Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014)

I actually finished this game like a month ago, but have not had time (nor the energy) to put my thoughts in paper, which in hindsight is a Really Bad Idea™ because now my thoughts are someplace else (Hokkaido) and now I have to really struggle to remember how I felt about this game.

What I do remember is that, whenever I came across anything Shadow of Mordor related on the Internet, often it came with the adjective "underrated" or "hidden gem", and almost always was accompanied with a mourning cry about the Nemesis system, bound forever to be a potential cool idea trapped in a mountain of bureaucracy and WB foolishness. I was really curious to give this game a spin because of that underrated status, with the big plus of being a LOTR which guarantee at the very least a cool world to fool around.

And... yeah. Honestly the most remarkably thoughts I had about this game were "wow, this is like, a perfect game for a lazy summer" and "wow, what a waste of a good setting". I don't know, my videogames sensibilities are VERY story driven, and in the intro video this game was already kind of losing me a little bit, with the whole "oh no, my wife and child are dead, I am a ghost of vengeance" and all that.

It has been overdone, and the fact that such a generic setup is intertwined here with such a recognizable IP as Lord of the Rings kinda makes it feel all the more generic and unimportant. Not even bringing such a cool character from the Legendarium as Celeborn makes this story less painted by numbers.

It is the perfect game for a lazy summer because I felt that it was a mediocre Assassins Creed in the world of LOTR, and even a mediocre Assassins Creed is a blast in terms of gameplay. It is kind of sad that such a cool concept as an expanded vision of Mordor, the Land of Shadow feels kind of underused, but the melee and stealth combat of this game is remarkably fun, and while sadly the story does not involve you pretty hard, the mechanic of recovering territory from hostile armies and taking over a maps is always a hoot and a half. Actually in that regard I have to say: the inclusion of political intrigue among the orc chiefs is really cool, even though it has little to no inference in your general gameplay. The last mission to have all the Warchiefs under your control is fantastic, I wish there was more to be done with the political mechanic.

As I grow older, my completionist drive is being tamed by adult life and no longer needing to prove to my peers that I can "100%" every game I touch. Sometimes still kicks in, and forces me to complete games that actually do not interest me anymore (I am hoping to write more about that soon), but one piece of personal wisdom I got from this game is that yeah, no, I can try to overcome that compulsion by putting value and care over my attention and time. I finished the main story of Shadow of Mordor, but the mere idea of coming back to DLCs or complete the achievements bore me to no end. Maybe next summer, when my motivation lacks and my energy is worryingly low and I can deadbrain the rest of this game.

And btw, the Nemesis system does have potential, but meh is not changing my life either. Honestly I find it more interesting how this niche videogame mechanic showcases WB incompetence so clearly.

Would Reccomend if you like: LOTR, Assassin's Creed, 3rd Person Action Adventures, Destabilising Government's.

Takes the assassin creed model that was popular at the time and gives it a twist with the nemesis system (whereby NPCs you've fought may remember you and improve depending on how your prior battle went). Works really well, and although I tried a couple of times previously to play and never clicked with it, getting it on sale for £5 made me revisit and really enjoy the experience. The LOTR nerd in me is unsure of some of the key plot points and how it interacts with the wider world, but a great original story and some fantastic world building.

There are two reasons I've not given this 5 stars however:

1. The final couple of "boss" missions are disappointing (albeit with a couple of cool moments).
2. The 'Bright Lord' DLC was so difficult. Just personal preference but it was way too hard, to jump back down after building up for 20-odd hours. Can see how this was testing the tech for Shadow of War though so look forward to seeing how that plays.

Not a huge lotr fanboy...have only watched the first film..thats all my knowledge on lotr is..but i wanted to still play this becz my friends kept telling me the gameplay is really good and they were right.....such an awesome game which keeps changing and never felt boring at all.....the story was surprisingly good and i frickkinnn loved TALION...one of my fav video game protagonists ever.....

When it comes to soundtrack nothing i can really remember loving....world is beautiful for an 8 year old game and the cut scenes were awesome tooo..very well made.Gotta try shadow of war next...(oh also loved celebrimbor....other characters were meh....just average..wasn't a huge fan of that dwarf hunter...got annoying at times.)

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a great example of, not only an open world game, but also how a game developer can take a well known world and expand it. Middle-Earth is arguably one of the most well known fantasy world in any entertainment medium, so choosing to set the game in a part of Middle-Earth that is not fully explored, Mordor, was a great idea. Initially, I was worried that Mordor would be a bland environment for an open world game but I was happy to be proven wrong. Not only does it prove to be a menacing an treacherous place, but it also provides a great area for players to experiment with their wraith and ranger abilities.

