Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - The Bear and Badger

Syph79

Good advice. It wasn't clicking for me and I was wondering what the fuss was. Yesterday I started taking it easier, building up experience and tackling smaller objectives first. I've now progressed beyond the first war chiefs and think this may be my GOTY so far. It's just so much fun.

Take things slow. When I was rushing in I would sometimes end up with 3 to 4 captains turning up. If you use your elf vision thing, you can spot where the masses are and pick the enemy off to thin them out. Then make sure you deal with one captain at a time.

My only other piece of advice, don't button mash but time your attacks instead - doing this means you can regularly hit counters and build up your executions.

Paul the sparky

Good tips there Panty. The bottom bit is key for me, knowing what you can handle and picking your fights is important if you want to stay alive.

Regarding my earlier moaning, I wish they'd handled mission failure better. It didn't have to end the mission and force me to repeat it, they could have made it so that if I was slow/spotted the guys I'm there to save die. Then it's up to me, if I bust a gut to save two characters then reward me with a cutscene, if I fuck up or don't care then I pick up the trinket from their cold, dead body. The story progresses either way, no repetition or insta-fail wankery. Then I'd only have the dodgy AI to whinge about, but if I was already onto the next bit I doubt I'd have bothered.

Paul the sparky

Syph79 wrote:

My only other piece of advice, don't button mash but time your attacks instead - doing this means you can regularly hit counters and build up your executions.

Yeah, bashing the buttons as fast as you can fucks with your criticals and counters. It's actually very lenient when it comes to chaining combat moves, you've got quite a bit of down time allowed between actions to wait for the right response.

pantyfire

I tend to mash the A button when dodging, I still don't have the timing for that down right but the slash combo (after you stun someone), I've got that timed perfectly, criticals on every slash now, plus I kinda know when someone is coming up behind and I'm ready for a counter and then back to the original slash victim for massive damage and his brain exploding kill.

Some other perks that you will get roughly around mid game are the lower the combo perks - the one that enables finishers on 5 hits instead of 8 and the one that allows two finishers for every 5 combo hits. Those two are excellent, plus the one that allows you to take one extra hit before your combo metre resets.

Ooh and don't forget that a brutalise from above kill actually charges your combo metre by the amount you have actually knifed the guy (as does the shank kill from a grab), so with the combo lowering perk, a brutalise from above kill will immediately allow you to do a finisher, then you've killed one guy, scared at least two others off and then can instantly finish two other orcs (with the double finisher perk), if you do that to just about any group you will encounter then you have most likely seen off over half of them in less than 10 seconds.

pantyfire

@Syph
Yeh, so far, it's my GoTY too.
Not for any one thing it does but for putting them all together quite well.
Sparkles has valid points about mission structure and AI, I'm willing to overlook them for a first game in a new IP to some extent. If they do a Mordor 2 then I would expect them to improve on the things he mentions.
I can see this going the way of Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City. I.e. A great first introduction to the game world then a massive refinement for the follow up. God I hope there's a follow up.
Anyway this is one of the very few games that isn't going into my trade-in pile.

yourfavouriteuncle

Well this is all very helpful. I can see there's a great game here I was just getting disheartened by my one step forward 8 steps back routine.I think I'm gonna reset and start again with all this in mind. Slowly, slowly this time.

pantyfire

Oh, and when you do build up your combo meter for a insta finisher always try to use it on the baddest orc in the bunch.
Yank the stick in the direction of a shield or berserker orc and use the finisher to one shot him.
Or even pummel some minion, get the finisher, use it on the captain, then back to another minion and build up another combo meter.

pantyfire

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Well this is all very helpful. I can see there's a great game here I was just getting disheartened by my one step forward 8 steps back routine.I think I'm gonna reset and start again with all this in mind. Slowly, slowly this time.

I got mashed several times early on, I felt a bit of a dick by running away at the beginning because the game makes you feel like you can take on 20 orcs right from the off, but you can't, unless you are some kind of embryonic savant.

