My craziest experience with the Nemesis system actually spanned both games. I have no clue how it happened, but there was this guy that I kept killing in SoM who kept coming back, until I eventually threw him off a cliff. Well, after a long time, when I was in the fighting pit in SoW, he shows up and says, "Ranger! The last time we met was back in [insert location here], but it'll take more than a little tumble to kill me!" My mind was blown.
I love that aspect like I killed this one bastard atleast 5 times and humiliated him 2x to the point that he had the collective brain power of a goldfish and he still wanted his get back
My best nemesis story. In my game, I had two Uruks who I loved, one was an Orc who donned the tower's armour, and the other was an assassin. Originally, I had these two as overlords of different regions, but eventually I demoted them and brought them with me to whatever region I was fighting in so that they could assassinate any Uruks I needed help with. As they were in the same region, they developed a rivalry, meaning that whenever they would see each other, they would start fighting, regardless of context. Well demoting them both from overlord was a mistake as one day, they betrayed me, they showed up out of nowhere and gave a long speech about how they were done fighting for me and were going to tear me in two; typical uruk stuff. But as soon as their joint speech was over, the rivalry kicked in, and I watched my two favourite uruks tear each other to pieces, neither survived. In honor of these two, I filled my Gorgoroth of nothing but Towers, I call it the Tower of Towers.
@@SwiperLeFox If you just shame them then they lose their Overlord status. But if they're under your control you can just replace them with some other Uruk.
This game convinced me that walking with a hunch and a groggy British accent talking about booze and eating lesser animals (chimpanzees) was the best way to go
Some of my favorite moments in this game happened when I was stalking normal Uruks. I distinctly remember one of them (in the Nurnen area) saying "It's a lovely day today... I hate it." I had to pause the game from laughing so much.
Something about Bruz I think you missed (which I never thought about it either until watching this) was his opening speech about being an optimist; sizing up an impossible situation and then having a go at it anyway, which is pretty much exactly what he did when he stabbed Talion in the back for the Fort.
In my most recent run I got shot dead by some grunt archer, he got promoted and earned the title ‘the lucky shot’. I figured “Yeah, lucky! I’ll flay him later” and then returned to the region later only to find he’d becoming overlord while I was gone…
I never really had a memorable nemesis. That's because I had two loyal, badass badass followers: Stakuga the Thinker (poisonous machine marksman) and Grom Iron Skin (machine berserker). I took them everywhere, and summoning either of them was an instant win, because they both had stupidly agressive AI. This one time, Stakuga killed FOUR CAPTAINS, with barely any help from me! Grom was enraged by everything, and when he wasn't spamming the crazy spin aoe attack, it was the wrestling moves. When I had to defend a fort, I let him hold the point BY HIMSELF, so he wouldn't kill my other captains in a fit of rage. None of them was legendary, but they didn't have any glaring weaknesses either. The most important thing, however, is that they NEVER BETRAYED ME! That would have been fucking terrifying!
Bro never get them a mount THEY ALWAYS STAY ON THE FUCKING MOUNT also I had 3 guys before one guy was a fucking monster I got him by chance and I'm telling you bro was a menace he killed everything even his own team at some point he Straight up held a fort by himself
I’ve had a guy like that, Ogg Brain Biter, I was testing defences on one of my forts and Ogg ,who wasn’t even a warchief or max level, Ogg held a single point by himself against 2 level 60 orcs and 3 max level captains, I don’t know how he did it but he is now my body guard in that region.
On the one hand, I love Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War and feel that they did a good job wrapping the story by finishing Talion's story. On the other hand, the Eltariel dlc kinda set up potential for a 3rd game by pretty much straight up confirming Celebrimbor's story isn't over, giving us a potential protagonist in Eltariel and even having a perfect potential name what with Celebrimbor being the obvious villain where you could follow the formula of the first 2 and call it Shadow of Sauron.
Talion's story isn't finished, who said it had? Talion was shown getting hit by a fireball/ball of fire while escaping the Blast of Baradur, not shown dead, probably still dreaming to join his wife and kids but Monolith has something else in Mind😃.
@@SAMMUSTDIE Pretty sure there was a cutscene showing Talion walking in a nice field of grass unwraping and dropping all his armor and weapons to the ground referencing that he is in the afterlife so im not too sure about Talions story not being done but hey mabye "somehow Talion will return."
@@arandomcrusader6707 I like what you are thinking, I know that's the ending scene but I guess that is just Talion hallucinating after getting hit by that Giant Fireball, he is alive but wants to join his family. Monolith can do anything I mean MESOM and MESOW are Legendary games, maybe next year or a year after that we can see Morgoth, I mean it's very much possible if Sauron is defeated I.e. Morgoth's Right Hand man Morgoth surely will not sit around and will retaliate to bring terror in Middle Earth again. 😅😅 I am just guessing so it's up to Monolith 😊.
The Sequel i would love Shadow of Gondor Continue the story Playing as a Corrupted Talion. You do not dominate Orcs anymore You are sent ahead into Gondor to weaken it, and go dominating humans A full on evil story Probably with Baranor and the other named characters from this game coming in as Bosses during the story. Who you can kill or Dominate Dominating giving you some badass new characters, but also further cements you as fully gone. Killing them means you miss out on them, but also means you aren't mind controlling Talion's old friends. Maybe a slightly different ending depending on how much you tried to fight back or embraced the full evil nature It would be super depressing, but also an awesome shift for it
@@SAMMUSTDIE Based on my understanding, with Sauron dead the rings would all lose their power. Considering the ring is the only thing keeping Talion alive, he should pass after Sauron dies.
My craziest Nemesis was actually a captain from the first game that I made my rival (or whatever the function was called) which ported him over to the second game. In the first game I killed him at least three times, and in the second game I bisected him four times, burned him twice, poisoned him once, crushed him with a graug and finally, FINALLY, killed him in the final mission.
I love how most of the extra voice actors also did nemesis orc voices. Matt Mercer is both the witch king and the machine orc you mention in the video.
My Nemesis memory: I also went head to head with ‘The Machine’ in my first playthrough. Got merc’ed repeatedly from Lvl 1 & had around 15-20 head to head battles with him (as I learned the game mechanics). Finally got him at Lvl 25, where he had all 4 missing limbs replaced with metal limbs, & enough metal covering his head to look like a silver Iron Man cosplay. Initially frustrating, finally satisfying & definitely memorable! 👌🏼🇦🇺😎
@@riven5677 sure can. According to the game mechanics the only true way to outright kill your enemies once & for all is to decapitate them. Everything else the game allows them to return under the Nemesis System.
Damn, this game is amazing. I ran into an orc called Bagga on my second playthrough whom I killed. He then became Bagga the Dismembered, and came back to life. I killed him again, and then again, and again. He just kept coming back. I killed him the same exact way every time, and we did everything the same way, like he said every same thing. But then I killed with with a different way, poison, I think it was, and he became Bagga the Blight. When he died, he said how he'd just keep coming back. He didn't come back again. And I'll remember this for a long time! You were a great foe, Bagga.
I'm so glad this game finally got covered, Talion is easily one of my favorite protagonists in all fantasy, and his relationship with a lot of the Uruks shows how he appreciates them even while Celebrimbor is whispering in his ear, 1000000% one of my absolute favorite games of all time, up there with rdr2
20:47 talking about that little glint of orange, I think it’s because since the witch king did almost turn him, he’s probably at least just a little bit affected from that, but it fully happens when he puts on the ring of one of the nazghul
What i loved about the game was the orcs: THERE'S SO MUCH DIALOGUES, DIFFERENTS LOOKS AND POSSIBILITIES created just to make sure that you'll never be bored or meet an already meeted situation!
Shadow of war is the type of game you play and finish it once and leave it but it is just slightly nagging you in the back of your mind just wanting to go back to it. Its such a perfect game
I remember fondly of rushing through the game till after the basics of recruiting uruks and ologs, the time I met my first olog. He looked like a commander, with a cool arm, so I recruited him and gave him so much upgrades, like his own ologs and flame weapons so they can also have it. Then, a few hours later, out of the blue he stabs one of my boys. Said I kept him weak. This game taught me how loyalty can easily be broken if not tended to. It was the best! Then I found this firey explosive guy who never left my side as a bodyguard and saved me countless times. Edit:Turns out if you send them to the fighting pit on consel and they're about to be excuted, closing the game and coming back saves them. Neat!
My favourite memory of the Nemesis System is my first encounter with The Stitch. So there was this Olog, Ar-Kaius the Large or something to that effect. He was a bodyguard for a Warchief in Seregost, I hunted him down, beat him up and chopped off his head. Done and dusted. Fast forward about 3 hours when I'm finally ready to go do the fort takeover, I call my bodyguard to get a cool pic and out of nowhere this horrifying Olog with a stitched-on head turns up and, lo and behold, it's Ar-Kaius, back from the grave! He then proceeded to murder me three times, and eventually I was so impressed that I recruited him and he became my Overlord in Seregost.
