Through the Nemesis System, I think both this game and its sequel have one the most fun gameplay loops I've experienced in open world games. I get really invested in making allies, engaging in power-struggles between orcs and creating rivals. And the best thing is that very little of it is scripted.
I think the main thing that makes the nemesis system so DAME good, is that no two runs will EVER play out the same way. Since the game effectively has a "dynamic storyteller" of sorts. I personally prefer the sequel myself since it feels they fleshed it out at least a bit more personally.
Luckily, through the magic of patents, we'll never have another game that features the Nemesis System or anything even remotely like it because....greed! YAY!!! Aren't patents great for uh... "innovation"? ☹
good news: there’s a Wonder Woman game by Monolith that was announced two years ago that will have it bad news: two years since the announcement and no news
how would that even work? in both games, you need to wait for the second act to be able to recruit and until then, the orcs cannot fight each other in story missions. the very first mission would be a run killer because you need to fight a captain before another npc dies. right?
@GalliadII I'm not sure if I'm misremembering, but I believe that Shadow of War had friendly fire between the orcs, I wouldn't be surprised if Lemon, the god of patience that he is, tried that
These games are criminally underrated. I remember playing this game all the way through middle school. The nemesis system, Arkham-like combat, cool story and characters and awesome abilities. Definitely helped fuel my love for the series. Great video as always!
you have no idea what underrated means do you? these games had dogshit combat that boils down to pressing x and y to parry. it’s the exact same as assassins creed. they were extremely popular when they came out, quite the opposite of “criminally underrated”
@@morganfreeman5260You actually can do so much in the game and tons of people will disagree with you. If you don't like it cool the rest of us will enjoy it. Honestly feels like you just didn't bother playing or got far in the game cause there's tons of options in combat.
@@galaxyvulture6649he is right tho? Combat in shadow of mordor boils down to stealth or spamming parry and r1s with abilities every 5 hits? Doesnt mean its bad like he said, its just simple
@@scurrx Combat in that game had way more options than just that. Enemies had various mechanics that made them harder or easier to beat depending on how your their abilities/weaknesses. Death was punishing actually making certain enemies in the world change even to the point an average goon could level up. Certain aspects heavily affected fights like using terror, fire, or brands to change how encounters go. It can either enrage, cause them to flee, or just auto kill them. Even grabbing enemies can make a major difference so you can get more intel for bosses. Some abilities actually can be really helpful for making giving you more breathing room or causing them to run from you if you're the rambo type of player. Even arrows can be so helpful for easier traversing strongholds or running away. That branding systems helps so much adding more flavor to battles to the point it can be a game in itself ranking them up to be more op. Even your own minions can betray you or go insane. Theres tons of abilties to help control the pace of battle too like the vault stun, head bursting for terror, causing explosions, brutalize to aid in more control, and a couple more options. Even certain quests REALLY can buff your abilities to melt down enemies with infinite abilities for a short duration. I'm sorry they said it was dogshit gameplay which is just not true. With their logic dark souls would be dogshit as well as plenty of games. With all the options in this game I just can't agree with it.
@@morganfreeman5260 Do you even know how the combat works? saying the combat is dogshit because its 2 buttons is so stupid cause first of all, it is not, you have many abilities which require further input, there is so much thinking that actually goes into combat, repositioning, focusing on specific targets, environmental support, you clearly have not played the games and just want to say random shit online
It's been a while since I've played Shadows of Mordor, but I'm pretty sure that Wraith Finisher makes it so you always detonate the head of non-captain enemies after you interrogate them. Obviously its a bit late to say this now, but it might come in handy if you try this with SoW (though I suspect that one would be quite a bit more rough)
I remember how i kept dying to a single ork captain until he was literally the strongest possible and that whole expirence is truly why i love this game. I also remeber by the end having every ork captain and warlord under my control. I wish that system was in other games.
Shadow of Mordor is one of my absolute favourite games, I replay it at least twice a year so it goes without saying that I am over the moon seeing that you've done a run of this game. Your videos are fantastic.
bro i already loved all of your videos but now you upload as far as i know the ONLY shadow of mordor/war challenge run on youtube? you just went from a 10/10 to an 11/10
Shadow of Mordor is literally one of the games that made me thrill the most ! The moment when you go back to Mordor with your troops and your nemesis assembled an army is as stunning as the moment you discover ash lake for the first time.
