Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

[SmoothPancakes]

A leaked listing showed up on Target's international website recently, apparently revealing the sequel to Shadow of Mordor, with a supposed August 22 release date for this year, according to GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/shadow-of-mordor-sequel-leaked-revealed-as-shadow-/1100-6448217/).


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170226/b57abfeddb37728d157667c0285e2f3c.jpg

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

Sweet! I hope they add different classes of fighters to the game and more lore. A bigger map and a difficulty level to make it harder would be nice.

[SmoothPancakes]

Sweet! I hope they add different classes of fighters to the game and more lore. A bigger map and a difficulty level to make it harder would be nice.
You may get your wish! From the details on the Target listing:

"Go behind enemy lines to forge your army, conquer Fortresses, and dominate Mordor from within," it reads. "Experience how the award-winning Nemesis System creates unique personal stories with every enemy and follower, and confront the full power of the Dark Lord Sauron and his Ringwraiths in this epic new story of Middle-earth."

The listing also shows a Gold Edition, with numerous expansions:

In addition to the standard version of the game, a Gold Edition will also apparently be available. Here's what that includes, based on the description:

- Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion
- Outlaw Tribe Nemesis Expansion
- The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion
- The Desolation of Mordor Story Expansion
- Gold War Chest
Over $125 in total value

The two Nemesis expansions feature "a new Orc Tribe featuring new enemies, followers, missions, abilities, weapons, Fortress, and wilderness updates, and a Mythic Gear Set."

The story expansions, meanwhile, have "a new campaign, playable character, and abilities, side missions, enemies, allies, and more."

The Gold Edition page also reveals slightly more about the game itself, teasing the ability to "[f]orge a new Ring of Power, conquer Fortresses in massive battles, and dominate Mordor with your personal Orc army."

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

Sweet! I hope they add different classes of fighters to the game and more lore. A bigger map and a difficulty level to make it harder would be nice.
Needless to say, I enjoyed the hell out of Shadow of Mordor, buying it on the PS4 and I can't remember if it was part of Games with Gold or I got it ridiculously cheap during a sale, but I also got it for Xbox One.

Whenever this does end up being released, it's a day one buy for me! I'm looking forward to diving back into the Nemesis system, hopefully with updates and additions to it.

If it really is going to release on August 22 this year, we should have an official announcement by E3 at the latest, if they don't come out and announce it before then due to this leak by Target.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

The Nemesis system was great. Really added some personality to the orcs and my desire for revenge. I still remember the first guy that gave me a lot of trouble.

I figured they had to have a sequel coming out soon due to their Pro support patch for the original. Why go to the trouble of doing that unless it's a form or marketing for the sequel? Smart idea.

[SmoothPancakes]

And it is officially announced!

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will be releasing August 25, 2017.

836214409789865984

There will be an official gameplay reveal on March 8th.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

The graphics look really good.

[Rudy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl4bkIGgiyc

Nemesis system expanded to Fortress battles with Overlords. You can use spies and also has followers, not just enemies. There are orc tribes now. One region in the game is bigger than both regions in the first game. Not sure how many regions this game will have but each region has a fortress. And you can fly a dragon apparently.

http://mashable.com/2017/03/08/shadow-of-war-nemesis-system-gameplay-reveal/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link#AWmnIoQz9kqG

[Rudy]

Finally watched the full video. That video show cased a lot of the unlocked type abilities from the first game. I think some of the wraith abilities, while cool, are over powered (shadow strike stuff). It was neat to see you could shoot in slow motion as you jump down from buildings. Some of the combat looked scripted. The executions seem extra brutal this time.

I think this game is a lot more advanced than the first game. I'm not sure how many of the abilities you can upgrade but you can upgrade your armour. Having your own army to advance, promote and be a part of the Nemesis system is cool but I think they missed the boat here. I'd have preferred you fighting with human allies and maybe using some orc spies. But aligning and using orc armies in this battle doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Why not use Rohan or Gondor as allies? I was hoping for more LOTR lore in this. Still feels like a fun, medieval, action game that has Mordor/LOTR slapped on.

