I suffer from purist obsession and rage, so I can't bring myself to play any game adapted from Tolkien's work. It doesn't make me a better person or anything, but I do gatekeep Tolkien country with extreme prejudice because everyone, especially The Tolkien Society, seems dedicated to misrepresenting and screwing up everything the man created. And they do all of this while calling him a racist scumbag.
As Razor said "gatekeep the gatekeepers." They trash everything good in this world. Entering established, beloved IPs communities - to then tell them how their hobby, TV series, or books in this case, are to be enjoyed or what the creator meant and so on. They have no creativity of their own so they latch onto already crafted works. Like leeches. I haven't read the books. Loved the LOTR Trilogy though. I have friends who are massive fans of "The Man" (he's a literary god in their eye's and I can see why), who have read the books 10 times over and have not one bad thing to say. Not one. Gatekeep what you enjoy before the snakes slither through the gate. God. Fucking Speed!
Damn, the Rageaholic still doesn't have a million subscribers? Can we please hit that like button a few more times so this channel gets the views it deserves, so that Gaming Journalism gets the critique it deserves?
Great game. Just incredible. Funny story, in the kinda early days of eBay (for a young kid + Australia) my friend bought a copy from the Bay and it was in a case... Just with a white, blank disc. So funny. It was 60 AUD too. So a lot for a young Buck.
The worst part of this game is that had they remained faithful to lore, not stolen code, and not have felt/been required to sign on for every modern trend in the AAA industry, they could have made a really good Thief style stealth game. I would think Mordor would be the perfect setting for a Lord of the Rings stealth game of that style because of how dark it is. Yes, I know this review is almost 6 years old.
Yeah, that was one difficult button to push. Twice. Within the prohibitively brief time window of 3 entire hours. Thinking of devoting a chapter of my memoirs to it.
geekgreek427 Because the code is not plagiarism material. If a game can be acused of such, just because it uses the same mechanics we are into dark waters, bud. Every FPS will be a Wolfenstein/Doom clone. The cover system will have to pay money for one obscure game called Winback. Open world games with crime will all be GTA clone. You see the problem? Gaming is a trending business, which I might add that creativity does not count. People have been doing this for so long that developers can't remember. This does not excuse Monolith of their sins.
Wait, what? "Shadow" is ripping off AC code? Ok, now I'm really confused. In the run-up to this game's release, I could've sworn that they actually said "Shadow Of Mordor" was BUILT WITH licenced Assassin's Creed base technology. Did I hallucinate this?
+JoeyEchoLawrence - Apparently so. Assassin's Creed is owned by a completely different company. (Ubisoft) Shadow of Mordor is made by WB Interactive. They didn't swap code.
+Michael Cardi - They didn't execute a 'concept'. They STOLE ANIMATION CODE. There's a difference. Dennis Miller did the angry ranting *_after_* George Carlin and Lenny Bruce, but he made it his own, with his own punchlines. Shadow of Mordor is more akin to Carlos Mencia or Dane Cook. Stealing other peoples' material and becoming financially successful for it.
+The Rageaholic It's sad to see this coming from what was once one of my favorite video game companies of all time. Alas, if it's plagiarism, it's plagiarism. At least I can still shout praise for Blackpowder games. Monolith seems to have lost all of its crazy idea making since those people left. Sure, olden-days Monolith have taken ideas from other games before (No One Lives Forever shows rather obvious influence from Goldeneye 007) but they still made the game distinctly theirs (drawing parallels to your Dennis Miller explanation). Now, they are just flat out stealing code. Thank you, Razorfist, for preventing me from making a blind fanboy decision. P.S. On an vaguely related note, I would like to know your thoughts on Betrayer since it is currently one of my favorite horror games of all time.
SpookyKid94 i bought it at launch and didn't have any issues with FPS. I wonder if maybe you run AMD and it had some issues on AMD hardware. idk devs are known to shit on AMD.
MarioTGP not shitting on PS4. I have a PS4 and its a great system I just chose to play this game on PC. He made a statement saying it in general ran and looked like shit. That was not the case for me when i played it on PC.
Kev West - Gaming Nah 4gb 770 with a intel cpu as well It had something to do with the textures, at first I couldn't handle high settings, then I could suddenly play on ultra.
