Shadow of Mordor now out on Steam / Review Thread

Just a friendly PSA for all those who have purchased/pre-loaded the game: The release date is not infact tomorrow, but right now.

Guess I'll use this space to update with my thoughts on the game for those who are on the fence, I seldom preorder but the game looked promising.

2 Days after release impressions

Gameplay almost demands you to enjoy the combat (think AC/Arkham series), as almost everything requires the killing of Uruks. The concept of death is married to Mordor's Nemesis system which is essentially a Fantasy-Variant of the Football Manager series.

Enemies encountered by the protagonist possess unique statistics, traits and abilities - All of which increase in Power depending on certain catalysts (killing the protagonist, in-game events such as duels or feasts). Here's an example of an Uruk encounter and the protagonists' relative progression as the Uruk gets progressively stronger and stronger. Judging by the progression it would appear that the protagonist maimed the Uruk, but did not kill it. You can see visually how Mordor's Nemesis system incorporates these series of events with the images below.

1. First Encounter
2. First Statistics
3. Second Encounter
4. Second Statistics

So there's a persistent development of unique enemies who you tend to remember either because of their traits, personalities or the inevitable death scene where they, in full frontal perspective, taunt and sneeze over your dead body. You develop a desire to pursue the Uruk who killed you, or you grow fond of a particular Uruk who you want to succeed and grow strong - Because you want to bend these to your will and send them out on Power Struggle missions.

Long story short, it's a solid game for the price (Around $30AUD), but you really have to enjoy the combat, because the entire game is based off its combat system.