I'm about 5 main quest missions in, and have done a handful of the power struggles, individual weapon challenge side missions, and collected a couple collectibles.

All up, I've been in the world of Mordor for approximately 4 hours now?

I just don't really seem to be enjoying the game all that much... I'll be the first to acknowledge I'm not that far into the game, but does it get any better? Does the gameplay change a lot the deeper I get into the game? Or is it safe to say that if I'm not enjoying it at the moment, I most probably won't enjoy it another 10 hours later?

I'm not trying to hate on the game, I'm just trying to determine if it's worth putting in the time and forcing myself to play through the game more in the hopes of me eventually getting some enjoyment out of it.

For the record, the aspect that I'm not enjoying that much are the fact that enemies are always spawning and you have to either sneak around or just sprint past mobs to get to the areas of the map you want to get to, limiting the true 'free travel open world' nature of the game, as for me, having enemies to worry about impedes my feeling of freedom. The combat while fun (i enjoy the batman style combat) loses its appeal if I have to continuously fight mobs to get to places i want to get to, or like I said before, i have to just sprint past them and 'run away' from them. I hate that feeling. I also don't understand the appeal of the nemesis system. Which cool, it doesnt seem all that spectacular... I kill a captain... soon some other orc steps up and replaces him... rinse and repeat.

Maybe give it a few more hours? The fun lies in the emergent gameplay, but it's hard to really say how to get that to "emerge". It might be less fun for people who are either too good or too bad at the game. For some people it's just not their thing. If that's the case, no worries, move on.

If you continue to play you will become an unstoppable badass. It's definitely not a difficult game, but the powers to receive and random chaos of the Nemesis system make for some fun combat encounters. The plot sucks, the graphics are samey throughout, and the map traversal is serviceable at best. If you end up not liking the ultraviolence then there isn't much there for you, but in my opinion it's fun to hop in for an hour or two at a time and slaughter some goons.

Also the nemesis system is more interesting as the captains begin to level up and you run in to more than one of them at once while focusing on a mission.

There is an introduction of a new mechanic in the nemesis system later, but yeah... Not much else.

Yeah, the story is terrible, the missions are boring and everything else is bland as hell.

You opinion is also my opinion, and I decided to stop playing it a couple months back and haven't regretted that decision at all. Just move on to a more interesting game. You've experienced the Nemesis system to see that it is, indeed, an impressive piece of tech, but like so many first-gen products, it's an impressive piece of tech on an absolutely barren skeleton. Don't worry, the industry will wake you and me up when it puts the Nemesis system to better use.

I found it interesting at first but a chore to play, but what killed it for me was getting to the second area. Having just spent some time setting up and taking out the warchiefs just to be presented with a whole new set to do the same thing on but in a slightly different way.

Everyone dislikes this game, then everyone turns around and wonders why it's so revered.

Shadow of Mordor was one of the very few instances where a bug in the PC version ruined the whole game for me. Which is a shame because I loved what I played of it and even bought the season pass.

Apparently they've fixed the issue since but I spent three weeks trying to get that game to work without troubles. A friend had a similar issue to, that said it is a great game if you love the openness to how you can approach objectives in a game. Would love to see Assassin's Creed take that approach.

It didn't dazzle me either, so don't worry. The Nemesis system is awesome and I've had a lot of fun fucking around with it, it's just that the rest of the game is just perfectly "okay" and not much else.

The game and its Nemesis System doesn't really become anything particularly interesting until you reach the second environment, which can be half-to-two-thirds of the way through the game depending on how much time you spend in that first area. I guess I'd recommend blazing through the main story objectives until you reach the second environment, particularly since once you're there you can always return to the starting area whenever you like.

Even once the Nemesis sytem became more interesting I wasn't super into it - it's like Batman Arkham City if you took away Rocksteady's excellent level designs and stealth rooms and just had the open world :/ The nemesis system allows for some cool stuff, but it just wasn't enough to have me singing its praises from the hilltops.

