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[Karkov]

Ratbag*  and yeah, for the most part they're randomly generated (which means a pool of names that your wraith knows how to say and a defining character trait).  You can have a say in what they look like by dying to specific Uruk, if that interest you.  Otherwise they're completely random.

[JuanCarr]

Can someone who's played it comment on the open-world aspect of the game? That's always a big issue for me with these types of games. If the world is boring, I lose interest.

[Karkov]

It's filled with things to fight pretty much everywhere.  Size is somewhere around the size of four (maybe two) Assassin's Creed towns, I want to say.  Takes a while to get around them just by running everywhere.  There are fast travel places though.

Weather was done right for once.

Everything looks sufficiently Orcish, there's not a lot of cut and paste.  There's a couple of large buildings or archer towers that were, but not often enough to become outright boring.

There's a couple of caves you'll go into once or twice and be done with forever.

Can't swim.

It was alright for me, I'd give it about an 8/10 on terrain construction (most of that is awarded solely because they actually did weather correctly.  Rain doesn't just fall through ceilings and crap, and it actually makes different noises depending on how hard it's coming down or whatever it's striking.)  It's got enough unique and interesting areas that it makes up for any copy/pasting it does.

[Sartain]

My impression of the open "world" is that it could stand be a bit larger, but the area there is is rather nicely fleshed out.

[umiman]

I have an orc captain that has died to me about 8 times now. I feel really bad for him, as he has no special skills or talents and is completely not a threat at all. It's also pretty funny as every time I kill him and he comes back, his description talks about how he's turning whiter and whiter. He's also completely covered in bandages.

My main nemesis right now is an orc captain that has one of those giant shield + spears. He's immune to stealth, executions, and ranged. At this point I'm thinking the only way to kill him is via animal.

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Other than that the open world is kinda meh and enemies respawn WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too fast. Like, you can turn your back and turn around again and all the guys you killed will be back alive.

I think it's pretty fun as a whole though. The nemesis system is great. It really spices up the gameplay. Don't get too hyped about it though. Most of the actions of the orcs is based on randomness and cheese rather than actual AI. For example, them "hunting" you is more like an RNG roll where they will spawn next to you if procced. There's no rhyme or reason to it. However, if you understand that this is how it works, it's still pretty amusing.

[bluwolfie]

I think the whole point of this game is to test the nemesis system, to see how it is received by a wide audience. I think the real meat of the system will be seen in DLC and/or sequels, the story was obviously tacked on at the last minute to make it seem like more than just an orc society simulator.. The majority of this game IS the nemesis system, and I guarantee you it's only going to get bigger.

I hope they actually extend the story, because those challenge modes are kind of pointless IMO, I don't care for score based gameplay or leader boards in this type of game, I got this for the simulation and how it may interact with the actual story.. A bit disappointed in how it's implementation is kind of tacked on with the story but *Fingers crossed* here's hoping they add to this.

[SharpKris]

I think everyone ignores a big damm issue with the game, the boss battles are shit, two of the three boss battles were mostly cut scenes  of "press X" or you die and had little to no focus on the boss's themselves.
the first boss "the hammer" (is that his name?) was the least horrible of the three though he really lacked personality or in depth story.
The tower just got worse thought i did like the cut scenes the battle itself was so fast to finish that i barely felt he was a boss.
i dont even want to talk about "The Hand" because for all i care that didn't happen 

[Smitehappy]

I think everyone ignores a big damm issue with the game, the boss battles are shit, two of the three boss battles were mostly cut scenes  of "press X" or you die and had little to no focus on the boss's themselves.
the first boss "the hammer" (is that his name?) was the least horrible of the three though he really lacked personality or in depth story.
The tower just got worse thought i did like the cut scenes the battle itself was so fast to finish that i barely felt he was a boss.
i dont even want to talk about "The Hand" because for all i care that didn't happen

I actually thought it was cool that how they handled the Black Captains. The each represent an aspect of the Dark Lord. The Hammer is his Might and Martial Prowess. The Tower is his Viciousness and Malice(IE He tortures dudes). The Hand is the master of Deceit and Lies. You fought the Hammer because that's what he is, a dude that fights good. Why would The Hand be better at combat then the avatar of the Dark Lord's martial prowess? I'm glad their response to defeating the bad guys wasn't "Then Tailion kills them in a sweet sword fight."

[Karkov]

I wasn't going over those mainly because of spoilers, but yeah.  They really could've made the actual boss fights better.  Regular gameplay and fighting is great, bosses themselves were sort of lacking.  I agree on the Nemesis testing.  I'm holding out for the DLC's to give us harder boss fights, and possibly deeper story elements.  I think the game can be boiled down to a couple of points.

It plays well.

Combat's fun.

Voice actors are great.

It makes killing Uruks fun.

I think TotalBiscuit said it best, "If you want a game that's about killing Orcs, this is a game about killing Orcs." (Might not be word for word.)

FAKE-EDIT:  Hadn't thought of it that way.  The Black Hand just felt sort of anti-climactic for me, though.  Maybe if him and Talion had actually fought for a while, then the final sequence happened?  Sometimes it's just fun having a rather key figure to beat the crap out of.

