@poser: Not sarcasm.

I expected it to be good, but not top-tier sort of scores. Game's looked super cool and I've been a Monolith fan for years, so I'm glad it turned out even better than I had hoped. It just seemed like all the ambition might've been hard to pull together.

i knew it all along, see the other thread

Better to be a cynic than get suckered. I was optimistic for Destiny and that landed me $60 out of pocket that I ended up not enjoying. Caveat emptor shouldn't be necessary in an industry where the media should be policing the message put out by publishers, but it's still something everyone with limited funds should exercise.

I'm so glad this turned out to be a great game. I've been watching it for awhile and saw the promise, but being let down multiple times in the last year I couldn't help but be really cautious.

pretty surprised at how high the scores have been, great to see this doing great though.

@hunkulese: its a bit of a shock to me. I'm not into the Lord of the Rings, but I was expecting on getting it anyway as the combat looked engaging and enjoyable. However, the nemesis system was a massive question mark for me. I suppose I still have a terrible taste in my mouth from fucking Watch Dogs...Although they showed tons of footage, I was still a bit weary of it. Its a nice little bonus to see that it as some higher end quality to it...at least based on these early reviews. After some ho hum big budget games, its good to have something to genuinely be excited for, personally.

Wow ngl surprised by the reviews i sort of want this now but smash is coming next week so i think ill wait for a sale.... :(

A game that looked good this year that people actually enjoy? What is this sorcery?!

I was sitting here watching this thread all day become more and more negative. As a LOTR fan and someone desperate for something good to play, I'd been pretty pumped and optimistic for this game leading up to it and decided not to fight against the pessimism and just wait and see. It feels good to be on the optimistic side right now. It looks like it's going to blow Destiny out of the water by a solid 8-10 points on Metacritic.

...well shit. Guess I need to revive my sleeping interest for LOTR again then! Not that I mind, could use something to play while waiting for The Evil Within.

Huh. Guess I'll be getting this after Smash.

@junkerman: I am now looking up prices for that game on the internet ($6 and prime eligible you say? I'm not exactly at a loss for games to play right now, but that seems like something I'd accidentally buy during a dry season) and this is partially your fault. The other person who shares the blame is:

As someone who isn't the biggest Tolkien nut but can certainly appreciate his stuff, the idea that someone who is way into LotR and doesn't hate the serious amount of adaption decay going on with The Third Age is sort of foreign to me. Even I find some of the stuff in Shadow of Mordor to be a little... concerning. Eh, I guess it's a good enough backdrop as any for your open world fantasy game.

It's just Ape Escape in the Lord of the Rings universe.

Anyway, yeah there are too many games to play. This, Persona 4 Ultimax, Smash Bros., Bayonetta 2, Fantasy Life, AC Unity, and probably Dragon Age 3.

There's no real difference between Generic DnD Setting #75912 and LotR except the brand recognition.

So happy this seems like a good game. I was in at "Batman combat with swords" but it's cool that the rest of the game is good.

Just read the reviews. Uuuuggghh I was actually hoping this was gonna be bad just so I'd have one less game to play this year. God dammit, now I want to buy it.

CURSE YOU FOR MAKING A GOOD GAME I WANT TO INVEST TIME IN!!!!

Didn't quickly catch anything regarding the technical side from the few reviews I looked through. Suppose that at least means it runs good in general?

@glottery: A little slowdown on the PS4 when using the wraith powers apparently.

But not on Xbox One? Weird.

Wait is this real, this sounds more like a parody or something.

@corruptedevil: Apparently. it's mentioned in the IGN video review if your interested.

@corruptedevil: i dont think it was a comparison. Just noting it on the version he played. Don't think they got X1 review copies.

@mister_v: I'm not that interested. I don't even have either console, I just find it interesting that the more powerful console that is more popular has worse performance.

Gamespot review in a nutshell: It's Assassin's Creed: LOTR Edition. 8/10.

So happy this turned out well! Now I just need to find an extra 60 dollars in my budget.

@mb: Stabbing dudes in the face and neck will never get old.

Games like this make me really glad QLs exist. I've heard a good chunk about this game but I'm not entirely sure what this game is and a few minutes running through the basics would be really helpful.

@shirogane: Uhhhhhh... Nope!

