The first 5 or so hours of Dying Light are a great time. Running, kicking, hacking, and slashing your way through a beautifully destroyed city is more fun than it should be and while some technical issues rear their ugly head at times, it’s worth ignoring because it’s just so much fun. The zombies are fast, more intelligent than some humans I have met and have a singular purpose in wanting to kill you! It’s like a demo that you never want to end.

Dying Light is a game that really wants me to like it. It makes a great first impression. It looks really nice, and has a premise that rarely gets old. The first couple of hours of the game are great, free running, parkouring and hack-n-slashing your way around the fictional city of Harran is effective, visceral and oh so sweet. The problem becomes, just because I enjoyed the first couple of hours, doesn’t mean that I want to continue playing the same parts over and over again.

And this is my biggest gripe about Dying Light. A lot of it’s side quests, and even some of it’s main story missions, are all very similar. Fetch this, find some loot, kill some guys and lather, rinse, repeat. Variety is the spice of life, and that makes Dying Light as bland as it’s main protagonist.  It would be fine if, in doing these missions, the reward outweighed the risk. Collecting things from dangerous areas for the shady (at best) citizens of Harran rarely bestows upon you the types of rewards one would expect from taking on a task that would almost certainly result in death. Usually, its just a small amount of money and experience and a pat on the back, only you don’t even get the pat on the back. Most of these citizens do not even dane you with a thank you for your efforts, instead sending you on your way like the errand buy they perceive you as.

There are a few fun missions peppered throughout the game. Anything that takes advantage of the games excellent parkour system shines as this is one element of Dying Light that stands out from the rest. Climbing the buildings and radio towers of Harran never gets repetitive and when coupled with the intensity of running away from a mob of flesh hungry zombies, this only becomes more fun. This is amplified at night when the zombies are stronger, faster and based on how hard it is to lose them, hungrier.

The night is when Dying Light, ironically, shines the most. Agility and Combat points are doubled to balance out the risk / reward and with only a flashlight to light your way, the game becomes very difficult. The game recommends that you run for the nearest safe house or to the Tower (where the majority of the games missions are given out) but I can honestly say I never did. I revelled in the danger, and happily ran from one end of the map to the other, being chased for the majority of the night. I spent so much time free running through the city at night that I had reached level 8 agility before I had reached the 5th story mission.

The games upgrade / levelling system is also quite impressive with a diverse array of skills available as you progress through the tree. There are 2 trees, one for agility and one for combat. Agility is upgraded by climbing and jumping between buildings and towers while the combat is upgraded by, well, combat! Hacking your way through enemies gets you points that increase your combat bar. Tougher enemies get you more points, headshot’s also net you more points, but if you’re using guns in this game, you really aren’t playing it right. Sometimes, you need to run from the enemies for fear of being overwhelmed, but running away does not get you combat points. You have to weigh your options and see if it’s worth the risk. Considering that one of the skills allows you to do this, I’d consider taking the risk:

To get around while mowing down enemies, you will need weapons. Luckily, there are plenty to be found around the city of Harran. Everything from a block of wood to a Cricket bat can be used and each has stats that convey its usefulness. The important stats are the power of the weapon (the damage it will do when you hit an enemy with it) and the durability of the weapon. The higher the durability, the longer the weapon can be used before needing to be repaired. And if you think that you can just keep repairing the same weapon over and over again, think again. Every weapon has a certain number of repairs before it finally breaks.

There are upgrades that can be applied to the weapons to increase the power and durability of it, but once you have applied it to a weapon it cannot be removed, which creates a scenario where you must think before you upgrade a weapon. If it has low durability and you are upgrading its power with an upgrade, it may end up being a mistake. It’s a clever, if not overly simplistic system, and the sheer amount of weapons available throughout the city mean that the upgrades are never really necessary.

