@KratosMD I played em all except Mad Max, so I'd say Mad Max, although I'm sure it isn't that great. But I do love the Mad Max world. But I love the LOTR world too, and SOM sucked in my opinion. Like really sucked.
I say I played them, I didn't get very far, because they are all a bit meh. Sleeping Dogs was okay I guess, just normal open world stuff though. It's often under a tenner on sale on its own.
@KratosMD SOM started good, as in the first 10-15 minutes. Then you get chucked into this utterly drab open world doing standard drab open world things and after 2 hours I deleted it. Despite my love for Mad Max I'm worried the game will be similar, with them both being WB games. But then maybe you like the WB formula given your recent enjoyment with Batman. I wasn't a huge fan of those games either, aside from Asylum.
I'd honestly like an epic LOTR game in the same "wide linear" form that they seem to be doing with God of War.
I liked SOM purely because of the Nemesis system. It's basically a poor mans Assassins Creed with a good central fighting mechanic. It is more fun to build up the orcs and then build your followers then all the samey side missions and icon chasing.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Really enjoyed SoM, so much that I got the platinum trophy. I'm not a huge Lord of the Rings fan but did like the films, but you are probably better not being a fan cos it take huge liberties with some of stuff in the books. It may look dab to start of with but the locations do get better later on.
It is one of the games that on face value seems to copy a lot from other games (Assassin's Creed, Batman) but manages to bring em all together for a really coherent experience.
Had a good time with The Surge, bit of a slow starter but as soon as I stopped comparing it to the SoulsBorne games it really comes into its own.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@KratosMD Cool you will most likely enjoy the rest of the surge then. Loved the combat and the visceral kills in that game. Any game which let's you chop off different parts of the body is off to a good start in my books. Starting tip: start with the lighter build as most of the enemies will have the same exo suit and you will be able to rip off the parts for upgrades. I made the mistake of going with the heavy exo suit and didn't get any parts for it until a bit later.
I've always toyed with idea of getting Mad Max as it always seems to be on sale. I like the sound of building up your car and going out to battle in it. I'm a bit open worlded out at the moment though and it feels like a future ps+ game.
I completed Shadow of Mordor and Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition and I tried Mad Max on Xbox game pass. So in my opinion you can skip sleeping dogs. It's okay, but it's obviously a last Gen game. I'm glad I didn't buy it (got it as a part of gwg). Maybe try Yakuza games if you want that GTA feeling?
I enjoyed Shadow of Mordor a lot and it's gameplay is very similar to Mad Max and Batman. I recommend buying it. I would advise against buying both shadow of Mordor and mad max at the same time as they would feel too same and that could be boring.
I haven't played the surge but I'd like to, so I can't comment on it.
So I finished Shadow of Mordor. I played it rather quickly (for me), finishing the story and about 1/4 of the side objectives in about 28 hours of game time over about 2 weeks. I liked the game. Maybe even a little more than I thought I would. However, it definitely has its flaws.
The main thing that jumped out to me was how a lot of the gameplay mechanics seemed derived straight from other games. It is like a greatest hits conglomeration of multiple other games (Assassin’s Creed’s climbing and stealth, Batman Arkham City’s combat/counter system, even a little Tomb Raider in how the maps are set up, etc.) Then they put their own spin on things with the branding system (slightly reminiscent of MGSV where you fulton enemy soldiers to join your cause). Of course what game nowadays doesn’t borrow from others, especially 3rd person open world action games. The same could be said of Horizon Zero Dawn. But I love the LotR Universe so the story kept me engaged.
My main complaint would be that I did have an issue with the movement, climbing, and traversal being a bit wonky, inaccurate and difficult at times — getting stuck in corners, trying to jump and climb and Talion just stands there, trying to shimmy laterally while hanging and it doesn’t respond, etc. And Talion moves pretty slowly. Since HZD is a similar game, it’s hard not to compare the smoothness and ease with which Aloy runs, rolls, and jumps and Talion with his awkwardness and tank-like unresponsiveness. Also, immediately after finishing SoM I started NieR Automata and OMG! 2B moves around like a dream! She feels light as a feather and nimble as a cat in comparison. It so much funner when the character responds and moves where you want it to.