[SharpKris]

I dunno but i figured boss battles were supposed to offer a challenge of some sort

[Nelia Hawk]

i wonder how far they can take this games concept... i mean over all its about fighting uruks, gathering intel and killing captains. (more or less. but i love the sandbox-y aspect of promotions and always new captains.)

what if the nemesis system could be adapted to other races too? elves? dwarves? humans?

imagine the current map as the "HQ" of the orcs and attached to that with several entrances is a big open area map i.e. like skyrim.
the orcs are connected in the south east with their HQ map.
the elves are connected north east with a forest-y hq map.
the dwarves could be north west with a cave-y mountain hq map.
the humans have a town map south west.
(imagine the south east part of the lotr map from mordor up to the elf forest then west to the mountains and south to the human areas/forts. or as other example imagine something like the guild wars 2 wvw maps. with the towers and outposts etc.)
actually just one big map might work best with the races main strongholds in the corners instead of extra instances attached to the "battle map". maybe 1/4th the size of skyrim? or so... or 2x the size of the current shadow of mordor map? well i guess it should take a bit to get from one end to the other. i dunno.

and all the races fight over the big open world map that is filled with farms and forts and outposts etc in a big free for all. (no idea if there is lore wise a time when pretty much everyone fought everyone.)

and you are a wraith (? something) that can posses any person (maybe? maybe once per day/week/month/time acceleration) i.e. a human ranger like now... or a orc captain you defeated or a dwarf or an elf. and depending on who you are it might influence how the other races/captains/leaders react to you. a newly recruited captain might not get to the leaders that easily where a higher ranked one has better chances. or maybe the guy you possess is hated by other captains and even try to duel you when they see you (like they might would anyways in their power struggles if you wouldnt have captain x possessed).

and you can influence all races similar to how you can influence the uruks/orks right now with "power" missions (or like you influence the races in that space game "the last federation") i.e. help a gondor supply caravan reach a stronghold in their hq from a outpost of the big map while orcs get a mission to raid it or so.
well or just raid it yourself hindering the humans with supplies... that might lead to demotions in their ranks or less troops/alarms/danger in some outposts that you try to infiltrate to fight some gondor captain to get intel on an elf  lord the gondor fought earlier in a siege when the elves attacked a human stronghold in their hq.
or you dominate that captain that went to the dwarves to prevent a short alliance between humans and dwarves vs the elves. etc

basically there would be ranks and captains and leaders for each of the races... all with their own power struggles, demotions, promotions, parties, recruitment, intrigues, duels, friendships, hatred against each other etc.
and all races would fight over supplies and forts etc on a bigger map. and captains usually lead armies around attacking camps and towers or defending or raiding or recruiting/training troops, where lords, leaders and warchiefs are mostly in forts and the hq map (harder to infiltrate/influence/kill/etc) but they would also move around to lead bigger sieges or alliance talks etc.
and if one race might lost most of their stuff they might be enslaved for a while by the winner... and other races might try to liberate them again. or you yourself help them in secret or influence/weaken the slaver leaders so they rebel on their own.
who knows.

edit: well this would have its own problems...
-if you can possess different people skills might be a problem, you are a ranger+wraith now but what if you possess a giant spider and attack a fort with some spiderlings for food (giant citizen kabuto )... what happens to your ranger skills? (well there could be different skill tables for different races (dwarves, elves, humans, orcs, monsters, etc))
-also possessing a farmer or random slave is probably doesnt make you a killing machine who can fight 50 uruks out of nowhere with a hoe and win easily with counters and stuns etc.
-and the "everyone is your enemy" "1 vs every uruk you see" might make walking around in human towns or so kinda "boring". (or even more assassins creed-y... in that case "1 vs every uruk you see" liek its now works pretty well to keep the game interesting with fights everywhere)
-and humans/dwarves/elves dont tend to murder eachother that often like uruks do in powerstruggles/duells. well for the ranks there could be demotions then.

[Sartain]

Borgu the Watcher (not Morgu) has now reached power level 13. It's almost like he's levelling up alongside me. He still has a knack for showing up at the most inopportune moments (for me), typically as the third captain in a fight, or with a whole gang of Uruks and second captain beside him. Sometimes he flees if I manage kill enough of his goons and injure him but just as often it's me legging it, releasing Caragors and shooting down those weird fly-nests to cover my escape. Borgu's a monster slayer though, so Caragors are only a speedbump for him.

His last increase in power level was actually when he killed another captain that I was using as a human(uruk I guess) shield 

[umiman]

Yeah, I also agree that this seems to be a test of the system just like that Metal Gear Solid game.

But it's a really great test. I think everyone can agree that it gives the orcs a lot of personality. If they flush it out more it'll be fantastic.

[Sergarr]

I think with the very good reception of that mechanic we'll see something like that appearing in about half of the new games developing now.

[Neyvn]

His last increase in power level was actually when he killed another captain that I was using as a human(uruk I guess) shield 

I have accidently killed many captains I was planning to send a Deaththreat to their Warchief due to Humanshielding. I made a grab for him while others were still around, thinking I would have time, I didn't let go early enough when an Orc I didn't see came in from behind, I spun around with the Captn in a neck lock only to have him cut down... T_T He was the only Bodyguard of the warchief. T_T

The SECOND time that Warchief picked a bodyguard I went to grab him for the deaththreat when an archer/hunter (can't remember which) shot him during the necklock... T_T

The Third, I accidentally killed by hitting E in his direction when he was low on health, beheaded too...

The Forth. It was one of those overpowered Captns I had been leaving alone for a long time, who had taken me down twice and I had run away from after he joined an already dragged out attack on another captain to the point that I was facing 5 of them at once. Only Stealth would work on him but I didn't want to kill him ourright, just send a death threat, so I had to melee him without doing a full combo or heavy attack cause of weapon master, couldn't range, couldn't do anything. Monster Slayer as well. Oh AND the fucking horn, hate that fucking horn...