Like with Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, proves to be an excellent open world game. It has enough side activities and collectibles to keep the player occupied and to prevent Mordor from feeling empty; but not too many to flood the map. I also liked the variety of side missions that encouraged you to use all your weapons and skills to complete, rather than keep using the same playstyle. Speaking of the skills, these were quite varied but I did find that in the second half of the game I was only really using a handful of them and ignoring some like the poison ability, unless a quest needed me to use it. Overall, there is enough variety in the skills to suit most playstyles.

Unfortunately, not everything is a positive. I found both the stealth and freerunning gameplay to be quite limited. Both remined me of early Assassin's Creed games, as the gameplay felt clunky and basic. For eample, stealth is basically avoid the eyesight of your enemy. You can simply crouch behind an enemy and the won't sense you. Additionally, if you are spotted you can hide behind a wall and after a few seconds, the enemies forget you were there... despite killing their comrades. The other gameplay mechanic that isn't too fleshed out is the Nemesis system. This system is unique to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and it is supposed to create orcs that act as your rivals in the game. I'll be honest, most orcs are pretty much the same, to the point where some have very similar names, and I kept forgetting which ones I had encountered before. Although these gameplay mechanics aren't as polished as in some games, they don't take too much from the overall experience.

Overall, I would recommend Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor to anyone who is looking for a fantasy open world adventure game or someone who is look for a great Lord of the Rings themed game. I definitely enjoyed my time with the game I will be playing its sequel at some point.

SoM is fun. You sneak around, brutally murder orcs, learn new abilities and gain new items. The orcs' conversations are entertaining, the kills look awesome and there's a real sense of growth. You start out pretty frail and clumsy but at the end you casually walk into big groups of orcs and destroy them. This is fun. If you play games to have fun, play this game.

Ok, let's shit on this game a bit now. The way captains interrupt you at the start of your fight gets really really really really annoying. It's entertaining the first ten times but after that it gets grating. The item-finding thing is fairly pointless. Go somewhere, enter ghost mode, pick it up and skip the description because you're too busy killing orcs. There are other minor annoyances but nothing that stands out in my memory.

As for the DLC... oh boy. This game has some of the worst, worthlessest DLC ever.

• The runes it gives you are so OP that the ones you earn normally become almost irrelevant. Most of the times captains give you trash, which really hurts the replay factor (why bother finding and killing them?).
• The warbands are single encounters that are over in minutes. I honestly didn't even know they were DLC, it's completely forgettable.
• Most of the skins are uglier than the default one. I only liked the lady one though it makes the game a bit weird (you still use Talion's voice).

There are two bigger DLCs. Both suck.

• The Lord of the Hunt is a dull mini-campaign which introduces two new monsters and lets you convert ghûls. It's utterly pointless and they should've just merged it into the main campaign.

• The Bright Lord is a terrible terrible new campaign which gimps your character and has you protect objects and orcs. Yes, you have to protect orcs. For two whole minutes. Or you fail the unskippable main mission. Alt+F4 > uninstall.

But the base game is lots of fun. It also does the lore quite well so if you've actually read The Silmarillion and stuff you might like that part. The GOTY is permanently available for €5 on Fanatical, definitely worth it.

(Review Imported from Steam)

Shadow of Mordor was one of those games that you did not want to put down until after you were finished. I thought the combat was incredible, and the story had me hooked throughout. If you are interested in playing this game, even in the slightest, I do not think you will be let down.

Played on PC

Overall feels similar to arkham city, but i found it more fun due to the principle of infinite orc slaying alone, and a really fast arcade like playstyle. This nemesis system is also a cool new idea for the third person action-adventure wtfbbq, and unfortunately a few control issues now and then when things stick or lock on. or you get stuck on walls. It also eventually wears thin due to sidequests, especially if you do them all (which i did) 100% completion isn't really satisfying or rewarding. Its not really lore friendly its not real bad and actually does a decent job to feel a bit like the movies. Conveys a mix of various presentations of the 'orcs' (such as games workshops interpretation) which i really liked. Overall interesting world to explore and decent writing for a game like this too.

I played a lord of the rings mod for Mount and Blade and Mordor's nemesis system very much reminded me of it. Definitely fun and above average but hardly perfect. Looking forward to new game and where they went from here.

