Also, Shelob looks exactly like Stoya and I’m having very conflicted feelings about that.
Some interesting (and quite valid) reactions to my assessment of the value of the original Shadow of Mordor. You’re right, the two weeks of entertainment is absolutely worth more than the $4 I paid and was an absolute steal at that price. I just checked my Steam library and can report back to you that I have spent all of 84 hours in the game to date.
In comparison, during the same sale I bought the Bioshock trilogy, This War of Mine, Spintires, and the Half Life bundle, spending over $30 total for those (which happens to average about $4 for each individual game as well), and so far have 11 hours logged for all of them combined. So Shadow of Mordor was the clear winner from last July’s binge.
However, all that said, I have to admit that if I had spent significantly more (like the $20 that is the current regular price), I would have probably regretted the purchase, mainly due to the lackluster expansions, the disappointing climax and, most of all, the lack of replayability.
The last game I spent $60 on was quite a while ago, and that game was Skyrim. To date, I have over 1600 hours in that game, not only due to being a very good game in its own right, but having quality expansions (which I had bought on sale and spent about $20), and the huge number of available mods keeps me coming back to that game nearly 6 years later. Possibly as a result, I have become far more stingy with my gaming dollar.
In comparison, Shadow of Mordor cannot be modded, so I don’t expect anything different from Shadow of War. Not to mention, the regular $60 version is missing a good chunk of content that you’d have to buy the $80 version for, which in turn is missing yet another chunk of content that you’d have to buy the $100 version for. And then the reviews I’ve seen say the end-game becomes a grind-fest that clearly encourages spending even more money on micro-transactions. So for me, maybe in 3 years or so, perhaps they will have a GOTY version for $20 with all the stuff you have to pay $100 for today, plus maybe some more expansions that don’t yet exist, and it’s on sale for about half that price or even less, I just might get around to picking it up and not be too disappointed when the endgame ultimately burns me out.
The end game is pure grind. The main game is the first three acts. Act IV is just defending and retaking your forts 30 times in a row, which unlocks a final cutscene. It should not be considered part of the main game, more like a new game + mode for people who really enjoyed the gameplay. I played it for 2-3 hours because the last quarter of the game got too easy with all my upgrades. (Summonable graug FTW.) That took me about 20-30% through Act 4. As far as I know there’s nothing else to be gained in terms of story than that final 3 minute cutscene, which I watched on youtube before uninstalling the game.
I have mixed feelings. I would have welcomed more human-interest parts of the story. What happened to the last game’s Lithariel, the female commander of Núrn? Hirgon and Eryn? Torvin? There’s new replacement characters that precisely fill the void of the first three, but why not have them return and develop that relationship? Or at least not just completely ignore them. The new Lithariel - Eltariel, Galadriel’s catspaw - has no story arch and a one-dimensional personality. Then again, the cards say that she’ll be the main DLC character. So I guess we’ll see.
Don’t get me wrong - I enjoyed the game a lot, but I’m also quite disappointed in it. I was expecting more and better gameplay and I got it, but with an established cast and universe I had also fully expected them to devote more time and resources to developing the story and they didn’t.
This is 40% off on Steam atm, well worth it.
I’m wondering if it is on sale so soon because of people paying for loot boxes?
No idea, I normally have zero problems paying for extra stuff in games but I’ve played the shit out of this and have felt no need or desire to buy loot boxes. It’s all just random orcs and items, I’ve never felt like what I got in game was not enough.
That is very reassuring to hear. I am still hearing about endgame grind, have you encountered that?
The endgame does get a bit repetitive as you have to defend from sieges over and over again, but that is also the best content in the game to the point that the most requested feature post launch has been “endless sieges” which they just added yesterday. The story is basically done at that point, you just gotta keep playing the sieges for a few hours to get the last cut scene.
It’s Steam’s Thanksgiving sale. It would be more worrisome if it WASN’T on discount.
… I can’t unsee it now, damn you.
These WB games always drop in price fairly quickly. Batman franchise, Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, etc. 40% off isn’t too surprising given the publisher.
Just FYI for any purists this game takes some very strong liberties with Tolkien lore, do not go near it if that offends you.
You mean beyond making Shelob a pornstar and giving people odd feelings about spiders to the point they kinda sorta feel Japanese about it all ?!
Seriously though : yes. The first game too from the get go. It’s never outright stated I believe, but this is an alternate history series at the heart. In this case, specifically, “What if there had been Batman in Mordor, and he made his own Ring of Power ?”.
This is how the fucking game starts. I’m not exagerating : one of the first cutscenes of the game is Talion (blandest protagonist since they made bread cool and exciting by slicing it) and Celebrimbor just traipsing to Mount fricking Doom and hammering up a second One Ring. Presumably while the Eye of Sauron is busy binging on all four seasons of Orange is the New Numenòrian or something. I did not even know hammers were involved in the making of gold jewelry but there you go.
So, yeah. This is not Tolkien’s Middle Earth, or even Pete Jackson’s Middle Earth, this is “your best buddy has a KILLER idea for a DnD campaign set in Middle Earth and he hints that you might get to play as a Nazgul”.
It’s really good, though.
They even matched the eye color.
Bland, maybe, but terrific voice acting work by Troy Baker nonetheless.
Man, that’s so close I wonder if she’d have grounds to sue them. I think there might be a little bit of Milla Jovovich in there too.
I got shadows of War as a few days late Xmas present. Was super drunk when I first put it in and by the time it finished updating, I was passed out. Then I left for NYE vacation. Tonight might be the first time I get to play it!
Ok, so I finally sat down and played it last night. Aaaaannnd was up until 5:30am playing it. Granted, I’m usually up until like 3, maybe 4. But still I’m a bit tired today. I love it so far, but one annoying thing over the previous game, the captains ramble on too long when ou run into them or when you are about to kill them. Just shut up and let me kill you already!
Yeah, that definitely gets old. I do like the ones that have their own hype orc do their shit talking for them.
Oooo, I haven’t run into one of those yet.