[Rudy]

Good q & a here. https://twitter.com/gamespot/status/840547884353388544

Runes are gone and replaced by gear now. Very big with lots of main and side stories.

[Rudy]

This got delayed until early October. It was supposed to release alongside Madden. That was going to help me avoid Madden this year.

[SmoothPancakes]

Man, this game seems so much harder and tougher than the first one. I'm still only in Act I, but damn, the captains are much more varied this time around, different skill sets each requiring vastly different approaches in fighting. Also a lot harder to kill. I've already died two or three times from fighting captains.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

Played an hour tonight and decent story to start. I thought I read you got a lot of abilities at the start but you don’t. You have to earn everything all over again. One skill was new. Very much the feel of the old game so that could be good or bad if you loved the last game vs got burned out on it. I think the graphics have been improved and the colours aren’t quite as drab.

I’ve only killed the first captain. At least there are three difficulty levels. Looks like the rpg elements for upgrades will be huge.

[SmoothPancakes]

Considering I played through the first game on both PS4 and Xbox One, oh yeah, I enjoyed the hell out of that game.

This one though is much deeper. More skills, upgrades of the skills (mini skills if you want to call them), armor and cloak equipment in addition to the sword, bow and dagger. New things called gems that can be used to upgrade your weapons and increase your damage, your health, the damage of your followers, etc.

There are challenges to achieve to upgrade your gear. All gear have different perks to them, so the best stat (melee attack for swords for instance) may not necessarily be the best weapon if there's one that is slightly lower attack, but much better perks.

Then the amount of quests. You've got Gondor quests, Shelob quests, four other quests chains that I don't even have access to yet, you've got nemesis missions, Shadows of thr Past, which let you learn more about Celebrimbor's history and story and get some rewards for completing the objectives (mirian for one objective, skill points for completing two and either gems or gear for completing all three objectives). There's Shelob memories to collect to learn more about the claims she's telling you, Ithildin to collect to unlock the Ithildin door in region for some high level gear, and Gondorian artifacts.

Also, it might just be me, but it seems like there are a LOT more captains than the last game. I can barely go anywhere without running into at least one randomly. And one spot in Minas Ithil, I somehow ended up in a fight with three different bloody captains.

And you have to strategize your fights much more this time. There are multiple new orc tribes and tons of variations of orcs and captains, all of which require different strategies. Also you can now be ambushed. I was just standing on a ledge while typing this, all of a sudden a captain appeared out of nowhere behind me and ambushed me.

So at its base, it's very much like the first game, but this one is SOOOOOO much deeper and has some serious RPG depth to it, far much more than the first one. And the amount of options alone for skills allows you to truly customize and tailor your Talion to your own tastes and skills. Right now, the way I've built my Talion out through level 7, I doubt there's another person with the exact same order of skill unlocks that I've chosen thus far.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

Made it up to level 13 before I called it a night. I'm starting to get my fighting skills back and have been holding my own much better. Still another death or two, usually against some high level captains who have just the right set of skills to make it very difficult for me to kill them.

That and I keep getting outnumbered. One captain I started fighting, only to have a nemesis I had formerly killed decide to make a reappearance right then, followed not long after by a third captain who must have been nearby and I wandered too close to while fighting the first two captains, so suddenly I'm swarmed by multiple captains, all of which require a different fighting approach, along with probably a one or two dozen grunt orcs following the big guys. You can very quickly get in over your head.

Granted, it helps me in fights against captains that while I'm only level 13, I have somewhere around 22 or 23 skills unlocked thanks to hunting down all Gondor artifacts and Shelob memories in Minas Ithil and Cirith Ungol, both of which give you 1 skill point for finding all of each memory or artifact in each new region, along with some extra skill points gained via other tasks and missions.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

Sweet! I hope they add different classes of fighters to the game and more lore. A bigger map and a difficulty level to make it harder would be nice.Looking back through this thread, you go your wishes Rudy.

