Can we talk about how terrible the main missions are?

I know, I know, the Nemesis system and combat are great, but Jesus Christ every single one of these missions were absolutely dreadful.

Nearly every mission strays away from the strengths of the game, instead focusing on forced stealth and aimless dialog between boring characters.

And again the Nemesis system is great, but once you unlock all of Talions abilities, there's really no point left in messing around with it.

I'm not one to believe in "bought reviews", but the insanely high scores this game has been receiving is absolutely confusing.

I'm actually really enjoying the main missions and think this game does stealth quite well (WAY better than any Assassins Creed game that's for sure) so there goes your whole theory...

You think that way, lots of other people don't.

While I do believe that the missions are the worst part of the game I wouldn't call them bad. They are pretty much what every other open world game missions are like except there are way fewer of them and they are way shorter. Not bad but not good either. My one problem is that once I got the ability to dominate orcs I just started dominating all of them and that pretty much killed all of the cool interactions with them. You would walk by them but they would say none of the cool shit I was used to. I solved that problem by only dominating some orcs and leaving the rest to just try and kill. I have all the skills and still enjoy the game a lot, but every game gets boring once you start kicking the shit out of everything, I'm hoping that the trial mode helps with that since I'll be going for highscores.

I think its sort of lazy that they keep putting like "Kill Warlords 0/5"

The main missions seem totally fine to me. They're just enough to advance the story a little bit while being short enough to allow me to get back to everything else.

The main missions seem totally fine to me. They're just enough to advance the story a little bit while being short enough to allow me to get back to everything else.

I actually agree with most of the reviews so far, Mordor is my favorite game of 2014 up to this point, surpassing even Divinity: Original Sin. Just because you don't like a game that other people do doesn't mean there are shady backroom review deals going on.

@anupsis: dude do you know if the trial mode is tied to DLC or the Season Pass somehow? I haven't seen it in-game so far and the wording on the Steam store page was a bit confusing.

Yeah, they're not great, but I found that they at least provided a change of pace. I also thought it was cool how the wraith dude gained new powers whenever he learned more about his past.

Me too. The best games for me this year have been complete surprises (see also Wolfenstein). I look at the 9's and 9.5's this game is getting and I don't necessarily agree with them, but I can absolutely identify with where the writers are coming from.

It's fucking insane that the watershed "next-gen" game that feels properly new and exciting is a Lord of the Rings game by a developer we had all but written-off as a spent force.

@impartialgecko: Pleasant surprises like Shadow of Mordor and Wolfenstein are why I don't think I'll ever be able to agree with people when they just preemptively write off an entire year's worth of games. There's almost always something awesome out there if you care to look.

I'd say they're the worst part of the game, yeah. Everything else though? Pretty cool.

@marokai: That's always the case, but I don't think its been so true for AAA games as it has this year. 2013's big-budget games either met or failed to meet expectations, but between Wolfenstein and Shadow of Mordor the AAA space has managed to throw up some shockingly good stuff.

@marokai: Wolfenstien was really great.

Hmm. I disagree? Yeah that's pretty much it. I've only had one mission I found annoying and it was a stealth insta-fail if spotted side mission. Aside from that, yeah this game is way high up on my GOTY list.

Most of the missions served to introduce new mechanics like branding and riding the monsters. Thinking of them as the meat of the game does it a disservice, and I think the developers really spent most of their time on the mechanics and giving life to the orcs. I'll grant you, those final boss fights were a joke but I still still had a ton of fun playing the game up to that point.

I quite liked the characters too, the dwarf hunter especially.

There horrible and I hated every character besides Ratbag.

I actually enjoy the main missions. They aren't super longer, introduce you to new concepts pretty well, and are generally fun. It's actually super refreshing coming from the AC series, which I feel suffered from pushing story down my throat during story missions that aren't really that fun. Also the stealth is actually enjoyable(despite being a little too forgiving) and doesn't rely on me hiding is fucking hay/bushes to be effective.

Overall I have found the reviews to be completely warranted so far. The game is great.

Everything's terrible or amazing nowadays. Sigh...

I can agree that they are pretty boring but they aren't horrible, it just seems like open world games have a serious issue with making missions interesting. Probably why I got bored of GTAV after a few hours.

I'm actually surprised at the reactions here.

While I was playing the "poison the groug barrels" mission, or the one where Talion needs to follow Gollum (who's in this game for absolutely no reason) around, I found myself asking how this could have made it through play testing. Different strokes, I suppose.

For those who are still messing around with the Nemesis system after completing the story, what is it that's keeping you around?

As much I enjoyed that part of the game, I really didn't find a point in playing it any more, since the only possible reward was a most likely useless rune. Yeah, 5% to earn health back on a 30 hit combo, thanks a bunch.

Yeah, those main missions were mediocre as heck. I didn't hate 'em, but they weren't even close to as good as the rest of the game.

@mb: the trials of war drop you right back into the open world to do the same red icon quests only instead of getting xp you get a score. It is unlocked by purchasing the season pass.