SpookyKid94 did you have the same problem when you turned the textures down? A lot of people on PC cry foul when they cant max a game out but it would run better if they turned the settings down. I have a 970 4770 build I totally understand wanting to get everything out of a power house rig but if it can play at the lower settings then maybe the game is just more demanding then we would like it to be.
When I came back to the game the day after I finished it, it became basically unplayable. All of the orcs were the same ridiculously powerful demigods I had accrued over the time spent playing, but literally all of my own abilities were gone, including ones you get from story missions I couldn't replay. The world was in an endgame state and Talion was prologue level, meaning trying to fight off the two orc warlords who are invulnerable to stealth, ranged attacks, combat finishers, mount attacks, and enraged by literally everything, having poisoned weapons, having no mercy and the ability to throw me around like a ragdoll whenever they want, accompanied by their posses and the already present horde of orc grunts, was virtually impossible.
You speak the truth but I still found this game to be one of the better ones I played in 2014. Maybe that says a lot about how bad that year was for gaming.
You make a boatload of excellent points. What passes for innovation and amazingly original content in today's games is adding ANY small tidbit of originality to what is otherwise a retread. Wake me up when someone writes the next System Shock.
I don't listen to music often, but I had to hear the rest of "For All Those who Died" after hearing that scream and that riff. Very much worth it. Also your review was funny and informative.
Hahaha! You Sir are a true talent, for some reason even if I completely disagree with your critiques on some of your videos I can't seem stop listening to you! As much as I liked listening to you ball busting this game I have to say I really enjoyed Shadow Mordor and I can't wait for the next one! Well at least I hope they're making another one!
War in the North is basically Dragon Age Origin, Lord of the Rings Conquest is StarWars Battlefront (the Pandemic version) and yep Shadow of Mordor is AC II
Have zero interest in this game. The only good Lord of the Rings games were on PS2. The Two Towers was my personal favorite. Return of the King was good also.
The books are written from the view point of normal people. Tolkien knew, as many writers do, that the main character observing greatness translates better on the page than them being great themselves. But this is a game and so, apparently, you need to have some innate super powers to make it fun. But flashing around as an indestructible, mind bending super hero doesn't have the feel that Tolkien wanted for his universe.
Oliver James Atkinson I'm English too, and I would say that it's an exceptionally tacked on imitation of an English accent, with wild flurries of "am I doing this right guys?".
The only LOTR video game that was good was the turn-based rpg "The Third Age." What made it great was the cast of original characters who mirrored the fellowship. There was something awesome about traversing the lower levels of Moria, overhearing the fellowship bicker, and then join forces with Gandalf to fight the balrog and the bridge of Khazad-Dhum.
I don't see how you had such trouble getting high combo scores. I regularly jogged into encampments and got 100+ combos enjoying the visceral moments of orc heads rolling around on the ground.
When i saw the Shadow of Mordor psoter in your last episode, I thought "Wow this guy must really like the game" after watching the review though....I can't tell if you actually do. If Monolith actually had stolen from Ubisoft then I'd expect lawsuits and such. But anyway, I fell in LOVE with this game, it's actually the game that finally convinced me to get a PS4 and I spent damn good 12 hours killing captains and freeing slaves before I ever gave a shit about the story mode
I'm gonna say my piece on Lord of the Rings Online briefly: I bailed on that sinking ship around the time the game decided it was time to teach me and I quote...... "how to door"
Much like a third Shadow of Mordor's mimicked code, your overdue Assassin's Creed 2 review only needs a chunk of the material written in this video with some bells and whistles added to be entertaining. :P
Wow I actually didn't know about that assassin's creed 2 stuff. I thought it looked familiar to assassins creed but I couldn't really put my finger on which one and I thought it was just a subtle rip off, but now that I think of it, it really does look identical to 2. Man that is a huge bummer.
