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Middle-earth: Shadow of War: First Gameplay Video

Froz3n

Member
I don't understand at all from this trailer how the open world works or story missions in general. Is this just a tower defense RPG or what is going on? Is it even open world anymore? The map just looked like a series of 'strongholds'.
 

OldRoutes

Member
I don't understand at all from this trailer how the open world works or story missions in general. Is this just a tower defense RPG or what is going on? Is it even open world anymore? The map just looked like a series of 'strongholds'.

It's probably closer to Dynasty Warriors than the last game, if I understand correctly. More missions based.
 

Gurish

Member
Was seriously impressed by that gameplay demo, the scale, how dynamic it is, technically looks much improved as well, looks great.
 

Raptor

Member
Is that Orc of the preorder stuff playable too? like the hand of sauron was in the first?

That would be awesome as fuck.
 
There were a fuck load of orks there. Pretty impressive.

I think it is interesting that you are so overpowered, but the game constantly changing time scales makes my head hurt a bit. It would be nice if you could use your wraith powers at just normal time scale and they had the same effect so the game 1. looked more visual consistent and 2. so that it did not approach the feeling of only filled with QTEs.
 
That looks fucking awesome! I'll get this game for sure but I may have to wait until next year. I don't foresee much gaming time later this year ☹️
 

Seijuro

Member
I don't understand at all from this trailer how the open world works or story missions in general. Is this just a tower defense RPG or what is going on? Is it even open world anymore? The map just looked like a series of 'strongholds'.

Yeah, trailer was good but left me slightly confused as to what the whole game will really be like. My guess is the shown mission is kind of like a Ubisoft watchtower (as every area seems to have a stronghold you can conquer) and inbetween you get to do the "normal" open world stuff (like the first game).
 

Gurish

Member
Cross gen like the first one?, because graphics don't seem more impressive(except for the lightning maybe)

As for the combat it's Shadow of Mordor alright. I hope the fans like it.

First one wasn't really cross gen, more like it was downported from current gen to last gen, it was horrible and practically unplayable so I think you can completely ignore those versions.

It was an early current gen only title, I think the sequel seems much more impressive overall though it's not Horizon visually it still seems like it's doing lots of stuff so it can feel "next gen" in other ways than just visuals.
 

Loxley

Member
Wow, they really fleshed out the "orc army" idea from the first game, awesome. I'm also glad they're expanding the RPG elements by adding loot. And it's not just Mordor this time! Hurray for environmental variety.

I'm going to assume the bosses were easily taken down for demo purposes, hopefully they provide more of a challenge in the final game.
 

Zukkoyaki

Member
Man this looks fucking amazing. Looks like it's going to crush its predecessor and I legit loved that game. Incredible work, Monolith!
 
Not terribly impressed. I liked the first one, but lots of things changes since then, and some aspects of the gameplay just feel dated, like it seems we are back to arkham combat and I am positively done with that particular take on the battle system.
 

DrBo42

Member
Wait so after all that he literally just climbed up the wall and killed the leader ?

That struck me as odd as well. It even seemed to be that the initial breach was tied to his death, making the troll useless. Not sure what's actually going on there.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Why didn't Tolkien write WW1 flamethrowers into Lord of the Rings himself I wonder!

It may just be due to demo purposes, but the cutscene to completely unchallenging gameplay certainly seems to be fair out of whack.

Having said that a random thought occurred to me: The NEMESIS system is something Halo games absolutely should have developed into themselves and their sandbox gameplay.
 

Flipyap

Member
Love the improvements they've made.
The world still seem utterly uninteresting, but with 4 regions, maybe variety will be there.
Combat still seems serviceable, but that's never been a problem for me, the focus seems to be elsewhere, and combat needs to not be in the way.
The combat needs to be improved and made more challenging for the Nemesis system to work. You became so powerful, so quickly in the first game, it became nearly impossible to find a new "nemesis" after a couple of hours.

I actually love the intros to fights and other such scenes, where the Nemesis/memory system is put on display. It's incredibly well done and sets the tone. The animation and voice acting are both fantastic.
Character introductions aren't the issue - it's every other event that results in a cutscene that takes control away from the player.
At least the character introductions that happen from afar. Those stilted sword clashes weren't exactly incredible the first time around.
 
Probably the last thing some will want, but I hope the campaign has a time limit ala XCOM2, a counter before Sauron attacks. That way it won't get too repetitive and you are not only not required to complete the entire map, but you wont have time to do it.
 