I have the same problem with the game's open world, where you're just constantly running into hostiles - even if it's simple enough to run by them. Let me breathe. People talk about it as "a better Assassin's Creed" but it just doesn't scratch the same itch for me that Assassin's Creed does (mind you, I am a dirty AC apologist who has even really enjoyed games like Revelations, AC3 and Unity :P ), the constantly hostile environment is one of the reasons why.

It's not a bad game - it's good, in fact - but personally it couldn't even crack my top 10 of 2014, let alone be my favourite of the year. I'm not even sure how much I'd recommend forcing yourself to stick with it - it does get better, but not to a huge degree.

Kind of crazy that it was both the Staff and Community pick for Game of the Year. :P

Chalk it up to needless videogame "journalist" hype again, just like last time with Titanfall. Except this time GiantBomb is also guilty for contributing to the hype. It has the nemesis system and nothing else going for it.

The gameplay is slick enough, but it's only really the Nemesis system which elevates it to something noteworthy. Wait until you are messing with that stuff, setting enemies against each other, taking down the Warchiefs using their weaknesses etc. - if it still doesn't grab you then it just isn't for you. The storyline and the story missions certainly aren't worth hanging around for.

Personally I enjoyed it, but I still think I missed out on some of the appeal of the game. I think I only died a couple times the entire way through, so I never really got to experience the actual 'Nemesis' part of the Nemesis system.

That was my mentality until I realized even after unlock "a specific game changing ability", I'm still not having as much fun as most people are. I'd even say I had more fun playing the early game.

The main reason is that I find the game too easy. I'm just not having cool experiences with the nemesis system. I died only 3 times during the course of the 12 hours and I don't remember a single orc. By the end [spoilers] they choose THE nemesis for you and I was like, "so who are you again? whatever. imma rip ur head off anyways" [/spoiler]. I guess I knew when to run and when to risk breaking line of sight and dropping on the orc over and over again until it dies.

Right now I'm having enormous fun with Watch Dogs. So there's that. Talk about expectations.

Probably not, the game does have some flaws.
And like everything, not everything is for everybody.

If you don't like it after the first 4 hours, you aren't going to like it after the next 4.

I've said it countless times and I stand by my opinion of the game being too easy to a fault. The games difficulty works directly against the nemesis system they created, resulting in zero interesting encounters if you are decent at the combat. Power fantasies can be fun, but when everything is so trivial, you've gone too far.

The Nemesis is a gimmick wich just generates different weaknesses on orc npcs and have them shout random oneliners at you. If you dont like the combat and traversial wich essentially are dumbed down versions of Assassins Creed and Batman well then you wont like the game, Nemesis or not.

@doctordonkey: 100% agree, I was very disappointed in it honestly. I expected more after hearing all the hype, I'd recommend to anyone playing that instead of fast traveling hit Square/X, I believe, to fast forward time. That'll advance the enemies while also fast traveling you. I sadly learned this after I was already 100% done with the game. After a few hours it was just way to easy, to the point where I even stopped getting info on captains/warlords/what have you when I went to fight them and had nearly no trouble. I only died a few times in the beginning area (1-2 shotted from a ranged orc who became my 'main' nemesis through the game, who I stopped seeing after defeating him 4-5 times), and after that it was because I was careless/wasn't paying attention.

I thought the nemesis system was nice, the combat was solid and traversal was excellent. But there was nothing else about this game that held it all together for me; excellent gameplay but nothing to make me want to engage with that. The world is one of the most bland game worlds I've seen in a while; completely lifeless and samey. There wasn't much to the story and characters either. So after 15 hours doing 'emergent gameplay', I stopped playing since nothing was keeping me there. It felt more like a killer tech demo than something that's worth the 50 bucks I spent on it.

Pretty much this, you should probably know by now if you want to continue.

Yeah you aren't missing anything. The nemesis stuff is a cool novelty, and the lotr hooks+power fantasy kept me going for 10ish hours. But meh.

This is the quickest turnaround of popular opinion I've ever seen.

