Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an exceptional Action/RPG that raises the bar for the genre.
90
Verdict
93%
Steam
84
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (93% positive from 95K reviews)
Healthy player count of 1,031 concurrent
Critically acclaimed (84/100 critic average)
Compelling narrative and story
No significant drawbacks reported
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. An original story based on the legendarium created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the game takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies. The player controls Talion, a Gondorian Ranger who bonds with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, as the two set out to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Players can engage in melee combat, and use wraith abilities to fight and manipulate enemies. The game introduces the Nemesis System, which allows the artificial intelligence of non-playable characters to remember their prior interactions with Talion and react accordingly in subsequent encounters.
Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 18d ago
pros: - the nemesis system (although it's not "100% polished" here yet. the better version is in the sequel) - interesting narration around the player's deaths and resurrections, instead of just "you died, but let's pretend it never happened and reload the last checkpoint" cons: - half of the story takes place around the black gate, which is a very gloomy, uninteresting, same-looking-everywhere location in the whole LotR universe - climbing towers to unlock warp points. not a bad format, but it's super repetitive and boring. compare it to Zelda BotW/TotK, where each tower has some variation. for example, some can't be climbed directly and require gliding from a nearby mountain, while others require digging underground and entering from below - pressing two buttons on the gamepad at the same time. if only the (Y)+(B) combination existed, it'd be okay, but implementing all 4 combinations is too much. this also needs a larger input window, since the game often interprets the input as an isolated (Y) or (B) press instead - irl legal aspect of the nemesis system prevented other games from using this cool mechanic, yet the studio abandoned it after only 2 games
The game isn't *horrid* in itself and perhaps I'm just late to the party or perhaps it's just not for me. For 90% off, I don't mind finding out. This game has just 1 trick, (if you don't count the excellent voice acting, the admittingly intriguing story and stealth done right); the combat, which is 90% of this game but does it to a 3/5 effectiveness. I would like the ability to turn off the slow-mo executions although kills do feel very satisfying I constantly find myself losing any sense of pacing and speed. I don't want to follow Golum on some boring stealth mission. I don't want to visit yet another point of interest that gives such a small upgrade it's hardly noticed, or worse, a relic that I have to listen to a "memory". And I don't really find Mordor itself interesting - another ruin to climb, another Orc patrol, all in 50 different shades of grey without any of the sex. Everyone praises the nemesis system but for me it feels very mechanical - having an assassination target for the sake of something to do, not a breathing world which it is obviously trying to emulate. I don't hate it, I just have no reason to spend any more time with it - at 90% off, it's worth your money but probably not too much of your time.
Excellent game, worth its price. Multiple missions, great story & cut scenes. Worthwhile DLC's. Buy this game & lose 6 months thru a year of your life. Enjoy!
Reviews sourced from Steam. All reviews belong to their respective authors.
Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, cheapshark, igdb, wikipedia.
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