UrbanRats

Member
So looks like it's not really open world anymore and more mission based.

What makes you say that? Even if the regions are separated, so was SoM.
And SoM also had "missions" like most open world games ( go on the marker and start the mission).

The combat needs to be improved and made more challenging for the Nemesis system to work. You became so powerful, so quickly in the first game, it became nearly impossible to find a new "nemesis" after a couple of hours.

Actually my only Nemesis i had late in the game, a crossbow guy with basically all the defenses, and that could one shot me on sight.
Died at him 3 times.
Had to bring out all my war chiefs to kill him.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Agreed. It makes the game standout from others, imho. Nemesis is their baby, why not show it off.

Exactly. And besides, I love having orcs talk shit to me after I either defeated them or they did me. It makes encounters so much more personal. Only now the entire system is on steroids with more than just orcs to worry about.
 
Suddenly Talion cried to Rogboz the Avenger, and sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, pre order bonus from the collector's edition, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of Glibbez the Accursed, but he was ever before them. Storknod rode there, the white poison resistance bonus on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first bunch of orcs roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Talion could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his ring of power ran like +10 DPS in his veins, and he was borne up like a god of old, even as Talion in the first game when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it offered immunity to fire, and the grass did not flame into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from some other part of Morder; and darkness was removed from that part of the map, and the hosts of Evil zone 6 wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the sick execution style combat moves rode over them. And then all the host of Talion burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the battle songs pack 1 microtransaction had been purchased, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to no one, since they were in the middle of fucking Mordor.

You made my day (it's a shitty one). Ty sir.
 

TheOneWhoKnockz

Neo Member
The world is said to be much larger so it's not strictly mission-based. I think what we've seen are missions / side activities you can do. That or to save you time from travelling from stronghold to stronghold (even fast travelling), they have included a carousel feature that allows to cycle through the the in-game strongholds to take over.
 

SomTervo

Member
This looks almost like an end-to-end scripted video. If it's not, and they pull it off, this is a serious achievement.

Also: it's not open world anymore? Or did we just zoom to one 'fortress' in an open world?

If it's not open world, that's damn bold.
 

Drinkel

Member
It reminds me a lot of Mount and Blade if it was way more scripted, with orcs and a budget.
Very interested in the metagame aspects but what is shown of the core gameplay and tone does nothing for me.
 
This looks almost like an end-to-end scripted video. If it's not, and they pull it off, this is a serious achievement.

Also: it's not open world anymore? Or did we just zoom to one 'fortress' in an open world?

If it's not open world, that's damn bold.

Pretty sure it is, this is just an example of a major fortress mission. Each separate area that has a fortress in it is it's own open world area, with it's own hierarchy of nemesis.
 
Looks like a lot of fun, but visually, it doesn't really look like the game advanced at all over the first one. Although the scale of everything looks much more grander.
 
Who needs an Orc army when the player is basically God? Just didn't really get a sense of the army amounting to anything beyond theatrics in that video.

Agreed. Hope it's more than that. Also want to see the Open World and not just these castles.

Did give me some Mount and Blade vibes.
 

hichanbis

Banned
Who needs an Orc army when the player is basically God? Just didn't really get a sense of the army amounting to anything beyond theatrics in that video.

Valid point.

That was my issue with the previous one, why mess up with enemy ranks when you can defeat any general easily.

They need to seriously raise the difficulty or add a (really) hard mode.
 

Acheteedo

Member
Man, this developer really pushes the envelope, can't say that about many. I didn't get too much out of the nemesis system in the first game since I was really careful and only died once. This new system involving your own army, betrayals etc looks to get around that by enforcing interesting unique stories.

Looks incredible.
 

killroy87

Member
Holy fuck, this looks incredible.

Excited for E3, hopefully MS shows some Scorpio footage of this game. If they can sell me on it, I'll absolutely wait and grab it on that.
 
I was skeptical but looks like they truly have improved the nemesis system. It feels as if you really are at war. I'm super impressed.
 

SomTervo

Member
Pretty sure it is, this is just an example of a major fortress mission. Each separate area that has a fortress in it is it's own open world area, with it's own hierarchy of nemesis.

That's the impression I got at the end of the video, too, when it zoomed out and we saw the smaller 'encampments'.

Let's hope it's the case. Having an army-on-army battle in the countryside would be awesome.
 

Geist-

Member
Looks like they took the best part of the last game (the Nemesis System) and upped it x1000. I'll wait until closer to launch to decide if it's day one, but this definitely made an impression. So fucking cool.
 
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