Unfinished: Middle-earth: Shadow of War 03/07/2017

The narrator sounds like the Hitman lady.

@vlaphor: i also recognized her voice right off the bat.

@mems1224: I'm not into LOTR lore at all and Shadow of Mordor was my favorite game of that year.

I knew it wasn't going to be long before people started crying over "muh lorez!"

PS I have read every LotR book including the Silmarillion.

This is essentially LotR John Wick. Just flashy action all over the place.

Man Swine!!!

I'm into it.

... Fuck, this looks REALLY good.

I mean, I was one of the few people who were proclaiming the first game to be a hit years before it came out, having read much about the nemesis system and having gotten to chat with a developer at a point.

This sequel? Looks faaantastic. Not just more of the same, but an expansion on the scope, the gameplay mechanics, the options available, and ofcourse, most importantly, the nemesis system. This could end up being another REALLY special game. Though we'll see how the actual game feels compared to this here clearly meticulously set up demo.

Also, small question; why do I get an error when trying to post a comment EVERY single time these days?

Not too sure about this. I feel like the only thing I really liked was the orc that betrayed you. The nemesis worked best when you had some history with the orcs, like having killed or fought them multiple times. That was my problem with the first game, the game was too easy and had no difficulty options. It just meant it felt like I was killing and dominating randomly generated bosses too easily. I don't really care about building up an army of randomly generated orcs unless it's helping me get revenge, makes me feel like I lost something useful if one of my orcs die, or feel betrayed when orcs leave me.

I really really hope they add difficulty modes this time or better more challenging combat.

I wish people would stop using the "Literally a flaming eye in a tower emitting a search light" design. It's by far the most laughable interpretation in all of Tolkiendom.

@nodima: I basically played Mordor like a stealth game, I would sneak across roofs/ruins towards my target for an easy stealth kill. And in situations where that wouldn't trigger a cut-scene, I would immediately run away if the location was filled with Orcs. Basically I was a huge coward, so I finished the game with 3 deaths. Only one of those by an Orc early on.

Several of the orc tribes are locked unless you buy the $100 version of the game. Which I'm not too excited about.

Remember The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age? A warg at Helm's Deep dropped Aragorn's ranger sword. There are many really silly elements added in translation to video game. However I like The Lord of the Rings and the first Mordor game enough that I can ignore the weird elements.

This looks really rad. Glad they took the awesome Nemesis system to the next level.

Now I want my Wolfenstein x Nemesis system game even more. :<

17:10 wouldn't "Conquest of Mordor" been the more apt name for this thing?

and considering that they went the other way... kinda makes me think that by the end of the game you don't entirely succeed in your quest for Mordor domination. just a theory

Yes. Good. I would like to play this, even though they dropped the ball when they didn't name it "Shadow of Moredor".

I mean, the stronghold/army mechanics seem like a logical expansion of what the first Nemesis system did in the first game. Stoked!

GRAYVE WALKAH!

Nice socks, Rorie!

This is such a bastardization of the tone of the novels, it's just crazy. I said Tolkien would be spinning in his grave after seeing footage of the first one. He must have his own gravitational pull now.

Loved the first one, this one looks fucking great!

A UNIQUE SET OF ORCS

But you couldn't have made a movie or a game out of the books, the book Trilogy is sooooo slow. Even by classic novel standards. At least this way the lore and the name Tolkien stay in the public mind rather than just in the minds of literature and fantasy aficionados.

Nice graphic for Unfinished there on the right.

The issue is that that isn't true. I specifically mentioned an orc who got one over on me again and again, and moved from not even on the chess board to one of the warchiefs by the time my game was done. By the time I finally beat him I was rolling in with multiple mind-controlled captains of my own and hellbent on causing his death because if I didn't conquer him I couldn't get to the endgame. That was a story that existed only in my game and only because of the Nemesis system; as I said at the end of my post, I'm actually glad I had a hard time with this game from time to time, especially in the early hours, because I got to see a grunt rise to become my greatest... nemesis over the course of the game. Mordor was my GotY 2014 for that alone.

Loved the first game, mainly because it felt great to play (like any Monolith game).