Hi Rageaholic. I enjoy your channel a lot, and I appreciate that you perform unhinged rants and less controlled arguments, but even then I have some thoughts on this one: 1. I had no idea how 'Ithilien' was pronounced (I couldn't even recall it being said in the movies till you raised it) and some other examples would have been good to back up your point. We could likewise be picky with you by saying the game's enemies are not "orcs", they're actually _uruks_. 2. Troy Baker's accent was fine, it wasn't consistently a Yorkshire throughout but at some points it was surprisingly great and overall it was solid (And much better than the goddamn Gondor units in Battle for Middle Earth who sound like they vaguely remember and imitate Sean Bean in FOTR). If anything it was Troy's performance which was bland, though his character is an undead spirit ranger after all (I see shades of the Nameless One from Planescape: Torment). 3. I'm surprised at the whole Assassin's Creed 'denial' thing, thanks for bringing that one up as I had no idea. I once worked in a racing game studio and we bought virtually every rival game released for studying the features, contents and mechanics. There's no way SOM absently missed off AC - the whole game feels like WB commissioned it and said "Make a Batman game combined with LOTR, throw in some AC if you want". 4. I agree with Yahtzee that it's a strange game of the year for some people - it's mostly due to 2014 being lacklustre so it stood out well.
Игры
You never cease to impress. The fact that you know a lot about Tolkien lore unapologetically and unironically has earned you my respect.
I suffer from purist obsession and rage, so I can't bring myself to play any game adapted from Tolkien's work. It doesn't make me a better person or anything, but I do gatekeep Tolkien country with extreme prejudice because everyone, especially The Tolkien Society, seems dedicated to misrepresenting and screwing up everything the man created. And they do all of this while calling him a racist scumbag.
As Razor said "gatekeep the gatekeepers."
They trash everything good in this world. Entering established, beloved IPs communities - to then tell them how their hobby, TV series, or books in this case, are to be enjoyed or what the creator meant and so on. They have no creativity of their own so they latch onto already crafted works. Like leeches.
I haven't read the books. Loved the LOTR Trilogy though.
I have friends who are massive fans of "The Man" (he's a literary god in their eye's and I can see why), who have read the books 10 times over and have not one bad thing to say. Not one.
Gatekeep what you enjoy before the snakes slither through the gate. God. Fucking Speed!
Damn, the Rageaholic still doesn't have a million subscribers?
Can we please hit that like button a few more times so this channel gets the views it deserves, so that Gaming Journalism gets the critique it deserves?
Return of the King on the Gamecube was the shit, me and a friend played that for hours on end back in the day.
If only it had a few more levels.
Great game. Just incredible.
Funny story, in the kinda early days of eBay (for a young kid + Australia) my friend bought a copy from the Bay and it was in a case... Just with a white, blank disc. So funny. It was 60 AUD too. So a lot for a young Buck.
The worst part of this game is that had they remained faithful to lore, not stolen code, and not have felt/been required to sign on for every modern trend in the AAA industry, they could have made a really good Thief style stealth game. I would think Mordor would be the perfect setting for a Lord of the Rings stealth game of that style because of how dark it is.
Yes, I know this review is almost 6 years old.
The use of Baron Harkonnen in this pleases me greatly.
You forgot to mention the final "boss fight"
Fucking this.
Yeah, that was one difficult button to push. Twice.
Within the prohibitively brief time window of 3 entire hours.
Thinking of devoting a chapter of my memoirs to it.
***** Why hasn't Ubisoft/ Charles Randall sued Monolith and Warner Bros. for this alleged theft?
geekgreek427 Because the code is not plagiarism material. If a game can be acused of such, just because it uses the same mechanics we are into dark waters, bud. Every FPS will be a Wolfenstein/Doom clone. The cover system will have to pay money for one obscure game called Winback. Open world games with crime will all be GTA clone. You see the problem? Gaming is a trending business, which I might add that creativity does not count. People have been doing this for so long that developers can't remember. This does not excuse Monolith of their sins.
I just remembered that... Oh, it hurts...
"It's not an English accent counselor Troi, it's a hate crime with punctuation marks"
I died.
the Internet needs more Rageaholics.
What can I say, I loved this game. Then again I played the PC version.
Same lel
Heh, 'loading screens'.
I loved it too, and I played it on PS4.
You ever download the high def textures?
Yeah authenticity or no it was a solid experience (on pc too)
The beginning made me burst out laughing.
Please let me assure you, plagiarism is industry standard. It's really the guts of the sausage.
