The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I preordered it because of the many demos I saw of the Nemesis System. I still haven't gotten any "Order Shipped" notification from Amazon. Apparently the stock is extremely low from so many buyers.

I've been reading and watching some reviews, and yes, that nemesis system sounds really intriguing.

From what people are saying, they really seem to have managed to make the world feel alive on a level and to a depth that is pretty extraordinary in this genre.

It looks really cool. I might get it sometime next year. I'm not in a rush or anything. I'll probably wait a bit before buying Unity or Rogue too.

love how many enemies are onscreen at once.

really interesting to compare the approaches they've taken with parkour compared to certain other games.

helped by the fact that most of its structures aren't so complex that they require a lot of control fidelity to traverse.

AI w/ memory is a good use of AAA budget imo

I was talking about this game with my friend yesterday. He doesn't like the fact that you "don't really die...you just come back and the enemies respawn".

This is a guy that plays all the Dark Souls games.

I repeat...

He plays Dark Souls.

That game where your character is cursed to come back to life when you die and the enemies respawn in their original places.

I couldn't understand the logic with that argument.

Different type of game. Also, death in Dark Souls can be pretty punishing if you're carrying a lot of souls and humanity.

I'm sort of hesitant to commit to this game because I am completely unfamiliar with the Lord of the Rings lore. I've never seen any of the movies (I know, shame on me). I know that Orcs are bad guys, and there's something about dropping a ring in a vulcano, there's a skittish little creep that says 'precious' a lot, and there's a place that's supposed to be hard to walk into.
For those who know more about this game than I do, can I just jump in or am I going to miss a lot if I do?

I think you have the basics. Well, more than me, anyway.

The game doesn't take place within the story of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. The in-game notes explain the story perfectly well. And it's not very heavy on the story anyway.

Alright then. Thanks!

My real-life friend StarkRavenous (the one who donated the metal AC3 box for you, Joey) is playing Shadow of Mordor. He said that after dying the enemies didn't just respawn, they leveled up!

His biggest complaint is that you hold to run and for stealth, the opposite of AC games.

I just got it today. I played for 10 straight hours. I died maybe 20+ times. It's aggravating, but fun. Because it doesn't say "Game Over" if you die, it makes you work harder and learn how the enemies work. I have a main Nemesis now. I can NOT find any way to kill this son of a bitch. He's level 19 now and the only Warchief alive. He's invulnerable to stealth attacks (rear and aerial), vault moves, grabs, and melee attacks. He can only be hurt by ranged weapons or explosives.

You have a limited amount of arrows and there aren't very many explosives in one area at a time. My options are extremely limited. What makes it worse is that the game doesn't seem to decrease a boss' health unless you complete a combo/land a ranged hit on them. This bastard regenerates his health!!!

I'm determined to get this guy. The developers really made this system work. I actually have a personal vendetta against an NPC.

About the controls: It was goofy at first, because I expected something similar to AC's controls as well, but you get used to it pretty fast. Just practice a little. It's easy and makes sense.

A good summary of the game for anyone considering getting/renting it:

So how do these Nemesis battles work? Are your forced into combat, or can you approach stealthily? I sure hope most if not nearly all of them aren't immune to stealth kills or that would be a missed opportunity, especially for vids. Speaking of which, is there much potential for good videos, or are the only things worth recording walkthroughs and collectibles?

It was the same in the Arkham games, so that shouldn't be a problem.

There are mission start points on the map for each Warchief/Captain. If you see your Nemesis as one of these missions, you can go to it and select it. The mission starts by giving you an objective to lure them out. This can be done in a number of ways...

1. Stealth killing their supporters
2. Dominating specific soldiers
3. Killing 20 soldiers without getting hit
4. Other interesting ways

And stealth kills are possible, but not on every Nemesis. Usually a Warchief will grow immune to them the higher their level. The stats are randomized, but you can find them out beforehand and plan ahead. I've gotten a few enemies where they could only be killed by basic attacks, but were immune to stealth, ranged, and combat finishers (the holy trinity in these types of games).

What's great is that you can fail a mission before luring them out and restart it. However, if you let them escape, they start in a new area and level up, becoming more powerful. It's all very dynamic. Even after I've purchased all of the abilities in the skill tree, I've still died by certain enemies, usually by being overwhelmed by their soldiers and bodyguards.