For fans of the universe of Lord of the Rings, and those who liked the combat system of the recent Batman games, this game is a lot of fun.

The story is the traditional good versus evil tyranny, with some heartfelt sidequests thrown in to bring emotional appeal and life to the world.

As I said before, the combat resembles the Batman series, which is definitely a good thing. It's fluid, and when you take damage, it's almost always your own fault for missing a counter or letting yourself get overwhelmed. You unlock more abilities as you level up your character, which makes combat even more fun as you progress through the game. One thing that doesn't change is the fun of beheading orcs. Seriously. That never gets old.

The nemesis system is a defining trait of the game. It allows you to take over the enemy captains and promote captains of your own. Each captain has their own strengths and weaknesses which adds depth to fighting them. And if you die and return to fight them again, they mention that they killed you before and throw some more insults at you, which is a great detail.

The road to getting a Platinum trophy is fairly easy and straight forward and makes you explore the entire game, which never really feels tedious. As my first PS4 Platinum trophy, I enjoyed the experience.

Overall, this is a very solid game and now that it's been out for a long time, it's available in sales for a good price. It's an open world RPG with enough familiarity to easily start playing, but with enough distinctive features to make it stand out on its own. It's enjoyable from beginning to end.

I went through multiple phases of enjoyment while playing this game.

In the initial hours, it felt amazing. This game was a 9/10 to start with. The combat is absolutely outstanding. It's exactly the same gameplay as Arkham, but it's in Middle Earth, and in my opinion you get more cool special attacks and abilities to use. These abilities and combos ultimately allow you to become overpowered in the end-game, which is always fun, but it did make it boring in some respects toward the end.

You also get runes for killing orc captains which augment your attacks with the sword, bow and dagger.

The smooth combat, combined with the innovative Nemesis System, is what made this game. The game creates this addictive cycle of hordes of orcs so you can gain more experience, which in turn allows you to gain ability points to upgrade your character. You then return, newly upgraded, to avenge your deaths against the orcs who killed you and have grown more powerful. You can spend your ability points on passive skills or new special combos. For every orc captain you kill, based on that orc captain's power level, you get power points (i'm not sure that's what they're called but it's not important for my purposes here.) You also get experience and power points for completing missions. Every time you reach a certain number of power points, you unlock a new tier of abilities for you to spend ability points on. There are also missions that give you upgrade points that you spend to buy additional health, focus (the slow-time that occurs when you draw your bow), Elf shot (the total number of arrows you have when you replenish your supply, or additional rune slots on your sword, bow, or dagger.

As I said, the game does an excellent job at creating this addictive cycle where you want to keep upgrading your character so you can become even more awesome at killing orcs. When you're killed by an orc, and that orc becomes promoted within the orc ranks, and more powerful as a result, you want nothing more than to return and kick his ass. But beware, if he kills you again, he will only become even more powerful and harder to kill next time. Invading strongholds and taking down the Warchiefs (basically the orc uber-captains) is incredibly fun, especially in the late game, when you gain the ability to control the minds of orcs, so you create this beautiful chaos of fighting orcs and orc captaions alongside your own minions.

This game truly could have been a "10" with a few improvements, so here are the negatives, that magnified with the more hours I invested into it, that brought it down to an 8 for me.

1. Poor story I honestly can't tell you what's going on with the story, except that it's about revenge. It's a hackneyed plotline about a man going in a killing frenzy in his quest to avenge the death of his wife and son against the big bad guy who killed them. The main character is so wooden that you never feel attached to him, the script is cheesy, and the acting mediocre overall. These factors combined such that I just didn't feel invested at all in the larger story of this game. This game could've perhaps gotten away with such a trite storyline if it was at least well-told.

Due to the fact that I didn't feel invested in the story of the game, I didn't feel compelled to finish all the main missions, or even all the side missions, as time wore on. I reached 20+ hours of gameplay, had a week off from playing it as, you know, life got in the way, and noticed that I had no desire to return. I realize that it's because I didn't feel there was a purpose in it. I didn't care about how this particular story will end, and I didn't see the point of making my character even more powerful just so i could kill a couple more Warchiefs.

1. You become a little too overpowered

This isn't that big of a deal, but it did make the game a little less exciting once you could demolish basically everything before even getting all the skills in the game.

