Could someone explain the Nemesis system to me.
I'll try, but it's a little tough to explain. Give me a few.
I'm not too far in, so some of this information could be inaccurate, but I'll give it a try.
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Ultimately you want to kill the Hand of Sauron to avenge the death of your wife and son.
The Hand is protected by the 5 Warchiefs shown at the top of the hierarchy.
Each of the Warchiefs is guarded by 2-5 Captains that act as their personal Bodyguards. The second and third rows are the Captains.
Grunts comprise the bottom row (I think).
You'll meet randomly generated Orcs all over the place in Mordor. They don't make a name for themselves until they power up (By killing you).
When / if they kill you, they will appear on the hierarchy and you will see their randomly generated name. Their names and titles give a hint at their attributes and attacks.
Orc culture is "Only the strong survive" so they move up the ranks by killing you or EACH OTHER: Grunts can become Captains, Captains become Body Guards to the Warchiefs, then ultimately Warchiefs.
Each and every Orc you meet will have levels, a memory and may partake in various missions to Power Up, even independently of whatever it is you are doing at any given moment. They may plan Feasts to grow in power. They may Ambush another Captain's group to weaken or kill him. They may show off their Beasts as a sign of their status. You can partake in missions at any time to prevent these events from happening... OR...
Later on in the game you can "Brand" Orcs and make them Loyal to you... You may want to assist "your" Orcs in their assassination attempts or in a Duel with a Rival to get THEM to climb up the Hierarchy with the intention of making them a Warchief that could get you close to the Hand or helping you take out the other Warchiefs guarding him.
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If you attack an orc and win, but not kill him, he will remember, get more powerful and come after you. If you lose to an Orc he'll level up that much more quickly and, I believe, gain more strengths (vs weaknesses) and attacks to make him THAT much more difficult to take on eventually. Losing to one Orc again and again, effectively makes that Orc a "Boss." It would be like any random Arkham inmate eventually gaining the status of the Riddler or the Penguin. This is all randomly generated, so no two people's games or Nemeses will be the same.
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On top of that, the Orcs can be pretty intricate themselves; besides their names, THEY are generated from many parts, armors, skin colors and body types so none of THEM look alike either...
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Even I understood that Leo, that was a pretty good explanation.
I've kept assing around camps and strongholds.
Eventually I found some motherfucker called Tugog. The game says killing him will give you a special reward. The thing is that he's tough as hell and summons random captains and grunts to help him. Fuck him. He killed me. And to add insult to injury, some shithead captain that was hanging out with him got free levels out of my death only because he survived. He didn't do shit! Motherfuckers.
Game's pretty good.
So, if you were really good at the game, the main hook would never become apparent? Or is beating enemies but not killing them a common event?
Also: does the orcs' in-fighting result in anything tangible, because unless you're witnessing their in-fighting, wouldn't that actually have very little effect: what difference does it matter if orc #215 beats orc #156 to replace it as captain? There was one captain before. There is one captain after.
(Genuinely curious, not criticising as it sounds like an interesting system.)
I also learned that apparently if you get killed by a captain, someone in your friends list can track that captain down and kill him for revenge.
You can beat grunts and low level cap'ns pretty easily, but elite captains and beyond have increasingly harder to overcome strenghts and weaknesses and they're rarely alone. Power struggles between them are somewhat inconsequential to you unless you already have that captain in your sights.
Foolz said:So, if you were really good at the game, the main hook would never become apparent? Or is beating enemies but not killing them a common event?
Also: does the orcs' in-fighting result in anything tangible, because unless you're witnessing their in-fighting, wouldn't that actually have very little effect: what difference does it matter if orc #215 beats orc #156 to replace it has captain? There was one captain before. There is one captain after.
(Genuinely curious, not criticising as it sounds like an interesting system.)
The NOT killing and them coming back is more rare than being killed by one of them. The game is RPG-like in that you gain experience and attacks and health, unless you go out of your way to over-level, it's pretty much a sure thing that you are going to die a few times. The in-fighting does have affects (I assume)... Your inside man (Orc) can probably be killed... You can build your character in differing ways, giving more power to bows over the dagger (long-range attack vs. stealth) or Sword over the Dagger (overall attack power vs. stealth), for example. You can have a Captain that you are hunting who is weak to Headshots killed and replaced by one that is invulnerable to the bow, but weak against stealth. You need to gather intel about your foes before you can effectively take them down. Their in-fighting can change all of that in an instant if you're not managing the Nemesis system properly. Again, I'm not too far along, but I think I get the gist of it.