Wait, what? "Shadow" is ripping off AC code? Ok, now I'm really confused. In the run-up to this game's release, I could've sworn that they actually said "Shadow Of Mordor" was BUILT WITH licenced Assassin's Creed base technology. Did I hallucinate this?
+JoeyEchoLawrence - Apparently so. Assassin's Creed is owned by a completely different company. (Ubisoft) Shadow of Mordor is made by WB Interactive. They didn't swap code.
Wow. I guess I saw the gameplay demos and just read between the lines - "This looks so identical to AC parkour, it must be a middleware thing..."
+Michael Cardi - They didn't execute a 'concept'. They STOLE ANIMATION CODE. There's a difference.
Dennis Miller did the angry ranting *_after_* George Carlin and Lenny Bruce, but he made it his own, with his own punchlines.
Shadow of Mordor is more akin to Carlos Mencia or Dane Cook. Stealing other peoples' material and becoming financially successful for it.
+The Rageaholic It's sad to see this coming from what was once one of my favorite video game companies of all time. Alas, if it's plagiarism, it's plagiarism. At least I can still shout praise for Blackpowder games. Monolith seems to have lost all of its crazy idea making since those people left. Sure, olden-days Monolith have taken ideas from other games before (No One Lives Forever shows rather obvious influence from Goldeneye 007) but they still made the game distinctly theirs (drawing parallels to your Dennis Miller explanation). Now, they are just flat out stealing code. Thank you, Razorfist, for preventing me from making a blind fanboy decision.
P.S. On an vaguely related note, I would like to know your thoughts on Betrayer since it is currently one of my favorite horror games of all time.
Well, honestly, I do prefer it myself, even tho AC does have its 'moments' when they choose to step away from The Formula.
This game looks and runs amazingly on PC lol
It wasn't amazing when I first bough it, but a couple of patches have perfected everything. Haven't seen the framerate drop below 56 in months.
SpookyKid94 i bought it at launch and didn't have any issues with FPS. I wonder if maybe you run AMD and it had some issues on AMD hardware. idk devs are known to shit on AMD.
MarioTGP not shitting on PS4. I have a PS4 and its a great system I just chose to play this game on PC. He made a statement saying it in general ran and looked like shit. That was not the case for me when i played it on PC.
Kev West - Gaming Nah 4gb 770 with a intel cpu as well
It had something to do with the textures, at first I couldn't handle high settings, then I could suddenly play on ultra.
SpookyKid94 did you have the same problem when you turned the textures down? A lot of people on PC cry foul when they cant max a game out but it would run better if they turned the settings down. I have a 970 4770 build I totally understand wanting to get everything out of a power house rig but if it can play at the lower settings then maybe the game is just more demanding then we would like it to be.
When I came back to the game the day after I finished it, it became basically unplayable.
All of the orcs were the same ridiculously powerful demigods I had accrued over the time spent playing, but literally all of my own abilities were gone, including ones you get from story missions I couldn't replay.
The world was in an endgame state and Talion was prologue level, meaning trying to fight off the two orc warlords who are invulnerable to stealth, ranged attacks, combat finishers, mount attacks, and enraged by literally everything, having poisoned weapons, having no mercy and the ability to throw me around like a ragdoll whenever they want, accompanied by their posses and the already present horde of orc grunts, was virtually impossible.
You speak the truth but I still found this game to be one of the better ones I played in 2014. Maybe that says a lot about how bad that year was for gaming.
well look at it this way 2/3rds of what was supposed to come out in 2014 is coming out in 2015... whoopie.
you went full spoony on this, but with more passion that he had in a long time, I loved it
Every video you make makes my day 10x better, keep up the good work.
That intro is so perfect. I haven't even watched the rest of the video and I'm dropping a like.
You make a boatload of excellent points. What passes for innovation and amazingly original content in today's games is adding ANY small tidbit of originality to what is otherwise a retread. Wake me up when someone writes the next System Shock.
Love that Fist of the North Star And Mad Tv references LOL
You got me good at the intro.
I don't listen to music often, but I had to hear the rest of "For All Those who Died" after hearing that scream and that riff. Very much worth it. Also your review was funny and informative.
