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Here's How You'll Upgrade Your Weapons in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Don't worry, this isn't just some dry walkthrough of how the game's rune system works. There's plenty of orc-stabbing, too.

May. 19 2014

Posted by: Alex

32 Comments

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NeoZeon

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Still seeming like a fun time to me but seriously man, Oct 7th? Dragon Age: Inquisition day? Damn...

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baka_shinji17

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That thumbnail, "Here let me help you with that."

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Rowr

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@sasnake said:

@rowr said:
@hace said:

Weirdly getting interested in the systems of this game but somehow I still can't get any "middle earth" vibes from what I've seen so I can't get that in to the world or story of the game.

Well, still more interesting than a tons of other licensed stuff so good on Monolith.

I'm hearing this a lot, but does anyone really want this to have all the stereotypical done to death lotr stuff.

I'm hoping this can do it's own thing, much like something like knights of the old republic 1.

....................................stereotypical?

As in, rehashing stuff in the same look and feel of the movies.

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triviaman09

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oh right, this game exists

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Calmgamer

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I'm starting to get an interest in this game. Tough to say until we can see some raw combat and gameplay. I do like the apparent emphasis on stabbing orc-dudes in the head/face.

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EthanielRain

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Open world "freedom" to repeat the same task over and over to farm for runes. Another boring open world game.

That does seem...questionable. Hopefully giving a death threat -> killing orc is fun.

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Robopengy

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These orcs look better than the ones from the Hobbit movies.

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mr_creeper

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This game keeps looking more appealing to me with each trailer; even though I'm not big on Lord of the Rings.

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monkeyking1969

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If your character has one sword, one bow, and one dagger that just collect runes... than the weapon choice is disappointingly limited. I suppose this simplifies the system so that newbies done't have to go into menus comparing weapons deciding if "this epic" weapon is better than "that epic" weapon, but its is disappointingly limited for advanced game players.

On the other hand the game looks good, with nice animations and graphics.

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sasnake

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@rowr said:
@hace said:

Weirdly getting interested in the systems of this game but somehow I still can't get any "middle earth" vibes from what I've seen so I can't get that in to the world or story of the game.

Well, still more interesting than a tons of other licensed stuff so good on Monolith.

I'm hearing this a lot, but does anyone really want this to have all the stereotypical done to death lotr stuff.

I'm hoping this can do it's own thing, much like something like knights of the old republic 1.

....................................stereotypical?

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magicwalnuts

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Open world "freedom" to repeat the same task over and over to farm for runes. Another boring open world game.

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development

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@rowr said:
@hace said:

Weirdly getting interested in the systems of this game but somehow I still can't get any "middle earth" vibes from what I've seen so I can't get that in to the world or story of the game.

Well, still more interesting than a tons of other licensed stuff so good on Monolith.

I'm hearing this a lot, but does anyone really want this to have all the stereotypical done to death lotr stuff.

I sure as hell do not. LotR's world is almost as boring as The Elder Scrolls' world. Which is kinda why this is still doing nothing for me. Looks like a lot of mediocre combat so far. I'm always ready to be surprised, though.

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Fredchuckdave

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I really like the VO for these trailers; just the perfect level of near-campiness.

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graf1k

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Edited By graf1k

Game is looking good and all, but why the weapons I'm upgrading gotta be Italian?

No Caption Provided

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Bobbyr

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Edited By Bobbyr

Where Viggo be?

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tomance

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I really hope this ends up being good. There's a lot of potential here.

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LarryDavis

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I'm looking forward to this but I also don't really care about LOTR's story or world so I don't really care that it's lore-breaking or whatever. I just want to be a stabby ghost-dude.

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MasterBrief

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Weakness to stealth takedowns?

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deactivated-5cc8838532af0

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This still seems surprisingly cool.

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avantegardener

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The Witcher meets Assassins Creed, starting to peak my interest a tad.

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Rowr

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@hace said:

Weirdly getting interested in the systems of this game but somehow I still can't get any "middle earth" vibes from what I've seen so I can't get that in to the world or story of the game.

Well, still more interesting than a tons of other licensed stuff so good on Monolith.

I'm hearing this a lot, but does anyone really want this to have all the stereotypical done to death lotr stuff.

I'm hoping this can do it's own thing, much like something like knights of the old republic 1.

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mrsmiley

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This actually looks pretty good. That said, I still wish Monolith hadn't abandoned Guardians of Middle Earth, which is the most fun and easily accessible MOBA I've played to date. That game could have been a huge hit without the broken netcode and other issues. :(

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ADAMWD

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Didn't realize this was a Monolith game until now.

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Adhin

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Ahh it's very Middle Earth, if all you do is pay attention to Mordor... which no Middle Earth story does. Mordor is, ultimately, always the looming threat/backdrop to everything else going on. Except the very last bit of LotR where they all end up there.

In the end I still see Middle Earth in it over Witcher or anything else. Also definitely most games have done a poor job doing anything in the series. I don't think this is the only way they could of done this game personally. But they would of had to of gone a literal Witcher 3 style route for anything else and probably tried to do something not so closely tied to the Hobbits timeline.

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Yummylee

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This trailer itself didn't do all that much for me, but I'm still really interested in seeing how this ultimately shapes up.

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reisz

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Edited By reisz

I am inordinately excited about this game.

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Dussck

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Slow motion combat and an upgrade system; what more do you need to get excited for a game?

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veektarius

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@hace: I don't think that's hard to understand at all. Really the only thing Middle Earth about this is the art style. Everything else is way more 'the Witcher' or maybe 'Solomon Kane' than anything else.

I'm not going to say that it translates well to games, but everything that makes Lord of the Rings stand out from typical fantasy trash is in the scenes where people aren't stabbing each other.

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Weirdly getting interested in the systems of this game but somehow I still can't get any "middle earth" vibes from what I've seen so I can't get that in to the world or story of the game.

Well, still more interesting than a tons of other licensed stuff so good on Monolith.

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Edited By SpiderJerusalem

That has to be the greatest Liam Neeson impersonator ever.