Quick Look: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

I haven't played Assassin's Creed, thus me deducing that I'm 'more inclined to pick up' the AC collection. Gore-porn is a perfectly acceptable hyphenated descriptor, as far as I'm concerned. Excessive stabbing and decapitations are a little too graphic for my tastes; I don't celebrate the act of killing in video games, or see things like that as the root of my entertainment. From what I've seen of AC, you can mostly avoid confrontations, or 'kill' in an understated manner to bring about the next story beat, no? Perhaps I'm wrong.

I'd rather be cynical and have something revolutionary appear on my radar than barrel naively into the next generation. Bit too frugal to get caught up in hype waves these days! Lastly, Unity's arrival should be an interesting one indeed--ME: SoM has certainly set the bar a fair way higher, mechanically speaking.

Yea Warner bros, between this, arkham knight, MKX, Witcher 3, they might easily establish themselves as the publisher to beat this gen.

@neocalypso: Oooooh you're probably right. I watched Django Unchained right before this quick look so a certain word is stuck in my head.

I have to say, Dan is an exceptionally violent man.

This quick look is really all over the place, but at least Brad acknowledged it.

I'm a little confused, is the point to kill the 4 Warchiefs or is that a side/background thing to some story missions?

Dammit! You can turn individual notifications off, which means You don't have to get the "... joined a party" notification, Brad! :P

@lunnington: Okay, that statement fills me on which horrific bad word some people are hearing there. It is legitimately hard to tell. My vote is for "fucker". It sounds like an o or u sound and not an i sound. Dan is many things, but I noticed he is very sensitive about using words that would offend people.

In other news, this game looks nifty.

im with you on what your saying that the AC games are good but are shat on quite a bit by Dan and Brad in the video.

but they have also said in videos/podcasts that they have both played black flag. and got burnt out by it.

I can never understand the complaint these guys had about the controls in the AC games as i never had the issues the guys talked about,

That's the story objective for that point in the game, I believe. The yellow mission markers represent storyline missions.

I simply don't like power fantasy games like this. I play roguelikes and RPG's with the difficulty turned up so I am weak and have to be careful and thoughtful.

Tough to watch quick look with all the menu cycling and circle running.

@mrfluke: I didn't know they had played Black Flag. If they didn't enjoy it even after playing that game, I don't think they enjoy those games and that's perfectly fine.

I don't get why Dan has to show he likes something by belittling something else. Can't two things be good instead ?

FOR FUCK SAKES BRAD JUST GO KILL SOME FUCKING ORCS

Seems like an ok game, although that combat looks bland as fuck. All I could hear was Brad jamming on the same button every time he was in combat.

Might pick it up eventually, just wish they didn't have to rape a fantastic pre-established lore for the story. If you are gonna change so much stuff to fit it into your game then why bother even constricting yourself? Just create an original world for your game. Do they really think the Middle Earth name will help this game sell? They aren't even sticking Lord of the Rings in the title, which would probably get a few more people interested.

This game just went from a minor blip in my peripheral vision to possibly the reason I finally pick up a PS4.

@fallen189: but he likes one thing and dislikes another, and has opinions about each.

This game kind of seems what I've wanted Assassin's Creed to be. That dynamic hierarchy system looks very well put together and it would have made a lot of sense to put something similar in an AC game. Working your way to your top mark or something like that, I like it.

I'm gonna go read Cinnamon Girl later.

Does the whole game really take place in this characterless landscape with occasional rafters and scaffolding once in a while? Are there like no dungeons or unique locations? It's an hour long quick look and it really looks like you're doing the same thing over and over again.

@mrfluke: I have played, own, and love every AC game but I have to say that the climbing seems to be much more fluid and efficient in this game.

Great QL. Gonna get this game for sure.

I love dan's verbal embellishments to highlight something going on in a game.

Brad - aim at campfire

Dan - Fuuuuuuuck

Brad - shoots

Dan - you!

I can understand there issues with the early AC games(screw those chase missions), but IMHO in the later games roof traversal became a lot less fun. I played both AC3 and Black Flag mostly on the ground and rarely went to rooftops, as such I also didn't really run into problems.

I will say the climbing animations still looks a lot better in AC games. To use Dan's example of infamous, it mostly boiled down to constantly jumping against the wall until you reached the top. While it allowed for fast traversal compared to AC, it also looked really dumb.

It's weird that Brad really enjoys the Batman combat when all you can hear him do is mash the buttons over and over.

At least it is actually challenging, unlike Assassin's Creed. Also yeah I don't think this is the strongest look at the game possible in a lot of ways(especially it seems like so many people are on the fence about this game) but whatever.

Agreed. so painful to watch.

I actually yelled at the screen on more than one occasion.

Game looks neat though. :)

@

I don't think AC is the game you think it is. Might as well be called Mass Murderer's Creed at this point. Well, AC1 certainly encouraged low-key engagements where you only take out the main target, but that all kind of went out the window with AC2. The problem is that the series just doesn't really give you the tools to do an incredibly stealthy approach. No crouching, vision cones of enemies tend to be really erratic, and many missions are just straight up 'fight out of this confrontation'. Most of the 'stealth' in the game is actually pre-determined, with the game's story just forcing you along a path in an environment that avoids enemies. As repetitive as AC1's mission structure was, it was still kind of cool to go into a city, and scope out the habits of your target before going in for the kill. AC at this point is way closer to something like GTA rather than Thief or Hitman or Deus Ex. AC2 was a great game for the time, but at this point, I'm also just burnt out on the series. So many of the activities in those games just feel like busywork.

the nemesis system looks really cool and interesting, perfect for an open world game. i would love to see the next GTA use their drug dealing system from Chinatown Wars mixed with its own version of the nemesis system. not really into the Lord of the Rings but i will definitely pick this game up at some point.