Another example in SoM, many times I’d be hanging from a ledge in stealth and push the circle ⭕️ button to do a stealth brand on an Orc and the game would just make Talion let go of the ledge since the same button is mapped to that too, so I’d fall and immediately be detected and have 20 Orcs swarm me. Which that’s another thing — I would have liked some better crowd control options. It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed, so the game is better played in stealth.
As far as positives, the branding and turning orcs against one another is pretty great, but it took too long to get to that point in the game and it was already half over. Also it was kind of hard trying to keep from killing your own orcs in a big skirmish when allies and foes are all crunched in during a skirmish. Again, with Talion’s inaccuracy of movement and targeting, you end up slaying your own warchief sometimes instead of the one you’re fighting against.
Oh yeah ... the positives — I did enjoy the story and characters. I was amazed at the huge variety of NPC orc character renditions. There was an enormous variety of orc character models and voices. In fact, I don’t think I saw the same orc twice. That was truly amazing, considering the huge number there are in the game.
And decapitating an orc was satisfying.
Okay, that’s enough. I say it’s a good, not great game. I’ll probably play Shadow of War when it’s $10 in a year or so.
I know you’ve decided already, but I thought I would quote my impressions of SoM from a couple months ago, just for the heck of it. If you are still considering it for later then the only thing I’d add to this is that if you have no experience or interest with LotR, then it might be tough to keep engaged with the story. Although the story is independent of the movies/books, you need to have at least a basic understanding of the lore of Middle Earth and Mordor, Sauron, Gollum, and the One Ring.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Shadow of Mordor is fun, but the gameplay hardly changes over the course of the game. So, especially if you're going after the platinum like me, some open world fatigue might be looming after ten hours in. But I guess the same can be said for Mad Max.
I'm playing Grand Kingdom now. It's pretty much just wat I needed: a sidescrolling Valkyria Chronicles. Anybody else here played it?
@Th3solution Saying the way the branding and Nemesis system works similar to the fulton stuff in MGSV is doing it a bit of a disservice imo. It's so much more than that and makes fights with the orcs and what not a bit personal. Also adds a bit of strategy to the game as you have to use a certain skill to beat some enemies when you find out there weakness.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder Yes, absolutely. When I re-read what I wrote a couple months ago I cringed slightly that I made that comparison 😂. You’re right that the mechanics of recruitment is nothing like MGSV. I guess what I meant at the time was that it was similar in terms of converting an enemy into an ally. The similarity ends there, really, as the the two games play nothing alike. In SoM, I like how if you’re fighting an orc and he manages to escape, that he will hunt you down throughout the game. Sometimes those guys will show up at the most inopportune times during a mission too. I remember several times trying to sneak through a camp and accomplish a story mission and one of those orcs I’d beat up hours ago and long forgot about pops up and derails my plans until I take him out 😂
@Kidfried I need to play Grand Kingdom. The game actually sounds brilliant. My backlog is looming too high at the moment, but I need to put it on the list. Are you playing on Vita or PS4?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution PS4! I'm just not much of handheld guy. I tried many, but ended up selling each one of them. It looks great on console, but that's mostly because of the art style. Control wise it feels like it has been made for handheld, though. So if you love your Vita, I'd recommend that!
@Th3solution Ha ha cool at least you have seen the error of your ways. 😉
Yeah really liked that about the Nemesis system. I'm pretty sure one dude followed me throughout the whole game but I know some people did get that same experience. I think it speaks volumes that it hasn't been copied a lot, with only one game that I'm aware of (xcom 2 war of the chosen) having a similar system. It was the first time I felt that it was a next gen system in play, proven that it was a bit broken on the last gen consoles.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder I agree about the nemesis system feeling really next-gen in 2014. Making your own adventures, like the orc following you, knowing that someone else playing might have a totally different experience is thrilling. Breath of the Wild is very much like that too.
It's obviously inspired by the success of multiplayer and roguelikes.
Final Fantasy XV for a great story. It could have been better introduced (as evicnsded that there’s a more guide alongside combat when you start the game), but what’s told is amazing. The characters are spectacularly done. The sense of brotherhood you feel in this game is probably the best I’ve seen. It’s one of the two only games to bring tears to my eyes. That says something.
@Th3solution The Awakened Fate Ultimatum. Kind of obscure JRPG on the PS3. Gameplays nothing to write home about, but the story was amazing, and thankfully 2/3rds of the game (and has a good number of difficult choices to fit war). Excellent deconstruction and art on war. It's on the flash sale if that's still going on.
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