I remember my nemesis: Mozû Iron Skull. It was back in Minas Ithil and he was some dude I offer as I was running by but he cheated death and ambushed me as I was about to do a mission. Because it was on Brutal he leveled up a lot so I was level seven or so and he was twenty-eight. Since I was right by a quest I figured I would try and 1v1 him and activate the quest should I need to run. Sadly, this is when I found out that counts as dying so he leveled up to thirty-eight while I was level eight from the quest. I went to the revenge mission and tried to abuse his only weaknesses being stealth and arrows but I messed it up and couldn’t use the area well enough and he killed me again. I was beginning to give up since this guy was now six times my level but my pride wouldn’t let me. So through a long battle of stealth attacking him then running out of his detection only to shoot him and lure him over to stealth attack again. I got a meh cloak from him but I constantly upgraded it to my level and used it throughout the entire game even to when I hit 100%, even when I got some overpowered cloaks. He cheated death two more times and I killed him both and had a final showdown when he was resurrected by Zog. Sadly, being at the same level and having a fire build to deal with revenants while also having more experience fighting this guy than any others made for a short and anticlimactic fight but I was still somewhat satisfied knowing he wasn’t coming back. I nerve took that cloak off. Edit: Something I noticed when I replayed Shadow of Mordor is that Talion’s Ringwraith armor is really similar to the Black Hand’s armor.
I had this guy on his caragor hunting me, he wasn't a tracker or anything. But major overpowered while I was starting the game. Any time during missions he'd find me and hunt me down. Died to him about 3 times, which made him stronger. So you can imagine the rage I felt when I came across him boosting again. I start act 2 and I finally get the ability to make him mine. The fight was long and hard, but the thing was; I could't claim him for his lvl was above mine. Did the only thing I could, shamed him. Which made him deranged, he lost his caragor and name. Became Rúg the Ruined, who was only capable of ominous laughter. He went from nemesis to follower, I trained him back up and made him legendary. He became my first overlord and still proud of that story.
10:45 I'll always think of this game as canon. I like to imagine that the reason the orcs were so terrified of Sam when he went to save Frodo at the tower after their encounter with Shelob, was because they thought it was The Gravewalker.
It can’t be canon though. Shelob was never a shapeshifter, celembrimbor never helped make the one ring , helm could never have been a Nazgûl, Gollum was never in Mordor yet etc.
This! while i can understand people disliking the rewriting and lore changes of middle earth in the shadows series (Like nechromancy, the balrog summon, characters and also talion killing and becoming a ringwraith), it makes a really good story for a video game. Still one of the best stories i have played, as i got really invested in it
@@Ace2014Ace Another, if not better example than shadow of war. The force unleashed was a staple of my childhood. I Always hoped it was canon since they released lego sets for it back in 2008 lol
My best story was during the mission where we had to kill the orc called noruk. If I remember correctly during the mission you were supposed to kill him using wasps. He came back and ambushed me as noruk the infested and easily killed me and then immediately became overlord. I conquered the fort and then took him with me.
My best experience with the nemesis system came from Pash The Ranger Killer. I ported him over from som, and boy. I went from breezing through the enemies to spending forty minutes bypassing and cheating the system to kill him. He was a savage berserker, but for some reason, he had a tanks second wind ability. When I finally killed him, it was the one time I got my favorite shadow of mordor kill. Three heavy swings, the second knocking the blade from his hand and the third decapitated him. I spent forty minutes fighting him, low leveled, when he had so many feats that nobody - even when i was at level 80, could give me more of a hard time for. I wish I could've seen him more. He was a treat, and I loathe him entirely.
My nemesis story spans across both games, my first death in SOM was in the fighting pit sword mission where you had to kill 50 uruks, I was at 42 and then an ork named Rûg killed me, he became Rûg the crow and was pretty challenging to defeat, he was invulnerable to stealth, invulnerable to ranged, combat master, enraged by defeat, and summoned more troops to fight by his side, I eventually killed him with a few captains by my side and his body never went away in the army screen, I thought he would make a return in SOM but he never did, and then one of the first captains I fight in SOW is, you guessed it, Rûg and he was my first death in SOW as well, I went back and killed him multiple times before he finally went away, but I will always remember Rûg
One fav friendly captain i had was a crossbowman called the wasp. he got killed, then popped up one day saying 'just wanted to say im back to serve'. had yellow-themed armour
My Nemesis story: I completed the game and wanted to play it again. I never killed Bruz after he went insane. When starting a new game, I deleted the old save file first making sure I can’t go back. As I’m starting a new game in the first little area, an insane Bruz shows up. I wasn’t even at the city yet, and what’s even stranger is he was the same level as in my old save file I just deleted. Somehow, Bruz survived a permanent deleted save file, crossed into the next one, because he wanted me dead so bad. Hardest fight I ever had as I was level 1, and he was almost max. Bruz, for transcending space and time in a game, you have my eternal respect.
I play Shadow of Mordor about once a year, it was that good for me. Ive had Shadow of War, but the first captain I fought had the evolving perk, and i literally couldnt do damage because he learned all my moves lol. I returned to Shadow of Mordor, 100% the game, and decided to try Shadow of War. It's now one of my top series. I actually got so teary eyed at the end. Making Helm and Isildur nazgul definitely bothered me because it directly affects the low set by Tolkien, but i still loved the story so much, and wish it was canon. Talion deserves it
"...The Daughter of Ungoliant..." I love that you've read The Silmarillion. Tolkien fan sees Tolkien fan. Also, "Beleriand: Shadow of Wrath"??!!? YES. ALL THE YES. I want a War of Wrath game now. Seeing the fall of Beleriand in modern graphics with THIS combat system?? Oh, man. ....STOP MAKING UP THINGS I WANT! lol
If the Assassin's Creed formula for lotr games would be used further I would like if someone made a game more modelled on the later AC titles so something like AC Black Flag mixed with AC Odyssey and Origins :) also more lore friendly, naval combat with ships of Corsairs of Umbar and Haradrim vessels and sailing the Great Sea Belegaer :)....hell yeah :) one could even use the book canon, like adventures of Aragorn as Thorongil, when he commanded the fleets of Gondor :) and have the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan to explore in detail hehe. Any game can be done and lore of Tolkien works would give material for several huge in depth games easily rivalling the Witcher 3 in size :).
loved it, specially the original shadow wars, its was so grindy, hard and never ending, you could really feel how tired talion would be by the end and his happiness in finally joining his family
My most memorable nemesis was the Broken Shield. I would kill him, he’d humiliate me. But I eventually brought him down in the Forests of Nurnin. Until he was brought back by Zog. In the fight, he humiliated me one last time before walking away, never to be seen again. I like to think he’s still wandering Mordor to this day. (Also, NGL, I remember crying when I heard Fires of War for the first few times.)
I have two personal favorite nemesis stories. First is an olog named Azbar or something,its been awhile since I played, but this olog first got a lucky kill on me while I was surrounded by like 4 captains. He gets named the Legend with golden armor since he's a marauder. Upon seeing him again, he actually defeated me again. I very rarely die in Shadow of War so to die twice to the same guy earns my respect. I immediately branded him and this Olog has been Seregost's Overlord through 4 sieges and a full recapture due to a failed defense on my end once. The other story is one of a berserker whose name escapes me, but I killed this guy throwing him in lava in Gorgoroth, only for him to take that flame, come back to life burned with fire axes, and renamed Flame of War, how could I not recruit this crazy orc? He's now Gorgoroth's Overlord and fights ruthlessly against anything that dares to even look at him.
I loved the Shelob plot. I reckon shadow of war is how you do departures from canon right- it’s not like it’s trying to tell you this is how canon goes now or even rewrite much of established lore- it just adds some things and fills some holes were there was space for it
Personally as Tolkien fan I would have preferred to have it more like the source material interpretation of Shelob, as an eldritch abomination in spider form all the time, hunger and selfishness personified that our protagonist would be forced to ally temporarily with for common goal. Book Shelob did not care for anything or anyone but could use others as tools (like Gollum) ultimately caring only about growing in power herself: "Little she knew of or cared for towers, or rings, or anything devised by mind or hand, who only desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her up and the darkness could not contain her." ... "But other potencies there are in Middle-earth, powers of night, and they are old and strong. And She that walked in the darkness had heard the Elves cry… far back in the deeps of time, and she had not heeded it, and it did not daunt her now. Even as Frodo spoke he felt a great malice bent upon him." Portraying her as this demonic entity with not fully comprehensible ways of reasoning and primal darkness, also her powers of conjuring up this darkness and "webs of shadow" and powers of mind: "Drawing a deep breath they [Frodo and Sam] passed inside [Shelob's Lair]... They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought. Night always had been, and always would be, and night was all. ... But for a while they could still feel, and indeed the senses of their feet and fingers at first seemed sharpened almost painfully. ... ... But after a time their senses became duller, both touch and hearing seemed to grow numb... ... And still the stench grew. It grew, until almost it seemed to them that smell was the only clear sense left to them, and that was for their torment. ... ... Here was some opening in the rock... and out of it came a reek so foul, and a sense of lurking malice so intense, that Frodo reeled. And at that moment Sam too lurched and fell forwards. ... Maybe they had passed the dreadful unseen opening, but whether that was so or not, suddenly it was easier to move, as if some hostile will for the moment had released them. ... ... Frodo's hand wavered, and slowly the Phial drooped. Then suddenly, released from the holding spell to run a little while in vain panic for the amusement of the eyes, they both turned and fled together; but even as they ran Frodo looked back and saw with terror that at once the eyes [of Shelob] came leaping up behind." The Two Towers, LoTR Book 4, Ch 9, Shelob's Lair ... "Already... Gollum had beheld her, Sméagol who pried into all dark holes, and in past days he had bowed and worshipped her, and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light and from regret. And he had promised to bring her food. But her lust was not his lust."
