Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Shadow of Mordor Sequel)

Tuco · Oct 10, 2017

emergent gameplay, 10/10 GOTY

First captain encounter was amazing. • r/shadowofmordor

Nazu the Drunk. The first orc to kill me. The first encounter to make me say WTF out loud.

So this level 16 douchebag appears right in my area as soon as I'm let loose in Minas Ithil to start kicking ass and taking names. Despite the fact that he's a whole lot higher than me I decide to take him on anyway as I completed the first game twice and I'm fucking brilliant.

Or so I thought.

He proceeds to flaunt his invulnerability to most of the shit I can do in my face, and he puts me down on the third last stand.

Nice promotion for him. Vendetta mission for me.

Story gets put on hold so I can ice this dude.

So I start getting intel on him, put a pegboard up in my cellar and start connecting string from pictures of him to his accomplices, the usual stuff.

I rock up at his feast with nothing but my level 2 skills and my massive dick in my hands, and proceed to get facefucked again. I manage to survive the constant onslaught of Nazu's groupies and thin the herd through careful grog barrel explosions.

When things start to get hairy as the screen turns red and Talions heart starts to pound, I decamp to a rooftop to try and force the orcs into a choke point. Turns out that I just trapped myself as they swarm the roof from all angles. Nazu himself swans up there with just less than half health (that had been painstakingly reached by a few stealth attacks, his only weakness) and laughs as he decks me once again and puts me into my third and final last stand.

Deja vu, I think to myself as he swings his sword, closing my eyes and accepting the inevitability of my incoming non-death.

BUT JUST THEN

A gondorian sergeant appears out of fucking nowhere (on this rooftop of 30 plus orcs somehow) and plunges his sword into Nazus belly.

'He bothering you Ranger?' he says coyly before disappearing into thin air. Which really confused me as the PipBoy says I haven't unlocked Mysterious Stranger yet.

Thanks for the epic loot Nazu. Sorry my vendetta was vendetta'd by some random dude.

EDIT: Video proof

Also the captain didn't disappear he was still up there and helped me finished off the rest but sadly the penultimate orc threw him off the roof so now he exists only in my memories RIP Steve.

Utnayan · Oct 10, 2017

What he didn't tell you was he bought that sergeant through a paid for chest on the shop.

Tuco · Oct 10, 2017

Utnayan said:
What he didn't tell you was he bought that sergeant through a paid for chest on the shop.

If only there was a way to combine MTX and QTE together.

Maybe an orc themed credit card scanner that, if you're quick enough, can be used to save you from death when on-screen notifications happen.

Utnayan · Oct 10, 2017

Tuco said:
If only there was a way to combine MTX and QTE together.

Maybe an orc themed credit card scanner that, if you're quick enough, can be used to save you from death when on-screen notifications happen.

I am sure they will find a way when the sequel Sar of Whadows comes out.

Nirgon · Oct 10, 2017

Randomly gifted to me on PC

Should I do this or XCOM 2 expansion first?

Utnayan · Oct 10, 2017

Nirgon said:
Randomly gifted to me on PC

Should I do this or XCOM 2 expansion first?

Xcom 2 expansion and gift back this pile of microtransaction trash.

Srathor · Oct 10, 2017

I have played for like 6+ hours now. Not bought a thing yet other than the game itself. Sure the chests are there, waiting. But that siren song has not snared me yet.

ronne · Oct 10, 2017

Srathor said:
I have played for like 6+ hours now. Not bought a thing yet other than the game itself. Sure the chests are there, waiting. But that siren song has not snared me yet.

Way to be part of the problem.

Sulrn · Oct 10, 2017

Nirgon said:
Randomly gifted to me on PC

Should I do this or XCOM 2 expansion first?

If you're going to do a purist run, Xcom2. If you want to play with mods, then enjoy your "gift"

until they finally patch Xcom for stability issues with mods.

Nirgon · Oct 10, 2017

I'm gonna get ripped and stare at my steam game library until the answer comes to me

meStevo · Oct 10, 2017

I like some of the tweaks to the formula. Some bad guys track me and show up, so it's not just a bunch of set pieces for me to stealth around / dive into. Was fighting an orc and he adapted mid-fight to what I was doing (think I was stunning or vaulting a lot). A time limit to get revenge on someone who downed you is a nice carrot on a stick, I'm going to go kill that asshole when I get home tonight.

Nester · Oct 10, 2017

i am having fun so far, i really like the first one so a bit biased. Glad i did not cancel my preorder due to Micro transaction talk, They are super exaggerated, i am at least 30 hours in and so far my wallet is safe.