Backlogs dropped a SoM and I’ve been sleeping for 3 days?? Freaking beautiful. I’ve loved these games since they dropped and now I gotta go replay again. Thanks bro. Your content is top tier
Some of the absolute best snooze content out there. I have trouble sleeping but whenever I have a video from Lemon running i sleep like a baby... this is ment to be a huge compliment btw
15:33 There's no variation in interogation animations in the normal sense. Captains you will always sorta 'knock out' with your wraith powers upon interogation, killing them semi consistently, while normal orks you will decapitate with your sword until unlocking the blowing up heads ability
@@IamaPERSONyeah, for some reason that's what the guy goes by. For awhile when I was watching his videos that auto played after someone else's, I was super confused about who this "lemon" guy was and why I could never find his channel to subscribe in my video history 😂
Fun fact. If a branded grunt kills an enemy captain, they will be promoted to captain after you progress time a bit. I loved doing this when i found a cool orc. It's hard to pull off but fun if you do. It's especially nice if the captain's grunts have some warpaint before you branded them
I'd love to see a challenge with the sequel, orc only, or pacifist sorta run where you let the orcs do everything you can and bolster em up. Would be awesome
I'm only at 15:13, and I have my fingers crossed about two things. I consider Shadow Strike a Wraith Power, because it's the Wraith wielding the sword. Also, intel can be obtained once he has the Head Explosion or Brand abilities, because Talion will no longer use his sword to kill Uruks once either effect is unlocked.
I'm so glad I'm seeing this because I just got a New Ring commissioned not but a few hours ago. One with the lore "friendly" inscription and not just a blue copy of the One Ring.
Oh, didn't expect this game to appear here. Great choice Lemon! One of the most underrated Open World games. Despite its flaws and the Nemesis system gathering dust because of patent, it still remains a great game.
An unexpected blessing to see you do a challenge run on a game I never expected and it’s fine content as always but I actualy didn’t like shadow of Mordor it’s meh and I beat it with 100% in 8 hours don’t know if that anything special, but shadow of war was amazing and is one of my favorite games
my son used to play this game for hours on end, totally worth the whole 6 bucks I paid for it while on a steam safe. It got to the point where he killed so many orcs we debated that Talion was worse than Sauron!. I think this was also the game that he built an unbeatable army orcs fighting for him as well. I think it was the game before this he killed Sauron without the one ring!
These games are so fun! And I'm so excited you're starting to play it! This will definitely be ones I rewatch again (hoping you make more from these games)
Fairly certain that's because the sequel had its soul ripped out and turned into loot boxes, so everyone just sort of forgot about it. By the time they were chopped off like a gangrenous limb, the game wasn't new any more, so... yeah.
It's funny you post this as I've been looking at the Middle Earth CCG for a week, so this is cool to see/I kinda love this game series, only played Shadow of War but never got to play this one sadly.
It's weird - I remember playing Dragon's Lair in the late 80's or early 90's and thinking "Boy, these quickly timed events sure suck. Good thing they are bound to never catch on."
holy shit?!! hes playing these games now???!!? fucking love these games so fucking much, cant wait for more from the developers using the nemesis system
I am fairly new to this channel, but oh boy it's fun. I only binged like 40 hours of content right after discovery. Should totally do a barrel bomb only run in Monster Hunter World.
35:00 ...Play the Bright Lord DLC campaign since it actually gives you a pretty kickass fight against Sauron? Okay, DOOM music works too. EDIT: Okay he knows about it.
Nice! I really like all the Soulbourne and Souls-like content here, but seeing some variety is really refreshing. Would love to see what's more left in Lemon's gaming backlogs ) PS: Yeah, Doom music kinda helped.
The single most beautiful thing that the Shadow games made was a fluid, functional demigod character. Once you find your combo and can execute it via muscle memory, nothing short of a warchief breaks your stride and you go from finding openings to taking on and defeat all enemies in moments while using them to power those same abilities that rinse them off Mordor. The closest I can think of would be like Assassin's Creed mixed with Bloodborne where actively killing enemies helps keep you able to combat, and if you get really good, it's basically like letting them his you when you want them to because you've already planned out the whole fight.
