Thursday 15 February, 2018

Gamelog #2 (Part 3)
I played another few hours working through the main story. I think I might have broken the game a bit with a rune that gives me an extremely high level skill (infinite execution rage mode) which made both the Hammer and Matron boss fights extremely easy since I just spammed them to death within a few minutes. I felt bad for Ratbag after the Hammer killed him so slaughtering the Hammer was quite satisfying.
I feel like there is still quite a disconnect between the gameplay and some of the moral themes. Talion had a quip about how mind controlling orcs for information is strange but then is fine with blowing up their heads with his ghost powers in game. I realize I am still not that far as I still haven't unlocked converting orcs to your side which I thought was a big part of the game. I also feel like there are hints towards a conflict later where Talion may have to give up his body to completely revive Celembridor which would be a fairly interesting moral quandary.

I agree, there does seem to be a disconnect with the gameplay and moral themes. Mind control essentially takes away a person's free will, so I'm curious how a moral framework like Kant's would apply to this game. What do you think the developers intents are by having Talion make a quip about mind controlling orcs? Are the developers trying to imply a larger message?

Yes I think that the game definitely tries to make the player reflect on thier actions as they progress into the story. The "friendly" orcs foster cooperation which is diametrically opposed with the extreme violence against the other orcs.