Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Catch All

You can leap in? I thought you just watched the characters in the fight pit?

You do, but the surviving captain will still be right there after the fight has ended, usually weakened and a cinch to dominate.

Forgive my ignorance, do you walk over to one of the pit icons after the fight ends or is there a way to immediately fight? I haven’t seen an obvious option to fight.

Thanks!

The winner of the fight is right there in the arena after the fight is over. You just fight them like you would any other orc that you encountered on the map.

I have downloaded this game twice and played about 3 hours each time. They throw so much at you in the beginning that it is overwhelming. But, you guys talking is making me contemplate my 3rd attempt. I LOVED Shadow of Morder and the Nemesis system, so I feel like once I sit down and commit myself to re-learning the mechanics, I'll have a blast.

skeletonframes wrote:

I have downloaded this game twice and played about 3 hours each time. They throw so much at you in the beginning that it is overwhelming. But, you guys talking is making me contemplate my 3rd attempt. I LOVED Shadow of Morder and the Nemesis system, so I feel like once I sit down and commit myself to re-learning the mechanics, I'll have a blast.

Yea it's really good, especially playing this time of year when the movies came out in December when it's cold outside as it brings that warm, nostalgic movie feels back..well, at least for me

hbi2k wrote:

The winner of the fight is right there in the arena after the fight is over. You just fight them like you would any other orc that you encountered on the map.

Ah.. the obvious. Thank you. Ive been lamenting the loss of my moaner orc character but the sadness lessened when I dominated a singing (!) orc bard. So cool.
Tonight I tried raiding an online player’s fortress and that earned me one of those nefarious loot chests from the micro transaction days.

Great gameplay loop.

whispa wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:

I have downloaded this game twice and played about 3 hours each time. They throw so much at you in the beginning that it is overwhelming. But, you guys talking is making me contemplate my 3rd attempt. I LOVED Shadow of Morder and the Nemesis system, so I feel like once I sit down and commit myself to re-learning the mechanics, I'll have a blast.

Yea it's really good, especially playing this time of year when the movies came out in December when it's cold outside as it brings that warm, nostalgic movie feels back..well, at least for me :D

I had the same experience. Third time playing is the charm. I loved Morder. War is great and you slowly realize how much more there is to this game. Give it another try.

chooka1 wrote:
whispa wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:

I have downloaded this game twice and played about 3 hours each time. They throw so much at you in the beginning that it is overwhelming. But, you guys talking is making me contemplate my 3rd attempt. I LOVED Shadow of Morder and the Nemesis system, so I feel like once I sit down and commit myself to re-learning the mechanics, I'll have a blast.

Yea it's really good, especially playing this time of year when the movies came out in December when it's cold outside as it brings that warm, nostalgic movie feels back..well, at least for me :D

I had the same experience. Third time playing is the charm. I loved Morder. War is great and you slowly realize how much more there is to this game. Give it another try.

Downloaded it yesterday. Going to check it out after work today or tomorrow. All I remember was I ran into a woman and we had to hunt down 2 or 3 enemies. I think maybe I'll just restart from scratch.

Enjoy! Please share your experiences. The game is a bit dense with little explanation, but , over time for me that’s led to continua, aha moments of finally seeing how one of the systems works and impacts gameplay. Continual discoveries.

When I turned on the game today I learned that one of my fortresses had been beaten by an online player. That’s kind of cool. I didn’t lose control nor, I think, lose any of my orca.

I hit the Balrog introductory mission. Very cool! Later I had to defend my fortress as one of the main missions. Very cool dominating attacking captains and finding myself with 8 captains defending the fortress.

Such a great rediscovery.
I see it’s on sale on Xbox for $10 as part of the Black Friday digital sales. Any sense how often a game like this disappears from Gamepass?

I've put another hour and a half into this game. At first the camera was giving me fits. I don't know if it's just coming from 60fps Valhalla, or the sluggishness of the camera in general, but I couldn't get a feel for looking around until about 30 minutes of gametime. It seems "fine" now, though.

Man, I forgot how much I like this style of combat. It's almost like a rhythm game to me. It feels super fluid and I'm enjoying running into large groups of enemies and going off. I also appreciate games that let you do wildly unrealistic things in the name of fun gameplay. Like jumping off a 300ft cliff and landing on your feet.

Killed my first 2 Nemesis Orcs. There is so much personality in the enemies. Just from 2 minute fights, I'm getting a better sense of character from these orcs than pretty much any character in Valhalla.

I raided someone else’s fortress online. Epic struggle with great loot. So much fun.

skeletonframes wrote:

I've put another hour and a half into this game. At first the camera was giving me fits. I don't know if it's just coming from 60fps Valhalla, or the sluggishness of the camera in general, but I couldn't get a feel for looking around until about 30 minutes of gametime. It seems "fine" now, though.

It definitely isn't you; it just seems to be a smidge behind the controller. I am also just about 2-3 hours in and I'm slowly adjusting to it.

I'm using the game to stave off feelings of want and desire for Valhalla as I want to play it on PS5/Series X whenever that day comes for me, and it definitely scratches a number of those same itches. I'm just not sure if it scratches them quite the way I want it to. Specifically, I really want the gear drops to start getting a bit more interesting. It is early, so I realize it could change later, but right now I'm just getting +2 whatever and...it's boring. Sure would like some perks or something on them soon. We will see.

