But in his opinion you can't.....oh wait, I see what you did there

If you aren't really into the Nemesis system, or doing combat/stealth A LOT, the game doesn't really have much to offer. The story is extremely lackluster, and outside of an ability it gives you that alters the Nemesis stuff a bit, it barely changes at all as the game progresses. Definitely an overrated game in my eyes, even though it is fun. Lots of cool ideas, but it needs a lot of a work in terms of the execution and overall package. Makes me think of the first Assassin's Creed(though not as weak).

Personally, the thing that really bugged me was that I could never take out every Captain/Warchief, because they would always just immediately repopulate when the numbers were low. Kind of ruined Nemesis for me. Since I never died once I leveled up, it was just a constant revolving door of random dudes.

@rethla: Oh sure, every game is flawed, otherwise we would have perfect games and that's pretty boring. A storydriven game might be fantastic in it's genre, have 0 flaws to the person that is into it, but a person that doesn't give a shit about story and just wants to have a game with interesting gameplay mechanics , will feel the storydriven game is not the best game of the year.

From listening to the bombcast deliberations it becomes pretty clear why Mordor has so many awards. If you have to look back at a year of games with multiple people, the niche stuff eventually will have to make place for something that everyone can agree on. Vinny was pushing hard for the Fall. Drew was pushing Naissance. Alex was pushing Jazzpunk. Yet when the list had to be created, those 1-man passion projects had to make room for a more mainstream game that everyone felt sort of good about .

You totally can! Would you say that a racist opinion like "white people are better than black people" isn't wrong? Or what about "crunchy peanut butter is much better than rat poison on a sandwich"? What about something like "in my opinion heroin isn't addictive"?

Also, how do you explain the paradox rethla has pointed out in your argument?

@spraynardtatum: Valid questions but, in my opinion, you and rethla did not entirely grasp the intent of how my last comment ended in "but who cares at this point" if you expect me to actually answer them.

@onemanarmyy: My main problem with this game is that it does have a story and it devotes so much time to it when it's absolutely terrible and boring. If it was entirely focused on gameplay and the mechanics it would be much better.

A... sensitivity training officer?

Sure, I can tell someone their opinion is wrong. That doesn't make me right, of course. However, I can't bring myself to believe that every piece of art, entertainment, and media is on a level playing field, quality wise. As spraynardtatum noted above, that's basically saying that Justin Bieber is on a level playing field with, say, Rush, to pick something else that's really popular. Sure, you can like Justin Bieber and dislike Rush, but if you say that Justin Bieber is a better musicianthan Rush, well, you're flat-out wrong and need to pay closer attention to the music you're listening to.

Calling something "boring" is a super-lazy way of describing why something is bad and why people are wrong about the quality of something.

To bring this back around to Shadow of Mordor, we're on a gaming forum and many of the members here are well-versed in video games in general. We're not talking about a slice of the general population, here, this is a sample of people who know video games better than your average Joe, so when a vast majority of them say that something is up with a game, it's definitely worth giving a shot. If you're only four hours into it, it's probably worth giving it a few more to see if you think differently about it.

The game in no way was special to me, so you're not the only one here that doesn't find it that great. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad in any one way, but it's not special. It's a game I played and after the credits rolled, it left my mind shortly after. I thought the most unoriginal parts were the best parts, the Assassin's Creed and Arkham style of gameplay. The nemesis system was just another game mechanic to me, nothing that blew my mind. If the game had a better story, better characters, and a much better setting/atmosphere, I would have considered it one of the best games of the year I think. Those things were largely bland; things that are important to me in games like it, and so the strengths couldn't really help it. Gameplay was fun enough, the visuals were good, and music was pretty good too, but in general not something I would put in my top ten of 2014.

@corevi: I agree, the story was weak and got worse as you came closer to the end. But credit where credit is due, Mordor gave us a really cool system tha felt fresh and new. It's easy to see how it could be applied in other games of this type and for me it added an extra layer to the already pretty satisfying combat we knew from the batman games.

@believer258: Yeah, I kind of did throw out 'sensitivity training officer' as if it was a real thing. Not sure why that happened.

Wow... was NOT expecting so many replies!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my questions.

Generally, the consensus seems to be that the game doesn't really change too much the further you get into it. Considering i'm not enjoying my time with it so far, i've decided to just chalk it up as not being 'for me' and moving onto other games. Which is a shame, because I really tried to like it (i bought it when it first came out, put some time into it, and found it didn't grab me and ended up playing all the other games that came out during the holiday season first. Now that I finished those games, I tried to start a new game and give it another go but no dice it seems. Guess it just wasn't meant to be!)

@humanity haha thanks mate. She's hawttttt!

@spraynardtatum I absolutely LOVED the first bayonetta! Really want to play bayonetta 2... but not enough to buy a Wii U.

The whole game is more of that over and over again. I got bored with it but I also finished the game completing all the side quests so...

@spraynardtatum said:

Yet Bayonetta 2 is in your 2nd spot.

