If you don’t know me by now or haven’t read my reviews, one of my most favorite genres of all time is fantasy. Well besides science fiction, but maybe we’ll touch on it another time. Nothing or not much can go wrong when it comes to fantasy, because the genre is constantly being reintroduced or handled in new interesting ways. So many books, television shows, films, and even video games have found ways to keep the fantasy genre going for years to come. If it’s it one person all of these directors, writers, and devs can owe themselves to for their creations it’s the legendary writer George R- nah I’m kidding with you it’s J.R.R Tolkien who wrote The Hobbit and LOTR trilogy.
If you don’t know what The Hobbit or Lord of The Rings is and why it’s so significant then dear god you’ve been living under a rock your whole life. Tolkein published his first book known as The Hobbit in 1937. It was one of the first fantasy books to ever be released and the first one to kick off the genre. He then followed The Hobbit up with the trilogy you may already know as Lord of The Rings. The first Lord of Rings volume Tolkein wrote was The Fellowship of The Ring which was published on July 29th, 1954. Fellowship was critically acclaimed by many not only for it’s intriguing story and characters, but for how it really got the fantasy genre rolling. Tolkein then wrote the second volume to Lord of The Rings known as The Two Towers which was published on November 11th the same year and it too was really well received. Tolkien then published the third and final volume named The Return of The King on October 20th and it finished the series with an all out bang. The bang was so big that it spawned generations of inspirations. Tolkein achieved literally everything he possibly could during his life. What more could The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings do? A lot apparently.
Tolkein died in 1973 and his work was then adapted by Peter Jackson who directed a total of six movies based on Tolkien’s novels. The first three movies Tolkein adapted was the Lord of The Rings trilogy between 2001 to 2003. All three films did a tremendous job enrapturing the Lord of The Rings series and are considered some of the best adaptations ever released. Then Peter Jackson adapted The Hobbit into three other films and those were okay, but let’s not forget Lord of The Rings! It’s thanks to J.R.R Tolkein that fantasy could stand out to this day and it’s thanks to Peter Jackson that Tolkein’s work can live on. Lord of The Rings is it’s own big budget franchise now and when you're a franchise you know the company who owns you is gonna find ways to capitalize on you. There have been toys, clothing, halloween costumes, cartoons, and of course video games. There have been some LOTR, some good and some bad.
However, the most noteworthy game that takes place in The Lord of The Rings universe is Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor which came out in 2014. The game was developed by Monolith Productions who you may know for making the violent old school first person shooter Blood, the other old school first person shooter named No One Lives Forever, and the ball gripping first person shooter horror series F.E.A.R. Who better to hire to make a Lord of The Rings game than a bunch of old guys who have mainly developed first person shooters? Well Monolith apparently knew what they were doing. Development began back in 2011 and the team originally planned to make this another Batman game. Warner Bros who are the owners of the Lord of The Rings also own the right to DC Comics and they probably intended it to be added to the Arkham series. However development turned when Monolith realized they wanted to do something actually interesting. They wanted to go to the ferocious land of Mordor! So Warner Bros allowed them to and what we got was a really good game. It helped expand the universe of Lord of The Rings while helping us grow accustomed to an original cast of characters and new plotline. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was critically acclaimed by many and nominated for several awards in 2014 including Game of The Year.
There were some controversies for Shadow of Mordor though. Monolith went under fire when Ubisoft accused them for reusing assets from Assassin’s Creed 2. This was proven false when Monolith confirmed that all assets were original. The biggest controversy Shadow of Mordor stirred up was with review outlets. Warner Bros paid critics to advertise the game and talk about it positively so they could sell more copies. They were eventually ratted out and both Monolith and Warner Bros now have to declare whether their products are sponsored or not. This is a shame because in the end Shadow of Mordor was a great game that would have still stood out without the sponsorship. I was planning on playing Shadow of Mordor a long time ago, but my attention was averted to more interesting games. I finally obtained a copy of it, installed it into my Playstation 4, and sat down to see why it was so loved. I have no knowledge of Lord of The Rings whatsoever, but believe me when I say this. Shadow of Mordor is f*cking awesome and it still stands out today for a few key reasons. Today we’ll be talking about why I enjoyed my time with Shadow of Mordor and why it deserves you attention. So brand the phantom and prepare to venture through Mordor.