Your videos are what get me up in the morning
So..... Was it a good Assassin's Creed game? Cuz plagiarism or not, I've been waiting for one of those......
looks fucking great on PC...
it's just AC with a bit of cool shit added... Luckily i like AC and cool shit.
Hahaha! You Sir are a true talent, for some reason even if I completely disagree with your critiques on some of your videos I can't seem stop listening to you! As much as I liked listening to you ball busting this game I have to say I really enjoyed Shadow Mordor and I can't wait for the next one! Well at least I hope they're making another one!
yet another great episode ! Godspeed Raz0er Fist!
Fuck I thought you game on PC. Mordor looks good on PC and faces are really nice.
Took you long enough.
11/10 on the intro makes up for it.
AAAAHAHAHA, the beginning made my day :D
Lmao yes, was hoping someone else commented about the intro.
7:55 the first case in Wuhan
My scars run, *very. deep.* I admit, I loved that
Keep doing what you do best Razorfist :D
Great music for a great video, that Bathory song is definitely in my top 5 :)
A truly great and rich RPG could be produced from LOTR, 10 + years in and everyone is still waiting.
War in the North is basically Dragon Age Origin, Lord of the Rings Conquest is StarWars Battlefront (the Pandemic version) and yep Shadow of Mordor is AC II
Man I've been staring at that Blade Runner poster on your wall for ages, you ever gunna do a vid about my favorite movie? :D
Loved this game!
You sir are what gaming needs
Have zero interest in this game. The only good Lord of the Rings games were on PS2. The Two Towers was my personal favorite. Return of the King was good also.
Those are two of the best hack-n-slash games I've ever played. Great stuff.
The Two Towers game was very good.
Yup when ea use to be the only one make good licensed games
The books are written from the view point of normal people. Tolkien knew, as many writers do, that the main character observing greatness translates better on the page than them being great themselves. But this is a game and so, apparently, you need to have some innate super powers to make it fun. But flashing around as an indestructible, mind bending super hero doesn't have the feel that Tolkien wanted for his universe.
Wow PS4? Didn't know they were still making those.
any other PS4 Players have no issues with the game?
Anyway, i enjoyed the game ALOT.
the Nemesis system is genius and needs to be used more.
If the game was nothing but fucking with the Orc hierarchy, it'd be beautiful.
Actually, I'm English, and Troy Baker's accent is rather accurate and fluent.
Good review with your own trademark flavour nonetheless.
That's just it. He didn't do an English accent.
He did a bad Sean Bean impersonation.
***** As in he impersonated Sean Beans accent or the fact that he constantly dies?
***** Well, he didn't, but Sean Bean is English, from the North, which Troy Baker didn't sound.
But I'm English, and telling you it's very acceptable.
Oliver James Atkinson I'm English too, and I would say that it's an exceptionally tacked on imitation of an English accent, with wild flurries of "am I doing this right guys?".
Swarley Underhill I was wondering if someone was going to make that joke. Lol.
The only LOTR video game that was good was the turn-based rpg "The Third Age." What made it great was the cast of original characters who mirrored the fellowship. There was something awesome about traversing the lower levels of Moria, overhearing the fellowship bicker, and then join forces with Gandalf to fight the balrog and the bridge of Khazad-Dhum.
I heard the rts games are pretty decent, but they're almost impossible to find for less than 200$
HAHA! oh god! the Goldust and the Orc at the beginning! god that was amazing!
This video is a victory for the simple fact that it has Goldust in it.
You are a Fin' animal ! how the hell do you only have 141k subs ?
The scene you had used Arnold Was simply Orgasmic.
Another great video. Hey are you planning on doing a metal mythos on Bathory? Just curious.
I am a big fan of Tolkien, and I actually really enjoyed this game for the vibes, I am able to separate it from Tolkien unlike the rings of garbage
4000th like coming through lads.
Don't bag the Lord of the Rings pinball machine. Best one Stern ever made, seriously.
Haha, loved that intro! XD
Game journalism is the ultimate hugbox.
Now that is what I call a game review.
Please use that intro for every video ever. Holy shit I lost it.
Dude, wow. Haven't played Mordor yet. .. but wow. Well said
Hmmm didn't know about the theft thing thanks for that bit of info,
Great video. Glad there's still some people out there with common sense.