Each region houses an Ithildin Door. Find all six pieces of the poem to unlock the door and get the treasure inside. Each of the five Barrows in the game hide pieces of the Legendary Bright Lord Set. (IGN)

Drops get more interesting as the game progresses. For example, I have a sword that has a 37 percent chance of lighting enemies on fire and my armor has a similar chance to poison any enemy who melees me. Combine those effects with some of the perks and you have a mini build.

The controls certainly take getting some used to. The most interesting new part of the game, for me at least, is building your army and taking over fortresses. I like all the training orders that let you customize your orcs.

That is exciting to hear, and definitely ensures I'll keep pushing forward for at least a period of time.

Was the beginning really hard even for returning vets? The first two hours were oddly hard given having beaten SoM without too much trouble.

It took me a bit to get back into the game. Perhaps, in part, the controls were a little stiff compared to more recent games. As the powers unlock the game hot easier for me.

Got to remember you finished SoM with god-tier upgrades, and now you're back to Square One.

Got to remember to play careful, retreat when necessary, use your surroundings, not let yourself get swarmed, etc. It can be rough when you're used to being able to wade into just about anything and come out all right.

The game continues to surprise me after 20 hours. I lost to a legendary captain during an online, I believe, vendetta mission. The captain took my sword and i had to hunt the sucker down to get it back!

There truly hasn’t been anything as cool as the nemesis system since its introduction. I do enjoy getting in over my head when several captains suddenly show up and my strategy is to dominate them one-by-one to help me survive.

I’m level 43 now and I did notice the skill selection ran out of really cool skills a while ago.

It’s so hard to turn down those random mission icons that pop up. My favorite are online fortress raids. FWIW, I bought the expansion pass (code dlc if you buy the definitive edition for $10 from Amazon) and the additional orc tribes made the purchase a good one. I’m not sure whether I’ll play the additional two story dlcs because they do not involve Tallion.

Great game!

I sure would love to see a new Assassin's Creed game that combines the ideas of Odyssey's mercenaries/cultists with the Nemesis System concept. That would be pretty awesome.

Or really, just more games building off of the Nemesis concept. It's still one of my favorite new game mechanics in recent years.

It baffles me that it's been six years since Shadow of Mordor and the only other game that's taken the Nemesis system and run with it is Shadow of War.

I'll say again what I said then: Rockstar, drop whatever other bullsh*t you're up to and make Bully 2 with procedurally-generated clique leaders, you cowards.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I wrapped up the “main game” this morning and moved onto the Shadow Wars endgame. I’m level 50. It appears ill have to do some level grinding for both Tallion and my orcs. Grateful the developers made adjustments to cut down the grinding for the end game.
Terrific ending for the main game.
I do admit that skill points became a but superfluous once I had all my desired skills

And credits rolled after 32 hours. Terrific end game after the massive overhaul a few years ago. Instead of 10 stages of Shadow Wars there are now 3 which are just enough in my opinion. There is an endless mode after the game ends that allows you to continue sieges, unfinished missions and online vendettas. Perfect length. I like the AC games but 60 plus hours for Odyssey is too much for me.

If you are playing on Gamepass you might consider ordering the Definitive Edition from Amazon for $10. The season pass is a dlc code. I have not touched the extra separate dlc story modes but I did think the two additional orc tribes added to the main game enhanced diversity of enemies and offered good additional missions for leveling up, gear and dominating orcs.

I messed with the Eltariel DLC a little but bounced off of it. The heart and soul of the game is dominating orcs and building your army. What they replaced it with was not nearly as engaging.

An additional delight for me is I think I now get the appeal of Pokémon. While I haven’t played more than an hour of Pokémon I believe collecting orcs and training three to fight shares some similarities with Pokémon, no?

Anyone play the Boromar dlc?

chooka1 wrote:

An additional delight for me is I think I now get the appeal of Pokémon. While I haven’t played more than an hour of Pokémon I believe collecting orcs and training three to fight shares some similarities with Pokémon, no?

Anyone play the Boromar dlc?

Gotta dominate 'em all?

chooka1 wrote:

An additional delight for me is I think I now get the appeal of Pokémon. While I haven’t played more than an hour of Pokémon I believe collecting orcs and training them to fight shares some similarities with Pokémon, no?

Anyone play the Boromar dlc?

I started a new playthrough alongside a young man with Down's syndrome that I do respite care for on the weekends. He loves Batman and devoured both the Telltale and Batman: Arkham games, and after plowing through Arkham Knight together I thought he might enjoy a variation on the theme.

One of his quirks is that he's very big on sharing: if we get a meal together, he will studiously offer me a bite of whatever's he's eating in between every bite that he takes. He's the same with gaming: he's not content for me to watch him play or to watch me play. If we play a video game together, it's very important to him that we share controller time about 50/50 and pass the controller frequently.

All of which to say that being able to change the difficulty level on the fly is a godsend for playing together. He doesn't have the best reflexes or hand-eye coordination whereas I've beaten this, Shadow of Mordor, and every Batman Arkham game at least once each and usually on whatever the difficulty level just above the default is.

I love being able to swap from Nemesis to Easy before handing him the controller and vice versa when I take it back from him. We each die at about the same frequency, each of us gets a challenge that's appropriate to our skill, and we each have to consider Captains' strengths and vulnerabilities when planning a fight and sometimes run away when things get too hairy.

This game really is something special in a way that's belied by its warmed-over edgelord fanfiction story and goresploitation aesthetic.

That is a great write-up. Thank you for that (and for doing that work, it is tough stuff).