The Lord of the Rings franchise is filled with memorable characters, vast worlds and even languages created by the author. But, like a lot of other book-to-video game adaptations, there has never been a video game that could be considered worthy to represent the franchise. With Middleearth: Shadow of Mordor, we have found that very game.
Shadow of Mordor is a 3rd person action adventure game which revolves around the character Talion and his quest for revenge against all of those who are responsible for his family’s death. Talion himself was killed as well but merged with a wraith named Celebrimbor who manages to keep him alive. Celebrimbor suffers from amnesia and is on a quest as well to find out who he was during his life.
The game is set in the land of Mordor, more specifically in Udun and Sea of Nurn, the latter which is explore in the 2nd half of the game. The game environment is quite large and, while there are several areas to explore, there is a lack of anything impressive to take away from each area. The Sea of Nurn does provide scenic views of the ocean but aside from that, nothing else really stands out. It’s a good thing that there is a fast travel system implemented which borrows heavily from Assassin’s Creed. You have to climb a tower and once you reach the top, you strike down a hammer which unlocks the area in your map and becomes a fast travel point. The only thing it was missing was a bale of hay at the bottom to jump down into.
Assassin’s Creed isn’t the only game that Shadow of Mordor borrows from. Any fans of the Batman Arkham franchise should be able to adapt to the combat system in this game rather quickly. The combat relies heavily on counters and keeping your combo score up. What it does differently and adds to the experience is that once the counter reaches a certain number, you can execute special moves, such as wraith flash, combat drain and brutal executions. These special moves become crucial in staying alive in these battles as even the simplest enemies deal massive damage and you can find yourself running away frequently (especially in the earlier portion of the game).
Shadow of Mordor does a very good job of balancing the abilities you use with Talion and the others used with Celebrimbor. As Celebrimbor, you have all of your bow abilities which really help especially if you are trying for more of a stealth approach. Some of the later acquired abilities with the bow are essential. The game also places many items in the environment to help with killing your enemies and you will use your bow to activate most of them. I found myself using Talion more often though as he has many abilities in his own right and, as you come closer to beating the game, you feel almost invincible as you salivate at all the different ways you can kill the Uruks. Did I mention that you can brand your enemies to have them fight for you as well?
As great as the gameplay is though, the best aspect of this game would have to be the nemesis system. Like any army, Sauron’s army has a hierarchy, this one consisting of standard Uruks, captains and warchiefs. The captains though are powerful enemies and each one has different strengths/weaknesses that you need to be aware of. You have to gain access to that information in a variety of ways. I found the easiest way is to dominate the standard Uruks and gain intel from them. The A.I. is very intelligent and you can fight the same captain multiple times. He’ll remember what had happened in the previous fight regardless of the outcome. I remember killing the same captain five different times and yet, he always came back stronger. It was always a satisfying feeling to see that and I’m not sure if any game has ever done something like this before. Of course, the warchiefs were the toughest to kill and were never on the map to be killed. To fight the warchief, you would have to either draw them out with a challenge or have one of your branded captains challenge them for their position.
This game does many things right but it does have some glaring flaws. The voice acting in the game is quite good but the story will not blow you away and is very predictable. Also, the world is completely hostile and there are no safe havens. This became quite annoying as you would try to get away from a mob of Uruks only to run into a bigger group. It would have been nice to rest in an area for a bit and regain your composure. The biggest gripe I had with the game though is the health system. It regenerates at a very slow pace and you constantly have to be looking for plants to regain your health back. This made it particularly brutal in stronghold missions as you had to fight wave after wave of Uruks and you could not even gain your health back between battles. Also, I do not want to go into the ending but the last 15 minutes are a bore and it could have been done so much better.
Overall the game’s flaws can be overlooked and even after 17+ hours, I still have a ton of side missions to play and upgrades to get. I don’t know how much of a replay value is in a game like this but I know that I’ll always come back to this game every now and then when I feel like brutally killing and beheading Uruks. That will never get old.
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