Warrik · Oct 10, 2017

Srathor said:
I have played for like 6+ hours now. Not bought a thing yet other than the game itself. Sure the chests are there, waiting. But that siren song has not snared me yet.

And it most likely wont..until you get to Act 4. That's where the pay wall was hidden.

Rafterman · Oct 10, 2017

Sucks not jumping into this game day one, but I'm not really wanting to get 3/4 through the game only to hit a wall because of lockboxes that I'm not going to buy. On the plus side the first game is still amazing, so I've been playing it most of the night and can get my Mordor fix that way. If it turns out that lockboxes aren't that big a deal in the sequel I can always buy it later.

Srathor · Oct 10, 2017

Warrik said:
And it most likely wont..until you get to Act 4. That's where the pay wall was hidden.

Just buying the ingame coin chests I have 12-13 dudes a few are legendary and I am not that far into the second stage.

Much like the Fortnite bitching. yes the lockboxes are there to whale it up. But I have felt no need to do so, so far at least. Yes I could advance easily with the swipe of a CC but I don't feel a need. (Remember when you could buy a games cheat book at babbages for like 22.95 on a 50 dollar game? I sure do, and I thought that was cheesy and pay to win even back in the 80's

I think the pay to win stuff is for those that get too bored too fast.

Sulrn · Oct 11, 2017

Srathor said:
Just buying the ingame coin chests I have 12-13 dudes a few are legendary and I am not that far into the second stage.

Much like the Fortnite bitching. yes the lockboxes are there to whale it up. But I have felt no need to do so, so far at least. Yes I could advance easily with the swipe of a CC but I don't feel a need. (Remember when you could buy a games cheat book at babbages for like 22.95 on a 50 dollar game? I sure do, and I thought that was cheesy and pay to win even back in the 80's

I think the pay to win stuff is for those that get too bored too fast.

I expect you'll have no issues with reporting back when you get there to let us know whether the wall is as bad as reported or not instead of trying to conflate points of the controversy.

Droigan · Oct 11, 2017

Srathor said:
Just buying the ingame coin chests I have 12-13 dudes a few are legendary and I am not that far into the second stage.

Much like the Fortnite bitching. yes the lockboxes are there to whale it up. But I have felt no need to do so, so far at least. Yes I could advance easily with the swipe of a CC but I don't feel a need. (Remember when you could buy a games cheat book at babbages for like 22.95 on a 50 dollar game? I sure do, and I thought that was cheesy and pay to win even back in the 80's

I think the pay to win stuff is for those that get too bored too fast.

I was thinking the same thing until I watched Dan play it. He said that the largest part of the game will come in Act 4. The acts leading up to it consistently add new elements, but act 4 is where they all tie together in the more open world featuring the largest focus on the new elements (Sieges). Up to that point, you will progress like a normal game. If the developers added experience inflation and grinding, Act 4 will be where you will see it. The worry has been that the game will become "this is taking forever, my things are underleveled, I can't find good enough orcs....", to the point where the loot crates become more needed than not.

Granted, not sure if that is true, but so far the only people I have seen that say that the supposed issues surrounding it are overblown, are in Act 1-3.

I don't know how the loot crates work, and if they can yield higher level orcs than your own level. If so, that might be another thing that makes them "needed" later on. Because Dan found a high level legendary orc (26) that he got down after a few tries. Then he couldn't dominate it because it was too high level, so he needed to "shame" it which deleveled it. That put it at 16. He then found the orc again, and it was still to high for him, and another shame put the original level 26 orc down to level 11 and was then suddenly underleveled.

So, guess the "grind" can come from encountering an orc you want, and instead of shaming it, you try to level up to where you can dominate it. Which might take hours, and you're in act 4, so the "story" part I assume is close to over at that point. Meaning less ways to efficiently gain experience. So, grind for hours or spend money to bypass it.

I want the game, but waiting for people to either confirm/deny how the inflated the last (and largest?) part of the game is.

Nester · Oct 11, 2017

Level 36 still in act three, doing the side quest and collectables and tones of sieges. Going to,plat this one, it's pretty fun slaying and commanding orcs. Will report back on act 4 but RL about to get busy.

Borzak · Oct 11, 2017

Well, know why Shadow of Mordor was $4 or so on steam a few months back. Had to prime the pump.

Vaclav · Oct 11, 2017

I'm on Act 4. Doing Easy since I know there's a ton out this month and I need to get done ASAP, but zero loot boxes bought and biggest hiccups I've had the entire game thusfar are the dodgy drake controls.

Perhaps Normal or Nemesis are impossible without box purchases but Easy is not. (On PS4 if it matters)

Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Shadow of Mordor Sequel)

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