I just can't get into it, I am just running around killing guys and killing more guys just to level up so I can kill the next captain, I so wish I could enjoy this game the writing and music is some of the best I seen/heard this year.

lol at the typo :I

Nothing wrong with liking a game most people dislike or vice versa.

its a quality game, but the nemesis system seems a bit overhyped, can definitely see it being the "game changer" for open world stuff down the line though. as the concept is genius.

I'm nowhere near as into it as most people on here seem to be, but I still enjoy it and think the Nemesis system is really interesting.

This year, so far at least, has been one of the most disappointing years in gaming for quite some time... people have been clamouring for an awesome game, and have been presented with one. I'm not surprised that it's getting a little more attention than it probably should.

Having played it for 20 hours, I do love it. But apart from the nemesis system, it does feel very derivative of other games in the genre.

I had that problem a bit at first once I assured myself I could dispatch Orks. Before I knew it I was killing captains.

But with the story missions, starting with the one that introduces manipulation of the Nemesis system, it picks up. I hear it gets more complex, and rewarding, later on.

I'm in the same boat. But I guess I should have looked more into it before blindly buying into the hype, cause the problems are much what made me dislike AC series. Slow deliberate movements that make it look good but falls apart for me when the way it tries to fluidely read where you wanna go and do with minimal button presses doesn't work. The nemesis system is okay but I guess I feel it gets old really quick for me. Then there is the setting that just makes everything look hellish and depressing with nothing really impressive in the scenery.

I just got to the branding/brainwashing part and it makes it more fun. I got a bit burned out just killing captains on side missions which was fun in and of itself. Then I noticed I had 15 hours of game play logged and only 15% of the story done and so I plowed through some story missions and it got fun again.

@mrfluke: Ya Its a bit dull I would love to see it in the Assassin's Creed games

@creamypies: Ya I agree so far my game of the year is wolfenstein. It's going to be an interesting Game of the year podcast on Giant bomb will the last of us win again ?

The disappointment for me right now are the two skill trees and the rune system - I'm just never very excited for upgrades.

The nemesis system has been great so far but it's obvious to me it could just not bear out for some people. Chance, how far in you are, your skills and, most importantly, how you play, all will tremendously affect what you get out of that system. My brother's game definitely has been much less interesting than mine so far, and I'd never blame him for being bummed by that.

Side note - I too am pleasantly surprised by music and story. Celebrimbor is a great character.

The nemesis system actually manages to make an Assassin's Creed game even more frustrating.

The Nemesis system is great in theory, but the lack of difficulty really crippled it.

I can see the story in front of me of that random orc killing you, becoming a captain for it, and then the 2 of you duelling constantly as he makes his way through the ranks. You invade his duels/hunts/feasts but he manages to get away every time or you manage to get the better of him and he returns with scars later. In the end he becomes a warchief and after a long drawn out battle you finally behead him.

In reality though you just fucking murder everyone thats not a warchief, maybe they get away once but thats about it.

How? Can you elaborate a little? I think the Nemesis system is the best part of this game, and probably wouldn't even want to play it if it wasn't included.

It was definitely a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the game well enough and it's not like I expected it to be amazing, but I thought it would be better in terms of world design and mission variety. The world is small, empty, lifeless and homogeneous with absolutely nothing interesting going on, and the only good missions -- the ones involving orc captains or warchiefs -- are very repetitive. Since all of the warchiefs and captains are just regular orcs with more health and immunity to certain attacks, challenging one at the beginning of the game feels more or less the same as challenging one towards the end. Also, those final missions are pretty damn bad with all the awful QTE and stealth stuff.

And then we have the issues I actually expected, like the awkwardness of the Nemesis system (it's a great concept and I hope other developers will try similar things, but the way it's implemented with that lame menu that keeps popping out and pulling you out of the experience... it's not great) and the simplicity of the combat (visually it's excellent, with really fluid and brutal animations, great dramatic zooms and slow motion effects etc. but from a mechanical standpoint this Arkham combat system is just as mediocre as it's always been).

I mean, it's not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but the demos I had seen certainly had me hoping for something better than what I actually got.

I had very few expectations for this game before it got all the positive reviews, so I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. The last "one of these" games I've played is Assassin's Creed IV, and this is more interesting than that.

