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Author Topic: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor  (Read 46407 times)

Ringmaster

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Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« on: January 23, 2014, 11:32:09 pm »

A good-looking Lord of the Rings-based Action RPG, pre-alpha gameplay here:

Pre-alpha gameplay video

Some of the key points:

  • Nemesis System generates antagonists apparently randomly, including their reactions to what you do to them. (Letting them live in your initial encounter with them will give you better rewards when you do eventually kill them, according to this Gameinformer article.
  • Plays very fast and loose with Tolkien's lore, including a lot of things that are outright impossible in his Middle-Earth.

It looks very cool, regardless. The open-world parkour gameplay pulled straight from Assassin's Creed and combat system from the Arkham games both look pretty good.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 11:36:31 pm by Ringmaster »
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Digital Hellhound

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2014, 12:10:25 am »

I don't know about the Wraith powers - the lore there doesn't sound impossible, but I can't shake the feeling they're just unnecessary. Still, looks pretty cool. I hope they can make this Nemesis system work with any depth and replayability.
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Mictlantecuhtli

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2014, 12:14:17 am »

Neat!
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Virtz

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2014, 01:46:25 am »

In a way, the first presentation reminds me of AssCreed 1's, in that while it certainly looks good, I can't help the feeling we might end up having to carry out a very similar sequence of events a hundred times in the actual game. Like I doubt they can actually do the whole nemesis system without shoving in a bunch of repetition, especially with those cutscenes.
Plus I question how a player would leave an orc boss alive and "leave him to burn". I can't imagine any player leaving anything alive like that (unless it's a cutscene you have no control over).

Still, so far it looks like one of the better LOTR-license games (since most are pretty bad and break lore even more).

Also, speaking of similarities to AssCreed,
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-2-lead-accuses-warner-bros-monolith-for-using-their-code-assets-in-middle-earth/
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Yoink

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2014, 02:06:18 am »

Pretty sure 'uruk' is just a term for orcs in general.
Speaking of orcs, can you play as one? No? I'm out. :P
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SharpKris

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2014, 02:25:43 am »

sooooo Assassins creed meets LOTR?
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Neyvn

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2014, 09:26:15 am »

Naysayers can go suck it. I WANT THIS NOW!!!
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USEC_OFFICER

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2014, 09:31:35 am »

Pretty sure 'uruk' is just a term for orcs in general.

Nah, the Uruk-hai are definitely a different breed/type of Orc.

Edit - nevermind, looked it up because it was bugging me. Apparently they both made their own Uruks? Never knew about Sauron's ones. Probably one of those things in the appendices, I guess, could never be arsed reading those bits.

Sauron probably saw Saruman's Uruk-hai and cribbed off of his notes to make his own.
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Nighthawk

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2014, 09:45:28 am »

What is this, Dragon's Dogma crossed with Assassin's Creed and set in the LoTR universe?

That is a win.
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Malus

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2014, 09:46:06 am »

Plus I question how a player would leave an orc boss alive and "leave him to burn". I can't imagine any player leaving anything alive like that (unless it's a cutscene you have no control over).
If, like they say, leaving them alive longer increases the eventual reward for killing them, then on the contrary, I can't imagine any player killing them on their first encounter.
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Neyvn

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2014, 10:02:22 am »

Plus I question how a player would leave an orc boss alive and "leave him to burn". I can't imagine any player leaving anything alive like that (unless it's a cutscene you have no control over).
If, like they say, leaving them alive longer increases the eventual reward for killing them, then on the contrary, I can't imagine any player killing them on their first encounter.
Maybe early game you would. Start small go high...
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Rakonas

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2014, 10:58:07 pm »

In a way, the first presentation reminds me of AssCreed 1's, in that while it certainly looks good, I can't help the feeling we might end up having to carry out a very similar sequence of events a hundred times in the actual game. Like I doubt they can actually do the whole nemesis system without shoving in a bunch of repetition, especially with those cutscenes.
Plus I question how a player would leave an orc boss alive and "leave him to burn". I can't imagine any player leaving anything alive like that (unless it's a cutscene you have no control over).

Still, so far it looks like one of the better LOTR-license games (since most are pretty bad and break lore even more).

Also, speaking of similarities to AssCreed,
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-2-lead-accuses-warner-bros-monolith-for-using-their-code-assets-in-middle-earth/
It seems your ultimate goal is to kill Sauron or something? Becoming as feared as Sauron among his servants is more important (and less time-consuming) than individually killing everyone.
2, I thought it was disturbingly like AC, especially the climbing and when he walks over the rope which look literally copied from AC. Pretty lame to say the least that that part of the game looks exactly the same, though there's maybe some trace of Uncharted?
Anyway, I think it looks very silly, especially the first 25 seconds with the backstory. I hope it's a fun game because I like the nemesis idea but it may well be bad overall and probably not worth $60.
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Cthulhu

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2014, 12:31:09 am »

The climbing and especially rope walking could've been directly lifted from Assassin's Creed.  I'm not a huge fan of the way a lot of games throw parkour in and basically make it autopilot.

It looks cool though.  I love the idea that every single enemy has his own name and personality, probably won't mean a whole lot for the random grunts but it's still interesting.  The cutscenes are a little iffy but a lot of the dialog seemed like the kind of stuff that can easily be swapped in and out with a ton of interchangeable bites.  Still.  Makes me hungry for more DF improvements
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Yoink

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2014, 02:07:23 am »

Pretty sure 'uruk' is just a term for orcs in general.

Nah, the Uruk-hai are definitely a different breed/type of Orc.

I didn't say Uruk-hai, I said "uruk". :P
I know what Uruk-hai are...
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Sensei

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Re: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2014, 05:33:32 am »

The climbing and especially rope walking could've been directly lifted from Assassin's Creed.  I'm not a huge fan of the way a lot of games throw parkour in and basically make it autopilot.
Via IGN: Assassin's creed 2 asset designer says he sees his own animations in Shadows of Mordor trailer

It's not a stretch to imagine that it's based on the (actually pretty adaptable) Assassin's Creed 2 engine. Actually re-using assets smacks of laziness, though hopefully that was just to throw the trailer together.
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