A small detail I really like is that when you select a fortress captain it plays the motif of their respective faction and goes even harder for the overlord.
My Favorite part of this game is when they dragged over Orcs from your save file in the previous game. If you weren't aware if you play on the same profile for both games. Shadow of War will bring your most hated rival and your most loyal follower over from Shadow of Mordor. You get to fight your rival in the colosseum in the beginning. And your follower is found in the beginning of the first are a you try to take over. Freeing him is actually a mission objective. The fact that they added that is insane and made me love the game even more and it made me wanna play Shadow of Mordor again to try and find the most interesting orcs to follow me over
4:23 I would absolutely love to be a Orc/Uruk that starts off as a grunt, and try to create your own power structure, recruiting other Orcs by good ol' Mordor fashion, by beating the ever living sht out of them, or by helping them, or other means. And try to rise up the ranks, while also dealing with the threat of men who hunt you down at sight. A nemesis system where humans are your enemies, and Orcs can be both friend and foe. And the more power you have, the more the chance you're likely to get stabbed in the back by your own boys aswell. There's alot of ideas that could work with a game like this, and i'd love to someday see it.
One of my favorite Nemisis system run ins was this one orc who I killed probably six times, it was insane he kept coming back to ambush me at one point he was all prosthetic limbs cause I had just cut them all off, his face was covered with a metal plate, and he had yet to kill me once, bro was determined to get his get back and finally on the seventh kill he stopped coming back. That is until the final fight before Celebrimbor betrays you, he showed up again as one of the Uruk's to attack me in the big final battle, I was just so taken aback that he had been revived again. Btw poor guy never killed me so he died eight times and never even accomplished his goal.
One thing that I noticed while playing through the different quests on one of my replays was that pretty much all the quest storylines and their villains relate to and foreshadow Celebrimbor’s fall. With Zog trying to control some greater creature that he is unable to control, Brûz becoming greedy and wanting more power for himself and betraying Talion, to the Nazgûl who are all heroes that have fallen under the rings. All of this leading to Talion recognizing that it is not worth trying to dominate Sauron. At least this is how I have started reading into this
His goal has always been to destroy Sauron to end his tyranny, but after learning Celebrimbor's intention to dominate Sauron he immediately figured out Cele wasn't just trying to stop Sauron, he was trying to usurp Sauron. That's why he immediately turned on Celebrimbor
This game was perfect in many ways and the fact that you can just keep playing and getting different enemies and situations makes it all the more better
actually leveling was intentional throttled at later levels, and act 4 was implemented mainly to make people buy microtransactions. it may not be too bad, but it was intentional flawed by the developers.
We are very sure that Balrogs didn’t have wings. One, several Balrogs met their end plummeting off cliffs or mountains. Two, there are passages where Balrogs ride dragons. Three, a big reason the eagles of Manwe were so effective in guarding the location of Gondolin was because Morgoth had no air force. Gondolin was visible from the air, but not from the ground. That’s why his last, desperate gamble in the war of wrath was to unveil the winged dragons.
Fun fact about the arena in the first half, you actually encounter your nemesis from the previous game, but unfortunately with the system that allows you to get orcs from the previous game to war you can’t any longer.
1. I'm disappointed that Talion didn't get a unique nazgul mask 2. The armour that the black hand wore is the same Talion's undead armour 3. I wish the overlord had an effect, a mystic fort gives a bonus to follower damage, than after you get undying loyalty it makes it so you can resurrect orcs with personality like Zog. etc for other overlords, please leave ideas in the replies 4. Talion being cursed turns him into the after betrayal Talion
It's crazy, that after playing what was my first experience with a God Of War game, that being the PC port of God Of War 2018 this year, all I hear in Celebrimbor's voice now is Mimir.
24:58 Celebrimbor is right tho. He is the one who invited Talion to go to Valinor with him at the end of Shadow of Mordor, but the ranger refused and proposed the idea for a new ring. Talion pursued power and Celebrimbor was the one corrupted by it, a fitting story for the world of Lord of the Rings.
Fun fact they patented THEIR nemesis system but not the idea as a whole so basically you could still make a game with 5he system but you would have to build it from the ground up
Yeah calibrimbors betrayal was heavily foreshadowed. (Didn't stop me from being surprised though,lol) 7:17 Bruz said it best: (17:45)"bright Lord,dark lord; same thing really."
This game meant alot for me and its the one who introduced me to lotr. I was born after the trilogy hits the theater and never bothered to watch the trilogy since i find it too long. But this game poetic line made me curious. For example the line "as long as i have breath in my body, my fate is my own". Everytime i am about to gave up from a failure i repeat those word to myself. And it kept me going till now.
Bruz's betrayal hurt worse than anything in this series. I would have let him be the overlord, but of course, they wouldn't let me. I should have seen it coming right then, but I figured Talion didn't want to alienate Ratbag and I planned to make him overlord of my next fort. Then tragedy struck...
I understand that both SOM and SOW completely go against established Tolkein lore and canon, but holy shit both of these games were SO. DAMN. GOOD. The writing was on point, the gameplay was amazing. I absolutely loved the Nemesis system. Basically everything that was good about the first game got refined and made better in its sequel. The music score was also really well done too. SOW is still one of my favourite games I played on Xbox One.
I thought that the Uruks looked amazing in Shadow Of Mordor, but they looked INCREDIBLE in Shadow Of War!🙌🏻 They’re heavily inspired by Peter Jackson’s versions of the Orcs and Uruk-Hai, but still look unique within Monolith’s rendition of Tolkien’s world.
The only problem I ever had with the game was how they handled Bruz's quest line in regards to the betrayal and Insanity mechanics. It was very obvious to me that Bruz's quest line was meant to teach you about these two systems, but by the time you get to these parts of Bruz's quest line, you've most likely have already been betrayed by one of your captains by this point due to a myriad of reasons, and you most likely have either already encountered or caused one of the captains to go crazy before you finish Bruz's quest line. Now there are easy fixe for this, with the betrayal mechanic, simply make it so that captains cannot betray you till after Bruz does so, then have a pop up show up and explain the betrayal mechanic. As for the insanity mechanic, like the betrayal mechanic, simply block it off till Bruz is finally dealt with, then either tie it only to the more powerful form of Shaming, like the end of the quest implies, or after Bruz is dealt with, have a pop up appear explaining the dangers shaming captains now entails.
I do believe its canon that there is a rumor amongst the Dunlendings and Rohirrim that Helm Hammerhand wanders the Mark as a wraith defending the Hornburg.
Zoggs last mission was torture for me. Every resurrected orc was my most powerful nemesis, some of my favourite followers who betrayed me. Seeing them there meant that 1.I would never see them again, and 2 the pain of fighting multiple characters that I struggled with individually.
I never finished that one. I completed the game, mind you, but all the way till the end that one mission was a permanent stain upon my map, world, and pride
I never finished this game, though I liked it a lot, I just put it aside with intent to come back later and just never did...but I remember fighting an Uruk who I killed over and over and over again and each time he came back more insane until all he could do was scream "REST! REST! LET ME REST!" at me and by the Valar it was depressing.
I was once trying to kill an enemy captain, but then i was betrayed by 5 of my allied orc captains and my bodyguard. So i had to fight all of them at the same time and mind control them back to my army. It was pure insanity.
In minis ithal I had to fight a berserker bard multiple times, dude had a heart out for me, and it was impossible to fight in the city without him showing up. Eventually I kept tracking him down and just shamed him to oblivion, I tried to make him a soldier of mine first but he refused so I just killed him, and then he came back and if I’m right he’s till alive and I haven’t killed him yet.
My nemesis story Met him as the 1st wave warcheif in a defense of Seregost. I could not beat the bastard at all and got wrecked. He became one of the 2 inner warchiefs and when the time came to kill him in the siege I opted to just shame him. Fast forward to Nurnen and he ambushes me, talking about how far he travelled to kill me. Again, I could not kill him. To the point I had to bring him to my Fort to kill him with poison. Until..... "Stakuga the Blight" Yup. At that point i decided to dominate him and after a (very annoying) fight I finally got him. Now he's one of my best followers ever
I think my favorite thing this game did was give the Ring Wraiths a more flushed out backstory. Knowing that they were tragic people who corrupted over time into becoming monsters in both the literal and figurative sense made me feel bad for them. Don't know if it's from the books or not but that literally caught me off guard the first time I played.
My most memorable Uruk experience was with this guy named Kruk (I think). I first met him while fighting this other captain, I'm fairly sure he wasn't even a captain, he wasn't dressed like one and his level was only I think 2 or 3 (I had just started the game for the first time) but he started taunting me like a captain. Well he ends up killing me because like I said I was fighting another captain and 30 other orcs. I get my revenge and hunt him down and kill him, move on with my life. Well he came back, and for the next 7 to 10 encounters after that I would get him on his knees, about to kill him when he would run away, until I finally got him and finished him off. Later on during the necromancer mission in the colosseum, when captains you've previously beaten appear, he was there as one of the undead captains, and I had to kill him one last time. I love this game so much.
