Everyone's going to be listing off their top 10 or top 5 or however many games they want to put together with numbers in front of them. We do it every year. Also, anyone who knows my previous GOTY entries is aware that I don't follow the norm with this shit.

In a year filled with mediocre releases and a handful of really awesome ones, there was nothing...NOTHING...that impressed me nearly as much as the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor.

"But Josh, wouldn't that mean that your Game of the Year is Shadow of Mordor?"

No. Shadow of Mordor in and of itself is little more than an amalgamation of Rocksteady's Batman combat system, Assassin's Creed's parkour and movement, and light-ended open-world exploration ala every fucking game that exists in this modern day and age. While some games can excel greatly at being an amalgamation (i.e. the original Dead Space), I didn't feel like this entire blend of gameplay mechanics would've mattered nearly as much if the game didn't have its Nemesis system.

When you first experience the Nemesis system, nothing seems special about it. You kill a few captains, then others replace them. It's the moment that you die where you really see the depth of it all. That Uruk that just killed you? Yeah, he's a captain now...because HE killed YOU, the Shadow of Mordor. Now HE matters in this world. Now HE is going to be dueling with others for a higher position. HE is going to be ambushing other captains in a coupe for more power. YOU might not even be the person who brings him down.

All in all, within the ecosystem of Shadow of Mordor, I began to realize that in the grand scheme of everything happening in Mordor, I was nothing but a ghost story. All of this motion within the ranks of Sauron's Army was the thing that really mattered.

That was the other thing that made me love the system: it DID matter to me. When a berserker killed me and it was revealed that his name was Raksha Black-Heart, he had a mouthful of shit to talk to me upon our next meeting. He killed me again, having been bestowed with poison on his axes and commanding about twenty other Uruk to slay me alongside him. Funny enough, he would no longer finish me off. He'd walk away from the fight at the last minute and let his minions take care of me. This created more and more captains, all of which had their personal names and stories.

At least eleven Uruk became promoted through my hunt for Raksha Black-Heart, who at this point had climbed to the rank of a level 20 Legendary Captain. I wanted him down. I seethed with anger that he kept getting away. I hated that I had not been able to kill him yet, especially because he was susceptible to stealth attacks. All I needed was to be stealthed, sneak up, and slit his fucking throat for all the setbacks he had caused me. I slayed every Uruk in my path, interrogating every one of them to find out everything I could about this goddamn army, how I could slay every one of those captains that killed me.

Finally, the moment arrived. Raksha Black-Heart was next to a bush, only two people next to him.

THIS WAS MY CHANCE!

I sneaked up with a quickened pace. My heart was racing with excitement and vengeance.

I reached out of the brush, grabbed his hair, yanked him upward, and stabbed him repeatedly right in the chest. The two with him, frightened and demoralized, try to run. I chase them down, slitting one of their throats and decapitating the other. Everyone else runs, and I let out a battle cry of glory!

I then realized that it was 3:00am in the real world, and that the battle cry I let out wasn't in the game. It was me. I just screamed in my apartment at 3:00am...because I killed a virtual character that had caused me to virtually die multiple times.

This is the depth and the level to which this particular, individual character was able to connect to me in my adventure. This is something I've never experienced to this level in a game. I was on a two-hour long journey just to kill one goddamn Uruk captain in a video game because of how emotionally distressed and angry he made me because of his actions against me.

I have completed MAYBE five or six story missions in this game.

I've thought on multiple occasions already how much better the Nemesis system could make multiple other games:

1. Marvel Heroes
2. Warframe
3. Diablo 3
4. Divinity: Original Sin
5. Sunset Overdrive
6. Borderlands

The list can go on and on and on.

My Game of the Year is the Nemesis System from Shadow of Mordor. Argue amongst yourselves if that is legit or not, but when it comes down to it, that entire system is a game in and of itself.

Honestly that's what made me enjoy the game so much also. I'm a fan of the Assassin's Creeds, and I played Arkham Asylum and City (city was overrated IMO), so I knew what I was getting myself into with Mordor's gameplay. The thin veil of Tolkein lore was just enough to keep me going, along with the Nemesis system. I can't wait to see more games try something with the idea. The game itself did feel really great though. It may have borrowed the mechanics, but I felt like a lethal weapon in Mordor, where in Creed it felt like crap, and Batman had gunshot sound effects when you hit people.

