Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Catch-All

At the heart of the LoTR is a compilation of love stories. As such, someone needs to do one of those newfangled dating sims to really get the 'story' right. Spoiler notes as to high score pairings:
Gollum + ring
Frodo + Sam
Sam + po-ta-toes

Vector wrote:

Did you play the first game? It's not like Shadow of Mordor was a great story.

Well, okay, but it wasn't armies-of-Balrogs bad.

BadKen wrote:
Vector wrote:

Did you play the first game? It's not like Shadow of Mordor was a great story.

Well, okay, but it wasn't armies-of-Balrogs bad.

Shadow of Balrog?

Yeah, okay, forging a new ring of power. At this point can't you just call it "Master of the Jewelry: Shadow of Morkdork?"

The trailer is reminding me of The Lord of the Rings : The Third Age, with the balrog and rings and hovering around the edges of canon and the main storyline.
The first Mordor game was fun but it tried a bit hard to link itself to the movies - I think at one point Celebrimbor actually said "fly, you fool!".
On the other hand, Aragorn did sanction orc hunting, so I guess this is all good...

Maq wrote:

Yeah, okay, forging a new ring of power. At this point can't you just call it "Master of the Jewelry: Shadow of Morkdork?"

Should have forged it in an area surrounded by water instead of lava. Be creative!!

Kidding aside, loved the first one so can't wait for the new game.

Redherring wrote:

The trailer is reminding me of The Lord of the Rings : The Third Age, with the balrog and rings and hovering around the edges of canon and the main storyline.
The first Mordor game was fun but it tried a bit hard to link itself to the movies - I think at one point Celebrimbor actually said "fly, you fool!".
On the other hand, Aragorn did sanction orc hunting, so I guess this is all good...

Orc hunting! See? I'm not the only one.

Edit: Damn it. I always fall for the red herring.

Hobear wrote:
BadKen wrote:
Vector wrote:

Did you play the first game? It's not like Shadow of Mordor was a great story.

Well, okay, but it wasn't armies-of-Balrogs bad.

Shadow of Balrog?

Can you get a shadow of a Balrog, if he is the source of the light, himself (or herself...are there lady balrogs?)
these are the questions of the spaceship Enterprise

Redherring wrote:

The first Mordor game was fun but it tried a bit hard to link itself to the movies - I think at one point Celebrimbor actually said "fly, you fool!".

The one that got a double-take from me was "We must use the weapon of the Enemy against him."

It's been months since I finished the game, and it's still easy to get my head re-spinning over the way it wrapped a Tolkien-esque "power corrupts" narrative in "badass revenge is awesome!!!!".

Next in line Grand Theft Mordor?

Hobear wrote:

Next in line Grand Theft Mordor?

"Fly motherf*kers".

I'm about 20% into this games and I'm actually finding it hard. It took me about 4 attempts to dispatch my first Warchief (Mogg the Angry Twin), and I only managed that with a poke/slash-and-retreat strategy. I was simply overwhelmed by the number of enemies in the encounter on the training platform.

I'm pretty bad at this rhythmic combat games (which is why I finished neither Batman Arkham Asylum nor Bayonetta), but I feel like I'm missing something. Should I be battering my way through packs of opponents using the combo systems to chain attacks and finishers? If so, what should I be doing about my positioning and targeting? I rarely build up a substantial combo in situations like the one with Mogg.

Or is there a bit more subtlety required? Should I be using my bow to pick off opponents at range to thin their numbers, for example? I'm probably answering my own question here, but is an ability like 'Pin in Place' more useful than I thought for 'sticking' a target next to environmental kills? Headshots currently offer poor rewards at the moment.

I've stepped away from the main campaign, and tried side mission in order to level up my abilities and attributes. But I assume that the game is theoretically beatable with a minimally levelled character.

detroit20 wrote:

I'm pretty bad at this rhythmic combat games (which is why I finished neither Batman Arkham Asylum nor Bayonetta), but I feel like I'm missing something. Should I be battering my way through packs of opponents using the combo systems to chain attacks and finishers? If so, what should I be doing about my positioning and targeting? I rarely build up a substantial combo in situations like the one with Mogg.

Or is there a bit more subtlety required? Should I be using my bow to pick off opponents at range to thin their numbers, for example? I'm probably answering my own question here, but is an ability like 'Pin in Place' more useful than I thought for 'sticking' a target next to environmental kills? Headshots currently offer poor rewards at the moment.

Combos and finisher combinations are IMO the best. Eventually you will get double combo adders and the running jumping over things combo adder. These will help you get to the finisher quickly. But some situation call for the more subtle environmental kill things. I remember the game starting out pretty rough right up through that first warchief, then all of a sudden with the right runes and upgrades it becomes a cakewalk for battles. I would end up looking for someone to kill me just to upgrade the orcs.

That's exactly the kind of reassurance I need, Igneus. I've had to retry a number of the early missions several times, and I was starting to think I was either playing the game wrong and/or badly.