Story
From what I have gathered online the game takes place during the sixty year gap between The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. We follow the role of Talion, one of many Rangers of Gondor. Gondor being one of the greatest realms of men on middle-earth. Talion is the captain of a small group of rangers and he is stationed at the Black Gate of Mordor. Mordor is home to various vicious creatures, but none are more fearsome than the hordes of orcs that roam the land. The Uruks. Talion treats the Black Gate like home and he brought his family along to live with him there. His son Dirhael who wishes to be a ranger just like him and his wife Ioreth. Ioreth tries to convince Talion that they should leave the Black Gate one day saying that if something bad were to happen they all would be killed. Talion says that he has to remain at the Black Gate no matter what, but if only he listened to his wife because it turns out she was right.
One day an army of Uruks storm the outpost and begin massacring all the rangers there. Talion gathers up his family so they can leave, but they are immediately captured by the three captains leading the army of Uruks. All of whom work for a dark lord named Sauron who died ages ago. The three captains include The Hammer of Sauron, The Tower of Sauron, and the main one behind the attack The Black Hand of Sauron. The Black Hand decides to keep Talion and his family alive a little longer for a strange ritual. Talion doesn't know what the ritual is for, but he witnesses the Black Hand kill his wife and son right in front of him. His throat is then and he moves onto the afterlife.
But that’s just the beginning of this tale. Talion ends up in this weird purgatory like plain and is approached by a wraith. The wraith does not recollect who he is, but all he can remember is that his family was murdered by the forces of Sauron as well and he brought Talion back to life to help him take vengeance. The wraith is the thing keeping Talion alive and no matter how many times Talion falls in battle he can’t truly die. Talion then wakes up to find that Mordor is now overrun with Sauron’s army and that any humans that are still alive have now been enslaved. So now it’s not only up to Talion to get revenge on the three captains of Sauron’s army, but help the wraith remember his past by finding relics and figure out why he too seeks revenge against Sauron.
Gameplay
To start off with the gameplay section I want to talk about the most generic parts of Shadow of Mordor. First let’s start with the combat, because if it’s the one thing that’s the least boring to talk about it’s hearing how much Talion runs around severing Uruks limb by limb. The combat is pretty basic stuff. It doesn't do anything new or mechanically interesting, but it does what it needs to do to work. Shadow of Mordor is mainly an action adventure game, but it does feel like a hack n’ slash at times. You are constantly surrounded by hordes of Uruks and you gotta do what you can to cut them all down. You have basic attacks to deplete their health, a finisher that allows you to instantly kill Uruks on the ground, and if you can keep up your multiplier which builds up the more you attack Uruks without taking damage you can perform an execution.
This game also has a fair amount of stealth allowing you to pick off enemies before the real fight begins. The stealth in this game is kinda broken, but it’s in a good way where even if you do get spotted you have a quick chance to prevent everything from totally screwing up. Talion magnates towards enemies when you are allowed to perform stealth kills meaning takedowns are done efficiently. When you approach an enemy while sneaking around you either perform the basic stealth kill or brutalize them. When you brutalize an enemy you have the chance of scaring off some of the other enemies around them. One feature I do want to point out is how Shadow of Mordor handles ranged combat and magic. You have a bow that allows you to attack enemies from afar and with a well placed shot you can headshot them. You can even upgrade your bow attacks later on so that they make certain objects explode. Enemies near explosive canisters and fireplaces can easily be disposed of if you shoot them. You only have a certain amount of bow shots though, but there is a way to recover them. You can drain an enemy of their lifesource to replenish your bow ammo. You are heavily exposed while draining them so do be careful. You can even use magic to stun enemies allowing you to unleash a flurry of blows, build up your multiplier, and blow up their heads.
Everytime you kill Uruks or complete a quest you earn experience points and there are two types in this game. One allows you to upgrade your health, magic, bow ammo, etc. Meanwhile the other gives Talion some cool new moves. Shooting an enemy in the leg to pin them to the ground. Quickly building up speed when hopping over small objects. Increasing the blast radius of your stun attack. And many more. You do unlock new abilities as you progress through the game. Stuff like a ranged dash attack that allows you to zoom over to enemies, a magic pulse attack that slams into the ground, and a few others. While you explore the open world you can do side quests, find secret collectibles, uncover towers that reveal items, and take on roaming Uruk captains.