- A number of new classes and much tougher enemies which have been challenging me and whooping my ass on normal difficulty.

- Three difficulty levels: story mode, which is essentially super weak, super easy orcs so you can just play and experience the story, normal mode and hard mode (I can't remember if those are the actual names or different for the modes).

- And the map is huge! Just the individual regions alone are big (Minas Ithil and Cirith Ungol are the only regions I've visited so far, though there are at least two more currently visible on the world map and I have a feeling many many more hidden from view based on the absurdly massive size of the world map in entirety when zoomed out), at least on par with the first game, if not bigger than the first game's map, and that's for every region, with a bare minimum of four regions/locations to visit and very likely 3 to 7 or even more regions/locations to be discovered during the story.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

I haven’t quite played two hours yet. I’m low leveled and killed by a graug and a level 11 captain. There is a lot of stuff in the game. A bit overwhelming right now.

[Rudy]

I do think Tallion looks quite a bit better and so do the textures. I wish there was a way to jog in this game lol. After playing other games the movement (and being the X button) takes some getting used to. You either walk at a very slow pace or run around like a crazy person.

[CLW]

I need to finish the 1st one before getting this bad boy likely for christmas.

[Rudy]

I wouldn't recommend playing the games back to back though. You would suffer from game fatigue as they aren't just 10-15 hour games. I spent over 40 hours on the first one and I beat that a second time too.

[SmoothPancakes]

I wouldn't recommend playing the games back to back though. You would suffer from game fatigue as they aren't just 10-15 hour games. I spent over 40 hours on the first one and I beat that a second time too.Yeah, if you're gonna play the first one, I'd definitely recommend a breather period in between before starting this one. It would be very easy to end up burnt out on this game.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

What is the max level for an enemy in the game? Last game was 20. I was only a level 3 and I killed a level 8 orc without too much trouble. Just level 4 now.

[SmoothPancakes]

Highest I've seen so far is level 16.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[CLW]

Yeah my backlog is huge right now thanks to that huge sale they recently had I picked up the 1st one and have messed with it (I think I'm only roughly 25% through the story) so I'll likely buy it with my GCU unlocked and get around to it at some point in 2020 :nod:

[SmoothPancakes]

Shadow of War is definitely really damn fun, but yeah, it's only making my backlog worse. I'm trying to juggle Shadow of War, NBA, I've barely touched NHL 18, I still haven't even cracked open Fallout 4 GOTY Edition.

Then add in South Park next week (which is really two games since I haven't played Stick of Truth and it's include free as a pre-order bonus), Assassin's Creed in two weeks, Call of Duty World War II and Star Wars Battlefront II, I'm gonna be swamped for a long time.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

What is the max level for an enemy in the game? Last game was 20. I was only a level 3 and I killed a level 8 orc without too much trouble. Just level 4 now.New highest for orcs is level 18. Playing a story mission, I had to face an old nemesis from the first game. Not the one I wanted (good old Takra Caragor Tamer, I really truly miss him and our long lasting rivalry during which we probably killed each other at least ten times each) but instead a giant, level 18 LEGENDARY son of a bitch. A tank class legendary captain, with defender shield class bonus AND vault blocker (so I can't even leap him and hit him in the back) AND cursed weapons, so anytime he hit me, there goes at least half my health AND quickly kills and is enraged by beasts, so I couldn't even let loose some caragors to aid me.

Oh yeah, and anywhere from 7 to 10 grunts kept running in to help him fight me, no matter how many times I killed them all with Cleansing Blaze Elven Light (Elven Light that sets all nearby enemies in fire). I couldn't even use arrows because he was invulnerable to them. He had no major weakness, just simply damaged by executions and explosions.