Zombies (and their larger, more dangerous variants) are not the only enemy that Dying Light makes you contend with. There are also human enemies from bandit gangs and other places that I won’t spoil here that add a different dimension to the combat. Simply running up and bashing them may work, but it will take more time than taking down your average zombie. And this is where guns come into play. Having a Pistol or Assault Rifle in your inventory before running afoul of these enemies is smart, especially later when they start carrying guns of their own. Luckily, these weapons can be usually found in the back of a police van. The bad news here is that these vans are usually left abandoned near a large group of zombies. And since stealth is not an option, you will need to clear out the area before attempting to pick the lock (using a lock-picking mechanic that was lifted directly from Oblivion / Skyrim).

All in all, Dying Light is a good game, let down by repetition and wasted potential. The parkour / free running is absolutely the stand out part of the game, but when taken with the repetitive mission structure, uneven visuals and puzzling button configuration (clicking L3 for sprint when R1 is the jump button is just a baffling design choice!) let it down somewhat. If we take this as a template for a potential follow up, then things can improve in the next game. But if we take Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide into account, then things will only improve slightly while taking a few steps in the opposite direction.

The post Dying Light Review appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

I managed to get Unity on launch day in the US, rather than waiting on the EU release date as I wanted to get as much of the game done before the 18th, when all hell breaks loose on my bank account when most of this year’s major titles are released on the same day! Before I even started playing though, there were a lot of negative reports coming out about the games performance along with some very “interesting” bugs. I decided to ignore them as I wanted to go into the game with a fresh pair of eyes, unspoiled by the usual internet hatred. Unfortunately, everything I read later on, proved to be things that I experienced. Arno falling through the floor? Check. Game crashing for no reason? Check. Unable to join co-op sessions? Check plus. And the performance issues were readily apparent the first time I walked through a crowd.

I guess women WERE too hard to animate….

None of these are things that can’t be fixed in this day and age without a patch. And I am a firm believer that a game should not be solely judged by its issues. If the story holds up, if the gameplay is fun, then how can we refuse to give a game the credit it deserves? Does Assassin’s Creed: Unity have enough to overcome its technical hurdles and come out the other side as a good game? Almost. It almost manages to make you forget that you are playing a somewhat broken game.

Let’s start at the beginning. The story is your basic revenge plot. Main characters father is killed, he is taken in by a father figure who is also murdered and becomes an assassin. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Everything else is basically window dressing and launching pads to get you to the points where revenge is exacted. While it isn’t sophisticated, it is entertaining. The characters are brought to life with some very impressive graphics. The new engine is definitely a sight to behold. It needs work, but things can only get better from here, and I am excited to see what comes from it. The voice acting is mostly effective. Elise, the love interest for this game, can’t really seem to decide where her accent is meant to be from. It alternates between England, Australia and America at various points in the conversation, sometimes at various points during a sentence.

And while we’re on the subject of the voice acting, I am still honestly baffled at the idea that every character in 18th century Paris has a British accent. Ubisoft have, as they do with a lot of things that go wrong in AC, explained this away with the idea that the Animus is “anglophying” the characters as the people playing in the Animus would want to hear the voices in English. This immediately becomes invalidated by the fact that Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations exist where-in the main character and everyone around him are all from Italy and have thick Italian accents. No-one complained then, and I don’t think they would now. But, a small silver lining is that they didn’t give them all American accents, which would have been wholly unforgivable.

There are some gameplay additions that come as a warm welcome this time around. The combat in Unity feels so much meatier and more visceral than previous instalments. The first and most noticeable thing is that the system of nailing a counter and immediately following it up with an assassination is a thing of the past. Now when you land a counter, you have a very brief window to hit your opponent. This becomes essential later on in the game, as enemies become more self-aware and a lot faster. They roll out of the way, parry most attacks and really want to kill you. Another welcome (and at times frustrating) addition is that enemies don’t just attack one at a time anymore. In previous instalments, you could be facing up to 8 enemies, but only one would attack you at any given time. In Unity, it’s a free for all. This gives every fight you get into a sense of urgency and makes you think about starting fights with large groups.