So my craziest Nemesis story is an Orc captain that killed me pretty early in the game so i went and got revenge and killed him. This Orc proceeded to come back to life 3 times before I branded him hoping that would be the end of it, well it wasn't he betrayed me later in the game and because he hadn't been the nicest Orc in the world I shamed him hoping he would become Deranged and I could ignore him, but no he becomes a Maniac increasing his level by 50. Because of this he was 20 levels above me when I had to go hunt him down AGAIN to make sure he wouldn't ambush me while i was doing other stuff and as far as I know he didn't come back after that.
Id love an orc game using the rogue lite mechanics from the Desolation DLC. You start off as a Rat wuo miraculously takes down a captain in the fight pits and gets promoted. Then you pick your class, your strengths and your weaknesses. Instead of branding, you best orcs in fights and they join your warband. Then when the time comes and your orc dies, you can either start again from the pits or assume the prebuilt role of one of the orcs you recruited Orcs are cool and should be everywhere
in LotR lore Shelob does sort of protect Gollum. he would lead orcs into her cave and she would feed on them and she wouldnt eat him. A sort of mutually beneficial relationship
My best nemesis experience was in the region next to minas morghul (forgot name) I was fighting this berserker who got me weak then his blood brother (an olog) came in and finished me off, I kept trying to kill him but I failed cause I was playing on brutal difficulty I eventually killed him with an execution chopping arms and head off and after a while I was near the fight pits and someone shouted “TALION!” And it was him as a stitch olog He is one of my war chiefs on gorogoth now with a spider olog and a beast olog (my top 3 favs)
I remember just walking around one of the forts and then just out of no where, a bunch of captains tried to rebel. I put it down but they killed my favorite Uruk at the time as some kind of hostage.
I am beyond happy that you finally covered one of my favorite games of all time. This and shadow of Mordor were my entrance into lord of the rings. In som my very best friend was an orc named dugza the destroyer and my nemesis was bugabog the Raven. When I came to shadow of war and the raven confronted me in that ring it was so exciting and terrifying to see him again. And then later in rescuing dugza the destroyer who nearly single handedly helped me conquer the final area. My favorite moment with dugza was in the post game we had come across this nasty olog named Ogg. He had been beheaded and killed twice and returned so I sent dugza to help double team him. The battle was long and hard dugza throwing fire everywhere and I kept going to low health when I see the animation play of ogg killing dugza. I legitimately screamed and ran to avenge my fallen friend. After a breif attempt ogg downed me and I thought that was that l. But before he could dugza cheated death and stayed loyal jumping up and beheading ogg again before turning to me and confining our bond could not be broken.
I probably spent most of this game basically recreating Pokemon in Mordor. I just keep cycling them through the pits and recruit more by finding interesting orcs and letting them kill me.
a guy named "bolg the drunk" chased me all over mordor. he was the champion in the arena mission, he cheated death twice. then in nurn he did that shit again and doubled my level. and finally we were in cirith ungol and i could finally recruit him, and you best know he was by my side in that siege and he is there to this day, watching over mordor in his overlord chair.
About you talking about playing as an uruk i actually have an idea for that ive been thinking about it for a bit Im currently calling it Middle-earth : The Armies of Mordor. basically you can create a custom uruk soldier starting off weak but you can become a captain warchief and maybe even eventually overlord unlock strengths but they come with weaknesses you need to overcome or train against. im not gonna write an entire essay on my ideas for this rn but thats my idea (oh yeah I think there should be an offline story mode about YOUR orc rising up in the ranks and a chaotic online mode)
This one guy I kept trying to recruit went insane and became level 50 while I was level 13 and kept getting ambushed by him and we had a sort of anime arc. He was the war boss of a very tough fort to crack and finally found out it was him. I killed him amd it was the most emotional ive gotten at a game
I don't know if you already did it on this channel, but if not The War In The North was a great game that happens during and separately from the LOTR movies and not only has the ability to choose your own class, but also a great co-op system and a great story
For the nemesis system. The patent is so ridiculously specific that the only way you'd actually get in trouble is by accident. Other game companies can make systems similar to the nemesis system thanks to procedural generation though, nothing wrong with that.
I’ve always made the comparison that these games are like the LOTR equivalent of the Force Unleashed series. It’s just a power fantasy for our favorite franchise.
I haven't gotten further than eight minutes, but one of my favourite things about this one game is HOW Celebrimbor changes; the New Ring is corrupting him, his soul, as his soul is connected to the New Ring, which was also crafted in the same place as Sauron crafted The One Ring. It's so painful to realise how Celebrimbor's desire to fix his mistake is what doomed his plans to save Middle Earth. He became so twisted with his motives that he became a Dark Lord instead of a Bright one. I also will never stop screaming about the fact Monolith foreshadowed Talion becoming a "Dark Ranger" with his skin in SoM; a former friend pointed out "why does Talion have this skin?" in SoM and I quite literally banged my head against my desk in realisation. They always knew where they were going, didn't they. Also. I do hope Monolith can work on a third game. I know we may not be able to play as Talion in it (unless it's Pre-Rest or some Valinor shenanigans bringing him back), but man, I want to know what happened to Eltariel and Celembrimbor, as the New Ring SURVIVED and Celebrimbor is free once more. And with Embracer having the rights instead of...whoever it was that did it before, maybe we can get it? They do licence stuff out, and whilst some of their newer games have been a miss..I hope we can get more of Middle Earth from Monolith after Wonder Woman. (And I hope WW is good, because man, we need a good DC game again)
I JUST learned that you can start over (delete your save game) but keep everything in your garrison, like my 200+ Orc followers and 328 Level 60 Vendetta Gear Chests and 400+ upgrade orders.
13:00 Well, Since you asked: In my first playthrough, my Nemisis was a scrawny orc who I made a bug nest fall on during one of the main missions (I think it was actually a quest objective?). He came back with his face all fucked up and half hive, and I killed him a few more times, I think he killed me at some point, I remember he had a metal arm by the end. Eventually, I beat him into submission, and made them a Overlord. (I think their name was "Luga of the Flies" but I might be wrong)
Shadow of Wrath would be absolutely amazing. You could also do a Gondolin DLC. That kind of desperate, doomed city siege would fit the general mechanics perfectly.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
My craziest experience with the Nemesis system actually spanned both games. I have no clue how it happened, but there was this guy that I kept killing in SoM who kept coming back, until I eventually threw him off a cliff. Well, after a long time, when I was in the fighting pit in SoW, he shows up and says, "Ranger! The last time we met was back in [insert location here], but it'll take more than a little tumble to kill me!" My mind was blown.
Yeah. It imports from som save . Just like who ever was the most loyal in that game becomes a bodyguard in this
the game used shared save data
Like they said, it uses the previous game save data. My nemesis Azgrom the Elder returned in SoW.
wait really? thats actually crazy
I love that aspect like I killed this one bastard atleast 5 times and humiliated him 2x to the point that he had the collective brain power of a goldfish and he still wanted his get back
My best nemesis story.
In my game, I had two Uruks who I loved, one was an Orc who donned the tower's armour, and the other was an assassin.
Originally, I had these two as overlords of different regions, but eventually I demoted them and brought them with me to whatever region I was fighting in so that they could assassinate any Uruks I needed help with.
As they were in the same region, they developed a rivalry, meaning that whenever they would see each other, they would start fighting, regardless of context.
Well demoting them both from overlord was a mistake as one day, they betrayed me, they showed up out of nowhere and gave a long speech about how they were done fighting for me and were going to tear me in two; typical uruk stuff.
But as soon as their joint speech was over, the rivalry kicked in, and I watched my two favourite uruks tear each other to pieces, neither survived.
In honor of these two, I filled my Gorgoroth of nothing but Towers, I call it the Tower of Towers.
How do you demote an overlord in SOW? I thought we couldn’t do that, at least my game won’t let me…maybe I’m not doing it right? Can you help me?
@@SwiperLeFox If you just shame them then they lose their Overlord status. But if they're under your control you can just replace them with some other Uruk.
@@SwiperLeFox switch them with your warchiefs and switch the warchiefs with captains
Wait are you on ps4? Bc I went against an all tower gorgoroth last night lol
@@nathancanadian4989 Yup :) might have been mine then. How'd you get on with it?
This game convinced me that walking with a hunch and a groggy British accent talking about booze and eating lesser animals (chimpanzees) was the best way to go
I hope you're not serious about the eating chimpanzees part.
@@finnover9781I hope he is
@@BKAngmar They're endangered. You shouldn't eat them
@@finnover9781 They taste sooooo goood though
@@finnover9781 you clearly haven't tried them before man.
Some of my favorite moments in this game happened when I was stalking normal Uruks. I distinctly remember one of them (in the Nurnen area) saying "It's a lovely day today... I hate it." I had to pause the game from laughing so much.
That’s simple comedy
Giving off strong Winnifred vibes. 'What a glorious morning. It makes me sICK!'