All that being said, I don't feel like the Nemesis system is being used to its full potential for me because I'm pretty good at not getting killed. I hope that changes when I get into the second area.

yea, thats it for me, im just mowing down those "nemesis" the game are setting for me, the only way one has beaten me, is if im ambushed with enemies and the "nemesis" starts shooting at me from a distance (but now that i have the wraith flash, thats happening less and less) . other than that im just mowing down fools. so its more an "asshole" system than a "nemesis" system really.

but i hope this game sells well or that this nemesis system is used and expanded on in other games though, real potential for it to be something really special in the right game.

Almost every time I get into a fight and get a rhythm going one of these captains shows up, and wastes a bunch of time with a snarky comment, or sometimes just 10 seconds or more (not an exaggeration) of snarling. So now I have to deal with this guy and his superpowers, which isn't so bad, except I have no idea what his superpowers are because I didn't spend an hour grinding out worms and when I did try to there were none to be found. Whatever, he's a shield guy, so I'll just jump over him and attack him that way

Nevermind, here's another captain, time to break for his intro. He's got spears, and he brought a bunch of buddies so I'd like to go deal with him, but it turns out one of shield guy's abilities is that I can't jump over him and attack from behind, so he's going to take awhile to kill. Aw fuck, spear dude just took off a massive chunk of my health from across a sea of baddies and now I have to wait for this recovery minigame to run it's course. Ok, nailed, but now I still don't have any health so I better run over there and grab some pipeweed or whatever that is.

Shit, another captain and his pals spotted me on the way to harvest it. Oh, Horhog Thunderhead is it? I'm Spoonman671, pleased to make your acquaintance. Some peon with a crossbow nails me from who knows where, and since I never managed to heal myself, I'm waiting through the minigame again, very much aware of the fact that I've never successfuly recovered the second time. Yep, I'm dead. Now lets spend thirty seconds meeting the random guy who killed me, because I really care what his name was, and which spot he's going to take on the captain's board. Hey, why don't we run through all the changes that occur over the next day while we're at it.

Okay, back in the game. But what's this? Why am I sitting on top of this tower instead of being offered a second try at the mission I was just on? Now I have to run all the way back there only to fail again because all those captains are still hanging out there and have even more special abilities now? CLOSE APPLICATION.

Basically, the nemesis system thinks it's way more interesting than I think it is, and this causes it to waste a lot of my time. This is layered over some frustrating mechanics, like the recovery minigame, captains that can take out enormous hunks of your health bar, and no mission restarts. I'm hoping the ability to brand enemies, which I've just unlocked (far too late in the game, in my opinion) will help turn me around on the game overall.

@spoonman671: Interesting...I actually have a totally different view of the Nemesis system. I don't "Grind out" worms for Intel at all...I just grab them when I see them and use the intel I get to plan out my next moves as far as captains and warchiefs go...and I never saw the opening cutscenes from captain encounters as a waste of time, I think they are awesome.

I guess the game just isn't for you, and that's too bad because I think it's amazing. My favorite game of this year so far.

Definitely not disappointed in general, but when I hear Brad talking about it, looking at the review and the QL; I don't think it is as great as he/they make it out to be. It is a solid game, but from playing it for 2 hours I can already name several core problems it has. For instance, I don't know what Brad and Dan were going on about, but the parkour in this game isn't at all better than in Assassin's Creed. It has the exact same 'I didn't snap to the surface you wanted because we don't allow for precision and just guess where you want to land and we guessed wrong' problem. The movement in that game is really not that good. I actually think Assassin's Creed might be better. At least that game messes up consistently, to the point where I know 'Okay, this should work, but this system doesn't work properly, so this will probably make me snap to there instead'. In this game it just feels random at times. I have no idea why I jumped off a building entirely when I wanted to snap to a rope or roof not half a meter away, but that's what happened anyway.

Also, so far the game seems too easy to me. I have died on purpose to refresh the Captains list. Haven't died since and already took out half of the Captains. I'm not sure how the Power in this game works, but best I can tell from the QL, it seems like Power 14 Captains should be relatively tough, yet I killed those relatively easily.

I am definitely having a lot of fun regardless though. Just wish it was a little more challenging because to be honest, so far it seems that Nemesis system is more awesome sounding than it actually is in practice, because it barely matters. It doesn't help that I got the exact same Orc showing up saying almost the same stuff 4 times in a row after I killed him. I'm not having the same experience Brad had at all. I believe him in that there are a lot of different Nemeses, but so far I'm getting the exact same ones over and over again.

