Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

30 Sep 2014

Xbox 360 Linux PC (Microsoft Windows) Mac PlayStation 4 Xbox One PlayStation 3
8.4 rating
2259 want
8490 played
457 playing
195 reviews
Developer
Monolith Productions
Publisher
WB Games

Tags

Single player Third person 🧙 RPG ⚔️ Slasher 🏹 Adventure 💥 Action 🐉 Fantasy 🚶 Stealth 🌍 Open world
Summary

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a open world third-person action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which takes place in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium. The game takes place in the 60-year gap between the events of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. It is a story of revenge, slaughter, and mystery set entirely in Mordor, the Land of Shadows. At its center is Talion, an ordinary man who loses everything, including his mortal life. The game is set in a fully open world, and features various role-playing game elements such as experience points and skills. There are various ways the player can complete their main objective. Aside from the main storyline, there are various side quests and random events the player can complete within Mordor. The melee system is inspired by that of the Batman Arkham series. Getting into a good fighting rhythm, using both regular attacks and counter-attacks will improve the player's combo multiplier. A unique feature of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis system. Every enemy in the game has their own name, rank, and memory. These enemies will continue to do their own jobs and tasks even when they're off screen. If the player does not kill an enemy in an encounter, this enemy will remember the player and change their tactics and conversations based on the encounter.

Middle Earth Shadow of mordor is an interesting game for sure. In that, it is at point a trumph in video game mechanics but also a failure at one. At the same time it has good writing but also, it has bad writing. It has a great open world but at the same time, it has a bad open world. At the same time it has great missions, and at the same time it has terrible missions. And the entire root of said problem and the root of its success can be defined by two words that define the identity of this game: Nemesis system. Basically, there are two ways you can play this game. Just focus on the main story to get to the end, or explore everything, including making it your target to get everyone in sauron's army to be your minion, from the lowest end to the highest warchief. That is where the conflict of whether a player will hate its aspects or love its aspects comes into play. If you are the former. The main story is fucking bland, and feels like someone's awkardly written lotr tabletop campaign that they rushed to finish, since one of the party members was permanently leaving town because he got a girl pregnant and doesn't want to pay alimony. Yeah, that's a far cry from the era of monolith writing some fantastic stories in form of no one lives forever, condemned, or fear. However, on the other end, For the second type of player, the writing talent hasn't gone to waste. Also every main mission feels like a side mission that is trying to teach you basic combat. Like in skill trees, you literally cannot unlock some of the moves until you have done a main mission. The nemesis system in a way forms a dynamic storytelling that not only forms interesting unique stories for the player based on their own winnings and failing, but it is also reflected in the conversation that uruks have in the world, harkening back to your actions or a bigger look into the race where everyone is hungry to gain power. That is where also the point of the open world comes in. It is beautiful, but also very repeating. I don't its accuracies to its lore to lotr, but like there are so many times i can see the same texture pack of the rock models forming half broken once lived in structure or those fishing village looking wooden villages. Not saying there aren't any good structures, and again it looks beautiful, but it is only so many times i can tolerate the almost similar looking texture packs all over the place. However, contrary to that, the open world transforms a little when you get the branding ability and routes of exploration can be easier or harder depending on if you have a man on the inside. Also, the collectibles such as ithidian, artifacts, and the controversial decision to make you pluck flowers to heal your health can be annoying for some, but i liked those decisions, made it feel more lived in, and made me strategize my combat better. Now i can go on and on, on how this game is a contradictory paradox of itself. For every good that it does, it does something bad, but depending on how you are playing it, the good will feel bad and the bad will feel good. The point is, its a fine and enjoyable game. And for an open world game it doesn't outstay its welcome, but it does leave you will a compelling dynamic story of its own that you can take enjoyment in endlessly. Yes, the protagonist (s) have zero chemistry between them, and you would assume celebrimbor being inside tallon will atleast check his dick size but i digress...they had all the chemistry of your mom and that dude steve that she dated off Craigslist, and only halfway through did steve's dick died out because he suddenly got a heart attack and you had to call ambulance, and later it turned out it wasn't a heart issue, but an intestinal infection. Point being...what I wish to say, that despite its issues, i wish there more games like this. Because i had a fun jolly time with it. And that is what matters in the end. Having fun. Though on Last note: the combat is satisfying once you fully unlocks skill tree, music is bland, and steve died at aged 61, sOwwy for your losS.
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28 Nov 2023
quite fun, but nothing original here of substance tbh
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04 Jan 2023
This game truly deserved to be the game of the year for a reason

One of the greatest lord of the rings Novels with the perfect ai and Nemesis system in the game
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13 Mar 2024
I regretted buying it in the first 14-15 hrs. Then BOOM!!!
Wow am so glad that I didn't uninstall it. I hope to play shadow of war too eventhough I heard it is not as fun s this.
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02 Oct 2022
I really, really did not like this. It's really boring, the story is clicheed and the balancing is completely off. The graphics are still quite good, but that's mostly it. I played through the story as fast as possible and thought about going through the dlc as well (it's on the disc of the game of year edition) but during the second mission with the dwarf I un-installed it and I don't think of going back.
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08 Jan 2024
was this the second or the first one
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26 Dec 2023
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