I'm seeing nothing in your arguments (either quoted here or elsewhere) that disprove my assertion that people are upset that this game won Game of the Year and are using the OP's query as an avenue to vent said opinion.

It's just a list. Anyone can make one, and many people did. Just because a majority of the community and site's official-yet-shouldn't-be-taken-too-seriously list all chose the game doesn't mean your opinions are any less valid. Perhaps if you want people to respect and take your opinions seriously, you should afford others the same opportunity.

I think more people here should question why they care so much that they're getting angry.

@viking_funeral: People might be more upset at the game getting GOTY from the staff as opposed to any ol' stranger on the internet making "just a list" because they expect the GB staff to be professionals and critics with some degree of experience, as they are. As such it's strange to see this panel of professionals eschew all common sense in favor of a mundane "I kinda liked it." I personally don't understand how a bunch of people that are so critical of games all year 'round somehow dismissed the bland story, the bland levels and the completely repetitive nature of the gameplay and said well shucks this is the one.

So for me at least it's not just a case of not agreeing with "a list" made on the site but rather completely not understanding how they could possibly come at that conclusion.

Yeah I feel if you're not enjoying it now you might not enjoy it later. Apart from the nemesis system, the game is very shallow in terms of atmosphere and story. Nothing ever changes.. it's mostly a playground for combat and the nemesis system.

In the end I finished the game and was quite annoyed by the misplaced expectations and the rave reviews it received. Very overhyped imo.

Nothing wrong with not liking a game most people do. Tons of people love Battlefield and Call of Duty and it would be hard for me to put into words how little I like those games. I would give Mordor more time OP, it really gets good once you get to the first "real" power struggle which is plot based and then the second area opens up. Just remember you still have to dig lots and lots of orc killing to enjoy it, also it is a total pass on last gen systems cause it doesn't have the nemesis system in game. The Nemesis System is what makes this game good, without it then it is just Ass Creed with an even worse story, samier areas, but slightly better combat.

I know right, weeks ago it was winning all sorts of GOTY lists on this site. I wonder who contributed to those votes if so many disliked the game?

Personally I'm quite happy people are criticizing it for the right things. It was very bland and boring, with uninspiring story and atmosphere. I didn't put it in my top 10.

But then, Risen 3 was my GoTY so what do I know :P

I like aspects of the game, but the setting really put me off. Not that I don't like fantasy now and then, but Mordor didn't create a very interesting world to explore for me. There just isn't that fire to continue playing. With that said, I do recognize it as a standout game. The nemesis system is amazing and I hope we continue to see it in other games, but the core of Mordor just didn't grab me.

I am about half-way through now and I'm having fun but I don't consider this a great game. Much of it is because of flaws in the nemesis system. Or rather its intentional design. I just killed the same captain for the third time in an hour. They sometimes come back to life, probably it's random and it just happened to the same captain a bunch of times by chance. I first killed him at a feast mission - poisoned grog to make his followers kill him. 15 minutes later I randomly ran into him again while roaming around - I cut off his head cleanly. Then I randomly ran into him again and this time he had an armor plate over his eye which I guess compensates for having your head cleanly severed? At first I thought it was just a draw of the rng giving a character the same name - but I know it's him. Same suffix, same weaknesses and he had dialogue which indicated he was defeated earlier. This also happened to 2 previous captains but they didn't come back past dying twice. Anyway this has completely eradicated the sense of progression I had from the nemesis system and now I don't care at all about it. It feels like a superficial thing now, no sense of accomplishment of winning a tough fight when they could just come right back. I don't see why they made it this way.

Lesser problems I have had is being fucking 100% sure I got a prompt right, but ending up dying anyway. I'm not used to the system, having skipped all the Batman games. Maybe it's animation priority and I was locked into something else.

I'm probably about the same point in the game that the OP was (5 missions and about 4 1/2 hours in) and I'm having a whole bundle of fun. Might be because I've not played any of the Batman games and I love the LOTR films, but I'm really liking my time in Mordor so far.

I finally bought and played this at the end of January. I found the combat, traversal, and nemesis systems quite entertaining, but the overall experience was somewhat lackluster. The story was thin as a veil, the combat encounters didn't ultimately have a lot of variety to them nor did the two different maps. I really don't see how this game popped up on so many peoples top 10 lists last year, but different tastes and so on.

I loved this game. For me it was my 2014 GOTY hands down.

It looked so unappealing to me from quick looks and such that I didn't even try playing it, so you're giving it more of a shot than I did. Open-world games can fuck right off if you ask me. Jazzpunk should have won.

I'm trying my hardest to like this game, 8 hours in and it's just making me extremely mad to try and play it. I love the Batman games but i just can't get on with the combat system in this game, i feel like i'm missing counters when i shouldn't and constantly dieing, i hate the nemesis system, captains are either near invincible to an annoying degree or are instant kills, listening to their introductions and victory dialogue is very tedious, i'm bored of getting intel after the first 20 times, the environment isn't fun to be in, there's nothing to explore or see it's just a mid sized muddy field with orcs dotted around which i'm bored of killing... and considering that is what all the missions in the game consist of i'm very close to ending it here.
Batman, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God of War, Shaolin Monks, The Warriors, i love group combat/brawling games, i love stealth, i don't understand why i dislike Mordor so much.