@darkbeatdk: Appropriate, because due to what we know of Dan's cooking skill, he probably could be known as the Salmonella Man

I find it really difficult to get hyped about this game personally. The amount of positive buzz this game is getting just came out of know where and seems legit but the Batman combat system is a huge turn off for me. Really craving for something deep and satisfying in just the combat but this game dosent seem to scratch that itch at all. The nemesis system looks crazy deep though and the presentation is top notch.

@lunnington said:

I listened to it like 10 times and yeah... It really sounds like he's saying that word. Surely he wouldn't actually say that, but damn it sounds like it.

I don't care much about Lord of the Rings, but this looks like something I might enjoy playing regardless.

@flowz0r: I mean this was the PS4 version which has 8 GB of RAM total. Considering the PC version recommends both 8 GB of system RAM along with 6 GB of video RAM one would hope it's textures are insanely high resolution. That said, graphics RAM lets you put more stuff on screen. As far as fancy lighting, physics, and shadow effects go, having more RAM isn't going to help you and in the end a lot of those elements define the look of a game far more than super high resolution textures and shadow maps and so forth. To explain the core reasoning behind needing this much RAM for this specific game, though, just look at how many orcs are on screen at some points in this quick look. Now imagine that same number of orcs just instead of being at night in an enclosed space, being in a vast open field in broad daylight. Suddenly you need to be rendering insane numbers of textures and geometry which can easily make you hit the 6 GB of VRAM.

This looks perfect for me. It has everything I like in an action game, I don't think I even need to watch the whole video.

Man I really had to hold back my rage at Dan slagging of J.R.R Tolkien on a personal level.

What system is this video from? I can't tell.

As much as I like LOTR it only serves as an established setting to a game idea that is more interesting than the universe it is set in. Since Brad spent most of his time with the nemesis system I would love a game like this with no story other than having a nemesis-like system to manipulate the open world area you're in to have complete control over it. Set it in a medieval European lawless land and you have my money. I can see this system cropping up in lots of games if done right.

its nice that a game that was ignored and taken for being just another lotr game being great and finally getting its time in the sun.

its nice when games surprise you

I know the point of quicklooks is that they're easy and fast to produce and show games fairly well, but sometimes I wish they put more effort in. In this case how beneficial would it have been if Brad spent just 20 minutes prior to recording doing some amount of prep work? Think about what there is to show, how to show it, in what order, where you're starting. It would have made for a much better video then jump in to a random spot in the game and fuck around for most of the time not doing anything. A simple guideline could help a quicklook like this be less jumbled and messy.

As for the game it looks pretty good, but repetitive. Seems like all there is to the actual gameplay is the combat. The combat looks great and deep, and the nemesis system looks very interesting. But other games in this genre like AC and Akham have a lot of variety and many different things to do. The climbing and stealth in this seem very basic. The world design also seems so bland, a big flat plain with the occasional tower or ruin or tent.

The nemesis system sounds much like an evolution of the 52 Deck from Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.

i think i'll probably get this because i really liked asscreed gameplay before they made it too easy in 3.

also, this isn't really an lotr game, in that it has none of the true feel of lotr, imo. they obviously made the gameplay first, and then the lotr stuff was thinly painted on on top of it. i also think that applies to basically all other lotr games. but this one more than most. in a way i'm more well-disposed towards this game for not even really trying very hard about it.

Pleasantly surprised that this actually seems good. I was expecting shallow action-rpg with really bad and over the top LOTR fanservice.

I think I might be the lovechild of Brad and Dan. Love LOTR books like Brad, but don't like AssCreed like Dan.

I can't watch this from work, but I have to say, that dude in the picture for the quicklook has a really weird face. It's more orc than human.

Eh, I dunno about that cape, Brad. Seems kinda weightless to me. That's a problem I have with a lot of cloth physics in games; there's not enough weight to them. Not that the cape in this game looks bad, but you know. Nitpicking.

Also, this game looks rad, I look forward to playing it. Hopefully it kills my Destiny addiction. But I know it won't.

Brad is really into Lord of the Rings. Like, I've read all the books (well, the main ones, not the Silmar-what's-it) and seen the movies (though, not Hobbit 2 because I was in the hospital/recovering from that at the time), but I never knew there was a "Satan figure" in this universe. Huh.

I would consider myself a pretty intense raid boss level fantasy nerd, but I feel like I kind of "got over" (for lack of a better term) the LOTR books and lore a long time ago. While it remains hugely impressive, and was the first real foray into large scale world and lore creation in modern writing, I feel now like it's a Model T Ford and I am too used to sports cars. I have a hug appreciation for it, but as a person who reads an upsetting amount of fantasy books, I think the genre has evolved way past tolkien's work. As a result, I dont mind that this game has original creations mixed in with canon history. It's a neat idea.

This game looks awesome. I can't wait to play this next weekend.

Well, I'm glad they were enjoying it, but this game just looks totally bland to me. I think the AC formula is really tired at this point, and even if this game is able to do a better job with certain elements like the climbing, that's not enough to pique my interest (I also never liked the Batman combat, so that doesn't really help).