I've yet to have that experience with Mordor, unfortunately. I think I've completed even fewer story missions than you since I kept galavanting off to do side missions for power or to look for artifacts... think like 3? 4 tops.

Maybe it's because I spent an obscene amount of time with Batman Arkham Asylum's combat system (I got the Platinum trophy in that game, which meant you had to get REALLY good at the combat for those challenge rooms) and while I've been downed a couple times in Mordor I've always succeeded in getting that "second wind" thing and then either mopping up the remaining enemies with what little health I have or making a tactical retreat to heal up before continuing the fight.

I kinda stopped playing for a bit since I recently started playing Diablo III Reaper of Souls but I think I'll get back to it eventually. I'm hoping to have one of these moments that people like yourself or the Bomb Crew have experienced cause otherwise, it seems like a well-crafted game with an inventive new system that didn't really offer anything that special to me.

I don't get the love for the nemesis system.

Moments like the one you described were cool at first, but they're essentially no different to every other encounter in the game. The only difference is you're taking down your "nemesis", but simply dying to an Uruk isn't enough to make me consider them anything but a hurdle in the way.

They behave too similar to other Uruks, their weaknesses are too easily exploitable and the information required to do so is too easily obtained. More importantly, they appear so frequently that it becomes an inconvenience, when it could've been a significant moment.

That being said, I appreciate the nemesis system and I'm looking forward to the next game, even if I've had enough of this one half way through.

Great game and the Nemesis system is awesome. However the true GOTY is Dragon's Age: Inquisition.

@wchigo: I S-ranked Arkham Asylum (along with everyone in the world because it wasn't that hard), and I was really good at the combat in the game. The problem is that I played about eight hours of City, got sick of its boredom-inducing bullshit, and then never touched Origins (save for maybe two or three minutes to make sure it was working on the PCs at work). Therefore, I hadn't used that combat system in a long while.

@evo: I'm sad to hear that you haven't had that same kind of experience. Then again, I wouldn't expect the same experience for everyone. You are correct in the fact that this just keeps happening over and over, and there are times when it DOES feel repetitive. Maybe it's the unique sense of vengeance I felt towards this one specific enemy leading to my death over and over (again, he wouldn't finish the job...he'd get the minions to do it, and eventually, I couldn't get the second wind stuff fast enough or it just didn't give me an option anymore). I can't explain just WHY it was that I became so pissed off at this guy, so engrossed that I needed to see his end come about. It was just one of those moments in my gaming history that will sit there for a long time, remembering how it literally made me feel.

Regardless, I won't say your opinion is wrong. I imagine that's what a lot of people might feel about the system this long after the game's launch. There is definite room for improvement, but I think there is a pretty large and hardlined base to build from, which is impressive.

@marcsman: I just started Dragon Age Inquisition last night. About one hour in (much like my experience with the first game, where I experienced the Redcliffe glitch that would've forced me to start from scratch), I got a glitch at the chantry where you have the first conversation that leads to the reforming of the Inquisition. It wouldn't let me choose any of the dialogue wheel. Restarted the game, finally got past that, then my first fight after leaving the chantry led to me being stuck in the tactical camera mode and not being able to exit it. Restarted it again, and then I had an issue where one of my followers (Solas) was constantly running into a rock wall and wouldn't go anywhere else. I engaged a fight, he wouldn't engage into it, and once I killed every one of the enemies, he wouldn't escape combat mode, despite having no weapon drawn.

Yeah. To say that it's going to be my Game of the Year is a fucking stretch at this point. This is all within two hours and forty-nine minutes of gameplay. I'm HOPING that this shit doesn't persist. Then again, this seems to be my luck with every goddamn Dragon Age game ever.

@jakob187: That stinks. 20 hours in and only one minor glitch for me. However imagine a Dragon's Age with the Nemesis system?

Freaking awesome I say.

@marcsman: I already thought of that. It would be way too cool.

The worst part of SoM is that it ruined combat in other third-person action games for me. Going from this to Dragon Age is rough...real rough.