@spoonman671: off topic but did you go to a show during the NIN/Soundgarden tour ? I went when they came to Toronto awesome show.

@zevvion: The traversal isn't any more precise than Assassin's Creed, but I think that some people are tricked into thinking that this game controls better because there are fewer magnetic points, and the game doesn't have as many possibilities to choose from when you jump from point A to point B. You may still end up at point C sometimes, but points D-Q are simply not present, as they would be in a dense Assassin's Creed city.

@thebrokenpinion: Afraid not. I generally don't go to concerts. They just aren't how I enjoy music.

That's a bummer it's not hitting for you, I'm loving it, I might try to 100% it and I never do that. I'd like to just tell you you're crazy but you like NIN and Soundgarden so you can't be all bad :P

If you think the game is too easy you should go to the menu and disable all the combat prompts. Many people are saying that it's too easy but I've found that with the prompts disabled it's a lot harder to counter because when there's a lot of orcs around you, you won't have the prompt that tells you what orcs are attacking and when to counter them.

@hoecake: the second area is rather pretty, though I guess it just trades brown for green

And the backlash begins.

@thesoutherndandy: I want to like it, it's October so in the mood for a horror game I am playing Dead Space will give ME another shot after I finish that. lol ya I am a huge NIN fan I even have a NIN tattoo they are amazing live

It won't... probably. Not to be a downer, but no way. After reading your text I think you will be inviting further disappointment, but who knows. Slim chance!

For me this game is reminding me a lot of my experience with Assassins Creed III. I was really hyped for both games but when I started playing them I got really disappointed really fast. I beat AC3 and I'm planning on beating Mordor and as of right now Mordor is defiantly the better game imo, but I think when I look back at my time with both I'll just wish they could have met their potential.

I'm about 6 hours in and I don't get it either. Story is bland, giving you no reason to care about anything.

The gameplay is literally just Batman except you switch the cool traversal stuff in Batman games with the boring traversal system of Assassin's Creed.

Nemesis system is cool... but the random element really sucks the fun out of the hunt when you are taking on one guy and then eight other War Chiefs pop up (see quick look).

I'm really just stumped at why reviewers found this game special. Maybe they were all just really bored this year and wanted to buy into the hype of something?

I'm most disappointed with how shit the responsiveness of the climbing/movement controls can be. How has seven years passed since the original Assassin's Creed and all these games still not understand how important those elements are to nail?

Try to climb during a high speed chase? Talion stands still. Try to jump off a ledge before a Caragor kills you? Talion doesn't move. It steals the tension and drama from so many moments.

This also extends to how most AC games have great open worlds but piss-poor main missions. I just finished "learning" how to ride Caragors after spending twelve hours riding Caragors and wrecking Uruks with them.

So many flaws for such a polished, fun experience.

I love the game. I think the Nemesis system adds a lot. What some people here claim is "frustrating" I find refreshing. The side activities, which in most games I find mind-numbingly boring, are actually interesting because I have to worry about the captains showing up and ruining it for me. This, in turn, makes me hate them and want to hunt them down. I also think the Batman combat isn't copied enough (since I think it's great) so I just love fighting things in this game, which I could never say about Assassin's Creed.

I agree about the traversal not being great. It's a little better than Assassin's Creed, but barely, and I think the problem would be a lot worse if the world wasn't so open and had more structures. Still, I haven't run into a scenario where flawless traversal is imperative, so it doesn't matter if I accidentally climb up something. Nothing is more frustrating in Assassin's Creed then falling when you don't intend to. Mordor's traversal is a lot faster, too, so mistakes can be correctly a lot quicker.

The game is not perfect, and I don't think the Nemesis system has that great of a stake in the world outside of one's personal attachment toward the captains that you interact with, but it is about as good of a first step as something can possibly be. I can't wait for other games to utilize and implement on this system because it's such a cool idea.