Check youtube for videos before buying the season pass, I was about to buy the pass to play trials of war. Then I watched some youtube videos and realized it is nothing new. It is NOT like the trials in batman, with their own environments/arenas

OT: yeah the story missions felt like things I could do without starting a mission. The hunting missions with the dwarf might of been my favorite, but the dwarf was a tad annoying, but kinda like able at the same time. I wanted more Ratbag missions

The main missions I do find a bit dull, like the one where you are following Gollum was particularly dull.

Though part that is kind of ruining the game for me is any kind of forced stealth because while the stealth isnt awful (its fairly well done and kind of generous) but the rest of the game is so smooth and has a soft failure state but suddenly its a very harsh "Stealth or Restart" rather than the soft failure in the "Oh, Jonny the Map Maker has killed you and gotten stronger" which gives me the reason to not die without being artificial and hard about it.

@basm321: Alright, thanks - I'm not a fan of buying season passes unless it is clearly laid out by the developer what the pass will actually include. There seems to be a few missions, a rune, and "future content"...who knows what that is. $25 seems like a lot considering I got the game for $37.50.

Honestly it's not really interesting but I wouldn't say it's terrible. I think it's throw away compared to how great the rest of the game is.

Your suspicions about reviewer honesty do nothing to further your cause.

Anyways, the only ones I could say I actively disliked were forced stealth missions. Par for the course though unfortunately. These are the days of "man why is this still in any game?"

I'm playing the missions with 1-3 hours of other content in between most of them so maybe that "helped".

Yo mustainium.

How much of the game outside main missions did you play? Are you done yet? The Nemesis system builds a lot of constant events, and because the orc levels keep going up and different abilities come in to play / dynamic run ins happen (2 or 3 chiefs, warchief guards), you can easily end up with far more interesting "Missions" than any of the main ones I think.

You write your own story. Corny, but that's basically what the Nemesis System description is.

@geraltitude:

I'd estimate I spent about 10-15 hours on content outside the story missions.

You're right about the Nemesis system, it really is the games core, but once I unlocked all the upgrade tiers, I didn't really have an initiative to play around with it any longer. That, and the other side missions (outcast and weapons) are all exactly the same thing. This game really needed some variety.

I feel like I'm being more harsh on the game than I should, I did have an enjoyable time when all is said and done, but I'm just disappointed that the rest of the game didn't match up to the quality that was put into the nemesis system.

I agree that the main missions are lackluster, but what's amazing about Shadows of Mordor is that the combat, stealth, and traversal mechanics are so appealing and the Nemesis system such a joy that it transcends a lot of its defects, like the relative smallness of its world or the dullness of its characters. Unlike most other open world games that I've played, an encounter with a band of roving enemies is never a nuisance or distraction because the game's strengths lie in the fundamentals of its combat. Yes, those mechanics are lifted from the Arkham games, but they've been polished to do an even better job of making you feel like a badass. Mordor is, for me anyway, what the guys were describing on the Bombcast as a perfect "podcast game." I love just inhabiting the world, cutting through tons of orc-flesh, and completing the side missions, and I don't really need the wrapper of a fairly weak story. The main story missions are, as someone pointed out above, largely there to introduce mechanics anyway. This feels like the kind of game in which I'm going to unlock all the achievements for the heck of it, and it's been a long time since I've felt that way.

@mustainium: It isn't getting "insanely high" (95-96ish) review scores, just pretty good ones; Dark Souls II is a solid 5 points higher on metacritic for instance.

Most of the main missions just sorta felt like tutorials or a way to introduce a new system for you play with. They weren't exactly great, but it's not like they were a slog to play through.

I don't think they are terrible at all.

They are fantastic. Maybe you just don't like the direction it took? Never understood why people constantly have to automatically judge something as bad because they don't like it, or it didn't go exactly how they wanted it to.

Opinions are opinions, I guess, but damn.

@mustainium: Eh, yeah. I have to agree. Terrible may be a strong word, but it's certainly dull. The game is pretty dull overall other than the sneaking around to kill guys; simply getting into combat, or just anything that has to do with getting around in combat really, like shooting the hives and such, that stuff was fun enough. I also don't care for the nemesis system at all, it just seems like another new game thing, though not really that interesting, and I find it to be repetitive, as if it's a good excuse to keep going, but to me it isn't really. I spent about 20 hours playing it, and it was fun, but nothing special.

@mb: I went to the xbox store and was able to download it for free, maybe it was a bug or something but I got it without getting any DLC, unless I start it and it says "fuck you buy the DLC", in which case I'll say fuck that haha

If you're not into the lore you're not gonna get as much out of it. I really liked getting to know more of Celebrimbor's past and his connection to Sauron/Mordor. The outcast missions were probably the least interesting.

