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Key · 10-28-2015, 12:29 AM

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

I know it's been a while since I've updated this journal. I think I got a little bit too burned out from horror month, and I just needed to take a little while to get away from writing. I feel like i'm back again and ready to write about games more than ever. So, I want to start off with talking about a game I got only a few days ago, but have already put about 5 hours of gameplay into it. It is of course Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

So, what is this game you ask? Well, in the simplest of terms, it's an open world Lord of the Rings RPG. In more complex terms, imagine taking the stealth aspect of Assassins Creed, the open world aspect of Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto and the like, and mixing it all up with the Lord of the Rings lore and the combat system of the Batman Arkham games. I know that may seem a little bit overwhelming at first, but somehow it seems to work really well when it's done the right way.

This game has got a very unique style of gameplay in the sense of story progression. I don't want to really spoil anything, but basically, as you are playing through the game, you'll find yourself in battles with what they call "Captains, Warchiefs, Chieftans, etc" and each rank gets difficult as you can imagine. However, the twist is that the more times you die against a certain ranked orc, the more powerful they become. Basically, you're trying to fight off as many of saurons army as you can without allowing them to promote through the ranks and get stronger. I'm playing through it for my first time and i'm already starting to realize that the amount of deaths that I allowed to occur in the first hour or so really made my game a lot more difficult than it should be. But, the idea of your enemy becoming stronger the more you die is certainly a unique one, but it works really well in this setting. The other twist is that sometimes if an orc wants a certain rank, and another orc already has that rank, they will fight each other and most of the time, the orc wanting the rank will win and take over that rank. It adds a bit of competition and a hint of jealousy as you fight through captain after captain after captain. You obviously want to be careful as you try to take them on though, because sometimes they'll have gained enough influence in their rank to allow other unranked orcs to follow them around and help them in battle. And of course, you'll find yourself fighting against three or maybe four captains at once, and at that point you may as well just run away. There's no shame in that, i've done it multiple times.

When this game was first released, I actually didn't know a whole lot about it, nor do I claim to know much about it now. However, I knew upon release it did really well and everyone who played it seemed to really like it. Truth be told, the only reason I got it is because I was able to snag it off Steam for under 20 bucks with all the DLC's included. I'm now seeing that that price was definitely worth it, and as I said in the games thread, I would probably buy this game at full retail. Especially with a mixture of top notch graphics and the beautifully done voice acting. Everything about the game is so well done that it really does make for such a fantastic experience that I personally would pay over 60 bucks for. But I didn't.

Anyway, I highly recommend this game for anybody who is interested in a new open world style game and I strongly and highly recommend this game if you're interested in anything Lord of the Rings. I can't say that i'm a total fanboy for Lord of the Rings, but I do know for a fact that the entire franchise is a work of art. I actually have fond memories of watching the movies for the first time, and playing through Lord of The Rings: The Third Age, which if I remember correctly was one of the first RPG experiences I've ever had. It really does the lore aspect of the franchise justice as well as making a great game for the catalog of games in the Lord of the Rings franchise.

The last thing I will mention is that the lore is very well implemented into the game. With the story telling of the game itself, you'll find yourself running into familiar faces and names such as Sauron and Golem to name a few. I haven't gotten far enough into the game to see if there are any other linked names between the game and the movies, but the story the game tells on it's own is enough to get you interested. Everything about it is just fantastic and makes for a beautiful experience in a video game.

So go play it, i'm going to do that right now. Have a good time.

10-28-2015, 12:29 AM	#311 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor I know it's been a while since I've updated this journal. I think I got a little bit too burned out from horror month, and I just needed to take a little while to get away from writing. I feel like i'm back again and ready to write about games more than ever. So, I want to start off with talking about a game I got only a few days ago, but have already put about 5 hours of gameplay into it. It is of course Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. So, what is this game you ask? Well, in the simplest of terms, it's an open world Lord of the Rings RPG. In more complex terms, imagine taking the stealth aspect of Assassins Creed, the open world aspect of Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto and the like, and mixing it all up with the Lord of the Rings lore and the combat system of the Batman Arkham games. I know that may seem a little bit overwhelming at first, but somehow it seems to work really well when it's done the right way. This game has got a very unique style of gameplay in the sense of story progression. I don't want to really spoil anything, but basically, as you are playing through the game, you'll find yourself in battles with what they call "Captains, Warchiefs, Chieftans, etc" and each rank gets difficult as you can imagine. However, the twist is that the more times you die against a certain ranked orc, the more powerful they become. Basically, you're trying to fight off as many of saurons army as you can without allowing them to promote through the ranks and get stronger. I'm playing through it for my first time and i'm already starting to realize that the amount of deaths that I allowed to occur in the first hour or so really made my game a lot more difficult than it should be. But, the idea of your enemy becoming stronger the more you die is certainly a unique one, but it works really well in this setting. The other twist is that sometimes if an orc wants a certain rank, and another orc already has that rank, they will fight each other and most of the time, the orc wanting the rank will win and take over that rank. It adds a bit of competition and a hint of jealousy as you fight through captain after captain after captain. You obviously want to be careful as you try to take them on though, because sometimes they'll have gained enough influence in their rank to allow other unranked orcs to follow them around and help them in battle. And of course, you'll find yourself fighting against three or maybe four captains at once, and at that point you may as well just run away. There's no shame in that, i've done it multiple times. When this game was first released, I actually didn't know a whole lot about it, nor do I claim to know much about it now. However, I knew upon release it did really well and everyone who played it seemed to really like it. Truth be told, the only reason I got it is because I was able to snag it off Steam for under 20 bucks with all the DLC's included. I'm now seeing that that price was definitely worth it, and as I said in the games thread, I would probably buy this game at full retail. Especially with a mixture of top notch graphics and the beautifully done voice acting. Everything about the game is so well done that it really does make for such a fantastic experience that I personally would pay over 60 bucks for. But I didn't. Anyway, I highly recommend this game for anybody who is interested in a new open world style game and I strongly and highly recommend this game if you're interested in anything Lord of the Rings. I can't say that i'm a total fanboy for Lord of the Rings, but I do know for a fact that the entire franchise is a work of art. I actually have fond memories of watching the movies for the first time, and playing through Lord of The Rings: The Third Age, which if I remember correctly was one of the first RPG experiences I've ever had. It really does the lore aspect of the franchise justice as well as making a great game for the catalog of games in the Lord of the Rings franchise. The last thing I will mention is that the lore is very well implemented into the game. With the story telling of the game itself, you'll find yourself running into familiar faces and names such as Sauron and Golem to name a few. I haven't gotten far enough into the game to see if there are any other linked names between the game and the movies, but the story the game tells on it's own is enough to get you interested. Everything about it is just fantastic and makes for a beautiful experience in a video game. So go play it, i'm going to do that right now. Have a good time.