I think they knew most people would be playing for the nemesis system, and so they passed a little on the story aspect of the game. At least that is how it feels. Like, hey why don't you just run through this quick simple story, that isn't challenging at all, and get back to playing around with the nemesis system.

It's been a terrible year for video games, IMO. Shadow of Mordor is probably my second favourite game next to Dark Souls II, but it wouldn't even crack my top 10 in basically any other year.

I may be mistaken, I need to boot the game up and make sure, but I think once you complete the "Legend of..." missions (sword, dagger, bow) your weapon looks different. This was most obvious on the dagger, as through most of the game you use a broken sword but after completing the Legend of Acharn it becomes a slick looking dagger. I'm PRETTY sure the weapons Talion carries in game reflect the ones you see in the menu with all the Elvish writing on them.

Yeh i realised after i wrote this that they did actually change slightly so that's nice.

Okay, I just finished the game and I agree that the story is pretty much forgettable, too short, seriously lacking depth (Relationship establishment between the characters is laughable. Suddenly there is a promise of romance? How much time even passed since Talion's family was slaughtered?) and at times incoherent and nonsensical (Talion at first doesn't even fucking ask who The Wraith is? That makes no sense.)

There were certain aspects and characters that were promising (Rat-Bag, the dwarf, that girl with mother issues) but they were quiet simply underused. It's telling when the best character in the game is arguably an ambitious Orc, that just gets killed off way to soon anyways.

I'm sure that like others have said they just focused on the nemesis system for the most part, which did pay off, but still with a better story and better mission design this game could have been truly great instead of just pretty good.

Also, yes, they just should have gone with their own fantasy setting instead of the LOTR license for a multitude of reasons.

• They of course were quiet restrained by the already well known story/characters.
• It's really hard to care about anything that's happening when you already know, that in the end they won't be able to beat Sauron, or even make any kind of lasting impact whatsoever.
• Gollum's inclusion just sucks. There is no point in him being there, and plainly I just hate the character (and it's overuse in absoluty everything) in general.
• Also what happened to all the other character? Are we just supposed to assume they are all dead or is this simply bait for the sequel or DLC? What it is, is bad story telling.
• The ending itself with the promise of "a new ring" in itself is the only thing I did think was interesting, but then again, it won't change anything in the grand scheme of things anyways.

The final boss fights (if you even want to call them that) are completely ridiculous too. There is exactly zero tension, since they are both gimmick/quick time event fights. Even the your army vs their army thing was just on a way too small scale to have any significant impact.

As a LOTR fan i just sat in my chair screaming NO NONONONONO!! at the ending. The lore gaps in this game are big but I put up with em because they were expected. But that ending is a kick in the groin for any LOTR fan. Celebrimbor did not make the one ring, it was made by sauron. That is a prime piece of lore in the books which should not be fondled with. After celebrimbor made the rings of the elves, he and his family got tortured to death. He definately did not fight a war against Sauron. And Talion saying in 'murica action man voice 'Time for another ring' (heavy guitar outro) made me rage. That is just an insult to the books. And the two last bossfights being QTE's is just an insult to any gamer playing the game.

@corevi: Err it's definitely not that. I got a guy who I literally killed nine times over the course of the game who hadn't managed to kill me once in my fight. He was basically mummified from the scars.

My guess would be it is the orc that you have encountered/identified the most.

I just finished the game and holy hell does that game end super poorly. I mean, it's not like the rest of the story is anything to write home about, but maaaaaan. A ridiculously easy stealth battle and then a QTE sequence? What?

On the other hand, I think I know what at least one of the DLC packs is going to be.

The mediocre ending was for me forgiven by that absolutely incredible unexpected encounter with my Nemesis at the end-game. It basically worked perfectly for me because i'd never been killed more than once by any Captain apart from fucking Lamlug The Crow, who in order: I killed, then he killed me, then I killed him, then he killed me twice, then I killed him, then he killed me. I was legitimately missing his rivalry when I went to the second Zone, just because I don't think I died once in that area, and seeing him again just filled me with glee. I love that I hated you so much, Lamlug.