Paul the sparky

pantyfire wrote:

@Syph
Yeh, so far, it's my GoTY too.
Not for any one thing it does but for putting them all together quite well.
Sparkles has valid points about mission structure and AI, I'm willing to overlook them for a first game in a new IP to some extent. If they do a Mordor 2 then I would expect them to improve on the things he mentions.
I can see this going the way of Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City. I.e. A great first introduction to the game world then a massive refinement for the follow up. God I hope there's a follow up.
Anyway this is one of the very few games that isn't going into my trade-in pile.

Yeah, they're not game breaking or anything, it's just annoying, they shouldn't need a sequel to work out that the shit bits from Ass Crud aren't enjoyable. Could have nailed that first time. At least there aren't any tedious spying missions where you have to stay close to someone without alerting them. Are there?

The berserkers are a swine in this, it's hard to pick them out of a crowd so easy to attack them and break your flow.

google

Like everyone says, I was also having a tough time in the early stages. It wasnt clicking and I would have a nice time on a couple of fights and then randomly go and die after that point.

Running away really helped get that sorted out. I'd figure out who I could beat, who I couldn't, etc.

Aaroncupboard

Nearly at the end of this. Only got four more main missions and a handful of weapon side missions. I have loved but it does have its flaws (as mentioned by many people already). Alrhough thankfully, none of those flaws have so far ruined what has been a great game.

I am also really enjoying the unlocked abilities and how much of a badass Talion becomes.

pantyfire

This is really pathetic but do you know what I quite liked about this?
When you start a story mission and it says 'follow X to the feast' (or whatever) you don't actually have to hold the stick and follow them, you can just let the game take over and walk you there.

One of those odd little game design conventions that they've gotten rid of... But then they've left insta fail mission parameters in so no ones infallible.

Aaroncupboard

My biggest frustration is the lack of a retry in side missions. Getting halfway through a dagger mission, messing up and then having to backtrack back to the mission start is pretty annoying

pantyfire

Yeh, because the main missions have a retry option don't they? God knows why they wouldn't allow that in the side missions.

But I do find myself just spending all my focus, triggering alerts, alarms and arrows etc... Speed running back to the mission start point because they all refill and reset when you trigger it anyway.

yourfavouriteuncle

Started again and thanks to everyone's advice this is now officially brilliant. Thanks guys.

Moto70

pantyfire wrote:

Erm, you need to do the first story missions until you get to the 'Kill 4 warchiefs' one, this will give you a decent amount of starting powers. While getting to that point I hunted down all the artefacts and ithildin pieces while doing the hunting/gathering missions that I could. These little missions will give you decent amounts of cash to buy the permanent weapon and health upgrades. I would suggest going for the first health upgrade straight away and after that I went for the arrows and focus and then unlocked some rune slots for you sword/bow/dagger. Play to your early strengths. If you come across a captain that can be killed by stealth or a single arrow during the early game then take advantage of that, get some easy runes to buff health or focus and do as much 'other' stuff as you can to unlock the better abilities. The arrow teleport and the arrow teleport kill abilities are excellent, they are very good for getting across strongholds quickly and unseen, I often teleport to the bad guy (uses two arrows) then instantly drain him till he dies, you get all your arrows back, you are usually in a better position and its bad ass. You can open a new tier of abilities by killing captains and you dont need to buy everything in one tier before moving to the next. Some are decent and some wont suit your playstyle. For instance, I steered clear of the throw daggers perk and the running barge perks until right at the very end. While I found the vault and stun perks very useful at the beggining. The most important thing is... RUN AWAY. You often get swamped in the early game and they will destroy you. But the orcs are as thick as shit, you can vault over one, run to a wall and climb up it. Dangle yourself over the other side and they will lose sight of you, you can then watch as half of them drift away bored or stalk them and get a stealth kill or a brutalise from above kill (which will scare some of them crowd away, thereby thinning it out for you) on YOUR terms.

You've just made me decide to get this...

pantyfire

@myuncle
Yay.