What got me recently was an orc with aspiration
''Just you see, some day I'll be a captain, I'll have fifty.. no, FORTY orcs under me!''
Orc moment hahaha
@@joshcarr9858 I mean forty is easier to split into teams
Something about Bruz I think you missed (which I never thought about it either until watching this) was his opening speech about being an optimist; sizing up an impossible situation and then having a go at it anyway, which is pretty much exactly what he did when he stabbed Talion in the back for the Fort.
I love both Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. Talion and Celebrimbor are such compelling characters, and nothing will change my mind! ❤️
Oh no I hate them both, but I am Talion so fuck Celebrimbor for betraying me, that shit broke my damn heart.
In my most recent run I got shot dead by some grunt archer, he got promoted and earned the title ‘the lucky shot’.
I figured “Yeah, lucky! I’ll flay him later” and then returned to the region later only to find he’d becoming overlord while I was gone…
I never really had a memorable nemesis.
That's because I had two loyal, badass badass followers: Stakuga the Thinker (poisonous machine marksman) and Grom Iron Skin (machine berserker). I took them everywhere, and summoning either of them was an instant win, because they both had stupidly agressive AI. This one time, Stakuga killed FOUR CAPTAINS, with barely any help from me! Grom was enraged by everything, and when he wasn't spamming the crazy spin aoe attack, it was the wrestling moves. When I had to defend a fort, I let him hold the point BY HIMSELF, so he wouldn't kill my other captains in a fit of rage. None of them was legendary, but they didn't have any glaring weaknesses either.
The most important thing, however, is that they NEVER BETRAYED ME! That would have been fucking terrifying!
Bro never get them a mount THEY ALWAYS STAY ON THE FUCKING MOUNT also I had 3 guys before one guy was a fucking monster I got him by chance and I'm telling you bro was a menace he killed everything even his own team at some point he Straight up held a fort by himself
I’ve had a guy like that, Ogg Brain Biter, I was testing defences on one of my forts and Ogg ,who wasn’t even a warchief or max level, Ogg held a single point by himself against 2 level 60 orcs and 3 max level captains, I don’t know how he did it but he is now my body guard in that region.
On the one hand, I love Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War and feel that they did a good job wrapping the story by finishing Talion's story. On the other hand, the Eltariel dlc kinda set up potential for a 3rd game by pretty much straight up confirming Celebrimbor's story isn't over, giving us a potential protagonist in Eltariel and even having a perfect potential name what with Celebrimbor being the obvious villain where you could follow the formula of the first 2 and call it Shadow of Sauron.
Talion's story isn't finished, who said it had?
Talion was shown getting hit by a fireball/ball of fire while escaping the Blast of Baradur, not shown dead, probably still dreaming to join his wife and kids but Monolith has something else in Mind😃.
@@SAMMUSTDIE Pretty sure there was a cutscene showing Talion walking in a nice field of grass unwraping and dropping all his armor and weapons to the ground referencing that he is in the afterlife so im not too sure about Talions story not being done but hey mabye "somehow Talion will return."
@@arandomcrusader6707 I like what you are thinking, I know that's the ending scene but I guess that is just Talion hallucinating after getting hit by that Giant Fireball, he is alive but wants to join his family.
Monolith can do anything I mean MESOM and MESOW are Legendary games, maybe next year or a year after that we can see Morgoth, I mean it's very much possible if Sauron is defeated I.e. Morgoth's Right Hand man Morgoth surely will not sit around and will retaliate to bring terror in Middle Earth again. 😅😅
I am just guessing so it's up to Monolith 😊.
The Sequel i would love
Shadow of Gondor
Continue the story
Playing as a Corrupted Talion.
You do not dominate Orcs anymore
You are sent ahead into Gondor to weaken it, and go dominating humans
A full on evil story
Probably with Baranor and the other named characters from this game coming in as Bosses during the story. Who you can kill or Dominate
Dominating giving you some badass new characters, but also further cements you as fully gone. Killing them means you miss out on them, but also means you aren't mind controlling Talion's old friends. Maybe a slightly different ending depending on how much you tried to fight back or embraced the full evil nature
It would be super depressing, but also an awesome shift for it
@@SAMMUSTDIE Based on my understanding, with Sauron dead the rings would all lose their power. Considering the ring is the only thing keeping Talion alive, he should pass after Sauron dies.
My craziest Nemesis was actually a captain from the first game that I made my rival (or whatever the function was called) which ported him over to the second game. In the first game I killed him at least three times, and in the second game I bisected him four times, burned him twice, poisoned him once, crushed him with a graug and finally, FINALLY, killed him in the final mission.
I love how most of the extra voice actors also did nemesis orc voices. Matt Mercer is both the witch king and the machine orc you mention in the video.
My Nemesis memory: I also went head to head with ‘The Machine’ in my first playthrough.
Got merc’ed repeatedly from Lvl 1 & had around 15-20 head to head battles with him (as I learned the game mechanics).
Finally got him at Lvl 25, where he had all 4 missing limbs replaced with metal limbs, & enough metal covering his head to look like a silver Iron Man cosplay.
Initially frustrating, finally satisfying & definitely memorable! 👌🏼🇦🇺😎
Sounds like Frieza
He's my overlord now.
Wait he can actually die the I’m dealing with has only one limb covered in bandages and has a poison blade
@@riven5677 sure can. According to the game mechanics the only true way to outright kill your enemies once & for all is to decapitate them. Everything else the game allows them to return under the Nemesis System.
The stich war troll
Damn, this game is amazing. I ran into an orc called Bagga on my second playthrough whom I killed. He then became Bagga the Dismembered, and came back to life. I killed him again, and then again, and again. He just kept coming back. I killed him the same exact way every time, and we did everything the same way, like he said every same thing. But then I killed with with a different way, poison, I think it was, and he became Bagga the Blight. When he died, he said how he'd just keep coming back. He didn't come back again. And I'll remember this for a long time! You were a great foe, Bagga.
Plot Twist: He just went M.I.A, he s currently in a different universe, probably helping Master Chief defeat the covenant
I'm so glad this game finally got covered, Talion is easily one of my favorite protagonists in all fantasy, and his relationship with a lot of the Uruks shows how he appreciates them even while Celebrimbor is whispering in his ear, 1000000% one of my absolute favorite games of all time, up there with rdr2
20:47 talking about that little glint of orange, I think it’s because since the witch king did almost turn him, he’s probably at least just a little bit affected from that, but it fully happens when he puts on the ring of one of the nazghul
What i loved about the game was the orcs: THERE'S SO MUCH DIALOGUES, DIFFERENTS LOOKS AND POSSIBILITIES created just to make sure that you'll never be bored or meet an already meeted situation!
Shadow of war is the type of game you play and finish it once and leave it but it is just slightly nagging you in the back of your mind just wanting to go back to it. Its such a perfect game
The Shadow of War game has been my favorite video game I’ve played. I just recently replayed it again, and it still holds that place in my heart.
I finished this game with the true ending literally a few hours ago and honestly, it was worth every second.
I remember fondly of rushing through the game till after the basics of recruiting uruks and ologs, the time I met my first olog. He looked like a commander, with a cool arm, so I recruited him and gave him so much upgrades, like his own ologs and flame weapons so they can also have it. Then, a few hours later, out of the blue he stabs one of my boys. Said I kept him weak. This game taught me how loyalty can easily be broken if not tended to. It was the best!
Then I found this firey explosive guy who never left my side as a bodyguard and saved me countless times.
Edit:Turns out if you send them to the fighting pit on consel and they're about to be excuted, closing the game and coming back saves them. Neat!
The ending Twist made Talion one of my favorite Lord of the Rings characters, such a badass
My man here with the back to back videos …let’s go!!!
Finally! Yes!!!! I freaking love this game so much I’ve wanted a win counter for soooo long!!! Yesssss!!!
Especially after GW did an ep for shadow of Mordor
My favourite memory of the Nemesis System is my first encounter with The Stitch. So there was this Olog, Ar-Kaius the Large or something to that effect. He was a bodyguard for a Warchief in Seregost, I hunted him down, beat him up and chopped off his head. Done and dusted. Fast forward about 3 hours when I'm finally ready to go do the fort takeover, I call my bodyguard to get a cool pic and out of nowhere this horrifying Olog with a stitched-on head turns up and, lo and behold, it's Ar-Kaius, back from the grave! He then proceeded to murder me three times, and eventually I was so impressed that I recruited him and he became my Overlord in Seregost.
I remember my nemesis: Mozû Iron Skull. It was back in Minas Ithil and he was some dude I offer as I was running by but he cheated death and ambushed me as I was about to do a mission. Because it was on Brutal he leveled up a lot so I was level seven or so and he was twenty-eight. Since I was right by a quest I figured I would try and 1v1 him and activate the quest should I need to run. Sadly, this is when I found out that counts as dying so he leveled up to thirty-eight while I was level eight from the quest. I went to the revenge mission and tried to abuse his only weaknesses being stealth and arrows but I messed it up and couldn’t use the area well enough and he killed me again. I was beginning to give up since this guy was now six times my level but my pride wouldn’t let me. So through a long battle of stealth attacking him then running out of his detection only to shoot him and lure him over to stealth attack again. I got a meh cloak from him but I constantly upgraded it to my level and used it throughout the entire game even to when I hit 100%, even when I got some overpowered cloaks. He cheated death two more times and I killed him both and had a final showdown when he was resurrected by Zog. Sadly, being at the same level and having a fire build to deal with revenants while also having more experience fighting this guy than any others made for a short and anticlimactic fight but I was still somewhat satisfied knowing he wasn’t coming back. I nerve took that cloak off.