Now it’s time to talk about my favorite aspect of Shadow of Mordor: the nemesis system. Roaming around Mordor are several Uruk captains and about five Uruk warchiefs per region. You have a chart showing the ones who are and are not alive, but you aren’t told who they are and where they are at currently. When you encounter an uruk captain while exploring he’ll challenge you to a fight. He may have special attacks, weaknesses, or vulnerabilities. If you beat the captain in battle his forces will retreat and will be removed from the chart, but if he beats you in battle he grows in power. Depending on how many times you lose to him he may grow in ranks. He may challenge other Uruk captains to their positions, get promoted, and gain new abilities. You can remove them from their position by killing them, but it’s most likely you won’t be prepared since you don’t know their weakness. You can learn their weakness by capturing isolated Uruks and forcing them to reveal their weaknesses or experimenting until you find it. That way a battle can now play in your favor because now you know what to do. However there are other ways to deal with captains.
Sometimes events will happen in the world and you have the ability to intervene. You may poison captains during a feast, ambush them during a trial, or help them intervene during a rival battle and take them by surprise. Any strategy works. Some Uruks are the bodyguards to warchiefs and if you try taking on a warchief without removing his bodyguards you may have a difficult time. I say remove his bodyguards so you can have an easier time. Besides that there really isn’t much else to talk about. Well there’s one endgame mechanic I want to talk about, but if you haven’t played the game yet I say skip to the next paragraph. Anyways later on you get to brand Uruks and make them fight for you. This can also work against Uruk captains and if you play your cards just right you can help them become warchiefs. Now you get to raise your own personal army. With all these cool abilities you should be able to take on Sauron’s army.
Thoughts
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a great game that I wasn’t expecting to like so much. I mean come on, a licensed video game? How often do you see those actually working? Well surprisingly it worked here. I want to mention the thing I had problems with the most before I move onto all the things the game does right. The story is the biggest problem the game has. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good story with thought put into it and the presentation, but for anyone who goes into this and has no knowledge of the Lord of The Rings universe or history then you are going to have a hard time. The characters are uninteresting and there was never a moment I cared about what was going on and who they were due to how lifeless and artificial they felt to me. You can have a messy narrative like A Plague tale or The Evil Within 2, and still have some genuinely likable characters which redeem the sloppy writing. not here though. Here it's boring, devoid of anything interesting, and it's probably the worst narrative I've seen.
Now let’s move onto what I love the most, the gameplay. The combat is very difficult at first, but once you get down the fundamentals it starts to feel satisfying. I thought it would play like a Batman Arkham game where as long as you mash the buttons everything is fine, but here you constantly want to use everything you have if you want to stand a chance against Uruk hordes. Stealth kills, environmental hazards, or spamming your most powerful moves whenever you can. Character progression works in a sense where you are promoted to do the side content. You need those experience points to gain skill points, skill points for new abilities, abilities to make combat easier. However the side quests lack variety compared to other open world games I've seen.
I really enjoyed exploring Mordor though. Collecting items that gave me the upgrade points I needed. Picking up new journal entries. Slaying Uruk captains and busy getting lost instead of progressing with the main story. The world is kinda small compared to open world games today, but it makes it easier to traverse from one area to another. The nemesis system is my favorite part about Shadow of Mordor. It’s Monolith proving that you can tell stories using what some believe are minor mechanics. It’s complex, filled with depth, and made the world feel a little bit more natural. I heard the sequel Shadow of War improves and expands the nemesis system so I might check it out one day. If you want a more in depth look into why the nemesis system is such a unique idea than you can check Game Maker’s Toolkit most recent episode covering the system. He makes a lot of good stuff and if you are looking into making games then you might want to listen to him. He knows what are the best design techniques out there.
It’s sad though that we won’t be seeing people expand what Shadow of Mordor & War did with the nemesis system, because recently Warner Bros gained the rights to the system. Isn’t the point of the game industry to innovate and expand upon past design choices, not limit how much freedom both developers and players have? Not only that, but that's a really selfish move to pull, especially since Shadow of War came out filled with microtransactions and it wasn’t until one year after release they got removed. My only other complaint with Shadow of Mordor is that the last bit of the game is underwhelming. This is where you get to possess uruks and get them to captain levels so that they can fight in a battle with you. However, it's annoying and its only true purpose is to pad out the game's run time. Despite my many complaints I enjoyed my time with Shadow of Mordor. Great open world, great combat, and great ideas. Just a shame the story is awful and I'm not going to look back at this game as much as other open worlds or games which follow a similar action format. In the end I am going to give Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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