If they're building around a gameplay foundation that solid, I'm definitely sold already.

Looking good! They adressed my main problem: having to die a fair amount to fully experience the Nemesis system. Having 6-ish different trees solves that problem.

On top of that some cool new ideas. Being able to siege castles with a good amount of dudes is great. As a fan of Drakan: Order of the Flame i love being able to fly around on dragons and fight from the skies.

Just like Jeff & Brad, i'm not sure where the lines lay between Gameplay & cutscenes, but overall this was a good first impression.

yeah,fuck the lore is still an element of this game.

and also fuck the theme is also a element of this game.

Wow tons of improvements over the first game......day one purchase for sure!

Does every fucking game need randomized loot? Shit.

@do_the_manta_ray: I think if you post a message that's long (or takes a lot of time to post?) you get this weird error. I always have to reload the page if i don't write my message at once.

edit: tested it with this message, and i didn't get an error, but it took 10 seconds before the message was accepted. So i guess that the error only happens when your post is quite long.

Did someone say "Dynasty Mordiors?"

wow this is huge evolution from one which I want to see from sequels (looks at Mass Effect)

only thing going to ruin this for me is micro-transaction

This looks really good.

Where's Lu Bu?

Az-Laar the Demolisher does indeed seem cool.

Well, shit. Of course they were gonna follow up Mordor, but when I first saw this on Steam, I assumed it was another strategy game. The footage of the gameplay, and the supposed systems it'll have, seem too much to pull off well; but Mordor was surprisingly well executed, so I guess it's reasonable to assume this will turn out pretty well, too. So, dope! I'll definitely buy this if it reviews well. Looks like one hell of a game. Is 2017 shaping up to be better than 2016, "the best time to be a gamer"?

@dasakamov: I have seen those quicklooks so I do know how into LoTR he is, that's why I said it's funny to watch him swallow his disapproval. Even if these games dance all over the world and lore of the originals those originals you love still exist so it's not a big deal at all.

Looks really good! Can't wait for more coverage :)

This really doesn't look good, including visually. I got bored of the first game pretty quickly. Neat idea, but it got repetitious real fast.

Hope the combat is smoother. Wasn't fluid compared to Arkham.

Lair 2?

@lonelyspacepanda: That's kind of what I felt like watching this, too. I didn't play the first game, but the idea of fighting orcs over and over just doesn't sound appealing to me. The dialogue in this demo was pretty hammy too haha, but the mechanics they talked about seem cool.

@turboman: They've fudged together abilities and situations that wouldn't be as easily accessible or rapid for the purposes of an alpha demonstration of the games systems and mechanics. It's pretty standard; like using an invincibility cheat.

The game looks good but I'm extremely wary of these systems which are extremely procedural and variable-driven. These kinds of games always try to hint at a great array of possibilities but the very nature of how parameterised their systems really are results in only very similar permutations of a general experience that more or less everyone will have. It's very impressively engineered and beautiful looking (as was the original, those fucking textures holy shit) but I can't say I'm expecting much at all.

Like No Man's Sky it doesn't take long until you've had one or two experiences which closely resemble each other and the gears and pulleys begin to show themselves and the illusion is completely destroyed

the only conclusion i can foresee is talion turns into a goddamn ringwraith at the end. Lol.

This looks more like Warhammer than Lord of the Rings. Shame they couldn't use that license instead, it would be fun to have daemons and vampires and Tomb Kings and Scaven and Chaos warriors and beast men to fight in addition to orcs. From a gameplay and systems perspective this looks really fun and I like the army building and territory control elements.

@nodima: Yeah, that does sound really cool. But I'm saying for the majority of people that likely never happened. I couldn't even tell you the name of one of the orcs. They were all throw-away and stand-ins for the ones I already killed. It was a completely forgettable experience that wouldn't have played out any different if the Nemesis system wasn't in there. Heck, maybe it isn't even in there, there is no way to know for me.

Very pretty but not my cup of tea. Good luck to 'fans of the genre'.

@onemanarmyy: Though we have yet to solve the mystery of just why this is the case; I appreciate you giving it a try, mate.

@revenantxenos: You just made my mouth water. Hopefully that's something they'll do some day.