Something I enjoy doing is either Dominating their bodyguards and turning them on their master (I had 5 bodyguards surround him and take him out within seconds, as they all have high stats close to his), or finding them all and killing them so that he's on his own when I confront him.

It may sound like a broken system if you haven't experienced it, but I assure you there are many possibilities for videos and fun moments. Whenever I've died, I've never blamed the game itself. I've thought, "You know, that was my mistake".

Thanks for the info, man. It sounds like you can at least take care of the soldiers and bodyguards stealthily. The randomness probably ensures that no two Warchief fights are exactly the same, which helps with making multiple vids of different situations.

The new Photo Mode is amazing, by the way.

That looks really great. Hey, I was wondering, how big are the maps? I heard there's two separate areas, but they're both not very big. Comparisons to maps in AC games are much appreciated.

Compared to AC games, not very big. I'd like to say maybe Constantinople from ACR-sized? Maybe a little bit smaller.

The thing is, SoM randomizes Uruks and throws different enemies at you at any given time, even wildlife. Every mission start point has a different mission type, so you won't go from one place to another rinsing and repeating like the last few AC game side quests. Even though the areas housing a Captain or Warchief are the same, the mission objectives and enemy weaknesses are different.

Oh, and there is another area about the same size as the first map. It's the same system as I've described above, but with a different feel to it, as it's by the sea. It's prettier, but there are more natural threats than Uruks.

Also, the new area unlocks brand new missions and a new set of Warchiefs and other Uruk to play with if you get bored with the other map. You won't run out of things to do very quickly. There's plenty.

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm a fan.

So I recently started this game and I'm really enjoying it! I love slashing Uruks to bits. I'm terrible at hand-to-hand combat, which is a good thing, I guess. I feel like it's the game's way of forcing me to use stealth. Too bad when I'm up against a captain that's immune to stealth finishers...

While I'm on the topic, I really like the 'Sauron's Army' system and the random strengths and weaknesses that each captain has. It's very original. I did notice a few mistakes though, as there's two captains that apparently arose from the dead. I killed them before, and a few minutes later I see them walking around like nothing happened. Same stats and everything. That's kind of annoying.

What's also annoying that my dude has the unnatural desire to live inside of a wall. I would be free-running along a wall, going towards a higher wall to climb it (image the wall is shaped like an L and I would be going left and up) and instead of climbing it he runs into the wall and gets stuck there. Had to reload the game a couple of times, because Uruks couldn't reach me to kill me and start the mission over.

I was also a bit overwhelmed by all of the points and unlocks in this game. Experience points, power points, attribute points, Mirian, weapon runes... But I'm learning.

I'm having a lot of fun with this game.

Bit late, but have you guys seen the announcement for the sequel: Shadow of War?

https://youtu.be/xl4bkIGgiyc

Looks wicked.

I may have preordered it even with my super tight budget...

Yup. Quite interested. Still not burnt out on Creedlikes soooo~

i am absolutely gonna get that. though i tend to wait for the Steam sales, so it's not gonna be Day 1

I've been playing Shadow of Mordor again for the past few days.

For those who didn't know, they added a new gamemode in preparation for the sequel: Nemesis Forge. What this does is it puts 25 captains that you interacted with a lot in the typical uruk hierarchy. Your ultimate nemesis (the foe that you interacted with the most) and your most loyal follower (the ally that you interacted with the most) will be brought over to your game in Shadow of War.

How cool is that?

In the Nemesis Forge you can interact with all of them as you would in the regular sandbox mode, so you can pretty much hand-pick who's going to b your nemesis and follower in the sequel. It's fantastic marketing if anything, because from what I've heard SoM sales went up and those who already had the game are more determined to buy SoW.

Once I get more free time, I'll have to check that out. It's been so long, I forgot if I even have a Nemesis to deal with.

Shadow of War comes out this Tuesday (Oct 10).

It's been a while since I've been this excited for a new release. It's actually the first time I'm confident enough to pre-order a game. They've shown so much gameplay and answered so many questions that I know I'll definitely want to play this game.

Anyone else super hyped? Joey?

I'm extremely excited for this game. Hopefully I'll manage to get some free time to play it, but I got enough to use the Nemesis Forge. I'm very pleased with all of the new features they included in the new game. It sounds like they improved everything in a logical and fun way.

I'll pick up Shadow of War right after AC Origins because otherwise I'll have no time for it, but yeah, super hype.

More AC games is generally <3 and SoW looks like a gooood AC game just like its predecessor~ ;]