|
SunOB's Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
|
| [February 15, 2018 06:58:35 PM]
|
Gamelog #2 (Part 3)
I played another few hours working through the main story. I think I might have broken the game a bit with a rune that gives me an extremely high level skill (infinite execution rage mode) which made both the Hammer and Matron boss fights extremely easy since I just spammed them to death within a few minutes. I felt bad for Ratbag after the Hammer killed him so slaughtering the Hammer was quite satisfying.
I feel like there is still quite a disconnect between the gameplay and some of the moral themes. Talion had a quip about how mind controlling orcs for information is strange but then is fine with blowing up their heads with his ghost powers in game. I realize I am still not that far as I still haven't unlocked converting orcs to your side which I thought was a big part of the game. I also feel like there are hints towards a conflict later where Talion may have to give up his body to completely revive Celembridor which would be a fairly interesting moral quandary.
read comments (2)  -
add a comment 
|
| [February 14, 2018 06:45:32 PM]
|
Gamelog 2 (part 2)
I played about an hour and a half today and spent most of it on side missions. First I did the quest to elevate Ratbag to a warchief which did make me sympathize a bit with the ork since he was pretty funny and not a backstabber. I then decided I wanted to farm some more arrow capacity so I went to do some side missions. I saw that I had a quest to avenge one of my steam friends' deaths to a low level captain so I took the quest but the guy surprised me with a repeater bow and 4 other captains and killed me. I saw that the game had promoted him to the bodyguard of a warchief, which would allow me to find the identity of another warchief which was the meta-quest I was on anyway. So, I decided to hunt him down, it turned out he had retreated to an orc stronghold near the Black Gates which had atleast 4 or 5 other captains in it. I spent a good hour or so hunting down dozens of orc bodyguards that were around him since I had to capture him to interrogate him. I got him alone and got my revenge, but the interrogation caused a bug where the game would not register any of my inputs except space bar so I had to quit there.
I am starting to sympathize more with the orcs, and I did see there was an upgrade that I will get further in the story which recruits drained orcs to my side which is where I assume more of the moral issues will lie. I spent a lot of time killing orcs in this section and I feel like the game definitely lightens their deaths especially in many of the cinematic with Ratbag which are pretty brutal but are accompanied with one liners and lighthearted music.
add a comment
|
| [February 12, 2018 11:05:40 PM]
|
Gamelog 2 (part 1)-
This is the first time I have played the game although I picked it up for a few bucks during the last Steam Winter sale. I played for about two hours and got to the part where we learn the wraiths real identity. The gameplay is very reminiscent of the Batman games, especially the combat which is very flashy without requiring much player input. I would say the the game definitely falls under gratuitous violence. The orcs are so ugly they are hard to feel sympathy for, but some of the "stealth" kill animations are so brutal they would definitely be counted as gratuitous.
I haven't gotten very far into the orc mind control mechanics so I can't say much about those ethical implications. I thought that working with orcs would be more of mind control, but currently I have only worked with one orc and it was without any wraith mind control magic. The only current ethical implication that I have encountered is the sheer brutality that the player character slaughters the orcs and steals their souls, but I wouldn't say it is so bad to be of note unlike games like Manhunter (the fact that you are murdering orcs rather than humans definitely has a part in it).
add a comment
|
|
|
 |
SunOB's Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
|
|
Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 12 February, 2018
|
|