I'm enjoying just about everything in the game, but the running and climbing controls kind of got to me. Really, any game that binds the run button to A or X bothers me (like most Rockstar games). If I have to pull some ridiculous Monster Hunter claw bullshit on my controller just so I can control the camera and run at the same time, something is wrong. Assassin's Creed easily solved this by putting the running/climbing controls on a shoulder button, leaving your thumb free to control the camera. I also felt like the combat was a slight step down from Batman, mostly because it lacks a few of the fun enemies types from Batman (ie the knife guys). There's so much room for improvement, so I really hope they make a sequel.

The Nemesis system only works because of the fantastical nature of this game though, at least if you keep the concept of "death", right? These Uruks can "come back" later because they're supposed to be a resilient species that can survive the horrendous injuries you inflict upon them, and you can do the same because you're a spooky scary ghost man.

The only way that would work outside of the fantastical is if the game simply doesn't allow you to kill enemies, or your nemeses are actually friends/relatives of enemies you've killed. Assassin's Creed could have enemies with genetic memories of their ancestor's dying by your (or your ancestor's) hand, but I imagine that would be too innovative for Ubisoft.

I'm really enjoying it so far (6 hours in), combat is solid and the Nemesis system makes encounters unpredictable and special, but the story is incredibly disappointing. The presumably main characters are so much less interesting than the procedurally generated orcs the game throws at you. That level of characterization (or lack thereof) is so far below the storytelling standards that it seems weird.

For me, this game is all the things I like about the AC series, which I tried to get into but never could, and none of the things I dislike. Having a lot of fun with it. It seems like a while simce I have had proper fun with a video game.

Question- Has anyone had an Uruk come back after dying via decapitation? Because that would be some bizarre immersion breaking shit.

@frostyryan said:

I think this happened to me once, because I was sure I decapitated the first captain I killed and he came back, but I might be mistaken. Those orcs all look the same to me! It wouldn't bother me either way, to be honest. I'm not even sure where the whole decapitation thing came from. Would be cool to see a returning orc with his neck all stitched up.

Or it could work in a Metal Gear Solid game because nanomachines.

I've enjoyed my time with this game but my biggest complaint is that similar to most assassin creed games, I constantly find myself running, vaulting, climbing in directions I don't always intend to go. It can be extremely frustrating but that problem is by no means exclusive to this game.

Loving it so far and I'm still a major Assassin's Creed fan. I get what Dan was on about how they've solved some of the traversal stuff but I wish Shadow of Mordor had a little more precision in its climbing mechanics at times, something it lacks compared to AC. There are times when I feel I should be able to climb specific areas of the environment but are denied, guess I've been spoilt by AC in that regard.

But it nails what I thought AC: Brotherhood accomplished so well, in that it makes you feel like a real badass and the mechanics never get in the way of that.

I'm not! im not blown away ign dot com, but the nemesis system in particular makes this interesting, coupled with AC style gameplay but more interesting that any of the AC games, esp with batman combat (its no, say, Bayonetta, but really combat on that level is its own genre, and this isn't that). Also, another thing better than AC: no stealth stalking missions. Or really any of the other really badly designed missions common in AC.

I think this system would work with almost any game. They only have a chance to come back if you don't decapitate them anyways, and you could explain someone surviving his "death" even in a realistic scenario. (I think)

Well if you compare it to the uber praise Brad is giving it its a huge dissapointment but i think its a deacent open world game.

Anyone else feel like they swapped the order of the areas around at some point during development?

I just finished the game and had literally zero enemies 'come back' at any point. I guess I just executed everything. I did like the idea of flipping enemies into undercover agents and helping them get promoted though; that aspect would work pretty well in AC.

I started playing it yesterday. I can recognize that there are a lot of good ideas in the game, but it just hasn't quite clicked. I'm definitely enjoying it, but I think if I was playing a different game with the nemesis system implemented therein, I would be having much more fun. Which is weird because I do actually like the LoTR series. I did recently come off Alien: Isolation, so perhaps I'm still not in the mood for fantasy.

Just finished it today. This will be the only game since Far Cry 3 that I will go back and 100% it.

I thought about playing this game if only to experience the nemesis system (hate all that LOTR shit) but then I realised it would be best to wait for a game I'm interested that will crib this system.

Damn, imagine if the next Assassin's Creed had this nemesis system. That would be amazing.

I like this game and it ruined me for AC. I popped into Black Flag after this and forgot you can't just climb a cliff, its fucking stupid AC is some bullshit. This game rocks though have fun bein different I guess