Stealth is also a new addition to the game. The game has adapted a basic cover system that allows Arno to sneak through areas without getting into combat. While a welcome addition to a game rapidly running out of ideas, this can be very hit and miss. Snapping to and from cover works at best 50 percent of the time, and I have been caught because of this more times than I care to count. Still, when it works, it means that you can get through certain areas without alerting any guards, and no unnecessary combat needs to take place. This becomes useful during the larger “Assassination” missions. These missions are new to the franchise and have a very Hitman-esque feel to them with things like “Assassination Opportunities” and “Infiltration Opportunities” added to the missions to allow you to approach the assassination of your target from multiple angles. This gives these missions (of which there is at least 1 per sequence) a good amount of replay ability, something that the previous games generally didn’t have.

The biggest new feature of the game is the addition of co-op to the open world. There are set missions that can be done in co-op (or alone if you can’t get online, or have no friends who want to play) and they are gun, if not a bit repetitive as you complete more of them. Still, these are fun with friends (I tried the 4 player missions and the 2 player ones with some friends) and like the assassination missions, can be approached from different angles. This is also necessary if you want to procure all the loot from these missions, like new clothes granting increased bonuses. I do wish that the co-op hadn’t come at the expense of the always excellent multiplayer that has been a staple of the Assassin’s Creed franchise since Brotherhood. I feel like they could have left it in, even if it was the same as last year’s instalment, purely for the fun aspect, and to keep people from inevitably trading the game in once they are done with it.

Unfortunately, once the main story is completed (which took me 6 – 8 hours at most), the remaining items on your to-do list are either boring (collectibles, chests) or repetitive (helix rifts, Paris stories, social clubs). These feel like padding to make the game last longer and I really feel like they put very little thought into it. In saying that, I still find myself going around collecting the chests, collectibles and such. But I’m a trophy hunter so there’s a method to my obvious madness.

All in all, Assassin’s Creed Unity is a mixed bag. An entertaining story, marred by some average voice acting and technical hiccups. Bland side quests and collectibles and the aforementioned technical missteps drag this game down more than they needed to. I suppose it should be no surprise as this is a consequence of a yearly release cycle. But with Call of Duty putting out a surprisingly amazing game this year in Advanced Warfare, I feel like I’m in some kind of weird twilight zone at the moment.

The post Assassin’s Creed: Unity – Review appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

Survival horror, as a genre, had suffered some serious missteps with the likes of Resident Evil 5, Silent Hill: Homecoming and Clive Barkers Jericho.

Not even the awesomeness that was Dead Space could save it.

Especially when you consider the 2 lacklustre sequels that followed, effectively killing the initial momentum of the series.

Since then, we haven’t seen a mainstream survival horror game come out that feels like it might give the genre a much needed shot in the arm.

Until now.

The Evil Within comes with quite a pedigree in that its director is none other thanShinji Mikami.

For those unfamiliar with Mikami, he was the mastermind behind the first 4 Resident Evil games that were leading the charge along with such classic titles as Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark and Dino Crisis (also a Mikami directed game).

This was what many consider the “golden age” of survival horror between 1994 and 2004.

Mikami was also involved in the background as a consultant on such games as Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry. He also created Vanquish but let’s not talk about that…

Yep…enough said.

With The Evil Within, Mikami is creating what could become a brand new franchise.

When I play The Evil Within, I’m reminded of Resident Evil 4 a lot. This was the last time Mikami was involved in a Resident Evil game and was considered to be a sort of re-birth of the survival horror franchise, and genre as a whole.

It brought new mechanics, a fresh take on zombies, new environments and bosses, and all round felt like something different. It also started the trend of “over the shoulder” third person games that are now so prevalent in modern games.

The Evil Within hits a lot of the same notes as Resident Evil 4 did. It has countryside environments, over the top boss battles, tense situations and even a boss battle in a burning barn but RE: 4 isn’t the only game that The Evil Within takes inspiration from.

