Shadow of Mordor is the best game I've played in 3 years.

I won't lie I got kind of bored with it. Liked it A LOT more than AC though.
Has AC really done anything significant with their series since AC3? From what I gathered Brotherhood perfected all the ideas and innovations from AC3, but didn't really add anything, and after the third game it seemed like all the comments I saw expressed a feeling the franchise had plateaued there, then gone stale.
 
I loved this game. The early stages when you are under leveled are a great challenge. Taming the giants, riding caragores. I liked the wraith arrows. At the end my character maxed out the skill tree and had a godly sword. Really fun game. I liked traversing the map and running into the mobs. I hated seeing ratbag get wrecked.
mad max was fun too except the driving was not very good and they really forced the driving on you.
 
I somehow never knew this even existed. I need to check it out.
 
Mad Max is my favorite from the last couple of years, but SoM is up there for sure.
 
Has AC really done anything significant with their series since AC3? From what I gathered Brotherhood perfected all the ideas and innovations from AC3, but didn't really add anything, and after the third game it seemed like all the comments I saw expressed a feeling the franchise had plateaued there, then gone stale.

3 was my absolute favorite. I tried to get into Black Flag and I love all the historical aspects.. But hell.. The series can just get so damn boring.
 
The majority of my gaming over the last few years has been Starcraft 2 and Counter Strike.

There hasn't been much since 2013 to motivate me to play anything new. I guess I like what I like, and while there's been a few games that intrigue me on this console generation, there's not been enough to buy a console. So, my gaming has been exclusive to PC, and whatever intrigues me on Steam sales. I watch reviews and gameplay vids on youtube, so I'm not completely in the dark, just not alot to spend alot.

At the beginning of this month I picked up Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition for only $10. I figured it was going to be a mixture of the recent Batman games and Assassin's Creed (each I own, but only played a few hours of) and I've heard the positive word-of-mouth to give it a shot.

This game blew me away.

This is what the Batman and Assassin Creed games would be if the gameplay was damn near perfect. The nemesis system is completely original and one of the most intriguing concepts I've seen in a while. The graphics (on PC) were buttery smooth (60+FPS) at max resolution with all the settings on max, and dozens of enemies on the screen (though I guess that matters on your setup).

In most games you constantly save your spot and load once you make a mistake. In this game, there's no saving. When you screw up and die your enemies rank up and become even more difficult the next time you face them. That adds up to even higher stakes every time you attempt a mission to take one of the captains or war chiefs out, and it makes it SO very much more satisfying when you finally kill them.

For those that haven't played this, you're missing out. If you have bought it on Steam and haven't gotten around to play it, put this on top of your to-play-list. You won't regret it.

I have my few complaints about the game (Not the best vertical movement, small and uninspired world for a sandbox game, and the finale for the story is... well... short and unsatisfying. It reeks of sequelbait.) but they are small when compared to the praises for the game.

Overall rating 9.5/10
I bought GOTY when it was on sale too. Glad to hear you like it, I haven't played it yet.
 
Hmm, weird, the reactions in this thread are so out of step with those in the GOTY thread I made for 2014 when everybody was shitting on the year. I even made a thread with a H2H poll for the two top titles that year in the significant awards ceremonies (e.g. DICE, Game Developer's Choice, Giant Bomb, Metacritic End of the Year Roundup) and the theme of that sentiment repeated itself.

It was Dragon Age: Inquisition vs. Shadow of Mordor. As I recall, Dragon Age won that poll handily. Ah, found them. The polls have been jettisoned, unfortunately:
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/shadow-of-mordor-vs-dragon-age-inquisition.2954907/
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sherdog-2014-game-of-the-year-poll.2957621/
I also bought DAI when it was on sale for $5. Probably the best bargain I've got so far from PS store. Pretty good game.
 
Play Mad Max as well. Play style is the same but without Nemesis. Utterly excellent with a fantastic story.

Just started playing Mad Max it's great. The upgrades to the car are awesome.
 
I loved Shadow Of Mordor, i platinumed it and you're right about the nemesis system it's one of the best things i've seen in a game in years.
 
I also bought DAI when it was on sale for $5. Probably the best bargain I've got so far from PS store. Pretty good game.
Well my memory did not serve me well on the H2H thread. I actually took the time to read through the entire threads that I dredged up with that search, and they mostly really positive. Not the typical groaning we see when GOTY threads come around and suddenly the bar is impossibly high. Unfortunately, that 2014 GOTY thread is confusing as all hell since my OP only included honorable mentions that didn't make the Top 10 I selected for the poll. You could probably piece them all together from the thread, though.
 