Edit: Something I noticed when I replayed Shadow of Mordor is that Talion’s Ringwraith armor is really similar to the Black Hand’s armor.
I had this guy on his caragor hunting me, he wasn't a tracker or anything. But major overpowered while I was starting the game. Any time during missions he'd find me and hunt me down. Died to him about 3 times, which made him stronger. So you can imagine the rage I felt when I came across him boosting again. I start act 2 and I finally get the ability to make him mine. The fight was long and hard, but the thing was; I could't claim him for his lvl was above mine.
Did the only thing I could, shamed him. Which made him deranged, he lost his caragor and name. Became Rúg the Ruined, who was only capable of ominous laughter. He went from nemesis to follower, I trained him back up and made him legendary. He became my first overlord and still proud of that story.
10:45 I'll always think of this game as canon.
I like to imagine that the reason the orcs were so terrified of Sam when he went to save Frodo at the tower after their encounter with Shelob, was because they thought it was The Gravewalker.
It can’t be canon though. Shelob was never a shapeshifter, celembrimbor never helped make the one ring , helm could never have been a Nazgûl, Gollum was never in Mordor yet etc.
@@ht4236 I just take bits of it and consider those bits cannon
This game thought me that alternative Lore and canon doesn't have to be bad, i absolutely loved this interpretation of the LOTR universe!
This! while i can understand people disliking the rewriting and lore changes of middle earth in the shadows series (Like nechromancy, the balrog summon, characters and also talion killing and becoming a ringwraith), it makes a really good story for a video game. Still one of the best stories i have played, as i got really invested in it
Force Unleashed did the same for me.
@@Ace2014Ace Another, if not better example than shadow of war. The force unleashed was a staple of my childhood. I Always hoped it was canon since they released lego sets for it back in 2008 lol
Exactly you can change stuff in lore and that as long as you respect canon in my opinion
Two videos in two days. Dear god do I love this channel
My favorite orc story is when a marauder overlord I killed refused to die and kept on coming back and leading most raids against the fort he lost
My best story was during the mission where we had to kill the orc called noruk. If I remember correctly during the mission you were supposed to kill him using wasps. He came back and ambushed me as noruk the infested and easily killed me and then immediately became overlord. I conquered the fort and then took him with me.
My best experience with the nemesis system came from Pash The Ranger Killer.
I ported him over from som, and boy. I went from breezing through the enemies to spending forty minutes bypassing and cheating the system to kill him. He was a savage berserker, but for some reason, he had a tanks second wind ability.
When I finally killed him, it was the one time I got my favorite shadow of mordor kill. Three heavy swings, the second knocking the blade from his hand and the third decapitated him.
I spent forty minutes fighting him, low leveled, when he had so many feats that nobody - even when i was at level 80, could give me more of a hard time for.
I wish I could've seen him more. He was a treat, and I loathe him entirely.
My nemesis story spans across both games, my first death in SOM was in the fighting pit sword mission where you had to kill 50 uruks, I was at 42 and then an ork named Rûg killed me, he became Rûg the crow and was pretty challenging to defeat, he was invulnerable to stealth, invulnerable to ranged, combat master, enraged by defeat, and summoned more troops to fight by his side, I eventually killed him with a few captains by my side and his body never went away in the army screen, I thought he would make a return in SOM but he never did, and then one of the first captains I fight in SOW is, you guessed it, Rûg and he was my first death in SOW as well, I went back and killed him multiple times before he finally went away, but I will always remember Rûg
One fav friendly captain i had was a crossbowman called the wasp. he got killed, then popped up one day saying 'just wanted to say im back to serve'. had yellow-themed armour
Had a captain called mystic. He died and then came back in the last act when I lost nurnen. He helped me save my overlord
My Nemesis story: I completed the game and wanted to play it again. I never killed Bruz after he went insane. When starting a new game, I deleted the old save file first making sure I can’t go back. As I’m starting a new game in the first little area, an insane Bruz shows up. I wasn’t even at the city yet, and what’s even stranger is he was the same level as in my old save file I just deleted. Somehow, Bruz survived a permanent deleted save file, crossed into the next one, because he wanted me dead so bad. Hardest fight I ever had as I was level 1, and he was almost max. Bruz, for transcending space and time in a game, you have my eternal respect.
I play Shadow of Mordor about once a year, it was that good for me. Ive had Shadow of War, but the first captain I fought had the evolving perk, and i literally couldnt do damage because he learned all my moves lol. I returned to Shadow of Mordor, 100% the game, and decided to try Shadow of War. It's now one of my top series. I actually got so teary eyed at the end. Making Helm and Isildur nazgul definitely bothered me because it directly affects the low set by Tolkien, but i still loved the story so much, and wish it was canon. Talion deserves it
"...The Daughter of Ungoliant..." I love that you've read The Silmarillion. Tolkien fan sees Tolkien fan. Also, "Beleriand: Shadow of Wrath"??!!? YES. ALL THE YES. I want a War of Wrath game now. Seeing the fall of Beleriand in modern graphics with THIS combat system?? Oh, man. ....STOP MAKING UP THINGS I WANT!
lol
If the Assassin's Creed formula for lotr games would be used further I would like if someone made a game more modelled on the later AC titles so something like AC Black Flag mixed with AC Odyssey and Origins :) also more lore friendly, naval combat with ships of Corsairs of Umbar and Haradrim vessels and sailing the Great Sea Belegaer :)....hell yeah :) one could even use the book canon, like adventures of Aragorn as Thorongil, when he commanded the fleets of Gondor :) and have the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan to explore in detail hehe. Any game can be done and lore of Tolkien works would give material for several huge in depth games easily rivalling the Witcher 3 in size :).
19:30 Another bit of foreshadowing when Ratbag says "Make sure you don't get killed by your followers" as the camera slowly pans towards Bruz.
loved it, specially the original shadow wars, its was so grindy, hard and never ending, you could really feel how tired talion would be by the end and his happiness in finally joining his family
19:34 Creative Assembly, make this happen! I want a Middle Earth based Total War game!
My most memorable nemesis was the Broken Shield. I would kill him, he’d humiliate me. But I eventually brought him down in the Forests of Nurnin. Until he was brought back by Zog. In the fight, he humiliated me one last time before walking away, never to be seen again.
I like to think he’s still wandering Mordor to this day.
(Also, NGL, I remember crying when I heard Fires of War for the first few times.)
I have two personal favorite nemesis stories. First is an olog named Azbar or something,its been awhile since I played, but this olog first got a lucky kill on me while I was surrounded by like 4 captains. He gets named the Legend with golden armor since he's a marauder. Upon seeing him again, he actually defeated me again. I very rarely die in Shadow of War so to die twice to the same guy earns my respect. I immediately branded him and this Olog has been Seregost's Overlord through 4 sieges and a full recapture due to a failed defense on my end once. The other story is one of a berserker whose name escapes me, but I killed this guy throwing him in lava in Gorgoroth, only for him to take that flame, come back to life burned with fire axes, and renamed Flame of War, how could I not recruit this crazy orc? He's now Gorgoroth's Overlord and fights ruthlessly against anything that dares to even look at him.
My one true nemesis is an orc that I have killed with both fire and poison and now gets stronger whenever he gets burned or poisoned
Yea once fire, poison, and ice don’t work on a captain, I get pissed off. That ice stun was my go to
I loved the Shelob plot. I reckon shadow of war is how you do departures from canon right- it’s not like it’s trying to tell you this is how canon goes now or even rewrite much of established lore- it just adds some things and fills some holes were there was space for it
Personally as Tolkien fan I would have preferred to have it more like the source material interpretation of Shelob, as an eldritch abomination in spider form all the time, hunger and selfishness personified that our protagonist would be forced to ally temporarily with for common goal. Book Shelob did not care for anything or anyone but could use others as tools (like Gollum) ultimately caring only about growing in power herself:
"Little she knew of or cared for towers, or rings, or anything devised by mind or hand, who only desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her up and the darkness could not contain her."
...
"But other potencies there are in Middle-earth, powers of night, and they are old and strong. And She that walked in the darkness had heard the Elves cry… far back in the deeps of time, and she had not heeded it, and it did not daunt her now. Even as Frodo spoke he felt a great malice bent upon him."
Portraying her as this demonic entity with not fully comprehensible ways of reasoning and primal darkness, also her powers of conjuring up this darkness and "webs of shadow" and powers of mind:
"Drawing a deep breath they [Frodo and Sam] passed inside [Shelob's Lair]... They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought. Night always had been, and always would be, and night was all. ...
But for a while they could still feel, and indeed the senses of their feet and fingers at first seemed sharpened almost painfully. ...
... But after a time their senses became duller, both touch and hearing seemed to grow numb...
... And still the stench grew. It grew, until almost it seemed to them that smell was the only clear sense left to them, and that was for their torment. ...