There's parkour, there's assassinations, there's freeflow combat and there's the Nemesis system. That's about it.

sigh, call me when they make a Hobbit Drinking game instead, I am not touching this.

5.5/6 at The Escapist.
I don't really care about the score though, but the text of the review. I'll easily get a mediocre game if it seems I will enjoy the game based on the actual review. This game seems really cool based on the text, and it got a good score. Glad I pre-ordered for once! You can get it 25% off at GMG still, I think. Looking forward to Tuesday!

Hmm, alright alright, I'll probably get this now, reviews everywhere are fairly positive to very positive. I'm not entirely sold though, is there a demo?

@village_guy: Demos aren't a thing anymore. Multiplayer games get betas and singleplayer games get nothing.

@arbitrarywater: When you had to fight 20 Nazgul in a row and each one took 15 minutes I got tired of it. It's definitely a JRPG though, with not-Gimli, not-Aragorn, not-Boromir, and female Legolas. Any true LoTR fan knows that the cool stuff happens in the Silmarillion/Beleriand, so who cares what they do to contravene the lore elsewhere.

Shadows of Mordor looks to be pretty superb, mayhap a second good game will come out this year!? Celebrimbor was always a Battlecruiser in Starcraft for some reason.

Might buy my first game of the year with this... Wait, I have no PS4 or XBone and my PC is now shit

@arbitrarywater: I don't understand either. He has the game down to a science too. As I recall it could get fucking brutal at the end and he has basically broken the game to the point where there isn't a single fight in the game that gives him any trouble. I think he's played his Xbox copy more than all the games he owns on the 360 or PS3 combined.

Is it hilarious to everyone else that good review scores automatically makes everyone immediately believe it's a game they are going to enjoy? Because the amount of people I'm seeing say that "this game deserved it" and "this will be my game of the year" (not here, thankfully) is driving me crazy considering none of them have actually played it?!

@wemibelec90: People on the internet tend to be hyperbolic and easily swayed, which is the best possible combination for a marketing team.

@wemibelec90: Well, there are a dozen gameplay video's of the game, so watching any of those will probably say a lot more then counting the scores of reviews. Ever since I saw the first glimpse of the game I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. The exact same happened with Tomb Raider; great reviews, but after watching a gameplay clip I was like NOPE.
Afterwards I lend it from a colleague, played about 3/4 hours of it and was totally right.

So I guess if you like the gameplay from the video's and the reviews say the game has a good amount of variety and length and there are no hidden quirks then one could safely say 'this game is for me'.

@wemibelec90: Well it's a game with a cool idea and this year has sucked for the most part so people are excited, how dare they.

Great. Was planning on going to GameStop to trade Destiny in anyway. Now I can put that 40 bucks to good use.

@fredchuckdave said:

Yeah, I know it came out a bit ranty, but this is one of those things that really gets under my skin. These kneejerk reactions are the kinds of things that make games get built up for this huge success and then everyone blusters when it all falls apart (see Destiny for a recent example) and likely bites a lot of people in the ass. I just kinda wish people were smarter and more patient about their game decisions as a whole, because it would probably lead to a lot less internet screaming.

Holy smokes! Why even bother with this new game when there's this still to play?!

Now this needs a HD remake!

Ahhh, memories. Real soft spot for this game. Not the deepest RPG or anything but a lot of fun someone who was big into the films at the time. Cool stuff.

Eurogamer review is up :

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-26-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review

No you were not coming off as ranty. Everyone seems to be starved for some awesome next-gen exeriences, or basically any games in general, and maybe this looks like something that can tide the masses over until the good stuff is out? These situations always remind me of that Bombcast where Ryan was making fun of people saying Enslaved was their game of the year. Shadow of Mordor looks competent, and it's getting good scores, but nothing that I've personally seen thus far is making me want to go out and get it. In a way I'd rather just wait and get the real Assassins Creed in a month rather than play some weird re-skinned version that centers around a seemingly repetitive mini-game that..appears to actually be the entire game?

I kind of expected 7's and 8's and stuff. Seems like people really dig it. Games turning out better is always a good thing.

Destructoid seems to be the only outlier so far with a 6 so i think im going to get this as i love LOTR and even though this takes its liberties with the lore it looks like a blast to play. Hope they did good by the PC version.