I remember getting the teleport kill skill then coupling that with two runes and becoming basically Nightcrawler in X2.
 
Yeah, I wish the story had a bit more to it. All the cinemas related to the main missions were probably a total of half an hour. But they were highly detailed.

And you're right about being overpowered against normal enemies but some of those Lvl18-20 warchiefs were still hard as hell, even after you're fully upgraded.

Haven't played since my first playthrough, but I remember getting a warchief that was basically immune to everything. Nearly impossible to kill.
 
Haven't played since my first playthrough, but I remember getting a warchief that was basically immune to everything. Nearly impossible to kill.

Nearly. Thats what made them so difficult, and satisfying to defeat.
 
I think the problem with SOM for me was I had just played Dishonored and I absolutely loved dishonored and it made SOM and MGS5 hard to get into.
 
The majority of my gaming over the last few years has been Starcraft 2 and Counter Strike.

There hasn't been much since 2013 to motivate me to play anything new. I guess I like what I like, and while there's been a few games that intrigue me on this console generation, there's not been enough to buy a console. So, my gaming has been exclusive to PC, and whatever intrigues me on Steam sales. I watch reviews and gameplay vids on youtube, so I'm not completely in the dark, just not alot to spend alot.

At the beginning of this month I picked up Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition for only $10. I figured it was going to be a mixture of the recent Batman games and Assassin's Creed (each I own, but only played a few hours of) and I've heard the positive word-of-mouth to give it a shot.

This game blew me away.

This is what the Batman and Assassin Creed games would be if the gameplay was damn near perfect. The nemesis system is completely original and one of the most intriguing concepts I've seen in a while. The graphics (on PC) were buttery smooth (60+FPS) at max resolution with all the settings on max, and dozens of enemies on the screen (though I guess that matters on your setup).

In most games you constantly save your spot and load once you make a mistake. In this game, there's no saving. When you screw up and die your enemies rank up and become even more difficult the next time you face them. That adds up to even higher stakes every time you attempt a mission to take one of the captains or war chiefs out, and it makes it SO very much more satisfying when you finally kill them.

For those that haven't played this, you're missing out. If you have bought it on Steam and haven't gotten around to play it, put this on top of your to-play-list. You won't regret it.

I have my few complaints about the game (Not the best vertical movement, small and uninspired world for a sandbox game, and the finale for the story is... well... short and unsatisfying. It reeks of sequelbait.) but they are small when compared to the praises for the game.

Overall rating 9.5/10

Well, I picked this up cheap this weekend because this thread and I've really enjoyed it so far. Like you, I have a few nickpick things that could be better, but those have been minor. There's so many positives that could be built on... But I guess this franchise is a one hittter? Oh well.

The game world suffers the same as Oblivion, with not much variety in the areas. The fighting could use an improvement, but the enemy rank system is tons of fun. One pain in the ass, "map maker", has killed me 2 or 3 times and ranked to 20 (I'm not very far in).

He always goes around in a crowd, like a coward, but I was able to get him separated and was ready to kill him.... Then he ran away and right into a berserker crowd, that delayed me just long enough for him to escape. Haha.... Then he taunted me about it when I saw him next. Genius.
 
found it boring and repetitive,but the nemesis system is something that could work really well in another game.
 
I think the problem with SOM for me was I had just played Dishonored and I absolutely loved dishonored and it made SOM and MGS5 hard to get into.

I actually played through Dishonored for the first time around the same time I played Shadow of Mordor, and while it was fun I thought it was very short (7 hours? Seriously?) And the finale was horrible if you kept the homicides to a minimum.

That said, I plan on playing through it soon and killling everything in sight.

Not quite fair to compare the two games. They have very little in common.
 
I actually played through Dishonored for the first time around the same time I played Shadow of Mordor, and while it was fun I thought it was very short (7 hours? Seriously?) And the finale was horrible if you kept the homicides to a minimum.

That said, I plan on playing through it soon and killling everything in sight.

Not quite fair to compare the two games. They have very little in common.
Who says I must be fair!?
Seriously though I think they are a fairly in the stealth action genre. The difference being one is open world and the other is more on rails but both let you choose how to complete the missions.
One the surface SOM is this vast living world and Dishonored is a series of set pieces. But if the set pieces are well made and the world you see tells a good story I will take it over a larger world of sameyness.
 
it is an awesome game....one of my favourites since getting my ps4.....top 3 for sure
 
Just bought the GOTY version for $9.99
 
Back
Top