1. Drab colors

I understand that this is the land of Mordor where the shadows lie, but even for what it was I still found the landscape rather unimpressive and overall unpleasant to look at. Yes, Mordor is supposed to bleak, and lots of blacks and grays are to be expected, but I would've liked more detailed textures. There can be beauty in harsh, dark, and desolate. Something was just....missing. I would've liked more detail in the grass, the walls, the trees, the rock formations.

There is also a part later in the game where you go to what is ostensibly a pretty part of Mordor, still lush with greenery, and where a human race is still fighting for their land. However, even here, it just felt rather unimpressive. The colors didn't pop, and make you feel in awe. It just felt sort of bland like the rest of the game. You look at the landscape and think, oh well technically there are more green hills and plant life. But it didn't feel more alive.

1. Sticky walls and climbing

The one gameplay issue that really got irritating once you've spent a few hours in the game...the goddamn wall climbing. For one, there was no indication on any walls whether they're good for climbing, like how it is in Uncharted 4, for example. The only way to find out is to run up to the wall and try to jump on it.

However, the really irritating aspect of climbing in this game was when you needed to descend. It just felt like I often found myself in situations where I wanted to leap out from a wall to descend to the orcs below, or perhaps drop down discreetly, but you freaking stick to the wall, and the camera positions itself at an odd angle. The game often makes you want to press "B" (on the x box 360 controller) to descend -- as you would hopping down from a ledge to another ledge, to go down a wall. And if I wanted to leap, I often found myself mashing A a bunch of times just to get off the damn wall!

Perhaps the worst was when you were trying to sneak up on archer in his tower, and you're standing above him on a ledge. Directly across from you is another ledge, however want you want to do is just drop down onto the platform and sneak up behind him to knife him in the back (or what have you.). But instead, you get to just keep leaping back and forth between the ledges until you finally comply with the game, which wants you to press B, awkwardly making you hang from the ledge and then hit B again to drop down to the platform before you can walk up to the archer-Orc.

This was a minor irritation that grew larger the longer I played.

Conclusion Overall, the core of this game - the gameplay and Nemesis system, was amazing. However, it wants in other areas that could have taken it to the next level - namely, an improved story, better graphics, and more polished gameplay in the non-combat parts of the game.

This game is definitely worth playing on a Steam sale (as I did), or even for $20 (which is about what it costs on console). However, if you have other games to play, I wouldn't prioritize this one. Since you wouldn't be missing out on much with regards to the story, if you have a big backlog of games anyway it might be better to skip this one and play Shadow of War when it comes out, which hopefully will be an improvement on the experience of this game.

Living in the shadow of the legacy of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a somewhat underrated gem, but worthy of its inclusion in Tolkien’s legendarium and to our game shelves. Set in between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Talion is our name and revenge is our game. After a tragic start, resurrected by, and in combination with, an elven Wraith, we journey deep into Mordor to exact comeuppance unto the armies of Sauron. Sneaking, slashing or riding beasts through the hordes of Uruks (Orcs) along the way, the satisfaction never dwindles and there are many methods through which to dispatch the hulking, cockney-accented Uruks then one might first imagine.

Talion is voiced impressively and believably by Troy Baker, and with other characters being well voiced, the cut scenes are dramatic and enjoyable, creating a solid plot that is also well woven into the lore of Tolkien's universe.

Arguably, the games stand-out feature is the Nemesis system, adding a new dimension to boss fights that occur throughout the game - whether you plan them or not. This system adds enjoyable drama and consequences to your encounters with ranking Uruks in Sauron’s army: beat them and a hole is made in the horde; be defeated or flee, and that Uruk will become stronger, more powerful and he will remember your previous battle.

You can learn weaknesses about opponents in advance to garner an advantage but there is an excellent feeling, though a little frustrating at times, when mastering the combinations which will certainly make the combat less about running away and more about sticking it to the foul-mouthed foes. Particularly when one learns the numerous helpful weapon skills, masters the landscape’s beasts to ride, and incorporates the athletic parkour element similar to that found in Assassin’s Creed.

I was not impressed quite enough to chase down the DLC packs, but I enjoyed slave-liberating, Uruk-battering and relic-finding my way around Mordor so much that I ended with a glorious, glowing ‘100% completed’ sign in the menu.

Talion and his adventures were a great deal of fun and is still very much worth picking up to play now.

3.5

The combat was fun at times, but the world was pretty boring too look at and didn't make me want to explore it at all. And I love Lord of the Rings. Ive read the trilogy 3 times, the hobbit twice, and the silmarillion once, but visuals of the world and the story was just kind of boring. Its sad to say but it felt kind of like an Assassin's Creed rip off.