How the Nemesis System Creates Stories

Another game that uses clever AI for storytelling is The Sims. Here's a video on how that works - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gf2MT-IOsg

I guess the real treasure was the orcs we killed along the way.

Broke an Immortal orc once and he got stuck in a loop. I shamed him so much he wanted to die but couldn’t. Then he developed a “fear of the Gravewalker”, so he would show up randomly, beg me to kill him then realize he is supposed to be scared of me and run away.

The nemesis system being patented and not used is one of the greatest sins in gaming history

Small chance to cheat death? In Mordor, I killed a orc named "... the Unkillable" over 7 times and he kept coming back until his face and body were covered with metal plates, scars and others. He really lived up to his name

Early on in the game I let a slave orc kill me just to see what would happen. He became a captain. I thought this was cool. The story took me away from this area for a really long time. When I came back he was overlord. I felt weirdly proud of him. It was the one fort I never took.

"Small chance to cheat death" Yeah well tell that Hoshu the Survivor, who has come back so many times I'm convinced he's immortal

Ar-Karo’s story sounds compelling, a rise in power, from a simple trooper, to a powerful captain, to an undying monster, to a faithful companion, to an immortal overlord

“Death cannot take you today! Just as it cannot take me…” I legitimately smiled from that

Great usage of Stitch and Maku to explain the procedural generation possibilities of the Nemesis system.

Imagine if a mafia or gang-related games use this kind of system for the hierarchy. So you climb up from the bottom, intimidate other members or enemy and eventually became the boss.

I love the nemesis system. One time i was attacking my nemesis, aka my punching bag, and about t shame him for the fifth time. BUT, then a captain ambushed me to tell me he was betraying me. And then 3 other captains showed up immediately after him to say they were betraying me too. I died by them, and then spend a few hours hunting them down one by one and shaming them down to humiliating obscurity, who all either die by accident or instant mortality weaknesses. Love it.

Let's add to the fact that Overlords can get anxious to a spy in his ranks to the point he will kill a captain or warchief thinking he's a spy. The dialogue of one of your orc will be along the lines of "We didn't put any spy there. He just killed one of his defenders."

player interaction score: aka they turned plot armour into a gameplay stat

SOW had one of my favorite gameplay moments to this date. I raided a fortress and the Orc Warchief taunted me with my "spy" held hostage and executed him in front of our army. Only I never put a spy in his fortress. He killed his own captain and made the takeover easier for ME. It was fantastic. The nemesis system rules

You forgot to include that in the opening parts of the game there was a mission where you had to face your nemesis from the first shadow of war game. Meaning that in order to progress the story you had to kill your biggest rival one last time. The fact that it remembers your rival from the last game and FORCES YOU to put that story to rest in order to complete the game is insane. The nemesis system is truly special.

The Nemesis System in a Batman game with the “Nemeses” being crime lords of various gangs would be incredible. Imagine starting with Carmine Falcone, Penguin, Black Mask, and others as “Overlords” and as the game evolves, cool new procedurally generated Batman villains and gangsters rise through the ranks.

The number of voice lines in this game must be truly massive.

I still remember in my original playthrough of Shadow of Mordor, there was this uruk called Zunn Blackheart that would always come and fight me. Zunn and I would exchange battles, sometimes of me killing him and other times the other way around. Zunn would ambush me in the wild, and his body parts being replaced with more machines as the days gone by and of me killing him multiple times. Eventually at the end of the story before I fight the Hand, Zunn fought me for the one last time and I finally cut his head off. What a glorious system, this

I knew a orc once. First name Tärz. I thought I'd kill him but Instead he killed me. I found his new place and shamed him. He ambushed me later on and I accidentally killed him with poison. He cheated death and become Tärz the poisoned, I proceeded to shame him when he became deranged. I decided I'd tracked him down and shame him again, when I started searching he ambushed me now babbling like an idiot, that was when I he died of poisoning again. I was bummed as I wanted to shame him. Cut to half hour later and he ambushes me again when in the heat of battle I used his mortal weakness against him and stealth killed him. I thought for sure he was dead and joking thought "if he comes back I'll recruit him and make him my overlord." Wouldn't you believe it he comes back and I do exactly that. What a spectacular game. The amount of awesome stories you get makes the price tag worth it.