Dude I always come by to check out the new challenge run from the humbleness to the execution your content is amazing keep up the good work dude you inspired me to start doing these kinda things❤️
I loved this game when I was younger, I haven't played it for years but I definitely remember never touching the daggers and bow skills. I'm going to replay it just to try out all the stuff I never touched also cause I miss playing it.
This really takes me back as Shadow of Mordor was one of the first games I ever played on my old PS4! I was super stoked because it was my first step into console gaming (first console I got my hands on since the Wii).
I played the heck out of this one but never played Shadow of War. Something that I remembered after watching you play is that this game is really good at making you feel like a badass.
Through the Nemesis System, I think both this game and its sequel have one the most fun gameplay loops I've experienced in open world games. I get really invested in making allies, engaging in power-struggles between orcs and creating rivals. And the best thing is that very little of it is scripted.
I love all my little orcs so much, they elevate the games from decent to fantastic, when they betray me I get genuinely upset and I love it
I think the main thing that makes the nemesis system so DAME good, is that no two runs will EVER play out the same way. Since the game effectively has a "dynamic storyteller" of sorts. I personally prefer the sequel myself since it feels they fleshed it out at least a bit more personally.
Luckily, through the magic of patents, we'll never have another game that features the Nemesis System or anything even remotely like it because....greed! YAY!!! Aren't patents great for uh... "innovation"? ☹
It really makes it so easy to get totally side tracked going after enemies, especially in the sequel
@@AsmodeusMictian A patent that is now just sat rotting because it was used... twice.
"Smeagol didn't make it, precious. It was those nasty developers and publishers that did it! Poor Smeagol would never make such trash."
God, Sméagol talks in such an adorable way. I wish his own game was better. 😢
MY DEAR GWYN, LEMON JUST POSTED! AND IT'S A SHADOW OF MORDOR VIDEO!?!? WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED
Praise be 🙏
It is a sign!
THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING
Praise the great lemon
yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I started playing shadow of war again and damn....I forgot how cool the nemesis system works ! We really need more games with it
Unfortunately we won't have more for a while. Warner or the studio (Cant remember wich right now) patented the Nemesis System for their own games.
Sadly it is somewhot "trademarked", don't know how that works, but we will not see the nemesis system...
Patenting the Nemesis System was one of the worst decisions WB has made. Same thing with Nintendo and Tears of the Kingdom's mechanics.
good news: there’s a Wonder Woman game by Monolith that was announced two years ago that will have it
bad news: two years since the announcement and no news
they patentet it and refuse to use it again or allow others to use it. thats real SXXX i tell you.
I would love to see an Orc only run of Shadow of War
Heck yeah!
how would that even work? in both games, you need to wait for the second act to be able to recruit and until then, the orcs cannot fight each other in story missions. the very first mission would be a run killer because you need to fight a captain before another npc dies. right?
@@GalliadIIyou underestimate our Patience Elemental
same i love this fucking gmae
@GalliadII I'm not sure if I'm misremembering, but I believe that Shadow of War had friendly fire between the orcs, I wouldn't be surprised if Lemon, the god of patience that he is, tried that
Lemon?!?! "And in the darkness, BOMB them." I can't believe you missed that.
First Diablo 2, and now this?! What have we done to deserve such goodness?
I guess lemon ended up hating xcom 2
These games are criminally underrated. I remember playing this game all the way through middle school. The nemesis system, Arkham-like combat, cool story and characters and awesome abilities. Definitely helped fuel my love for the series. Great video as always!
you have no idea what underrated means do you? these games had dogshit combat that boils down to pressing x and y to parry. it’s the exact same as assassins creed. they were extremely popular when they came out, quite the opposite of “criminally underrated”
@@morganfreeman5260You actually can do so much in the game and tons of people will disagree with you. If you don't like it cool the rest of us will enjoy it. Honestly feels like you just didn't bother playing or got far in the game cause there's tons of options in combat.