There are moments of Silent Hill in there too, and that’s by no means a bad thing. The tone and the story (which I will touch on in a bit) remind me of Silent Hill in all the right ways. There are other reminders that are less subtle however…

The game stars Sebastian Castellanos, a rough around the edges cop that makes Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake look like an emotionally available and sensitive man.

He’s a very dry individual, and doesn’t emote at all. The only real character development offered for Sebastian is in the form of diaries found in save rooms that hint at a much happier life before the events of the game that inevitably takes a turn for the worse.

The story begins with Sebastian and his partner Joseph, along with the rookie cop Kidman (voiced by Dexter’s Jennifer Carpenter) responding to a call at Beacon Mental Hospital, and from there, things take a turn for the insane.

I can’t really explain the story of The Evil Within here for two reasons;

1. Talking about it robs you of the opportunity to experience the lunacy for yourself.
2. It makes very little sense.

So if you’re one of those obsessed with The Last of Us level narratives, this probably isn’t a game for you.

The story serves as a launching pad to get Sebastian from one crazy scenario to the next.

One minute you’re in the middle of a forest sneaking through the bushes to avoid villagers, the next you’re exploring a mansion (a staple of Mikami’s Resident Evil games) while being chased by the main antagonist.

This is survival horror and every other game in the genre from here on out should take note, this is how it’s done!

While the story does take you from set piece to set piece quite elegantly, it invariably crumbles under the weight of its own complexity trying very hard to weave a complicated narrative and hook everything together and while it does come together by the end of the games 10+ hour story, it doesn’t gel as well as they would have hoped.

A lot of this is due to weak characterization of the main players. Sebastian, as mentioned, is an emotionless robot. Joseph is just there to help you when things get tough and Kidman is the rookie with a supposed hidden agenda.

Ruvic, the game’s main antagonist however, is dark and menacing and creates an aura of mystery around him that makes him terrifying and fear inducing despite the fact that he is just a thin pale and short man.

The voice actor for Ruvic is none other than Jackie Earl Haley (Rorschach in Watchmen and Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake) so this should come as no surprise, the man knows how to do dark.

He brings a certain gravitas to the role that makes you forget what Ruvic looks like on the outside and realize the power he truly holds.

The face of evil…

This, along with the atmosphere is what makes The Evil Within shine. It nails the tense and nail biting atmosphere more so than Alien Isolation did (you can read the review here) and even when it evokes memories of past games like Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill, it still manages to feel like its own entity.

One thing that I realized when playing The Evil Within was that I really didn’t know what Survival Horror was.

I’ve been playing these games since I was a kid, and while some of them were “scary”, the survival aspect was, more often than not, missing.

The Evil Within takes everything from Resident Evil and Silent Hill that I had thought was tense and difficult, what I thought the “survival” in survival horror meant and amps it up to 15.

I was barely escaping every encounter (big or small) by the skin of my teeth.

I died.

A lot.

The final count when I finished the game was 150 deaths.

I took every corner with anxious purpose and tried (and more often than not, failed) to make every shot count. This is survival horror and every other game in the genre from here on out (provided there are any more) should take note, this is how it’s done!

Gameplay is tight, tense and great. You have to work to make it through most encounters, ammo is in short supply and the enemies are not shambling zombies. They think, learn and move in an effort to survive as well as kill you.

As the game progresses, the enemies change to present new challenges and keep the game feeling fresh.

Another great thing about Evil Within are the save rooms. The use of Claire De Lune by Debussy is peaceful, quiet and soft. Words that can in no way be associated with the game, making it a neat juxtaposition every time you arrive at one.

As with a lot of other things in the game, it reminds me of a previous Resident Evil game.

Unfortunately, for all it’s good, there are some minor letdowns.

As well as the aforementioned characterization issues, the game suffers from some technical hiccups, from bad texture pop-in to some frame rate issues later on in the game when there is a lot going on.

