Helping Players Hate (or Love) Their Nemesis

Got my first time messing with the Nemesis System with Shadow of War, and it starts with a Terror Slayer known as Pug. On a mission to murder a different Orc that had killed me once, Pug worked temporarily with this Orc to do something during the siege of Minas Ithil. Pug kills me. I wanted revenge still against the first Orc though and now with Pug so I go back to where they were at. Pug kills me again. At this point I become pissed and actually go back and finally kill both the random Orc and Pug. BUT the story didn't end there. As I am traveling through Minas Ithil he shows up, this time officially taking his name of Pug the Machine. We have an epic battle where in the end I come up on top and put him down. Except thirty minutes later Pug the Machine comes back to life and attacks me on a rooftop in Minas Ithil. At this point I had nothing but respect for the guy, and wanted to recruit him so bad but couldn't because I was being lazy with the main story. So we had another epic battle and I killed him again. Thirty more minutes later, as I am on my way to the last mission of the Siege of Minas Ithil, I am confronted by Pug the Machine once more, but this time things end a lot more drastically. In our epic battle he downs me twice, and goes for the kill, except a Gondorian Sergeant saves me and offically kills Pug the Machine. I was so enraged at the Gondorian Sergeant for killing Pug after I finished that part of the story only to see Pug not there anymore when I went back to go recruit him. However the story doesn't end there. After establishing myself (and a group of Orcs known as Gubu's Bandits,) I take on Zog to prevent him from resurrecting the Balrog. I succeed in stopping and killing Zog but his accolytes bring him back. Zog then raises those who died during my time playing up until that point. The VERY First Orc I see Resurrected is PUG THE MACHINE. Seeing Pug turned into a Mindless Monster, not greeting me with my love hate relationship with him made me RAGE. I was thoroughly systematically destroying Zog's Men Left and Right, dealing with all sorts of Undead Captains aside from Zog and Pug (including a Traitor to Gubu's Bandits who I thoroughly trounced since Gubu didn't want him at all for betraying me.) I confronted Pug one last time, and both with rage at Zog for turning Pug into a mindless monster and tears for Pug, killed Pug the Machine for the last time. That is the fondest memory I have with the Nemesis System.

Super fun game. My favorite follower in my 200hr+ playthrough has died 4 times and came back to serve me every single time. He has forever been my bodyguard because of this. The system definitely works even if you happen to not die as often as a normal person would too. It is especially frustrating when you haven't died in 10+ hours and suddenly you die 2-3 times trying to kill the bastard who killed you, but the satisfaction makes the struggle worth it.

I guess now we have to disregard anything we learned in this video.

Great talk! Amazing job, Chris Hoge and all the good folk at Monolith. The nemesis system really brought to the shadow of series something absolutely unique in the world of gaming, and that in our Era is rare and grandiose.

Thanks for releasing these information and publishing, this is something that brings forward the whole creative world, so their audiences too.

Great talk and presented wonderfully:). Thoroughly explained how to accomplish a relationship with the player and enemies.

Amazing talk, one of the best GDCs I've ever seen

Great video, Chris!!!!!!!! Great presentation!!!!!!!

Great system, shame it was initially undermined by micro-transaction. Super happy that they have been removed and looking forward to playing it hopefully soon.

Love Gravewalker difficulty it's so much fun! My favorite death animation 5:30 My favorite thing to do is to make the captains enrage. One day me and my boys were raiding an enemy camp and I made one of the enemies that killed me "Enraged" and one of my boys was laughing and said "You done that on purpose ahhahaha!" Yep you bet I did! I love making those captains mad.🤣🤣🤣😂😂

great talk now i want to try this game

My first ever nemesis was an orc who just decided to throw a spear into my back when I was fighting another captain. Long live Pûg the Defiler.

I've been waiting for a video about
the nemesis system for a long time

Okay, I gotta say I really like your games but what I really love is you people. Damn that's a fine presentation! You bunch of mad wizards.

Oh my god, that bit where he started telling a story about his friend Brian was goddamn hilarious

I want to buy this game now.

The orc voice acting is on point! A little undermined by the facial animations though.

Cool thanks

Wow this was great. I gotta get this game

Wow, more games likes this