@@galaxyvulture6649he is right tho? Combat in shadow of mordor boils down to stealth or spamming parry and r1s with abilities every 5 hits? Doesnt mean its bad like he said, its just simple
@@scurrx Combat in that game had way more options than just that. Enemies had various mechanics that made them harder or easier to beat depending on how your their abilities/weaknesses. Death was punishing actually making certain enemies in the world change even to the point an average goon could level up. Certain aspects heavily affected fights like using terror, fire, or brands to change how encounters go. It can either enrage, cause them to flee, or just auto kill them. Even grabbing enemies can make a major difference so you can get more intel for bosses. Some abilities actually can be really helpful for making giving you more breathing room or causing them to run from you if you're the rambo type of player. Even arrows can be so helpful for easier traversing strongholds or running away. That branding systems helps so much adding more flavor to battles to the point it can be a game in itself ranking them up to be more op. Even your own minions can betray you or go insane. Theres tons of abilties to help control the pace of battle too like the vault stun, head bursting for terror, causing explosions, brutalize to aid in more control, and a couple more options. Even certain quests REALLY can buff your abilities to melt down enemies with infinite abilities for a short duration. I'm sorry they said it was dogshit gameplay which is just not true. With their logic dark souls would be dogshit as well as plenty of games. With all the options in this game I just can't agree with it.
@@morganfreeman5260 Do you even know how the combat works? saying the combat is dogshit because its 2 buttons is so stupid cause first of all, it is not, you have many abilities which require further input, there is so much thinking that actually goes into combat, repositioning, focusing on specific targets, environmental support, you clearly have not played the games and just want to say random shit online
I love seeing the channel continue to branch out! Top tier quality and commentary as well. Thank you!
It's been a while since I've played Shadows of Mordor, but I'm pretty sure that Wraith Finisher makes it so you always detonate the head of non-captain enemies after you interrogate them.
Obviously its a bit late to say this now, but it might come in handy if you try this with SoW (though I suspect that one would be quite a bit more rough)
Celebrimbor made SUFFER ME NOW itched into my skull forever with the amount of times he said it in game.
Great game.
I SEE YOU
OCHALLEAN VALLENOR!
I remember how i kept dying to a single ork captain until he was literally the strongest possible and that whole expirence is truly why i love this game. I also remeber by the end having every ork captain and warlord under my control. I wish that system was in other games.
It makes me so sad it was trade marked or whatever only for this game
"It isn't efficient, but I'll be damned if it isn't fun" - that just describes this entire game tbh. I had a blast with it.
Such an underrated game. And Shadows of War had an amazing online mode
Ah yes, one of my absolute favourite games, and of my favourite challenge runners. Thanks blessing us with this awesome game.
Nice to see a shadow of mordor run, the series was pretty fun
Shadow of Mordor is one of my absolute favourite games, I replay it at least twice a year so it goes without saying that I am over the moon seeing that you've done a run of this game. Your videos are fantastic.
bro i already loved all of your videos but now you upload as far as i know the ONLY shadow of mordor/war challenge run on youtube? you just went from a 10/10 to an 11/10
About to go to bed.
New upload.
Now Lemon's pain can lull me to sleep, nice.
You do that too 😂😂😂
Probably, my favourite video from Backlogs. I played through the entire Shadow of Mordor but never knew, it had DLC, lol
Solid A-tier game and I'm super psyched to see you cover it.
This was an amazing video. Well done!
The wraith flash/flurry thing when you stun someone and smack em turns you into a wraith and requires you to punch em with the wraith fist.
god i love these videos
They're so comfortable, and the little end monologues are so cool
keep doing your thing lemon
i love both games so much, and you making a video on one of them is AMAZING!
Shadow of Mordor is literally one of the games that made me thrill the most ! The moment when you go back to Mordor with your troops and your nemesis assembled an army is as stunning as the moment you discover ash lake for the first time.
Orc only Shadow of War would be great, excellent video as always
YEEÈEEEEESSSSSS, cant wait to get home to watch this, you just made my day, you legend!!!
"When in doubt add doom music." Indeed my guy! great video as always!
Best video to see today on my birthday. Thank you Lemon.
LEMON ! My man, this is truly spectacular
I truly loved the character change, best transition
Backlogs dropped a SoM and I’ve been sleeping for 3 days?? Freaking beautiful. I’ve loved these games since they dropped and now I gotta go replay again. Thanks bro. Your content is top tier
Having had a very long and exhausting day, having this to watch in bed before going to sleep is a blessing. Thank you for making these. ❤
Some of the absolute best snooze content out there. I have trouble sleeping but whenever I have a video from Lemon running i sleep like a baby... this is ment to be a huge compliment btw
Well damn, hella good video!
