Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Oh man, a follower who you thought was dead cheating death and saving you at the last minute sounds amazing.

Does it really counts as "Epic story of Loyalty and Friendship" if it's you and your brainwashed armies?

Wait, maybe we'll be recruiting them without Branding them?

Well we didn't brainwash Ratbag and he...was...sort of...a friend?

Well, maybe their loyalty is enforced, but you get to see what a loyal Orc is like.

True enough.

Who wants to bet Ratbag cheated death and will appear as an Overlord?

That would be hysterical.

I hope Halfling Lover remains one of the traits.

OK, that video has gotten my attention. Nice to see that they bothered to take this one step beyond and not make a cookie cutter sequel.

Also, maybe it was because I saw the Giant Bomb version with them talking over the voice over, but for a while I could have sworn that the video was being narrated by Diana Burnwood.

"Good afternoon, 47. Your target is the Dark Lord Sauron."

Ratbag was legitimately my favorite character in the first game, so I would absolutely go apeshit over this.

Also, the gameplay video actually hyped me up about it, damn if it didn't look cool as balls.

I would like to see Ratbag return as well, especially as an ally. From watching the video I noted something. Just conquering a territory gains you followers. So I am guessing the actual loyalty and friendship aspect may come from followers you don't have to brand to your side but are following you for any myriad of reasons. Which would be an awesome aspect to explore with the game.

Well when you subverted a Warchief or a Captain you also subverted their followers. I would assume the Overlord moving into the fortress does the same thing.

Don't Tolkien's orcs also adhere to Might Makes Right to some degree? If I remember correctly, they're not necessarily following Sauron completely freely, so you "liberating" a zone might actually be an opportunity for them to throw in their lot with a (hopefully) friendlier overlord - friendly being relative, of course.

edited 8th Mar '17 8:53:03 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Yeah, probably. Then again they hate Men and Elves and Dwarves just as much as they fear Sauron, so Talion would be better off not showing his face to Orcs that aren't under his control.

edited 8th Mar '17 9:50:09 PM by theLibrarian

Talion is barely anymore Men nor Elves than Sauron/Saruman tho, is he? I'd argue he have more in common with the ship-ghosts or Witch Kings.

Orcs are also willing to work with Men.

Yes, but Evil men, not Westrons and Tarks.

edited 8th Mar '17 10:10:44 PM by theLibrarian

Dude that video was awesome, especially Ragdug.

Totes minion of the fucking century, his poor mount though. He totally deserves his new position.

I want a sniper-orc bro. Here's hoping that you can engage with your warchiefs in a way. Also, note some of the allied chiefs can "betray" you, so that indicates more free will in story - the branded orcs probably CAN'T betray you, or the branding wears off or there's a penalty.

Unless the brand can be removed (They mentioned a Curse which seems to prevent you from dominating some enemies)

The ambiguity was a nice touch as well. "He betrayed you to serves the Dark Lord" vs "You left me to die, the Dark Lord saved me!"

...I wonders if you'd need to decaptitate your own Orc officers when you suffers a defeat or they'll rise to serve the Dark Lord. That'd be horrible(y awesome).

I doubt it. I wonder if the Demolisher guy will come back eventually with his body all burnt up, just insane with rage and pain and only able to recognize you as the cause of his agony.

Or as a loyal trooper who you can't deploy against fire any more...

I'm liking how we have actual Trolls in this as well; ones that talk. Lo TR (Films) always seemed to treat them as being little more than animals, comapred to the hobbit where they actually talk.

Good to see some more varied animals / monster / enemy types.

Also, Osgiliath.

We also get more than a few Olog-hai, like the Overlord and the Demolisher.

I can't wait to train up my own elite special task force of stealth archer-assassin badasses.

Is no one talking of the drakes tho?

I hope that some warlord can use them as mount and it would be possible to have a godlike drake rider by our sides.

Considering we'll be facing off the actual Ringwraiths...