These are minor things that only partially take away from the experience and due to infrequency, I’m happy to let it slide. If they happened every other minute, this might be a bigger problem.

All in all, The Evil Within is a master class in survival horror by a master of the craft.

It reminded me of a time when games made you work to get through them, a time when ideas could be completely insane but still work. I took 15 hours to finish the game and I loved every frustrating minute of it.

Upon finishing the game, I feel emptiness inside that can only be filled by something as good, if not better than this, and that will not be easy to do.

[slavia_review]

The post The Evil Within – Review appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

Look out for a full and comprehensive review of the game after its release on October 31st.

The post Sunset Overdrive Gameplay Launch Trailer Released appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

While the season pass can be purchased seperately, it is also included in the “gold edition” of the game and as part of the Ultimate Kyrat edition which  includes among other things, a pretty nifty statue of the games villain; “Pagan Min”:

The Far Cry 4 Season Pass contains:

• The Syringe – Available from launch exclusively for Season Pass holders, players must keep a rare and potent recipe from falling into the hands of Pagan Min’s forces. Playable in single-player and co-op, players will need to ensure that he does not use its devastating effects on the rebel forces.

• Escape from Durgesh Prison – Ajay and Hurk have been rounded up and tortured in Yuma’s prison. Team up with a friend to escape and survive the hostile lands of Pagan Min’s Kyrat.

• Hurk Deluxe Pack – Five missions, playable in single-player and co-op, including Yak Farm, Blood Ruby and Hurk’s Redemption are available. Access an arsenal of new weapons including a harpoon gun for Hurk.

• Overrun – Team up as Rakshasa or Golden Path in this PvP mode and control a series of neutral locations across Kyrat’s countryside to protect them from being overrun by your opponents.

• Valley of the Yetis – Ajay’s helicopter has crashed on an unforgiving Himalayan ridge. Explore the frozen landscape and find tools to upgrade your camp and protect it from a dangerous cult when night falls. With single-player and co-op options, players will not be alone, but in the darkest caves players will have more to fear than just the cult as the yetis await their prey…

Far Cry 4 is released on November 18th in the US, and November 21st in the UK / IUreland

The post Far Cry 4 Season Pass Contents Detailed appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

A longing for the days gone by, allowing us to revisit things we’ve seen a hundred times before.

To this day, I can watch Batman: The Animated Series and still enjoy it. It’s timeless.

Similarly, the new Alien game, Alien: Isolation, manages to tap into the tense, gritty atmosphere that places the movie series it’s based on in the  top 3 horror movies ever on IMDB.

The game stars Amanda Ripley, an engineer and daughter of the heroine of the Alien movies, Ellen Ripley.

She boards a space station called the Sevastopol in order to retrieve the flight recorder of the Nostromo, the ship her mother was on when it was destroyed 15 years prior, immediately drawing you in (provided you’re a fan of the original movie.)

Don’t expect to stay as engrossed though… You will die. A lot.

The second and third time you die, you start to think “Huh, maybe I’m just bad at the game; maybe I’m doing something wrong.” The more it happened, the more trial and error employed, the more you get killed.

“One mistake and no hiding place is a safe haven from the Xenomorph’s intelligent AI”

This is not to say I am bad at the game, I was trying everything to get a feel for it.

I knew if I hid behind something and waited, I could eventually make a break for it but sometimes, even hiding doesn’t work as the Xenomorph isn’t tied to particular AI like in most games. It uses random patrol patterns and even learns a couple of new ways of finding you as the game progresses.

One example was when I had hidden in a locker in a hallway and escaped later on. I ran to the room across the hall and looked out the window (by leaning of course, not in plain sight) and realized that I had left the door open on the locker.

The alien noticed the door and proceeded to check every locker in the area to try and find me. One mistake and not even a locker or under a table is a safe haven from the Xenomorph’s intelligent AI.

One area that the game really excels in is its presentation.

From the grainy VHS screen presenting the opening 20th Century Fox logo, to the numerous video and loading sequences that adopt the same format, it all feels authentic to the time period in which the first Alien movie was released which really adds to the feel of the game.