Can't wait for the Shadow Of War version!
It puts a smile on my face everytime i see a new video from lemon, its as great as ever
I would love to see shadow of war challenges or something like this,this video was actually nice!
15:33 There's no variation in interogation animations in the normal sense. Captains you will always sorta 'knock out' with your wraith powers upon interogation, killing them semi consistently, while normal orks you will decapitate with your sword until unlocking the blowing up heads ability
Love your videos man, you aways make my day
OMG, talk about wild. I just began another playthrough of this yesterday and have been reacquainting myself with all the controls.
Please take this as a huge compliment. You content is some of the best to fall asleep to ❤️
Lemon: *Uploads challenge video for shadow of Mordor*
Everyone: Yes please
What! This is a 40 minutes video. What a treat :)))
this is legitimately one of my favorite games ever, thank you so much lemon more videos like this would be so awesome, great vid
I think that is the most entertained I've been by the ending in a while
As always, a fantastic video. Thanks Lemon!
Lemon?
@@IamaPERSONyeah, for some reason that's what the guy goes by. For awhile when I was watching his videos that auto played after someone else's, I was super confused about who this "lemon" guy was and why I could never find his channel to subscribe in my video history 😂
@@GelatinCoffee oh, lmao! Glad I’m not the only who was confused, thanks!
now this is a blessing, the best content comes from this man already and now this?!?!? a true blessing
Fun fact. If a branded grunt kills an enemy captain, they will be promoted to captain after you progress time a bit. I loved doing this when i found a cool orc. It's hard to pull off but fun if you do. It's especially nice if the captain's grunts have some warpaint before you branded them
That, or it's the other way around where an enemy grunt kills your captain. Either way, fun stuff if you can pull it off.
I'd love to see a challenge with the sequel, orc only, or pacifist sorta run where you let the orcs do everything you can and bolster em up. Would be awesome
I'm only at 15:13, and I have my fingers crossed about two things. I consider Shadow Strike a Wraith Power, because it's the Wraith wielding the sword. Also, intel can be obtained once he has the Head Explosion or Brand abilities, because Talion will no longer use his sword to kill Uruks once either effect is unlocked.
I'm so glad I'm seeing this because I just got a New Ring commissioned not but a few hours ago. One with the lore "friendly" inscription and not just a blue copy of the One Ring.
It should be criminal that the nemesis system is copyrighted and can never be mimicked in new media 😭😭😭😭
Oh, didn't expect this game to appear here. Great choice Lemon! One of the most underrated Open World games. Despite its flaws and the Nemesis system gathering dust because of patent, it still remains a great game.
An unexpected blessing to see you do a challenge run on a game I never expected and it’s fine content as always but I actualy didn’t like shadow of Mordor it’s meh and I beat it with 100% in 8 hours don’t know if that anything special, but shadow of war was amazing and is one of my favorite games
YES FINALY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT IT almost no one talks or plays these games so it makes my day that you dedicate a video to them
Hell yeah, it was about time someone showed this great tittle some much deserved love.
I've never clicked on a video so fast. I've grown rather attached to these challenge run videos and I absolutely love this game
Arguably my favourite video from you, please do more
Now this... Isn't a game I expected to see here ya all! Bless Prak Jaws for this!
ah prak jaws, that's a throwback
Prak Jaws had such a way with words
its funny because i beat Shadow of Mordor last year and i remember the Tower just not the Black Hand
you know it’s gonna be a good day when lemon uploads
my son used to play this game for hours on end, totally worth the whole 6 bucks I paid for it while on a steam safe. It got to the point where he killed so many orcs we debated that Talion was worse than Sauron!. I think this was also the game that he built an unbeatable army orcs fighting for him as well. I think it was the game before this he killed Sauron without the one ring!
Yooo love shadow of Mordor and war. The brand system and nemesis system are great. Really completed the assassin’s creed like gameplay
This truly is a backlog.