... Here was some opening in the rock... and out of it came a reek so foul, and a sense of lurking malice so intense, that Frodo reeled. And at that moment Sam too lurched and fell forwards. ...
Maybe they had passed the dreadful unseen opening, but whether that was so or not, suddenly it was easier to move, as if some hostile will for the moment had released them. ...
... Frodo's hand wavered, and slowly the Phial drooped. Then suddenly, released from the holding spell to run a little while in vain panic for the amusement of the eyes, they both turned and fled together; but even as they ran Frodo looked back and saw with terror that at once the eyes [of Shelob] came leaping up behind."
The Two Towers, LoTR Book 4, Ch 9, Shelob's Lair
...
"Already... Gollum had beheld her, Sméagol who pried into all dark holes, and in past days he had bowed and worshipped her, and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light and from regret. And he had promised to bring her food. But her lust was not his lust."
A small detail I really like is that when you select a fortress captain it plays the motif of their respective faction and goes even harder for the overlord.
My Favorite part of this game is when they dragged over Orcs from your save file in the previous game.
If you weren't aware if you play on the same profile for both games. Shadow of War will bring your most hated rival and your most loyal follower over from Shadow of Mordor. You get to fight your rival in the colosseum in the beginning. And your follower is found in the beginning of the first are a you try to take over. Freeing him is actually a mission objective. The fact that they added that is insane and made me love the game even more and it made me wanna play Shadow of Mordor again to try and find the most interesting orcs to follow me over
4:23
I would absolutely love to be a Orc/Uruk that starts off as a grunt, and try to create your own power structure, recruiting other Orcs by good ol' Mordor fashion, by beating the ever living sht out of them, or by helping them, or other means. And try to rise up the ranks, while also dealing with the threat of men who hunt you down at sight. A nemesis system where humans are your enemies, and Orcs can be both friend and foe. And the more power you have, the more the chance you're likely to get stabbed in the back by your own boys aswell. There's alot of ideas that could work with a game like this, and i'd love to someday see it.
I love, love, _LOVE_ this idea! Dang it I want to play as an uruk so much
One of my favorite Nemisis system run ins was this one orc who I killed probably six times, it was insane he kept coming back to ambush me at one point he was all prosthetic limbs cause I had just cut them all off, his face was covered with a metal plate, and he had yet to kill me once, bro was determined to get his get back and finally on the seventh kill he stopped coming back. That is until the final fight before Celebrimbor betrays you, he showed up again as one of the Uruk's to attack me in the big final battle, I was just so taken aback that he had been revived again. Btw poor guy never killed me so he died eight times and never even accomplished his goal.
One thing that I noticed while playing through the different quests on one of my replays was that pretty much all the quest storylines and their villains relate to and foreshadow Celebrimbor’s fall. With Zog trying to control some greater creature that he is unable to control, Brûz becoming greedy and wanting more power for himself and betraying Talion, to the Nazgûl who are all heroes that have fallen under the rings. All of this leading to Talion recognizing that it is not worth trying to dominate Sauron. At least this is how I have started reading into this
His goal has always been to destroy Sauron to end his tyranny, but after learning Celebrimbor's intention to dominate Sauron he immediately figured out Cele wasn't just trying to stop Sauron, he was trying to usurp Sauron. That's why he immediately turned on Celebrimbor
This game was perfect in many ways and the fact that you can just keep playing and getting different enemies and situations makes it all the more better
actually leveling was intentional throttled at later levels, and act 4 was implemented mainly to make people buy microtransactions. it may not be too bad, but it was intentional flawed by the developers.
We are very sure that Balrogs didn’t have wings. One, several Balrogs met their end plummeting off cliffs or mountains. Two, there are passages where Balrogs ride dragons. Three, a big reason the eagles of Manwe were so effective in guarding the location of Gondolin was because Morgoth had no air force. Gondolin was visible from the air, but not from the ground. That’s why his last, desperate gamble in the war of wrath was to unveil the winged dragons.
Fun fact about the arena in the first half, you actually encounter your nemesis from the previous game, but unfortunately with the system that allows you to get orcs from the previous game to war you can’t any longer.
1. I'm disappointed that Talion didn't get a unique nazgul mask
2. The armour that the black hand wore is the same Talion's undead armour
3. I wish the overlord had an effect, a mystic fort gives a bonus to follower damage, than after you get undying loyalty it makes it so you can resurrect orcs with personality like Zog. etc for other overlords, please leave ideas in the replies
4. Talion being cursed turns him into the after betrayal Talion
Why would he ? He took isuldurs ring and position
@@ht4236 I know, and it makes sense but damn a unique mask would be sick
@@SeaIbass I think it was because no one knows what he did he was just another faceless nazgul to everyone else
@@archie6890 I know, but it would have been so cool lookin'
@@SeaIbass yeah
Dude when Talion says "As long as I have breath in my body my fate is my own" chills man straight chills
For a second i thought this was gonna be another " it's morbin time" comment, but thankfully it wasn't.
@@whatahelliii "It's Middle-Earthing time" and Shadow of Warred all over Sauron
It's crazy, that after playing what was my first experience with a God Of War game, that being the PC port of God Of War 2018 this year, all I hear in Celebrimbor's voice now is Mimir.
24:58
Celebrimbor is right tho. He is the one who invited Talion to go to Valinor with him at the end of Shadow of Mordor, but the ranger refused and proposed the idea for a new ring. Talion pursued power and Celebrimbor was the one corrupted by it, a fitting story for the world of Lord of the Rings.
This game was amazing. I played this one without playing SOM and much later than a lot of other people.
LOVE THIS GAME
Fun fact they patented THEIR nemesis system but not the idea as a whole so basically you could still make a game with 5he system but you would have to build it from the ground up
That’s tough to do, someone’s gotta do it though. Someone made a skyrim nemesis mod current year btw 👁👁
@@lonewanderer1328 Yeah I saw that it’s pretty cool and I hope to see more of the system in more games even if it’s only through modding
Yeah calibrimbors betrayal was heavily foreshadowed. (Didn't stop me from being surprised though,lol)
7:17 Bruz said it best: (17:45)"bright Lord,dark lord; same thing really."
This game meant alot for me and its the one who introduced me to lotr. I was born after the trilogy hits the theater and never bothered to watch the trilogy since i find it too long. But this game poetic line made me curious. For example the line "as long as i have breath in my body, my fate is my own". Everytime i am about to gave up from a failure i repeat those word to myself. And it kept me going till now.
Bruz's betrayal hurt worse than anything in this series. I would have let him be the overlord, but of course, they wouldn't let me. I should have seen it coming right then, but I figured Talion didn't want to alienate Ratbag and I planned to make him overlord of my next fort. Then tragedy struck...
I just make him overlord in Golgoroth
I understand that both SOM and SOW completely go against established Tolkein lore and canon, but holy shit both of these games were SO. DAMN. GOOD. The writing was on point, the gameplay was amazing. I absolutely loved the Nemesis system. Basically everything that was good about the first game got refined and made better in its sequel. The music score was also really well done too. SOW is still one of my favourite games I played on Xbox One.
I thought that the Uruks looked amazing in Shadow Of Mordor, but they looked INCREDIBLE in Shadow Of War!🙌🏻 They’re heavily inspired by Peter Jackson’s versions of the Orcs and Uruk-Hai, but still look unique within Monolith’s rendition of Tolkien’s world.
The only problem I ever had with the game was how they handled Bruz's quest line in regards to the betrayal and Insanity mechanics. It was very obvious to me that Bruz's quest line was meant to teach you about these two systems, but by the time you get to these parts of Bruz's quest line, you've most likely have already been betrayed by one of your captains by this point due to a myriad of reasons, and you most likely have either already encountered or caused one of the captains to go crazy before you finish Bruz's quest line.
Now there are easy fixe for this, with the betrayal mechanic, simply make it so that captains cannot betray you till after Bruz does so, then have a pop up show up and explain the betrayal mechanic. As for the insanity mechanic, like the betrayal mechanic, simply block it off till Bruz is finally dealt with, then either tie it only to the more powerful form of Shaming, like the end of the quest implies, or after Bruz is dealt with, have a pop up appear explaining the dangers shaming captains now entails.
I do believe its canon that there is a rumor amongst the Dunlendings and Rohirrim that Helm Hammerhand wanders the Mark as a wraith defending the Hornburg.
Zoggs last mission was torture for me. Every resurrected orc was my most powerful nemesis, some of my favourite followers who betrayed me. Seeing them there meant that 1.I would never see them again, and 2 the pain of fighting multiple characters that I struggled with individually.
I never finished that one. I completed the game, mind you, but all the way till the end that one mission was a permanent stain upon my map, world, and pride
I never finished this game, though I liked it a lot, I just put it aside with intent to come back later and just never did...but I remember fighting an Uruk who I killed over and over and over again and each time he came back more insane until all he could do was scream "REST! REST! LET ME REST!" at me and by the Valar it was depressing.
Jesus that's depressing
I was once trying to kill an enemy captain, but then i was betrayed by 5 of my allied orc captains and my bodyguard. So i had to fight all of them at the same time and mind control them back to my army. It was pure insanity.
