Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

30 Sep 2014

Linux PC (Microsoft Windows) PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Mac PlayStation 4 Xbox One
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8.4 rating
3115 want
11974 played
690 playing
333 reviews
Developer
Monolith Productions
Publisher
WB Games

Tags

Time to beat

Main story icon

Main story

15h 33m
Main story and extras icon

Main story + extras

23h 57m
100% completion icon

100% completion

30h
Based on 83 answers
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.

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Worth playing just for the Nemesis System. Every enemy you fight remembers you, the wounds you gave them, the fear you put in their eyes. Beat them and they come back uglier, angrier, carrying the scars you left behind. Lose to them, and they climb the ranks. I really love the Nemesis System. It’s one of those things that sticks with you. Kinda sad it’s patented, no one else will get to use it and that’s a damn shame. But at least it’s locked into a game that deserves it which is Shadow of Mordor

Even if you couldn’t care less about Lord of the Rings, it doesn’t matter. This game stands on it's own and It's damn good. I highly recommend it.
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27 Apr 2025
My score and actual of the review of the game might be contradicting to some people. The reason I say this is that the game only gets real good around 45% in, which to some is not the end of the world, and to others they want their games to be amazing off the jump. While I understand both sides, I do believe it's worth sticking through the beginning of this game to get to the great parts. The 2 main reasons why this game struggles at the beginning is that a) it doesn't tell you pretty much anything about the game, so you have to figure out the mechanics and what's effective and powerful, and b) you are just really weak at the start. But around that 45% mark, both click, with you finally starting to get some power and you should begin to understand all the mechanics. Once both click, the game ramps up from 0 to 100 in one shot. Besides a slow and somewhat frustrating start, the only other complaint I have is the story. It's not bad, but it's not amazing either. It's just a means to an end, it's there just to guide you along. I haven't seen any of the lotr movies, but I could tell they could have really fleshed out these characters, but didn't. Everything else though, starts off slow and gets addictively amazing at the end. The combat flows incredibly and you are actually powerful. The stealth is actually really solid, enemy ai is a little dumb, but it makes it really fun and makes you feel even more powerful. The main attraction that the game thinks it has is the nemesis system. I don't think it's the greatest system ever invented, but once you understand the nuances and unlock branding, it actually gets really fun to take control over. The maps, traversal and collectibles are all the meat of the game. I don't think they're all that amazing, and they can get sort of repetitive at the end, but these are what allow you to feel super powerful, which to me is the reason to play the game. It is also satisfying to see the game percentage creep towards 100%. My final advice is stick through the beginning and then enjoy an awesome game, and do a mix of side quests and main missions, don't do one or the other exclusively at the start.
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01 Jan 2025
One of the greatest lord of the rings Novels with the perfect ai and Nemesis system
13 Mar 2024
Just finished the game and the two DLCs the beast hunting one and Bright Lord.
Still wondering how it took me 11 years to witness this masterpiece.

Story 10/10
Combat 10/10

The different types of orks with their own strength and weakness along with the "nemesis system" makes the game a total 10/10. With a well made protagonist like Talion, the games gets even better.
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02 Feb 2025
The Nemesis system rocks 🤘
14 Dec 2023
quite fun, but nothing original here of substance tbh
04 Jan 2023
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