I didn't like it either, I think the world is just boring to be in.

I'm a huge LoTR's fan but Mordor is kind of boring to be in. Would love them to make the same game but set outside of Mordor.

Play past the first enviroment, the world becomes more visually interesting and your combat abilities start branching out a lot.

I never saw the fuss, it's Batman's now boring combat with AC parkour. The Nemesis system is cool but it does not mask that this is a complete clone of other games.

It isn't to say the game isn't good, it's just not fresh enough to make me play it.

You just didn't play it when the gaming press were creating their praise filled narrative.

IT'S FUCKING ASSASSINS CREED!

I still want to play this some day, but what put me off when looking at gameplay video's was the level design. It looks like everything is made out of blocks or something.

So the real mountains are just backdrops, the verticality is made out of steep 'staircase steps'. I guess the orcs dug that out of the mountain or something, but it looks pretty dull. It actually reminds me of Quake 1 levels I made in QUaRK or Thred level editors where I tried to make an outdoor level.

I also don't hate the game since I recognize it as a good game, just not something I could get into.

I did however buy into Shadow of Mordor since I got it super cheap via Brazil or something and after 5 hours of play time and plenty of progression I just got intensely bored. I got bored of the fighting, the finishers, the sounds, the world design, the main character, the orcs and so on. It felt like stuff I had done before and gotten tired of in games like Batman and Ass Creed. The nemesis system ultimately didn't mean anything to me since I felt nothing but bored when some orc dude killed me. I was bored when stalking, sneaking and stealthing and getting recon and figuring out how to kill the orc dude who killed me. And in true borish fashion, I was still bored when I finally landed a killing blow on him.

Just boredom all around, yet at the same time I can somehow still play Warframe for hours on end after two years and that game certainly doesn't have deep characters or interesting level design. I even played through Life is Strange recently and super-enjoyed that somehow so I don't know. It's a mystery!

Not every game's for everyone. Mordor was definitely the game I had the most fun with last year.

I played it a bunch but definitely got bored before finishing it. Don't buy upgrades, that's my tip.

@leviathan: It is 2015's Most undeserved GOTY of 2014.

Edit: Also I applaud you for your Jessica avatar.

@dussck: You are right, the leveldesign is very blocky and gamey. It makes the parkour very simple wich is why many praise it as better parkour than AC but actually its just less complex gemoetry to traverse. The parkour in AC is way more fluid and flexible.

Do you know what game would grab you? Bayonetta 2.

@believer258 said:

Nah, every year there is backlash after the Game of the Year stuff.

A lot of it seems to have to do with someone's preferred game not winning the award. See also the comment above:

Last year people spent early 2014 complaining that Bioshock Infinite was overly praised and basically hot garbage (even though Giant Bomb didn't list it in the top spot).

Also, it's not popular opinion. Shadow of Mordor won both the community polls for Game of the Year. This is a duder with a possibly genuine question who is being used as an excuse for unhappy people to vent.

It still blows my mind that so many outlets gave this GOTY when just about everyone agrees that the story missions suck and the world is sort of bland.

I wouldn't say the game gets better, but I do think the game becomes more enjoyable as you play it. That probably doesn't make any sense.

I felt the same way with Mordor when I started playing; I was indifferent towards the story, the combat was extremely easy, the world is just kind of boring and the nemesis system is not as cool as people made it sound. These things didn't change for me during the rest of the game, but the powers you unlock made the game fun for me. You become so overpowered it is almost ridiculous, it's fun teleporting to enemies and instantly killing them, using an AOE blast and then executing everyone on the ground.

When you see an enemy in the world just run straight towards them and use the stealth brutalize attack. Enemies have no awareness in this game and it makes everyone else run away and looks cool.

Very telling of what 2014 was for video games.

@athadam: I dunno. I found plenty to like in 2014. But if your game tastes revolve soley around big budget games yeah I can see that

It's funny that people keep saying this, but even the community voted GOTY here had Mordor ahead by over 250 votes, which was the biggest gap for the whole list.

