OS Neutral Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2024)

[Huntn]

I broke this out after many years (Game released 2017?) gathering dust in my Gaming queue and was pleasantly surprised. Well acted, scripted, and animated. Someone, maybe PC Gamer (?) gave this a top rating for its melee combat. So far I’m challenged a little because I’m not playing on a consol controller, but I have mitigated it with a 12 button gaming mouse, and my Razer Nostromo, also programmable. Some fights are exillerating.

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The melee combat is quite satisfying and grusome. A lot of heads go flying. I’ve found in most cases I can handle 5 opponents who have circled me, while admitting this is not ideal. 😛 When you strike one opponent and another tries to attack from behind, a slight twitch of the mouse as if turning and throwing up a block/counter (RMB) is quite effective. You are greatly aided by special attacks.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when an opponent is down and an icon shows they can be finished, it requires Shift plus LMB (left hand). I’m happy to use my pinky for sneaking (also Shift) but I find that using WSAD for moving and Shift on that hand, I’m not fast enough when it pops up for a second, to get the Finishing stroke in. It’s easier for me to also program shift into my thumb on my mouse (right hand, button 10).

I’ve also noticed that I have to be careful with the fights I pick. Situational awareness is paramount. Sometimes, I start what is a 3 orc fight, that suddenly turns into a 10+ fight. This is the time to run away. 😁

One of the most unrealistic aspects of the game is when I follow more or less a line of 10 Orcs and one by one, I backstab them and no one notices until they’re all dead, lol. I’ll take it. 😉

 

[Huntn]

Ok, I'm getting a bit frustrated, missions are given to take out Chiefs, it's not a straightforward proposition, since they are rarely, never alone, and as soon as you attack them, you might end up surrounded by 20 hostile NPCs. I'm kind of good with this, you can set up distractions and can run around but for one captain last night he and his mob chased me across the map, and I could never shake the mob enough to fight him mano e mano, I ran out of my mana arrows that will replenish over time, but I used 2 to shoot bee hives, which is usually a good tactic for breaking up crowds, and the damn things did not fall. Then I was out of arrows again.. Sometimes these can be found laying around. Anyway, when you fail and die, the associated chiefs get stronger, which is not a good thing. Anyhow, I'll give it another shot tonight.

 

[Huntn]

Ok, I‘ve figured out Shadow of Mordor.

More background- You play a person of Gondor (I believe) a resistance fighter, where you and your wife have been executed by the forces of Sauron, but you have been turned into a wraith, “banished from death” whatever that means, but not in the service of the Dark Lord and you have the ability to return to flesh and blood and undermine Sauron and his Uruk.. So you run around Mordor performing one person guerrilla attacks, which at this point, Mordor is not perpetually dark and foreboding, although it is infested with bad guys.

This game has great melee, and ranged combat. In a melee fight, you can take on 5 adversaries with confidence, even 10 if you are feeling energetic , but you can easily get in over your head as more adversaries show up. When the horn is blown, be ready to run and climb. The key here is to be ready to disengage, especially early in the game where there is no inherent healing. You may have to run and find healing herbs scattered around the landscape, with bad guys hot on your trail.

Tactics

• Use Height- Your ability to climb and remove yourself from direct attack is not matched by any adversary.
• Dealing with a crowd- Frequently your target has an entourage, and if the horn is blown, possibly a horde. The game offers mechanisms to break up their party. Explosive barrels and containers. A skill that allows you to use an arrow to make a camp fire explode damaging and killing adversaries. The frequent appearance of Caragors which you can ride.
• Garagors- A skill to ride them must be learned, but once you get it, gives you the best method of taking on a crowd, making you a deadly terror. You must jump on them from above, and press a key to take control. The key to utilizing a garagor properly is to make sweeping attacks, never be stationary which makes the garagor susceptible to being attacked and eventually killed. Ride though their ranks, slashing with your sword as you go, and use the garagor’s bite attack to finish off downed adversaries, who if left alone will recover enough to re-enter the fight.

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• Stealth- and Stealth attacks are powerful. Some Captains and Warlords are armed, and can’t be successfully attacked from the front when they see you coming, I was not able to use “spacebar” to flip over them and attack their back. And I met a Captain who also was not susceptible to ranged attacks. So after I isolated him, by killing his guards, I found I could disengage, restablish stealth, circle around and stealth attack him from the rear, multiple times.

 

[Huntn]

Ok a setback,
I'm playing this game keyboard/mouse and in the beginning it was ok. But I've gotten far enough into the game with my number of attacks building and I'm finding that I'm losing control of my character.Using WSAD to move, he reverses when I don't want him to on his own, runs right back into the mob that is chasing me, won't climb walls when I need him too, too many times I'm barely making it out alive. So whether the game is getting confused by the number of NPCs chasing me or it's the number of attacks I have available, the engine seems to be losing its grip on managing the action in the game and my inputs. I'll give it another chance and if this keeps up, the game gets shelved. 😕

 

[Huntn]

Someone at the Steam Community Discussion for this game told me that the issue I previously described was a "skill issue". So I take it that if I get in over my head, or have 10-20 Uruks surrounding me all trying to get a piece of me, my character loses the ability to run in a straight line. This is total BS. Make them harder to kill, don't make the player lose control of his character. It makes it literally impossible for me to run in a frick'n straight line. I'm not playing this game as devised by the developers. Note also on line there is one heck of a lot of comments about the game's controls SUCKING. Not only this, but the game does not bother to tell you what your power level is so you can gage yourself against enemies who have the level clearly marked. Game shelved. 🤬

 

[wonderings]

The idea of an open world LoTR game was something I wanted for a long time and when I first heard of this game was really excited.... till I learned what they were doing with the story. It completely loses me on that, and outside of the lore created by Tolkien himself. I would have loved a more open game to explore cities like Gondor, Rohan, the Shire with the wilds being more dangerous. The little I played first one of this series I found it was just slash and dash all the time, no exploring Middle Earth like I dreamed of doing as a kid.

 

[Huntn]

The idea of an open world LoTR game was something I wanted for a long time and when I first heard of this game was really excited.... till I learned what they were doing with the story. It completely loses me on that, and outside of the lore created by Tolkien himself. I would have loved a more open game to explore cities like Gondor, Rohan, the Shire with the wilds being more dangerous. The little I played first one of this series I found it was just slash and dash all the time, no exploring Middle Earth like I dreamed of doing as a kid.

Yep combat game centered on Modor and disrupting Sauron’s plans, constant combat killing underlings, Captains, and Chiefs. I was enjoying the fights until I ran into the consistent issue of controlling my character in large fights. I was not upset running into Gollum, talking about his missing Precious, several quests with him.

 

[wonderings]

Yep combat game centered on Modor and disrupting Sauron’s plans, constant combat killing underlings, Captains, and Chiefs. I was enjoying the fights until I ran into the consistent issue of controlling my character in large fights. I was not upset running into Gollum, talking about his missing Precious, several quests with him.

story is basically fan fiction, adding the character they did with his interactions with Sauron. Would have been more interesting had they just crafted a new mythic tale out of it. I do think what they did with the chiefs/bosses was interesting, make them learn and grow as well. A failed attempt has them learn from your tactics. And this before AI is where it is today.