I had a blast with the PS2 Lotr games but never checked out Conquest or war of the north. Are they worth checking out?
I don't see how you had such trouble getting high combo scores. I regularly jogged into encampments and got 100+ combos enjoying the visceral moments of orc heads rolling around on the ground.
Holy fuck, never thought about Goldust Orc! Brilliant!
you got me good at the intro
Best intro ever. Many lols.
Honestly i like the story lol, you can tell they didn't give a fuck.
eh...i had fun with it....not complaining.
hey razorfist how about a fist of the north star review sometime in the future?
grade a coco right here
This game was fun as hell.
LOL. That Xanax picture is hilarious. And true...
Another great video, Razörfist! God-fucking-speed!
When i saw the Shadow of Mordor psoter in your last episode, I thought "Wow this guy must really like the game" after watching the review though....I can't tell if you actually do. If Monolith actually had stolen from Ubisoft then I'd expect lawsuits and such. But anyway, I fell in LOVE with this game, it's actually the game that finally convinced me to get a PS4 and I spent damn good 12 hours killing captains and freeing slaves before I ever gave a shit about the story mode
Liked as soon as I heard Purgatory.
I'm gonna say my piece on Lord of the Rings Online briefly: I bailed on that sinking ship around the time the game decided it was time to teach me and I quote...... "how to door"
Razorfist, you have a great taste in Iron Maiden.
I just wanna be Eomer...for that awesome horse helmet.
thanks for the heads up razor. I WAS interested in this game, but I didn't like assassin's creed 2 so thanks for saving me some money
Just wondering what your thoughts on Wolfstein the new order?
8 months on and I still don't remember anyone else mentioning the stark similarity to AC2.
Hell yeah man!
always love the intro fuckin kills me everytime
I gave this video an upvote for Goldust in the beginning.
I lost my shit when "Crawling" came on. xD
and that's why I bought it on PC.
a year after it's release. for $7.
So what Skyrim mod was that muscly orc female from?
...I'm asking for a friend
Must've been some money dance, this game was bafflingly getting game of the year nominees
Just in case nobody knew, the story for this game was written by Christian Cantamessa, the same bloke who wrote the story for Red Dead: Redemption.
And?
good shit
Much like a third Shadow of Mordor's mimicked code, your overdue Assassin's Creed 2 review only needs a chunk of the material written in this video with some bells and whistles added to be entertaining.
:P
Fuckin love that maiden intro
Wow I actually didn't know about that assassin's creed 2 stuff. I thought it looked familiar to assassins creed but I couldn't really put my finger on which one and I thought it was just a subtle rip off, but now that I think of it, it really does look identical to 2. Man that is a huge bummer.
This game might as well have been called: Arkham's Creed - Mordor edition.
Hi Rageaholic. I enjoy your channel a lot, and I appreciate that you perform unhinged rants and less controlled arguments, but even then I have some thoughts on this one:
1. I had no idea how 'Ithilien' was pronounced (I couldn't even recall it being said in the movies till you raised it) and some other examples would have been good to back up your point. We could likewise be picky with you by saying the game's enemies are not "orcs", they're actually _uruks_.
2. Troy Baker's accent was fine, it wasn't consistently a Yorkshire throughout but at some points it was surprisingly great and overall it was solid (And much better than the goddamn Gondor units in Battle for Middle Earth who sound like they vaguely remember and imitate Sean Bean in FOTR). If anything it was Troy's performance which was bland, though his character is an undead spirit ranger after all (I see shades of the Nameless One from Planescape: Torment).
3. I'm surprised at the whole Assassin's Creed 'denial' thing, thanks for bringing that one up as I had no idea. I once worked in a racing game studio and we bought virtually every rival game released for studying the features, contents and mechanics. There's no way SOM absently missed off AC - the whole game feels like WB commissioned it and said "Make a Batman game combined with LOTR, throw in some AC if you want".
4. I agree with Yahtzee that it's a strange game of the year for some people - it's mostly due to 2014 being lacklustre so it stood out well.
Best intro:)) ORCdust:)
I had tons of fun with this game. The game looks stellar on PC with great framerate. I spent tons of time with the nemesis system and 100% the game.
Finally, an honest review of the game.
Purgatory. Great fucking song.