. The main quest line is dotted with side quests, but most are relatively limited scavenger hunt, lore/appendix discovery or timed accomplishment style tasks. If it weren't for the truly spectacular graphics and combat mechanics I would say I was playing an MMO. I'm not completely adverse to that style of game play because I've played a number of MMO's and linear combat games. I was thinking it would be a more story driven RPG, which it is to a point, but character interaction is, so far, extremely limited.

The game does have a some what 2 dimensional development tree. If the progression were divided up into 2 or 3 different character sub-types I would say the style was a direct rip-off of Dragon Age's tree. I'd prefer a more complex character development tree ala D&D, similar to the type seen in the early RPG's. The last several triple-A games saw a simplification of those trees which started just after Neverwinter Nights 2. While the development seems to have flexibility, when you sit back and study the progression, it's really quite linear. I'm also having some issue in tracking my character's leveling progress as it applies to the foes in the game. The enemy advance levels due to your interaction, while you can remain static. So as a result I'm spending my time "grinding." Basically killing lots of enemies so I can gain points to level. I haven't been the most spectacularly successful at eliminating my quest targets, so decided to engage the MMO technique of building points/skills so the next quest tasks aren't as impossible.

When you quit the game it saves your spot automatically. If you want to move to a safe spot you need to fast travel to one of a few specific spots in the game. The problem there is that you'll have to make your way back to the area you fast traveled from on foot. If you build up a bunch of points towards leveling your character's skills and then get killed before leveling, you lose those points. Not the first time I've played a game that did that, but it's not my favorite feature.

The DLC that was included with the game are all separate and some what related quest-lines, but so far as I can tell none of it is LOTR canon. The whole thing is basically a prequel to the real story, but not the quaint Hobbit like prequel, more like the ending of Hamlet and then some - So yea, dark.

I'm going to bang away at it for awhile more then move on.

Oh, dear...sounds like it is not for me. Thanks, Trail

As an FYI, for those of you who have purchased the game and if it doesn't seem like something you want, you can still get a refund from Steam as long as you request it within two weeks of the purchase and have not played more than 2 hours of the game. Here is the refund info on the Steam site:


Steam Refund Policy

Thank you trail-Mystic. That really helped. I requested a refund and it's being processed.

Thanks, Trail, I had no idea they'd do that.

Awhile ago my ps broke when I was almost finished with this game -darndarndarn- and of course Mordor, being vindictive, went back to zero. So now am replaying it on the new ps and I Still Like This Game. The story is linear -no biggey.
Aren't platform games like putty squad and rayman? Inform me if I'm wrong.

Mordor: make a game of the game. Pick an advarsary way stronger than you and outsmart them. Anyway I will complete this game and many sidequests. A con -sometimes controls get sticky.

Sounds as though you're enjoying it, Yankee.

I sometimes get in the mood for bashing heads rather than yakking it up in an RPG. Maybe this one will be okay for me, too.

If I ever get it downloaded, I'm willing to give it a shot too.

I'll clarify what I mean by "platform game" in this case; it's more comparison than definition, some games use a technique where the base setting is the "platform" upon which limited quests are released iteratively. In other words the initial game isn't a broad story, it's more of a base setting to introduce the gameplay and graphics engine. Then DLC are released in the form of separate and limited quests that are loosely based on the main theme. In the case of Mordor, the game latches on to and assumes that the player already has knowledge of the LOTR storylines, that story is reinforced with cinematics and settings. This same progression can be said of many games, but the point here is that the game play is rather repetitive. I mean it's not like the Uruks are just a bunch of Donkey Kongs and you're Mario, although it does sometimes feel a little like that.

Really though, the story is secondary to the graphics and combat gameplay, so in a way it creates the illusion of being bigger than it is. That doesn't mean I don't like it, it's just not what I was expecting. I'm like that, I get my expectations high and then feel let down if the game doesn't meet my initial thoughts. Being associated with LOTR I immediately thought it would have more depth. I think oldman's reference to it being a glorified platform game is because you go after a quest target, complete it, then it's rinse and repeat, same target just a different name, making it somewhat repetitive like some of the 2D platform games. Another game that comes to mind that has a similar feel is Lichdom: Battlemage. If it weren't for the crazy crafting system and interesting intro story I don't think I would have made it through the whole game

Like you said though, pick a stronger adversary and outsmart them - that can be fun to try. Although I haven't done very well at it yet I do like the environmental interaction of the game where you can set your foes up for a fall by leading them to danger. The AI is also pretty good as well, it freaks me out how the orcs suddenly gang up in an area where you've killed a few looking for the culprit who took down their kin. Gives it a good shot of immersive realism, plus some of the Uruks are pretty dang intimidating.

See, now, one of my favourite ever game levels was the Bonehoard, and I always broke my Thief sneaking rule in this level because it was so much darn fun leading those Undead to the fire trap on the second floor. Or manipulating a situation in The Old Cathedral where you got Undead fighting with Burricks. Most amusing.

Oh Hagatha, what are those games you're referring to -gosh, they sound good. never heard of them. ShemerBaby (kitty) is helping with this. Bother. I hope they're not too old or maybe they are remastered. God of War is able to be played on ps4 now which I'm in the midst of. controls are a bit klunky at times.

Do you like sniper games -Sniper Elete is a good one

I remember staying up till 2 playing DonkyKong and then jumpy dreams

arrevaderchi

Yankee, the game I refer to is the original Thief game, Thief Gold edition. You can buy it on GOG and it should play on modern machines. It's the original sneaking game. The graphics are dated but the game itself is still solid -- though bear in mind that I am a die-hard Thief fan and am probably biased.

I'm not averse to shooters, or at least games that contain elements of shooters. Many of the games I've enjoyed the most (Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, e.g.) have given the option of sneaking, using a sniper rifle, or going in with guns blazing, and I do admit to liking the sniper options a great deal.

I used to have Tomb Raider dreams in which I was running and looking up at cliff faces trying to work out how to climb up...