I look forward to being an a position to sacrifice lives in order to upgrade Orcs!

Yeah look at what you can upgrade and how it works into your fighting style. Start actively working your upgrade into your combat so you instinctively do so later on. I found fighting groups here and there very helpful for this or run into a fortress and fight until you need to run away as a good method for learning how to fight groups.

Yeah I had a war chief kill me early and often. He was insanely difficult to kill (had to drive one of those rancor looking things into the middle of his fortress to do it), but after I got a couple of his buddies I had figured everything out and I could go toe to toe with most of them.

Stealth is a very powerful ally. Although if you get the timing right you can wade through a crowd, sometimes 3 or 4 higher level guys will gang up and gank you. Always better to separate your enemies and pick them off.

Igneus wrote:

Combos and finisher combinations are IMO the best. Eventually you will get double combo adders and the running jumping over things combo adder. These will help you get to the finisher quickly.

Igneus is completely right. I had issues with the combat at first because I just wanted to mash buttons as quickly as I could, but when the number of enemies attacking me became more than, say, five, I would die every single time. It wasn't until I got into the rhythm of combat that I actually started to kick some serious butt. And a big part of that rhythm is getting to do the combos and finishers. It's totally worth it (actually, it's absolutely necessary) to learn that rhythm, because it it allows you to progress, and it makes you feel like a badass. I remember that mission in which you are thrown into a pit and have to slay forty orcs or something like that (it was one of those "Legends of the Blade," or something to that effect). The first couple of times, while I was in my button-mashing mindset, I was swiftly and thoroughly beaten. Once I learned to press the right button at the right time and came back to that mission, it was maybe not a walk in the park, but infinitely easier --I actually beat it in my first try. And boy did I feel like the baddest motherf*cker in all of Mordor!

And stealth, like manta173 said, is your best friend in this game. Be as stealthy as you can!

Mario_Alba wrote:

And boy did I feel like the baddest motherf*cker in all of Mordor!

There's your box quote. It's amazing how the game goes from, "Man, I can't handle 3 orcs at once" to what Mario_Alba said as you progress.

I'd say that is one of the bigger flaws in the game. I got very very frustrated initially because I wanted to go and just start tearing Orcs up. The game almost forces you to do a bunch of side quests in order to level up your powers before getting into some of the more fun Orc battles. By the end of the game I was a walking machine of death to Orcs.

Garth wrote:

I'd say that is one of the bigger flaws in the game. I got very very frustrated initially because I wanted to go and just start tearing Orcs up. The game almost forces you to do a bunch of side quests in order to level up your powers before getting into some of the more fun Orc battles. By the end of the game I was a walking machine of death to Orcs.

For me it was that branding want accessable early enough. All I wanted to do was make the orcs work for me. Then instant kill.

Igneus wrote:
Garth wrote:

I'd say that is one of the bigger flaws in the game. I got very very frustrated initially because I wanted to go and just start tearing Orcs up. The game almost forces you to do a bunch of side quests in order to level up your powers before getting into some of the more fun Orc battles. By the end of the game I was a walking machine of death to Orcs.

For me it was that branding want accessable early enough. All I wanted to do was make the orcs work for me. Then instant kill.

Yes, this was especially jarring because they showed branding in the promotional materials for the game, so it seemed like it would be available early on, but was barred off until

Spoiler:

essentially halfway through the game.

It doesn't look like there was ever a big modding scene for Shadow of Mordor. I wonder why?

Played for a bit last night. I dropped right back into it. Very easy to pick it up again. I have a couple of playtime hours before Mass Effect and have not done any of the DLC, any suggestions? (I bought them all but didn't get around to playing them.)

manta173 wrote:

Played for a bit last night. I dropped right back into it. Very easy to pick it up again. I have a couple of playtime hours before Mass Effect and have not done any of the DLC, any suggestions? (I bought them all but didn't get around to playing them.)

I found the DLC a bit jarring as it resets your runes. You keep all your other stuff, but they do modify the skills a bit, as I recall, for some of the DLC. That said, it's really fun, and you should totally play the DLC if you already have it.

Hopped back in tonight and got back in the groove. Just filling up my army as everything else is done. Killing orcs just never gets old.

I've forgotten how to brand captains, or it's different in the beastmaster DLC stuff.

Not sure if different in beast master DLC but in the main game once their health is low grab them to dominate or if they are susceptible to stealth finishers you can stealth brand low level captains.

Hobear wrote:

Not sure if different in beast master DLC but in the main game once their health is low grab them to dominate or if they are susceptible to stealth finishers you can stealth brand low level captains.

I guess I don't know the grab key (on PC), as when they go green I can't straight up brand them. Googling doesn't give me much but I will try pushing the CTRL button when close enough next time. I know it was a simple thing, but it has been a long time since I played and I don't seem to be getting the button prompt I want.