Support NeoGAF

[Last Hearth]

So this recently came on sale on Steam to get both with all DLCs for about $10, and I said what the heck.

Originally when these games came out I avoided them because I'm a pretty big Tolkien fan and did not want to deal with the massive departure from lore that these games were. But I guess after Amazon's butchery I can look at thing with a bit more perspective now.
Plus I am not going to take the lore in these games seriously anyway, just wanted something I can do some hacking and slashing of orcs for 30 minutes when I'm bored and tired.

Tried it for about an hour last night and had a couple of questions, does the game just autosaves? Because up to this point I have not found any way to manually save anything. Do the areas I clear the orcs stay cleared or do they respawn like some MMO?

So far the game is okay, and like I said I'm not going in with high expectations. Anything else I should know?

 

[Chozoldman]

I loved Mordor, but didn't gel with "War" too much.

Grunts will respawn, but ranked orcs are gone once they are gone.

The nemesis system is the star here. When you meet ranked orcs, they get stronger if they defeat you, (promotions within the orc ranks), and will be harder to defeat the next time. Killing ranked orcs will open power vacuums that other orcs try to fill. Also, if you fight a ranked orc and injure them or run away, they will remember it and make appropriate comments. You actually build relationships and arch enemies that have specific history of your encounters.

Try to gather as much Intel on ranked orcs as you can by interrogating field orcs marked in green.

Once you unlock some more advanced combat skills, the game becomes great fun.

 

[DelireMan7]

I only play Shadow of Mordor.

Satisfying combat but got boring at one point. If you use all the power up you find and unlock the good abilities you can become invincible easily. Also the counter system make you kind of invincible. Still very satisfying to hack and slash some orcs.

Nemesis system was disappointing if you play "normally" and without knowledge. I was just killing any ranked orcs I met so I never really had a Nemesis. And anyway killing the highest ranked orcs don't really change anything and they get replaced so...

I saw after that people manipulate the system to create their Nemesis (like dying on purpose, using certain technique on them in order they learn the counter to it, gives them specifics wound...). It's nice system to play with once you know how it works. But if you just play the game "casually", the Nemesis system don't do much.

 

[kyussman]

I enjoyed them both a lot.The original release of Shadow of War was fucking shameful and I didn't touch the game until they had removed all the bullshit.I still felt a bit bad giving them my money for the game tbh......but it was a lot of fun in the end.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I loved these games. Turn your brain off and slaughter a million orcs.

 

[Rush2112]

Think generic shit like AC but now its middle earth.