YES MY NIGHT IS SAVED, THANK YOU GOOD SIR. Shadow of War is my favourite game of all time. and i cannot wait to see you play it. assuming you will.
i would love to see a shadow of war challenge as well great video as always
I freaking love your ideas. I still remember the BioShock fire one. Brilliant.
Lesss goo monsters hunter reference 3:18
These games are so fun! And I'm so excited you're starting to play it! This will definitely be ones I rewatch again (hoping you make more from these games)
Playing this game as a 9 year old was the first time I ever got stressed over a damn game.
I love the mordor games! I havent seen anyone talk about it in ages
I just get bored of that style of combat too easily, it feels too on rails to me. I love the concept of the games and the orc nemesis stuff.
Fairly certain that's because the sequel had its soul ripped out and turned into loot boxes, so everyone just sort of forgot about it. By the time they were chopped off like a gangrenous limb, the game wasn't new any more, so... yeah.
It's funny you post this as I've been looking at the Middle Earth CCG for a week, so this is cool to see/I kinda love this game series, only played Shadow of War but never got to play this one sadly.
Yes I love every time this game gets the spotlight. It’s so amazing!
Can't wait to see if we'll get a sequel of this with shadow of war
The "I'm not a thief" and the last "bind them". Truly masterful storytelling. Good sir, I raise my hat at thee.
Talion using his Stand for forty minutes.
This is one of my favourite games, i'm so happy you did a run for it.
It's weird - I remember playing Dragon's Lair in the late 80's or early 90's and thinking "Boy, these quickly timed events sure suck. Good thing they are bound to never catch on."
Love the Tolkien quotes, man! Also, Liam O'Brian is the MVP for sounding JUST like Andy Serkis.
holy shit?!! hes playing these games now???!!? fucking love these games so fucking much, cant wait for more from the developers using the nemesis system
please, take this the right way, because that's how I mean it;
what a charming nerd! (I love LOTR and this game as well, don't kill me)
Goodness me, I need to play not just Mordor, but Shadow of War as well, maybe a marathon playthrough of both when the holiday breaks roll around.
Lemon i also want to add you have some amazing humor. That ending was epic lol
I am fairly new to this channel, but oh boy it's fun. I only binged like 40 hours of content right after discovery.
Should totally do a barrel bomb only run in Monster Hunter World.
You single-handedly fixed the QTE ending, I love it
35:00 ...Play the Bright Lord DLC campaign since it actually gives you a pretty kickass fight against Sauron?
Okay, DOOM music works too.
EDIT: Okay he knows about it.
Nice!
I really like all the Soulbourne and Souls-like content here, but seeing some variety is really refreshing.
Would love to see what's more left in Lemon's gaming backlogs )
PS: Yeah, Doom music kinda helped.
The single most beautiful thing that the Shadow games made was a fluid, functional demigod character. Once you find your combo and can execute it via muscle memory, nothing short of a warchief breaks your stride and you go from finding openings to taking on and defeat all enemies in moments while using them to power those same abilities that rinse them off Mordor. The closest I can think of would be like Assassin's Creed mixed with Bloodborne where actively killing enemies helps keep you able to combat, and if you get really good, it's basically like letting them his you when you want them to because you've already planned out the whole fight.
Dude I always come by to check out the new challenge run from the humbleness to the execution your content is amazing keep up the good work dude you inspired me to start doing these kinda things❤️
DEAR SMOUHG HE IS BACK *THE KING IS BACK*
I loved this game when I was younger, I haven't played it for years but I definitely remember never touching the daggers and bow skills. I'm going to replay it just to try out all the stuff I never touched also cause I miss playing it.
The doom music edit did improve the quick time events lol. Good job sir!
I need a Shadow of War version of this!!
This really takes me back as Shadow of Mordor was one of the first games I ever played on my old PS4! I was super stoked because it was my first step into console gaming (first console I got my hands on since the Wii).
I played the heck out of this one but never played Shadow of War. Something that I remembered after watching you play is that this game is really good at making you feel like a badass.
I consider this a crossover. And a beautiful one at that.
please PLEASE! play more of this and shadow of war. I love these games so much!
So you're telling me Celem could have done the entire game on his own?!
SHADOW OF MORDOR IVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO HOPEFULLY PLAY THIS
I love this game, my philosophy is "No one can know, if there's no one to know."