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Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

marlonharewood

By marlonharewood
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Hexx

Hexx

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Posted

Does anything happen if you kill Ratbag's bodyguards? My "Sauron's Army" screen is pretty empty at the moment, only Ratbag, his two captains and a couple of other jabronis are populating it.

No idea.

Why don't you just do it and see. Pretty much the point of the game!

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Loki

Loki

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I came across Ratbag's bodyguard just after I finished off his competition in a power struggle. I had a good few swings at him, but left him alive.

Ratbag needs all the help he can get to survive. But at the same time, he needs to know I'll fuck him and his bodyguard over if he fucks with me.

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Wiper

Wiper

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It's a few story quests in (the questline for the citizens is the one you're after); you'll know when it unlocks for you.

One thing I love about the takeover ability - it persists even for random grunts. I had a few stragglers left on my side in random encampments across the map, completed a series of missions, left to grab a few artifacts from the first area of Mordor, came back and they were still there. Pretty impressive stuff.

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Chadruharazzeb

Chadruharazzeb

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Interesting stuff there, especially this bit

Among the various nicknames and personalities you can find orcs called ‘the friendly’ or ‘the noble’, who will greet you happily and say that they’re not like the other orcs and that they should try talking this out like civilized folk. ‘Friendly’ orcs won’t even attack unless attacked first, and if they happen to encounter Talion more than once they react with genuine non-malicious pleasure at meeting him again.

I did not know that! Just last night the plot had me kill someone called Whatever The Merciful. To be fair though, he did look like a bit of an arsehole.

I think someone already said in this thread that Talion is basically Middle Earth's Jack Bauer.

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footle

footle

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I wrote something about how this game is about being the bad guy, and how orcs aren't actually all that bad:

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Sympathy for the Dark Lord

I think the developers were very aware of the moral questions raised by the game

Definitely. I'm going to be disappointed in the plot when Talion doesn't become some kind of minor dark lord himself :(

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snowbind

snowbind

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Posted

I wrote something about how this game is about being the bad guy, and how orcs aren't actually all that bad:

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Sympathy for the Dark Lord

Which is brilliant because this piece, as chet or jon rightly points out, is written by someone who is an actual twat.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/1/6881161/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-torture-terrorism

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Rudi von Starnberg

Rudi von Starnberg

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Which is brilliant because this piece, as chet or jon rightly points out, is written by someone who is an actual twat.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/1/6881161/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-torture-terrorism

How's he an actual twat, out of interest? Reading that piece was partly what prompted my own, because while I don't agree with all of it I think it's pretty insightful (I know nothing about the author).

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Garibaldi

Garibaldi

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How's he an actual twat, out of interest? Reading that piece was partly what prompted my own, because while I don't agree with all of it I think it's pretty insightful (I know nothing about the author).

Not directed at me, but I'd say it's because his somewhat valid points are largely buried under hysterically disingenuous hand-wringing. Yes, I can understand being slightly uncomfortable with the themes and thinking they warrant discussion, but the "what the hell is happening here?" nonsense and then suggesting that Devs shouldn't handle themes like these unless they have some beard stroking point to make? It's not bloody Hostel.

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Talk Show Host

Talk Show Host

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The point the verge guy makes is a bit stretched and over reaching. The player is slaying orcs, which are only created for one reason alone: to kill, eat and torture humans. They don't have any kind of culture, you do not destroy anything of value, unless you count the camps ready to enslave men, some kind of... Civilization. I can understand that the ways of killing tend to invoke sadism, but this is the wrong game to make an ethical analysis in my opinion.

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snowbind

snowbind

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You address it in your commentary. He assumes the developer doesn't know what it's doing and he want's the game to justify it's actions. It doesn't need to because it already does within the wider context of the LOTR. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then Shadow of Mordor is the tale of Talion's corruption. Tied into a beautiful system highlighting the transferal of power/corruption when one is engulfed by another.

The reason why I think he's an actual twat, is that he writes about wanting games to address these issues in a none trendy self-referential way, whilst simultaneously writing a trendy self-referential wank piece.

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Rudi von Starnberg

Rudi von Starnberg

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I just unlocked the ability to mindcontrol orcs - the best game just got even better :omg:

Mechanically I think this is a mixed bag. It's a lot of fun and opens up even more possibilities but it does make the game absolutely too easy, and captains on your side are significantly less interesting than ones actively working against you or hunting you because the majority of interactions you can have are antagonistic. It undermines its own strengths as a game, a bit.

So yeah it's fun but it sort of lessens some of the other fun aspects of the game.

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TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap

TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap

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If Sauron was just some misunderstood hippie, how come Gandalf didn't know this, and why did Saruman think the best way to help out with the quest for world peace was to build a colossal army of murderous super-soldiers? Let's face it, Sauron is a dick.

Nonsense. It was all the fault of the Elves and the Men of the North (the fact they aren't called 'Persons of the North' says all you need to know really) with their neo-imperialistic ways. Let's face it, if it wasn't for centuries of land grabbing, puppet politicians and neoliberal economics, Sauron and his people would never have been driven to extremism. Regarding the Orcs, it's just a small, small minority of rotten apples who stand out, most try to make a decent living and probably would if they wouldn't be forced to live in shitty council caves and kept in poverty by those gold hungry Dwarves who own all the good shit. Speaking of Orcs, can't we just call them 'people of corruption' rather than 'Orcs'. The latter term has a strong history of abuse and racism and is usually used in a negative context.
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