Now it’s time to spend my Saturday morning peeing my pants and geeking out about the set design in Alien: Isolation. Couldn’t ask for more.

— Jon Glover (@juan0tron) October 18, 2014

The environment of the Sevastopol feels like it’s taken directly from Ridley Scott’s movie, with the technology as retro as it was then, and even Sigourney Weaver’s unmistakable voice welcoming us to the game.

This is a very well put together and cared for package and they want you to know that this is an Alien game that ties directly to the films canon.

Unfortunately, the excellence in presentation ends there.

The graphics are not exactly what you would expect. They’re not bad, not at all, but they’re certainly not “next-gen” either. It feels like a weird middle ground between the trail end of the last generation and up-scaled PC graphics.

The game also suffers from some fairly noticeable frame rate issues in certain spots. I was playing the game on a PS4, but I have spoken to a friend of mine who confirmed that the same issues are present on the Xbox One.

The PC version seems largely unaffected by these issues, and has been said to look better on max settings, but this is the norm for most games.

Character models also looks very plastic. They seem fake, and that took me out of the action at times. It says a lot, that the most realistic looking character in the game was the Alien itself. Everyone else looked like an Android.

This is not the only reason that engaging with the characters was difficult though. The voice acting is pretty terrible and the dialogue isn’t much better which only serves to make the acting all the more terrible.

For a game that supposedly took a lot of care to protect the integrity of the Alien franchise, they really didn’t seem to consider with the quality of voice acting. That being said, there isn’t as much dialogue in the game as there would be in the likes of The Last of Us or Bioshock, but some effort would have been appreciated.

One major tool at your disposal in Alien: Isolation is the motion tracker. Without the tracker, there would be literally zero chance of survival. It shows the direction and closeness of the enemies but just in case you think the game is throwing you a bone, it also emits a noise that attracts enemies close by when you use it.

Often times, you will struggle with using the motion tracker to see what awaits you around the next corner, and trying your luck. Again, it becomes about trial and error. This can be quite frustrating during the sections with the androids as there are quite a few of them in each area and without the brightness settings turned up to 11, you really have to squint to see them in certain areas.

This can get a bit frustrating, but there is a bigger underlying reason for this frustration, MANUAL SAVES!

See, Alien: Isolation does not operate a checkpoint system. In order to save your progress, you must save manually at a save station, in this case, one of many phones littered throughout the station.

My first reaction to this was that it’s 2014, not 1994. The manual save system, while technically something original in this day and age, only serves to undermine the game considering how much people will inevitably die during the 20+ hour play through.

Another thing that Alien: Isolation employs from previous generations of games is length. Length can be a good thing if the game keeps you interested for the length of time it takes to complete it. But with Alien: Isolation, after you reach a certain point (about 7 – 8 hours in) you are kind of wishing it would be over.

I wish that this wasn’t the case because it’s a sad thing to have to say in this generation of short and sweet AAA blockbusters that a game is too long, unfortunately, Alien: Isolation overstays its welcome and leaves a bad taste in my mouth afterwards.

It’s not terrible by any means, but some questionable decisions, bad acting and a campaign that could have been cut in the second act, this isn’t the Alien game people were hoping for, but it is definitely the best one we’ve gotten to date.

[slavia_review]

The post Alien: Isolation – Review appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.

I dispatched of the Uruks with relative ease and within 5 minutes I was in the middle of a camp engaging 4 captains (the “mini-bosses” of the game) who had come together to talk about the weather, complain about their respective bosses, trade human slaves in a poker game or whatever other activity they engage in in their down time. One of these captains, “Rash the Angry” killed me mid-battle and proceeded to laugh in my face about it.

As a man of principles, I could not let this stand. But since there was a quest marker pointing me to a story mission, I thought I would check that out first and exact my revenge later.