Thanks, Leo and Steel! I don't really have money for a game this month, but what the hell? This sounds more enticing every day, but it's still between this and Destiny.
SteelAttack said:I also learned that apparently if you get killed by a captain, someone in your friends list can track that captain down and kill him for revenge.
Forgot this part! I ---LOVE--- that games are doing this now! Diablo 3 has a Nemesis system in it too that does the very same thing...
...but no one other than Edge and I played it on PS4, so I only got to see it in action a few rare times... 
Ok this is pretty awesome, now the nemesis system is in full swing and orcs are having MK like duels, parties and all sorts of other stuff. I attacked a duel, there was like 30 dudes watching so they were fighting me. In the middle of the fight captains would keep showing up. At one point I had 5 captains fighting me at once, it was chaos. I eventually died cause a warg showed up as well. `
The NPCs are so dynamic, I was wandering around and two wargs attacked a giant monster thing, it was a full on battle that I could sit back and watch.
Oh and I avenged solid's death, I love the revenge system as well. There is a ton to do. I am slowly adding powers so fighting is becoming more dynamic (and still exactly like batman)
Sounds like an awesome game. I'm starting to really regret not being able to comfortably game at my desktop.
Dvader said:orcs are having MK like duels
I know you're talking about Mortal Kombat, but my imagination ran with orcs in karts doing death stares. Made me laugh.
Killing a Morgul Bat opens the following entry in the Nature Appendix:
"Those Uruks that get poisoned become horrbily diseased and bloated, wearing their deformities as marks of honor. The poison slowly eats at their minds, sending them nightmares of a demonic man-bat who preys on fear."
The Arkham series of games is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Shadow of Mordor is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The similarities are not coincidental, nor are they trying to hide it!
Bahaha that's awesome.
Combat system might be the same, and it's perhaps the fact it uses swords or that I like the setting more, but I find the fights in this game much more entertaining and satisfying than in the Arkhams. Maybe it's a tad more forgiving too.
SupremeAC said:Sounds like an awesome game. I'm starting to really regret not being able to comfortably game at my desktop.
I know you're talking about Mortal Kombat, but my imagination ran with orcs in karts doing death stares. Made me laugh.
MK will always be Mortal Kombat. Though in this case a Mario Kart duel would be so much better.
And I am coming around, loving it now! I have no clue about the story missions cause who gives a shit, I rather kill captains! The battle system is as fun as batman but it is missing the scoring system that makes batman really stand out. Maybe in the challenge mode it adds in the scoring system.
The nemesis system, well the enemies in general makes the world feel so alive. I rarely die so I have never had an instance where an enemy recognizes me or I recognize them but its just how these guys have a personality and the others react to what you do to them. The best part of it all is that there is complete freedom to kill the enemies as you please. This feels like the first AC game where the actual assassinations were all open. There is no guiding hand or scripted assassinations, you can kill the enemy as you please. And everywhere you turn there is someone to kill, it is an AC where its all assassin missions basically and a far better combat system.
Oh and the weapon side missions are a blast too. I did one where you have to kill while riding the warg thing, it is such a rush to go into slow mo and kill five orcs in a row within a second. It is badass, everything in this game is badass. It should be Middle Earth: Badass of Mordor.
Yeah the game grows on you pretty fast. I'm also having too much fun without even touching the main missions. Crashing the party at executions, duels, feasts and whatnot.
And I am coming around, loving it now! I have no clue about the story missions cause who gives a shit, I rather kill captains! The battle system is as fun as batman but it is missing the scoring system that makes batman really stand out. Maybe in the challenge mode it adds in the scoring system.
The nemesis system, well the enemies in general makes the world feel so alive. I rarely die so I have never had an instance where an enemy recognizes me or I recognize them but its just how these guys have a personality and the others react to what you do to them. The best part of it all is that there is complete freedom to kill the enemies as you please. This feels like the first AC game where the actual assassinations were all open. There is no guiding hand or scripted assassinations, you can kill the enemy as you please. And everywhere you turn there is someone to kill, it is an AC where its all assassin missions basically and a far better combat system.
Oh and the weapon side missions are a blast too. I did one where you have to kill while riding the warg thing, it is such a rush to go into slow mo and kill five orcs in a row within a second. It is badass, everything in this game is badass. It should be Middle Earth: Badass of Mordor.
There are always issues when they port to Wii U. Okay I'll put it on my radar once I start to get through my mini-backlog.