I thought the early story missions, with the exception of anything remotely related to Ratbag, were pretty dull, some of 'em agonizingly so. Cover a distance that would take you less than a minute by yourself over the course of a 15 minute story mission due to your AI companion not being able to keep up a spring for longer than 5 seconds. All so that you can collect some god damn flowers and save the most unsympathetic character in the game. What is this, AC?

That said, the majority of the story quests in the second act of the game range from fantastic to better. In a lot of ways, that pretty much sums up how I feel about the game as a whole, once it's done tutorializing, and is utilizing it's full spread of really cool mechanics, the game is incredibly hard to put down. That there's so much lead-up to that point is a shame however. There was too little game left for me by the time I realized I loved it, though I'm doing my best to squeeze more play-time out via the trials mode. Hoping a sequal will feel more comfortable with simply presenting it's already established mechanics.

Ratbag and Torvin were great characters and it's a shame they never really did anything with them.

Also the last two missions were just terrible. The Tower was straight out of Warhammer and could've been a really cool enemy, but the fight was just awful.

Not to mention that the last boss is a QTE.

The Nemesis system is great, but in the end there's not enough variety between the orcs outside of looks and personality. The only thing differentiating them from regular enemies gameplay-wise is what they're randomly immune to (and like Jeff I thought it was kinda dumb how arrows just bounced off guys immune to them, atleast give them extra armor or something) and what will kill them instantly.

They're alright. The abilities you unlock by doing story missions are pretty awesome and I liked the characters.

The main missions seemed virtually identical to me in terms of gameplay to the side-missions, and if anything, the game has too little dialogue for my tastes. The one time that a main mission has gotten on my nerves, it was when they made me search for that poison leaf that was like, the one herb in the game that is completely green... poor decision there.

I liked the story missions. Not a whole lot of faffing about. Assassins creed always looked cool to me but I hated the mission variety and the follow missions, etc. There doesnt seem to be any of that stuff in Mordor, granted there is some stealth only stuff but I found those missions enjoyable. Overall I am very happy with this game.

Unlock all the abilities? Do you realize how long it would take to do that? If you've done that already, then you must have sunk more than 20 hours in, by far.

Anyway, sorry you don't like it. But I think it's better than AC has been in a long time, if not ever, and the story stuff is decent. You want to talk about forced stealth, look at every AC game ever. Count the number of "insta-fail if spotted" missions in those games.

As far as "bought reviews", maybe grow up a tad? Just because you didn't like a game doesn't mean that good reviews aren't warranted. Reviews are not objective and it just so happens that a lot of people with blogs and websites like the game more than you.

I thought that the story was decent. Would have liked to have a little bit more main mission quests inside buildings or in separate areas completely cut off from the 2 main map zones.

This way the main story boss fights would have been a bit more memorable. But hopefully in Shadows of Mordor 2 (if the game sells well enough) we will get a bit more complex main storyline.

I thought they were serviceable. Short and varied enough not to overstay their welcome, but not interesting enough for me to get invested in the storyline. I certainly prefer them to how many other open world games (Assassin's Creed) handles them.

@splodge: I did come across one "follow" mission so far in Mordor, but it isn't too punishing and only takes about five minutes to get through. Thankfully the stealth is pretty forgiving in this game.

The story and main missions felt extremely contrived. They came up with a bunch of systems, which granted are quite interesting and fun to play with, and then seemingly built a loose story around the game mechanics they first came up with. I don't often disagree with consensus when it comes to games, but damn it seems like very few people are taking issue with this. Maybe it's because I need a good reason to keep playing single-player games, rather than simply doing it fill up some bars and unlock more abilities. If the story or world were worth caring about I'm sure I'd have taken pleasure in doing every side mission and searching for collectibles, but these areas were sorely lacking, and once I understood the systems at work within the game, and just how ham-fisted the story became with regard to utilizing said systems, I lost all interest and just wanted to get it over with.

@cale: For me, I just don't care about the story in Shadow of Mordor. I've been skipping through or only barely paying attention to most of the cutscenes, yet this is still my favorite game of 2014 up to this point.

I'm 25 hours in and I know there is something about a gate...and a hand...basically I have to stop a bad guy I suppose. That's all I know. I am just having so much fun completing all the different missions and screwing around with the Nemesis system that I couldn't care less about the story.

Only happens twice in the game, but whatever.

As long as the main missions still made me HELLA STAB/SLICE THE SHIT OUT OF URUKS/ORCS/GHULS, then I'm pretty much fine.

I actually like the story. Given that its not necessarily the greatest story ever told but I really like the voice actors they chose for Tallion and the Wraith. I just like the fact that with each story mission and if you're somewhat familiar with the theme of LotR of corruption (I'm not super familiar with the entire lore but just enough to be familiar from the movies and the stuff I read online), there's just hints of a dark side that is stemming from the seemingly "good" goals of the dual protagonists from the dialogue and their interactions with one another. Its not obvious but its there.

I liked the main missions so far. Nothing awesome when it comes to story but certainly not terrible. I also really liked that dwarf-hunter.