Aside from that though, it's absolutely in my top three.

@jakob187: Saying everyone s-ranked Asylum is a bit of a stretch, but I agree with you that it wasn't that hard. By no means was I trying to brag. I did finish City but like you never touched Origins (though I am HIGHLY anticipating Arkham Knight) so it has also been a while since I've touched any Batman style combat as well.

I do want to go back to it at some point before the end of the year, but it's weird where when I have the opportunity to, I haven't yet done so. And the Ace Attorney trilogy just came out on 3DS also... which may distract me even further.

I think it would benefit from being focused more tightly. I ran into new captains on about a 10:1 ratio compared to old rivals. A game that has linear - or restrictive open world - gameplay but roaming enemies would be better, I think. That way, you know you are GOING to run into each rival you have at some point (hopefully the number of them would be a bit smaller), it's just a matter of WHEN, and HOW they react to you. Shadow of Mordor was more a proof of concept for me.

I think its a great game also, but I really think it could have benefited from more challenging gameplay.

I made a post on my feelings on the system awhile back. I'll pull it up.

@doctordonkey said:

It's a decent game. However, it's way, way too easy. Games being easy isn't necessarily always a problem (Sunset Overdrive is incredibly easy, it's also my favorite game released in the past 5 years), but the Nemesis System, the thing that really sets this game apart from other open worlds, hinges on you dying. The entire point of the system is to develop actual nemeses, which relies on the orcs actually being threatening or difficult, in which they are neither. Every Warchief or commander I faced died right when I decided to kill them, there was no cat-and-mouse chase throughout the game, never did I slowly begin to truly hate the Warchiefs. They are simply too easy to kill, or rather, Talion is too powerful.

Even disregarding the rune system (which includes such great ideas as 'restore half of your health upon executing a finisher', truly and utterly trivializing the combat), the skills you can obtain after just 2-3 hours into the game are absurd. I understand wanting to make Talion this whirlwind of death, but it works against what the Nemesis System is trying to achieve. You want to feel like the Warchiefs are big, powerful, hulking pounds of flesh, you want to feel like they could fuck you up if you try to just rush them. I didn't once go up against a Warchief that couldn't simply be killed by performing a combat finisher over and over and over again, which are insanely easy to build up and execute. I actually had one Warchief that could be killed instantly by simply shooting him in the head with an arrow once.

Overall, I finished the game with a total of 3 deaths, every single one being to archers, which are the only somewhat difficult enemy in the game. I'm not trying to say I'm amazing at this game or anything either, anyone who has played an Arkham game can do what I was doing. I came away from it really disappointed, as I could see the makings of a truly fantastic system, if it actually worked the way it was intended to. I actually feel like the worse you are at this game, the better it is.

I'm not saying that Shadow of Mordor as a game itself is the great thing. I'm saying the system is great. This tells me how many people actually read the entirety of my blog on this one. Yeesh.

You're totally right. The Nemesis system is the best supplementary wrinkle we came away with in 2014. By, like, a mile.

In fact, Shadow of Mordor kind of sucked the wind out of my sails concerning Arkham Knight. I don't think I want just another Batman game now. Or just another Assassin's Creed game. Suddenly the templates have been run dry and there's nothing interesting about the same kind of open world inside those respective frameworks. The Nemesis system adds that much more activity to the game world.

It isn't perfect. And Shadow of Mordor certainly isn't. But the potential for the system in future games is immense.

I found Shadow of Mordor waaaay too easy and thus rarely ever died. I guess because of this I never really saw the nemesis system at work all that often. To me, the game ended up being far too short, dull and repetitive.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't really understand the love for that stuff as it just wasn't very impressive that an AI could say a line of dialogue "remembering" you and then knowing all of their exploitable strengths and weaknesses up front is not challenging or fun at all. Also the runes you got were not unique or exciting in any way that would have made them fun. A Diablo-esque legendary loot system on the runes would have been great, instead of the limited repeating passives with random percentages.

For the record, I disagree about Divinity. What made that game (and in particular its combat situations) good is the hand crafted nature of most of those boss encounters. Throw the semi-random/procedural nature of the Nemesis System into that mix, and I am not sure it works as well.