@leviathan: i felt the exact same as you from start to finish. i had to force myself to play, once you see the nemesis system the first time its cool, but then i stopped caring. And there is only two places for you to play in, one is greenish with some grass and one is all muddy where you start off. I finished it, but definitely didn't feel like it was the game people said it was. The fact you could just sit there like in assassin creed and kill off 50 guys at once and it was so hard to die, ruined it for me. Powers or no powers i would have liked some sort of a challenge in the combat

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I've gotten about half-way through a couple months ago and I haven't been too inclined to finish it. To be fair, it's pretty fun, but the controls kind of suck and there is a lot of repetition. So yes, like many of those that have also observed, this game is Assassin's Creed.

Edit: The nemesis system which has been lauded a fair bit also seems very shallow in it's implementation. It would be much more interesting if your nemesis was actively hunting you down and there was some sort of danger/risk element to these threats. Unfortunately, all it is in its current implementation is a labelling system with generic recognition dialogue which is not all that impressive when you think about it.

Wow, I just started playing the game as I've begun to work through my pile of shame a little bit. I've been the same way, though I'm only like 2 hours in. I'm going to stick with it, mostly because I paid and bought the game and would like to see it through. I think so far my problem is with how Talion controls, getting around and trying to be precise has been an issue for me so far. But, I'm coming off of playing Arkham Knight, and just finished playing through Infamous Second Son and First Light. All three of those feel like quick ways to traverse an open world, which might be coloring my experience with Shadow of Mordor at the moment.

I'll stick with it and see where it goes, but my initial reaction has actually felt similar to the OP. But, maybe I can knock it out in a few days or even have it be a pick up and drop game, as it sounds like the story isn't good.

My main problem is that I wanted a Lord of the Rings game and this is most definitely NOT a Lord of the Rings game. It feels like generic fantasy that pays some lip service to the LotR lore.

I keep trying to play this game and I am not enjoying it either.

To me this game was more of a game of concept rather than a complete gratifying experience. Which is weird since the full aspect of the game doesn't really fully evolve until much later in the game. It's a weird one for sure, yet I enjoyed the time I had with it. I would not mind if one day when I'm bored and there's a drought of games that I might just do another playthrough just to revisit it and create some whacky nearly impossible warchief.

For anyone trying to make it through this game just to beat it or to see the story through. Don't bother.

You should play around with the sandbox a bit though and see if you can do some fun stuff with the nemesis system. I got about ~10h out of the game total and I did some cool stuff. Never beat it but I feel pretty done anyways!

Unlock the ability to ride the animal deal-y things, then see if the travel is a problem for you.

I enjoyed the game a great deal but the dynamic systems may not favor you in some cases. I remember getting my ass handed to me by a particular orc because of the nature of his traits, i hated that orc and when i finally managed to kill him it was a great narrative that was built through the nemesis system alone. Problem is, if you let the game be too easy for you (using the upgrade points, at all,) then you're not likely to get killed and not likely to feel what makes the nemesis system great.

The dynamic system and upgrade system in the game leave it to chance to be a hit or miss for some people, i think. Luckily i've learned to ignore upgrade systems until i felt frustrated enough to need them as i think easy games are pretty boring.

Also worth noting i stopped at Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Batman Arkham City so if you've played all the, "clone" variations you maybe just burnt out on that style.

[edit: fuckin hell, i didn't realize the OP was so old. Damn tricky internet! ]

Honestly what put me off the most about this game was the writing. I'm not a huge Tolkien fanatic but Shadow of Mordor's character interaction and stuff just felt way too contemporary. I remember how much they hyped up the story and how slavishly loyal they were to the source material, but I got a really bad taste of fan-fiction in my mouth from playing it. Sort of glad I never finished it, I got the final boss spoiled for me and I couldn't help but shake my head and laugh a bit.

Don't get me wrong, it's a well made game. But I didn't get much of a LOTR/Tolkien vibe from it, and that was a pretty big turn-off.

I preordered because up to this point I had enjoyed every game Monolith had ever made, but, yeah, it didn't grab me at all. As some others have mentioned, the controls felt off. I'm no fan of third person games in general, but this in particular felt like the character and the camera were at odds with each other, and I could never get the hang of how to get Talion to move the way I wanted in relation to the camera.

Im on the similar page here. I couldnt get through the abysmal story. And that everything in the world looks bland and same didnt help either.

I never finished it but i enjoyed it when i played it. I think it's like this, if you never enjoyed anything about assassins creed or the lord of the rings, you probably won't get into this game much. I'm probably a mission or two away from getting to the second area that everyone is saying the game takes a turn for the better but i'm the type who hardly finishes anything.