Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

One of the greatest lord of the rings Novels with the perfect ai and Nemesis system

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.

The Nemesis system rocks 🤘

quite fun, but nothing original here of substance tbh

My first experience playing Shadow of Mordor was many, many years ago, back when I first got my PS3. To say it disappointed me would be quite the understatement, though hindsight being what it is, I eventually realized that was because I was playing one of, if not THE worst possible version of the game. I could write an entire review based on that de-make, but suffice to say, I didn’t really imagine myself ever returning to this. But curiosity reeled me in once more, and thus my journey through Mordor began anew.

I’ll cut immediately to the chase and talk about what is, undoubtedly, the greatest feat of this title: the nemesis system. The simplistic yet internally complex mechanic presented is unlike anything else I’ve seen (I’ve read online that the mechanic is supposedly patented, perhaps explaining that absence in other games). Being able to directly manipulate the strength of your enemies, pitting captains and warlords against one another, wiping out leaders with their own troops, sending death threats between captains to boost rewards at the cost of a more difficult battle. The list goes on and on, with the possibilities for any conflict being seemingly endless. It is, legitimately, one of the coolest systems I’ve seen in any game, ever.

The rest of the game is…perfectly fine. The gameplay can be pretty addicting as a result of the aforementioned system, though collectibles are shockingly easy to obtain, and the missions can feel a bit samey after a while. At times it felt like I was playing a slightly tamer Assassin’s Creed game, which isn’t necessarily an insult or a compliment. To be perfectly honest, I was a little confused as to why it was nominated for GOTY in 2014, but after looking at the other nominees, I suppose I can see why.

I’m glad I was able to put to rest my history with this game, and though I’m not nearly as big a fan as others made it sound like I would be, I can still appreciate this game for the innovations it brought to the industry, even if they’re not exactly being utilized.

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.