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/and-now-the-2014-giant-bomb-readers-games-of-the-y/1100-5177/

I think you are just apart of a vocal minority.

@viking_funeral: My preferred game was South Park as listed here. Your assessment of my intention is incorrect!

Also, popular opinion shmopular smoshminion. The community was wrong! Shadow of Mordor was dull as a pile of rocks. It's an AC clone in a year overflowing with AC clones (not to mention two proper Assassins Creed games).

You really want to play the "the majority of people are wrong and I'm right" card here?

Plenty of people agree with me. I find more substance, intelligence, and evidence in the arguments that say the game is bland. Whether that's a majority opinion or not is irrelevant. As it should be. Just because all of Sallys friends love Justin Bieber's boring and unoriginal music doesn't mean Sally is wrong because she thinks it's shitty and listens to Sleater-Kinney instead.

At least I'm playing a card. What is your argument for Shadow of Mordor? Do you think it was the best game last year?

@spraynardtatum: I think that to dismiss it as boring is unfair, but no I don't think it was the best game of last year. I think Valiant Hearts was the best game of last year if that gives you an idea of my tastes. Whether you like Shadow of Mordor or not is an opinion that depends heavily upon how much you like what it takes from other games like Assassin's Creed and Arkham Asylum and combines them added with the Nemesis system which is a huge step forward in my opinion in that kind of game mechanic. My only objection to your post was that you literally said the community was wrong to like it. No one is ever wrong in their opinions, including the majority.

Your example about music seems more in support of my objection to you saying the community was wrong than it seems to refute it in that you are saying you are not wrong to like something different, whether you are in the majority or the minority.

What I don't get is why the Nemesis System could only be done in this generation of consoles and a PC. I played most of the game on a GTX 560 Ti and it looked like crap, way worse than any PS3 or 360 game ive ever seen. Is it then processing power? Memory? You're telling me the game on older hardware couldnt keep track of a few orcs that remember your name? All they had to do is remember one guy: the player. I'm just an amateur game dev and by that I mean a dude that makes games in his spare time and that isn't impressive much less from a AAA game. I could be wrong of course what do I know but thats my gut feeling.

I had fun with the game (beat it) but best of the year? Don't think so. So yeah I agree with the OP.

@eder: The talk about the Nemesis system being so advanced that only next gen can run it is nothing but PR talk. Designwise its kind of cool but from a technical standpoint its just nonsense.

@htr10: Opinions can be wrong. People have the right to have their wrong opinions (as long as they're not forcing them on others) but they most certainly can be wrong. There isn't enough internet to list the number of wrong opinions.

That being said, I was mostly just being a goofball when I said the community was wrong...even though they are.

@trafalgarlaw: Pretty much every AAA game was flawed in 2014. Far Cry 4 was a safe game and suffers from many technical problems as you can see from Vinny's video. Dragon Age Inquisition came too late in the year to really get through all the way, but the combat seemed bland and you had to be careful not to overlevel yourself. Destiny had a good core but lacked content and therefore came up with all these hooks to keep the players hostage in the game, hoping it gets better. Then you had South Park, Bayonetta 2 and Jazzpunk; Games which are all 3 great, but also a lot more niche than Mordor, Dragon Age or Far Cry 4. And they each have their own problems (south park's combat, Bayonetta's story, Jazzpunk's lack of gameplay if you're not into the humor)

Since Mordor is the only AAA game that actually implemented a new system that functioned pretty well, it's not hard to see why Mordor won so many awards. If a group of people has to choose the game that best represents them, you will drift automatically to the more mainstream game. In the land of the blind, one-eye is king.

@onemanarmyy: Every game ever made is "flawed" by that logic.

@spraynardtatum: Take out the part where you called yourself a goofball and I would be calling a sensitivity training officer on you right now to teach you about how you can't tell other people their opinion is wrong (you really can't, but who cares at this point).

@htr10: In my opinion you can