Man, hearing some people's stories about the Nemesis and Talon fights makes me jealous. I just completed them and well...my Nemesis was just some random uruk I'd never seen because I managed to go the entire game without dying except to caragors at the start, and I'd previously finished off any other nemeses I'd encountered. And one of my warchiefs instantly enraged upon seeing my caragor mount at the start of the Talon battle and obliterated 4/5 of them by himself. The entire ending sequence ended up being super anticlimactic for me.

Weirdly Lamlug was the guy who showed up in my final fight too. But he was never a challenge, he just happened to keep coming back over and over no matter how many times his head came off. Meanwhile in the second world this dude kept appearing out of nowhere and killing me before I even noticed he wasn't a regular soldier. He wasnt neccesarily hard but from afar he looked like a regular shield guy but then I'd try and hop over him and he'd push me back and get a good shot in and I always happened to be already low on health. Like 3 or 4 times in happened. I woulda much preferred the final fight to be against him but I guess the algorithm was such that the number of encounters you had was the big factor in who showed up at the end.

In my case, it was a guy who I killed at least eight times, but he just kept coming back for some reason. He killed me maybe twice, I'm not sure. I don't know why he wouldn't stay dead, but it was pretty cool to see him come back for one last fight

Isn't that the point of all games with combat as the main focus? That's like complaining that leveling up my character in diablo is just a shitty system in place to entice me to keep engaging with the combat.

You're missing the point. I'm describing the nemesis system and how it largely unaffected how I played the rest of the game (i.e. the combat). Your analogy would be more accurate if I was describing the leveling system in Mordor - which I did not. If I used your analogy, I could simply explain how Diablo's leveling system largely affected the combat by granting numerous abilities, spells, or powers that could be used in a variety of ways. Then I could say that Mordor's nemesis system did not, and it was more of a way to direct me to certain enemies. However, we both know that comparison doesn't really make sense.

Hopefully, I cleared that up.

Just finished it, and it's an amazing game... except for that ending. The only cool part was "defeat your nemesis", which was this one guy that I'd killed maybe four times but always came back. The end bosses, as many have said, really lackluster and boring. Considering the first major boss (end of the first area), I expected something tougher.

So, shitty aftertaste but delicious otherwise.

"huh" is exactly what I said when I finished the game.

This is what I am interested in. I myself thought the game fighting exciting, and I platinum-ed (easy, everything was findable/doable) but I was starting to suffer guilt in leaving MGS3 near it's own conclusion.

But that story...what? why didn't Gandalf bring this up while BSing around complaining that Sauron was gaining in power blah blah blah, and not a mention of Talion? And, another Big-Daddy Ring? Oh Really? I was seriously wondering this was a Many Worlds interpretation of Lord of the Rings, alternate Universes and all that. Dark Souls might of liked that. But I guess Talion has the Man, the Elf to get it done.

But it was fun for me, and otherwise enjoyed the game, And Yes, rather contrived in the gameplay in the very end. Final bosses are often a problem....and Talion's wife must be pissed off.

I appreciated that they decided to have a stealth segment for one of the final bosses because too frequently games like Mordor that invite you to play in the style you prefer, throw that style out the window in boss fights and force you to do some straight combat. However that just made it more disappointing that the boss fight was so easy. As for the fight after that, I'm not categorically opposed to QTE's in the same way that other people are, so I didn't really mind that part so much, it was just kind of a shitty QTE. It looked cool and everything but it was too short and simple. Just like the Batman games, I think Mordor struggles with having unique bosses, and maybe it's just smart not to focus too many resources on one specific segment. Still, it's something I'd like to see them improve in the inevitable sequel.

Story-wise it was no worse than any other part of the game. I find the sanctification of Tolkien's work pretty tiresome, and I don't mind seeing people explore the universe in their own way. I just wish they had done it a little better. If anything I wish they had taken their own vision a little further, instead of relying so much on what came before to make it interesting. So the idea of Talion taking the fight to Sauron and forging his own ring sounds fine to me, if only because its more interesting than the non-story this first game has. Though ultimately I think this series would be better if it was set in an original fantasy world, but I'm sure that's a tougher proposition for the publisher to get behind.