In minis ithal I had to fight a berserker bard multiple times, dude had a heart out for me, and it was impossible to fight in the city without him showing up. Eventually I kept tracking him down and just shamed him to oblivion, I tried to make him a soldier of mine first but he refused so I just killed him, and then he came back and if I’m right he’s till alive and I haven’t killed him yet.
It’s always funny to me how Ratbag is really the only character to make Talion shout in frustration
My nemesis story
Met him as the 1st wave warcheif in a defense of Seregost. I could not beat the bastard at all and got wrecked. He became one of the 2 inner warchiefs and when the time came to kill him in the siege I opted to just shame him.
Fast forward to Nurnen and he ambushes me, talking about how far he travelled to kill me.
Again, I could not kill him. To the point I had to bring him to my Fort to kill him with poison.
Until.....
"Stakuga the Blight"
Yup.
At that point i decided to dominate him and after a (very annoying) fight I finally got him. Now he's one of my best followers ever
I think my favorite thing this game did was give the Ring Wraiths a more flushed out backstory. Knowing that they were tragic people who corrupted over time into becoming monsters in both the literal and figurative sense made me feel bad for them. Don't know if it's from the books or not but that literally caught me off guard the first time I played.
I love this game so much i just wish there was a ng+ or something and also how stupidly strong frost was over evrything else
My most memorable Uruk experience was with this guy named Kruk (I think). I first met him while fighting this other captain, I'm fairly sure he wasn't even a captain, he wasn't dressed like one and his level was only I think 2 or 3 (I had just started the game for the first time) but he started taunting me like a captain. Well he ends up killing me because like I said I was fighting another captain and 30 other orcs. I get my revenge and hunt him down and kill him, move on with my life. Well he came back, and for the next 7 to 10 encounters after that I would get him on his knees, about to kill him when he would run away, until I finally got him and finished him off. Later on during the necromancer mission in the colosseum, when captains you've previously beaten appear, he was there as one of the undead captains, and I had to kill him one last time. I love this game so much.
RIP Prak the tark slayer
My play through was never the same when you were gone
So my craziest Nemesis story is an Orc captain that killed me pretty early in the game so i went and got revenge and killed him. This Orc proceeded to come back to life 3 times before I branded him hoping that would be the end of it, well it wasn't he betrayed me later in the game and because he hadn't been the nicest Orc in the world I shamed him hoping he would become Deranged and I could ignore him, but no he becomes a Maniac increasing his level by 50. Because of this he was 20 levels above me when I had to go hunt him down AGAIN to make sure he wouldn't ambush me while i was doing other stuff and as far as I know he didn't come back after that.
Id love an orc game using the rogue lite mechanics from the Desolation DLC. You start off as a Rat wuo miraculously takes down a captain in the fight pits and gets promoted. Then you pick your class, your strengths and your weaknesses. Instead of branding, you best orcs in fights and they join your warband. Then when the time comes and your orc dies, you can either start again from the pits or assume the prebuilt role of one of the orcs you recruited
Orcs are cool and should be everywhere
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS
YES
YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!!
HELL YEAH
I don't know if you can tell, but I LOVE your idea, everything about it
We *_need_* this
in LotR lore Shelob does sort of protect Gollum. he would lead orcs into her cave and she would feed on them and she wouldnt eat him. A sort of mutually beneficial relationship
Another win is that it makes so many people so unreasonably mad because muh canon and we get to laugh at them.
These two games are the exception that confirms the rule that says videogame franchises and reboots are nothing but crap.
My best nemesis experience was in the region next to minas morghul (forgot name)
I was fighting this berserker who got me weak then his blood brother (an olog) came in and finished me off, I kept trying to kill him but I failed cause I was playing on brutal difficulty I eventually killed him with an execution chopping arms and head off and after a while I was near the fight pits and someone shouted “TALION!” And it was him as a stitch olog
He is one of my war chiefs on gorogoth now with a spider olog and a beast olog (my top 3 favs)
I remember just walking around one of the forts and then just out of no where, a bunch of captains tried to rebel. I put it down but they killed my favorite Uruk at the time as some kind of hostage.
I am beyond happy that you finally covered one of my favorite games of all time. This and shadow of Mordor were my entrance into lord of the rings.
In som my very best friend was an orc named dugza the destroyer and my nemesis was bugabog the Raven. When I came to shadow of war and the raven confronted me in that ring it was so exciting and terrifying to see him again. And then later in rescuing dugza the destroyer who nearly single handedly helped me conquer the final area.
My favorite moment with dugza was in the post game we had come across this nasty olog named Ogg. He had been beheaded and killed twice and returned so I sent dugza to help double team him. The battle was long and hard dugza throwing fire everywhere and I kept going to low health when I see the animation play of ogg killing dugza. I legitimately screamed and ran to avenge my fallen friend. After a breif attempt ogg downed me and I thought that was that l. But before he could dugza cheated death and stayed loyal jumping up and beheading ogg again before turning to me and confining our bond could not be broken.
When you get jumped by about 6 captains and one has no chance
I probably spent most of this game basically recreating Pokemon in Mordor. I just keep cycling them through the pits and recruit more by finding interesting orcs and letting them kill me.
a guy named "bolg the drunk" chased me all over mordor. he was the champion in the arena mission, he cheated death twice. then in nurn he did that shit again and doubled my level. and finally we were in cirith ungol and i could finally recruit him, and you best know he was by my side in that siege and he is there to this day, watching over mordor in his overlord chair.
About you talking about playing as an uruk i actually have an idea for that ive been thinking about it for a bit Im currently calling it Middle-earth : The Armies of Mordor. basically you can create a custom uruk soldier starting off weak but you can become a captain warchief and maybe even eventually overlord unlock strengths but they come with weaknesses you need to overcome or train against. im not gonna write an entire essay on my ideas for this rn but thats my idea (oh yeah I think there should be an offline story mode about YOUR orc rising up in the ranks and a chaotic online mode)
This one guy I kept trying to recruit went insane and became level 50 while I was level 13 and kept getting ambushed by him and we had a sort of anime arc. He was the war boss of a very tough fort to crack and finally found out it was him. I killed him amd it was the most emotional ive gotten at a game
hey i just binged ur vids and you have a few stray vids in your playlists, other than that i love your channel! keep it up!
The best part about this game is the insane amount of psychological torture you can inflict on an orc just because you slightly dislike him
Monolith has said that they took 3 years ONLY recording the orc lines
I don't know if you already did it on this channel, but if not The War In The North was a great game that happens during and separately from the LOTR movies and not only has the ability to choose your own class, but also a great co-op system and a great story
For the nemesis system. The patent is so ridiculously specific that the only way you'd actually get in trouble is by accident. Other game companies can make systems similar to the nemesis system thanks to procedural generation though, nothing wrong with that.
Rings of power will never be able to touch the epic tone these games and the original source material had.
I’ve always made the comparison that these games are like the LOTR equivalent of the Force Unleashed series. It’s just a power fantasy for our favorite franchise.
I haven't gotten further than eight minutes, but one of my favourite things about this one game is HOW Celebrimbor changes; the New Ring is corrupting him, his soul, as his soul is connected to the New Ring, which was also crafted in the same place as Sauron crafted The One Ring. It's so painful to realise how Celebrimbor's desire to fix his mistake is what doomed his plans to save Middle Earth. He became so twisted with his motives that he became a Dark Lord instead of a Bright one.
I also will never stop screaming about the fact Monolith foreshadowed Talion becoming a "Dark Ranger" with his skin in SoM; a former friend pointed out "why does Talion have this skin?" in SoM and I quite literally banged my head against my desk in realisation. They always knew where they were going, didn't they.
Also. I do hope Monolith can work on a third game. I know we may not be able to play as Talion in it (unless it's Pre-Rest or some Valinor shenanigans bringing him back), but man, I want to know what happened to Eltariel and Celembrimbor, as the New Ring SURVIVED and Celebrimbor is free once more. And with Embracer having the rights instead of...whoever it was that did it before, maybe we can get it? They do licence stuff out, and whilst some of their newer games have been a miss..I hope we can get more of Middle Earth from Monolith after Wonder Woman. (And I hope WW is good, because man, we need a good DC game again)
I JUST learned that you can start over (delete your save game) but keep everything in your garrison, like my 200+ Orc followers and 328 Level 60 Vendetta Gear Chests and 400+ upgrade orders.
13:00 Well, Since you asked: In my first playthrough, my Nemisis was a scrawny orc who I made a bug nest fall on during one of the main missions (I think it was actually a quest objective?). He came back with his face all fucked up and half hive, and I killed him a few more times, I think he killed me at some point, I remember he had a metal arm by the end. Eventually, I beat him into submission, and made them a Overlord.
(I think their name was "Luga of the Flies" but I might be wrong)
I will never understand why they haven’t made a TV show about this. Would be such a cool TV concept to have talion recruiting an orc army
Not written in today's world it wouldn't be
@@McNab1986 What do you mean?
@@hazeltree7738 because most modern shows suck I guess?
What I think it would be boring. Why not just play the game?
Shadow of Wrath would be absolutely amazing. You could also do a Gondolin DLC. That kind of desperate, doomed city siege would fit the general mechanics perfectly.