Monolith; Uber talented but under appreciated developers

Cloud_imperium · 2018-10-21 02:50:47

Monolith was always full of talented people. Unfortunately the IPs they worked on either disappeared, ruined by new devs or were under appreciated. No One Lives Forever was a great spy shooter. Today it's not even available in markets. No one knows who owns the IP. FEAR was also ruined later on. Shadow of Mordor was a sleeper hit of 2014. There were other projects in the past they've been involved in as well, like Blood or Chosen for example among others. Shadow of Mordor was the best Lords of the Rings games I've had ever played. They really put heart and soul into it. So it was obvious for me to get its sequel Shadow of War as well. So I picked up definitive edition of it recently and finished it couple of hours ago. I'd say if Shadow of Mordor was Witcher 2, then Shadow of War was Witcher 3. This game is massive. There are so many maps, so many new features, so many great personalities and gameplay refinements here. Production values are just sky high. I absolutely loved Firebird engine. While loading times were longer than previous game in the series, performance and visuals were better. Frame rates were also consistent and streaming technology was better. Nemesis system also received huge updates. Prologue is strong. It plays differently than Act 1, which plays differently than Act 2, which plays differently than Act 3 and epilogue. It feels like 3 or 4 games rolled into one. After looking at user average, I have no freaking clue why everyone was so mad at this game. Was it because of optional microtransactions or something else. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was not enough to drag down the game to average 2/10 rating. This game was brilliant. While the previous game had great lore, its story wasn't that great. It was its world and combat system that made it appealing. Here we have more refined combat, siege battles, more lore and actually a pretty interesting story. Even Orcs have different personalities. They have different voice actors, behaviors, animations, fears, strengths and so on. The game generates missions for you based on your choices and interaction with the world. Every person experiences the game differently. I have no idea how can someone dislike this game. As usual, Monolith remains uber talented but under appreciated company.

Jacanuk

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#51 Jacanuk

Member since 2011 • 20281 Posts

@ghosts4ever said:

actually it has story. you have object to kill strelok only to find out that you are strelok. your memory was lost.

the atmosphere make Stalker. the zone is probably the best gaming universe i have ever seen. when i played STALKER for first time long ago. i was just blown away that a video game can be this immersive and atmospheric?? i couldnot stop playing.

Games like STALKER and Metro are the reason why FPS is my genre of choice. If it was for goldeneye, perfect dark or NOLF. i would have hated FPS genre.

Metro is ok but STALKER no idea why anyone like that game, it was just mediocre.

And the atmosphere? I may be clouded but what atmosphere? compare to Metro it was like night and day and STALKER was like a cheap verison of Fallout but without all the story.

Also FPS is the bane of gaming it has destroyed the creativity and it seems like all games today is either a FPS or a F2P moba game.

5 years ago

Ghosts4ever

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#52 Edited By Ghosts4ever

Member since 2015 • 24921 Posts

@Jacanuk: fallout 3 was poor mans Stalker. It amazed me that fallout get free pass of bieng buggy yet stalker didnot criticize.

FPS didnot destroy creavity. Nowadays theres more third person movie games and open world than FPS. FPS alwaya been better than RPGs which always suck. Most RPG cant bother with good gameplay mechanics.

5 years ago

Jacanuk

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#53 Jacanuk

Member since 2011 • 20281 Posts

@ghosts4ever said:

@Jacanuk: fallout 3 was poor mans Stalker. It amazed me that fallout get free pass of bieng buggy yet stalker didnot criticize.

FPS didnot destroy creavity. Nowadays theres more third person movie games and open world than FPS. FPS alwaya been better than RPGs which always suck. Most RPG cant bother with good gameplay mechanics.

we will never agree there, Fallout 3 had character, STALKER was like a Russian poor man's version of a crap mod for Fallout.

FPS did kill creativity.

Where are the RTS? Point&Click? or all the other game genres there was before, platform games, tycoon games, Sim games, etc. Today games are pretty much in 3 genres, MOBA, FPS or TPS like AC.

Nothing else (and yes I know indie studios make other types, but I am talking AAA)

5 years ago

Ghosts4ever

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#54 Edited By Ghosts4ever

Member since 2015 • 24921 Posts

@Jacanuk: theres bunch of 2d platformers. Whats FPS have to do with not having RTS?

Blame moba that killed RTS. Or trash like dota.

FPS is still best genre when it comes to gameplay. Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus will make year 2019.

5 years ago

GarGx1

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#55 Edited By GarGx1

Member since 2011 • 10934 Posts

@sakaixx said:

@Cloud_imperium said:

@GarGx1 said:

@Cloud_imperium said:

@sakaixx said:

Would have been more appreciated had they not implement microtransaction in Shadow of War. Left a bad impression, I didnt buy the game yet due to this, still not considering it even after they removed the option.

You're missing a lot. Trust me when I say a lot, I do mean A LOT. This is one of those games that you must play at least once before dying.

I agree with this, not playing Shadow of Mordor because of micro transactions means you're missing out on a really good game because of a publisher decision that really has zero effect on the game.

There is absolutely no need to go anywhere near the shop. unless you want to collect the free stuff they give you to entice you in but even then you can collect and never go near it again (that's what I done). You'd only be promoting MTX if you part with money on them, not by buying and playing the game.

Absolutely mate.

Will try if it ever goes free on ps+ or on for $5,

Mtx in games just leave a bad taste for me, especially in single player games. I try my best to avoid these game, its just a personal principal not to support mtx practices no matter how good the game is.

I guess you decided to completely disregard my post, even though you quoted me?

5 years ago

henrythefifth

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#56 henrythefifth

Member since 2016 • 2502 Posts

Shadow of Mordor was simple AC clone set in very limited map. It was super fun, but lacked depth.

Shadow of War is pretty dire game and big step down from SoM.

I'd say Monolith used to make great games, but now they just make rubbish.

5 years ago

Cloud_imperium

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#57 Cloud_imperium

Member since 2013 • 15146 Posts

First person shooter; Doom clone,
Open world; GTA clone.
Third person adventure with guns; Uncharted clone
Third person adventure with swords; AC clone.
RPG; Skyrim clone.

People these days.

5 years ago

Ghosts4ever

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#59 Ghosts4ever

Member since 2015 • 24921 Posts

@Cloud_imperium said:

First person shooter; Doom clone,
Open world; GTA clone.
Third person adventure with guns; Uncharted clone
Third person adventure with swords; AC clone.
RPG; Skyrim clone.

People these days.

replace Doom clone with COD clone and i agree. many people still consider FPS as COD clones.

althought its true most third person games today are uncharted/TR and AC clones.

5 years ago

cainetao11

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#60 cainetao11

Member since 2006 • 38036 Posts

@Cloud_imperium said:

I think gamers are over reacting.

I agree for the most part. As long as they are optional and have no bearing on gameplay then I don't care because I don't buy them. In some cases publishers/devs have stepped too far and have caught backlash for it.

5 years ago

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