This is my super long-winded way of saying that in the first 20 minutes of playing Shadow of Mordor, I had done absolutely nothing, yet I had made enemies, freed slaves, observed patrols, fled from battle, tried and failed to exact revenge, been laughed at for trying and failing and had a blast the whole time. That is, in essence what Shadow of Mordor is all about. Yes, there is a story, but it is never forced upon you or blocks your progression. There are some abilities that are unlocked as part of the story, but they only add to the fun rather than impede you for not having them.

I eventually did conquer the Graug!

At the heart of Shadow of Mordor, the thing that makes the encounters with enemies so much fun is the <em>Nemesis System</em>. (A feature that will not be included in the previous gen consoles after already being delayed due to technical limitations) but one that makes the game stand out among so many similar titles that flood the marketplace.

The system is designed so that when you face an enemy, that enemy then remembers you the next time around. It’s strengths and weaknesses (which you can learn by interrogating certain specific enemies or freeing certain slaves) change based on the moves you use on him or the method you use to kill him. For example, I decided to pursue a Captain named Borgu Jitters. I had determined his weakness by saving a group of slaves, that told me that he was vulnerable to stealth attacks.

I had unlocked the ability to stealth kill enemies from above, so this was how I was going to deal with Mr Jitters. I snuck up on him, crept across a line of rope above him and plunged down on him killing him in one shot. I then proceeded to be killed by some of his men but that’s beside the point…

Later on in the game, I encountered Borgu when I was going after another captain. This time he was invulnerable to stealth kills, ranged attacks, and could only be killed by actually engaging him in a fight. These enemies are not to be messed with, and this is just one example of the Nemesis system making enemy AI smarter than any other game.

It isn’t perfect though. There were a couple of occasions where I had fought an enemy before and he had retreated from me, and the next time I met him, he acted like it was the first time. Whereas other times when enemies retreated, they brought it up the next time we met.

Outside of the Nemesis System, there are a number of other problems with enemy AI . Stealth is pretty good most of the time, but lacking a challenge. I often found that I was able to sprint right up to an enemy from the front, and there was a 3 second window after he had detected me where I could still execute a stealth kill.

We also need to talk about the patent infringing elephant in the room as well. There has been a lot of talk of Shadow of Mordor taking some liberties with mechanics and ideas from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, specifically Assassin’s Creed 2. There are certain things in the game that do look quite similar such as the Leap of Faith from the Forge Towers having the same animation as in AC2 and the climbing and sneaking across ropes and planks looking very similar but apart from that I don’t really see anything else. And these are such minor things, that I really don’t see what all the fuss was about.

However, Assassin’s Creed isn’t the only franchise that Mordor takes “inspiration” from. The combat system, while great in its own right bears a striking similarity to the Batman series, even going as far as having the same buttons performing the same actions as those games. If Square was attack and Triangle was counter, that would be fine on its own, but they use Circle for Stun, and Stun is used to take down larger enemies while jumping behind shielded enemies is the only way to dispatch them. It’s hard to overlook, especially when Batman’s combat feels a lot more visceral and fluid than Mordor’s. If you are going to copy something, it would be a good idea to at least make it as good if not better than it.

These things aside though, Shadow of Mordor is great game that is just shy of excellence due to some questionable borrowing, sad to hilarious glitches, tedious follow missions and a final boss that makes Deus Ex Human Revolution look like a master-class in boss fight design!

I put 30+ hours into the game and I do not regret one second of it. If this month wasn’t jam packed with new releases (look out for my Alien Isolation and The Evil Within reviews this month also), I would happily spend another 30 hours just going after captains in new and different ways, some of which I won’t spoil as they are too fun not to discover on your own. The Nemesis systems alone elevates this game above the standard hack and slash RPG types and is a system that I would love to see in future games. Just imagine a Batman game where the Nemesis system tracks Batman’s entire rogue’s gallery and they are constantly coming up with new and interesting ways to take you down.

[slavia_review]

The post Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor – Review appeared first on Mozbot.co.uk.