Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - Shadow of Mordor

Episode Date: May 20, 2023

From gaming hosts Josh and Paul, we're bringing you even more gaming content each week.  Gaming Quick Takes are a short series of game recommendations, funny moments, off-topic chat and more. A small dose of gaming to brighten your Saturdays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Carry the Fire. I'm your host, Lisa Laflamme. Carry the Fire, a podcast by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation featuring inspiring personal stories about what happens when world-leading doctors, nurses, researchers, and their patients come together to ignite breakthroughs. Carry the Fire launches Monday, January 27th, wherever you get your podcasts. TD Direct Investing offers live support.

So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these quick takes on Saturdays to everyone, giving you all some extra free

content that was previously unavailable to the public. And these quick takes are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this quick take episode. Shazam! Boom! Hey, everybody. Josh here with another Gaming Quick Takes episode. I love doing these. It brings back some nostalgia for me for games that I want to go back and play. Usually when I'm telling you about a game on these, it's a game that I really enjoyed. I feel

like I need to share with you. And it's one of those things where maybe it's been a while since I've played some of these games. And I think back and I go, man, I had a lot of fun with those. I should load those back up and give them another shot. And honestly, these next two games are ones that they're just fun games. They're so well done. I remember loving every moment of them. I don't know why I stopped playing them other than maybe some repetition. But I'm going to talk to you today about the Middle Earth Shadow of Blank Games. So there's two in this series. There's Middle Earth Shadow of War and there's Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor. And if you've not seen Lord of the Rings,

shame on you because there's some of the best movies ever made. I know they're starting to get a little old, but they're still phenomenal to this day. But I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings movies. I love the Lord of the Rings mythology and the creatures and the world and all that stuff. I mean, there's just so much to enjoy there. But you know what else the Lord of the Rings does is they make good video games. And I say they, but the different studios that have made games on these, they've made some very, very good games.

And two of those are the Middle Earth, Shadow of War, and Shadow of Mordor games. Now, these have been out for a long time. It would not surprise me if you could get these free in like an Epic Game Store giveaway or Amazon Prime Gaming or something like that. But I don't know what the pricing is, but you can pick them up for fairly cheap at this point. These are AAA titles that are not buggy, have been very well done. You play as a ranger. You're not Aragorn in these games. They're not the movie characters and they take place at a slightly different timeline. But what you do is the world... You got to watch out, right? Mordor is moving, and Sauron is active, and evil is prevalent in the world, and you are fighting for humanity. And you go around to these different base camps and stuff, and you take out these orcs

and these goblins and these leaders and stuff like that, there's a lot of infiltration to get into these camps. You can go in blades a swinging and try to hack your way through everything. The combat in these games is absolutely top notch. It's some of the most fun combat in video games. I'm just going to put it out there because it's true. If there's one thing that these games get right, it is the absolute fun of just fighting these Uruk-hai and these orcs and these goblins and these other creatures, and just doing these crazy combos and these special moves that you get. This is very much the definition of an action RPG. There are a lot of RPG elements. You can get

new weapons, you can get new weapons, you can get new armor, you can get new trinkets, you can get new abilities. There's skill trees, there's combos. You can unlock so much different stuff in this game to play how you want to play, whether that's stealthy and quiet or tanky and just waiting in and things like that. But it's some of the best combat in video games. Like I said, I'm putting it out there hands down. So if you enjoy that, you will absolutely like these games. I guarantee it. But the world in it is very, very fantasy oriented. The graphics are very good in these games. The movement and they run very well. They're very well optimized. But the gameplay loop, like I said, is you generally

have to identify a leader of the orcs. And so you might get up to a high vantage point that looks over this camp that's in the world. And you sit there and maybe you'll climb down to a ledge that's like the castle wall or something. And then you just observe. And you'll sit there and you'll spot the different monsters and the orcs and stuff like that. And you'll watch them. And then you'll be able to ultimately identify who the leader is for that encampment. And then you go take out the leader. And then it does this really cool cut scene where it shows you assassinating that guy. And then the rest of the orcs get scared because their leader died and they all scatter. And now you've taken over this encampment and you own it and it's kind of a clear

part of the world or something like that. Now what's neat about these is above and beyond all that, that you can plant your own leaders that you maybe have blackmailed or you could have killed them, but you said, you know what, I'm going to let you live, but you better report back to me when I come around and stuff like that. And so if you do that, you can then garner information from these leaders that you have planted in these encampments for these orcs and stuff like that to find out who their bosses are. And so what you're doing is you're progressing through the world and these encampments in the storyline to try to find out who the really big baddies are. These would be Sauron's commanders that have a direct line to Sauron himself. And so that's kind of where the gist of the game and the storyline and how it fits into the Lord of the Rings world and lore and all that. I could gush about these for a long time, but this is one where I

kind of want to make this short and sweet because I don't want to overdo how fun these games are. Take my word for it. You really should check these out if you have not played them. I really want to go back and play them. I think the second one improves on the first one. And I'll be honest, I don't remember if War of Mordor is the second one. I think the second one improves on the first one. And I'll be honest, I don't remember if War of Mordor is the second one. I think it's Mordor is the second one, but I'm not 100% on that. But I think it does a lot of stuff right, but you cannot go wrong with either one. Just go with whichever one's cheaper, to be honest with you at this point, because it is a great entry into that. But once again, mindless fun gaming, amazing melee combat or range for that matter, because

you can definitely use bows and things like that. Stealth mechanics, if you like it, wade in and slaughter everything mechanics, if you like it. Good storyline, great world building and lore. There's really nothing that's not to like about these games. You should definitely check them out. If you do, let me know about it. I'm legitimately wanting to find out where I bought these and have them installed to just run through them and maybe spend a few more hours in that world. But check them out. They are well worth your attention. It's just a very strong game

recommendation for me, for sure. So that's it for this quick takes episode. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for the incredible support and we'll see you on the next one. All right. Bye bye everybody.