The only saving grace against him, he was clumsy and so thus could be grabbed without being broken. Even then, I died 3 times without even getting his health more than a quarter of the way down. I damn nearly quit the game in a rage, but I was able to calm myself down, looked up a couple tips for fighting tank class captains, and eventually was able to beat him on my fourth try by simply grabbing him, throwing him down and then jumping on him and ground executing/stabbing him. Took probably a good two dozen times of doing that, and at least 10 or 15 minutes while draining every orc in sight to keep my health up, but I finally managed to kill him.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

Another successful night in the books. Currently level 22, I've already unlocked 36 of the 120 skills that are in the game.

I've made it into Act II now, in a new region. I can finally start branding orcs and it appears I'll soon unlock siege battles. I've already claimed three captains for my own army. I also like you can now have orc bodyguards. I have a nice massive nasty level 21 Dark Destroyer Olog-hai, Ar-Pratu Brawl-Master as my body guard. I haven't called upon him yet, but I am eagerly awaiting the chance to call him to my aid in battle and watch him rip arms from torsos.

I'm also happy to see there is a use for mirian besides purchasing chests in the store. You can use mirian (seems to be 750 to 850 mirian per) buying upgrades for your assault force for sieges. For instance, I have three captains in my assault force so far, all three with upgrades.

One upgrade strengthens my attacking army with a group of Olog-hai who can destroy fortress walls, which I chose over two other upgrades that would have given me a group of explosive sappers to charge the fortress walls or a group of caragor riders.

The second upgrade bolsters my army with Defenders, which I chose over upgrades that would have given me a group of axe wielding Savages or spear hurling Hunters.

The third upgrade gives me cursed siege beasts, which pummel the War Chiefs and their minions with dark, crippling artillery fire, which I chose over upgrades of fiery siege beasts that attack the walls and archers, and poisonous siege beasts that attack defending siege beasts and monsters.

Just those three assault leaders and upgrades give me an assault force level of 146, going up against a level 123 fortress whenever I unlock sieges, so I'm already in good odds of winning. And those odds will improve if I get rid of or turn the War Chiefs to my side since their own fortress boosting upgrades will be disabled.

You can ultimately have up to six assault leaders (the remaining three are unlocked at levels 25, 35 and 45), giving you upgrades such as clusters of arachnids swarming the fortress, a war Graug to support your army, a freaking drake to rain almighty hell fire onto the battle field (though it may result in friendly fire as it attacks without discrimination), you can get fire archers, farsighted archers who can target at greater ranges, caragor mounted archers, you can upgrade your banners to inspire your orcs into a blood thirsty rage or you can overpower your orcs, resulting in them capturing Victory Points much faster than normal.

God this is gonna be so much fun!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

Holy crap you have gotten a lot done. I think I’m going to probably cancel my AC pre order since I have too much of a backlog before Christmas. That may end up a Christmas gift.

[Rudy]

I remember always having a bunch of yellow or red missions to do on my map. The map is harder to read this time. I've searched for some items and knocked down a monument but it's harder to see the story missions unless I'm blind. So while I've done a few, I'm largely just roaming, fighting and collecting right now.

The RPG and skill tree is more restrictive this time. You get skill points but the game prevents you from unlocking the second one unless you are levelled up. It feels like I just choose which tree I start with but will be leveling up pretty balanced with how it is set up. It's nice to get more powers for fights.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, you have to plan out your levels skill unlocks ahead of time. Is it worth it plowing through a category of skills to get to a really good last skill, or is it worth it to upgrade a skill here and there in different categories and unlock different combat altering abilities?

I don't remember the numbers, but I'm definitely more evenly spread out between different skill categories.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright, I can confirm orcs go higher than level 40. For the Bright Lord's Armor you get from barrows in Minas Ithil, I just upgraded it to level 20 after completing the upgrade challenge. Now there's a new challenge for a level 40 upgrade, to which I must recruit a Tank that is level 40 or higher.

So orc levels go MUCH higher this game. I'm betting, if there's a cap in levels, it's at a minimum level 50, maybe even as high as 75 or 99.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[SmoothPancakes]

I'm a little bit further along after a couple hours tonight. Up to level 26 and I've reached the point I can begin my first siege. I'm actually going to wait though because first I want to dispatch both War Chiefs, which will not only disable the fortress defense upgrades, but also remove them from battle so I can focus solely on the Overlord.