Btw there's a sword side mission to kill a Ghul matron, don't even bother trying it until you are very powerful. I tried it as soon as it opened (you need the ground smash perk) and I got pwned 3 times.

@moto
If you liked the combat in batman and hated the parkour in Ass Crud then you'll love this.
I never get tired of spinning severed heads or the tip of my dagger jutting out of a temple. It's very brutal.

google

pantyfire wrote:

This is really pathetic but do you know what I quite liked about this? When you start a story mission and it says 'follow X to the feast' (or whatever) you don't actually have to hold the stick and follow them, you can just let the game take over and walk you there. One of those odd little game design conventions that they've gotten rid of... But then they've left insta fail mission parameters in so no ones infallible.

I like that to.

But you know what's pathetic: I hate that when it's not auto walking, I cant find a suitable running speed that keeps me at the same speed as the AI character.

pantyfire

Default walk is too slow, default run is too fast.
nnnnngg.

Chief

Crouch run.

I like the new photo mode. Ideal for PS4's share funtion.

mistercrayon

pantyfire wrote:

@myuncle
Yay.

Btw there's a sword side mission to kill a Ghul matron, don't even bother trying it uo ntil you are very powerful. I tried it as soon as it opened (you need the ground smash perk) and I got pwned 3 times.

@moto
If you liked the combat in batman and hated the parkour in Ass Crud then you'll love this.
I never get tired of spinning severed heads or the tip of my dagger jutting out of a temple. It's very brutal.

One of the hunting missions requires killing it. Wait till then!!

fullspectrum

My biggest frustration was that there was no big challenge to match your Oh Pee self at the end. DLC battle modes to come most likely.

pantyfire

I would consider getting the DLC but it doesn't look very interesting at all.
There is a leaderboard challenge of some sort for free (well it was on my version) if you go the store via the game menu.

pantyfire

Ha, so I'm at the Brand The Warchief Missions. I do one of the missions which gives me my second branded Warchief, I immedately send him to start a riot against another chief who has a fear of betrayal. So I go to that side mission and trigger it. The Warchief immediately panics and runs away so I teleport to him and insta brand him for my 3rd branded Warchief.

fullspectrum

It's terrible though. Just dumps you in the world and says you have 3o mins to kill as many chiefs as possible.

What it needs is tests that break down the mechanics and forces you to fight your best. Kill this selection of orcs with a bonus for 5 shadow strike kills or whatnot.

mistercrayon

If you consider the ending it seems pretty reasonable that youd be batting orcs like a hot knife through butter.

mistercrayon

pantyfire wrote:

Ha, so I'm at the Brand The Warchief Missions. I do one of the missions which gives me my second branded Warchief, I immedately send him to start a riot against another chief who has a fear of betrayal. So I go to that side mission and trigger it. The Warchief immediately panics and runs away so I teleport to him and insta brand him for my 3rd branded Warchief.

In some ways this could be seen as a criticism but I read it as one of the best things about the game. The unfixed nature creating a unique (and interesting) story

fullspectrum

mistercrayon wrote:

If you consider the ending it seems pretty reasonable that youd be batting orcs like a hot knife through butter.

Yes but it's not fun.

mistercrayon

I guess it's as fun as you want to make it yourself. I went into every castle and died at a couple of them but by the sounds of it by calling them out it's much easier.

pantyfire

mistercrayon wrote:

pantyfire wrote:

Ha, so I'm at the Brand The Warchief Missions. I do one of the missions which gives me my second branded Warchief, I immedately send him to start a riot against another chief who has a fear of betrayal. So I go to that side mission and trigger it. The Warchief immediately panics and runs away so I teleport to him and insta brand him for my 3rd branded Warchief.

In some ways this could be seen as a criticism but I read it as one of the best things about the game. The unfixed nature creating a unique (and interesting) story

And for the final one, I'd already branded all his trusted allies, so when I trigger him and he comes stomping in (Pash, Pash, Pash, Pash) with all his best buds I command them to attack, they kill him and one of them is promoted in his place for the fifth Warchief. Brilliant!

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