One War Chief is screwed. I've dominated and turned all three of his bodyguards and assigned them as spies against the War Chief, so I unlocked a special ambush mission that his bodyguards (my spies) are leading him into.

I unfortunately can't do it to the other War Chief because one of the two bodyguards is protecting the War Chief and will only appear and fight when the War Chief appears and fights. But I did turn his second bodyguard into a spy for me, so at least it'll be 2 on 2 in battle.

I'm also sad, my level 21 Olog-hai bodyguard was killed while I was being swarmed by three captains and at the very least 50, maybe even as many as 100 orcs. I really liked that massive bastard, he was a great bodyguard and would clear out entire war parties by himself. Still haven't found a suitable replacement for him yet.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

How often are you slotting your gems? I haven’t used any since I’m only level 11and constantly upgrading. Not sure what to do.

[SmoothPancakes]

I slot gems every chance I can. Over time, I've managed to get level 4 gems (refined gems) slotted on everything.

I've got level 4 red warrior gems on my sword and bow so I get 25% increased damage with both weapons. I've got a level 4 green life gem on my dagger so I increase health stolen by 8% with the dagger.

I have a level 4 green life gem on my armor, so I increase my health by 25%. I've got a level 4 white wealth gem on my cloak so I get an extra 12.5% increase to my XP earned. And I have a level 4 white wealth gem on my ringcraft, so any captains that I dominate and recruit automatically gain 4 levels instantly upon being recruited.

Add in another level due to having a level 30 Sword of Dominion, and every captain I recruit immediately gains 5 levels. So if I defeat and recruit a level 25 captain, bam, instantly I've got me a nice level 30 assault leader or bodyguard.

I keep my best gems attached to my gear, but every chance I get, I'm combining and leveling up any and all lower level gems. My goal is to get every thing with level 5 gems. It's gonna be a while though. Not counting the ones I have attached to gear, all I have right now is a single level 1 red gem a single level 3 green gem and 1 level 1, 1 level 2 and 2 level 3 white gems.

And what I do when it's time to upgrade, so I get two level 4 white gems ready to go, what I'll do then is unequip one of the level 4 white gems I'm currently using, combine with the two I have ready to go to make a level 5 white gem, and then I'll re-equip it back onto the gear that I took it off of. So I keep all my gear with the best gems possible, but I also use those gems to upgrade to the next level when I have two other gems necessary for the upgrade.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

Thanks. Going to have to get used to this.

[Rudy]

I’m just juggling too many games. Just made it to Act 2.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't been on Shadow of War since last weekend. I've been busy with South Park: Stick of Truth and now currently South Park: The Fractured But Whole since Monday. And it isn't going to get much better with the new Assassin's Creed coming out on a week.

God wish these games would be more spread out over the year instead of bunched up right before Christmas. I'll go half the year not buying a game because nothing interesting tends to be released between March and August. Then everything I want ends up cramed into a release window of September to mid November, leaving me with a stack of unplayed games while I try to catch up.

Hell, I still haven't even unwrapped Fallout 4 GOTY for PS4 and that was delivered almost exactly a month ago.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Rudy]

The summer definitely needs more games. Not sure why everyone crams releases into October.

[CLW]

Yeah, if you're gonna play the first one, I'd definitely recommend a breather period in between before starting this one. It would be very easy to end up burnt out on this game.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I think I just beat the 1st one's story. Gameplay was solid but the story I just could not follow. Oddly, it was one of the least satisfying final boss fights ever. I climb a tower, there is a long cut scene then a few QTEs and I defeated the hand (or whatever he was called). Save file says I'm only 50% completed though and it mentioned something about something new to do after completing the story?

[Rudy]

The story was done there but maybe you had side missions or DLC?

The first game got too easy down the stretch and had no difficulty level options. The final boss fight was definitely bad, especially compared to the halfway point boss battle.