You would be
forgiven for mistaking this game for another mediocre Lord of the Rings game,
which seek to leach off the well-established and much loved books and films.
But no, instead this game does the franchise justice as it strikes out on its
own path instead of putting together another half arsed retelling of the
stories presented in the books. This is a fresh perspective for Tolkien fans as
it is a much needed divergence from the already told stories and instead sets
itself right in the middle of the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The game
does a good job of using the vast written lore and already established
principle set forth by Tolkien, but yet manages to add its own flavour to the
mix and bring it into the 21st century.
Story
The
story follows Talion, a fallen ranger of Gondor and a Guardian of the black
gates, murdered along with everyone he’s ever loved by Sauron’s black Captains.
A mysterious Elven wraith has brought you back from death to exact your revenge
on those who took your family from you.
The
premise for the story is certainly an interesting one, but unfortunately it is
a little short on delivery, despite the voice acting being good across the
board I felt it hard to feel for Talion and his plight, whilst he was on his
way to murder another village of Uruks. The story seemed to be gently pushing you in the direction of something for you to
stick your sword into, with very few missions that stood out from the status
quo of track, kill, collect. Don’t get me wrong it retained my interest for the
ten plus hours it took to complete. But there was little variance on the
formula, and when it was it would inevitably be a boss battle or a short break
to ride on the back of a giant scaly cat creature.
Combat
Thankfully despite this
short sightedness in the story telling department it turns out okay in large
part due to the stellar combat system in place that makes it a lot easier to
slay a slew of orcs when you enjoy doing so. It is responsive and simple yet
through unlocks and practice you can improve considerably and this makes you
feel accomplished and powerful. There is a real sense of progression within the
system; you may begin the game timidly taking on three Uruks with some
difficulty but once you get the hang of it and upgraded to a few of Talion’s
more flashier moves, you’ll be set to
slay a garrison single handed.
You have three weapons to
choose from for three different approaches to a fight; you have your sword,
which is your standard tool within the melee, though with the inclusion of your
otherworldly wraith powers, it becomes a terrifying weapon of destruction which
makes the toughest of Uruks seem no more of a feat than stepping on the large
spiders that seem to slowly trundle around the barren landscape of Mordor. You
would think this sense of god like destruction would make the game too easy; but
thankfully the developers have paced it well so you’ll only attain such
abilities nearing the end of the game. Your other weapons are your bow and your
dagger. Although the stealth gameplay is simple it is useful for thinning out
the mass of Uruks before announcing your presence to the rest of them with a
sword strike towards an Uruks head. Your magical bow has time slowing powers
which are useful when attempting to dispatch from range, making it easier to
land a couple of headshots before the bulk of screaming, slavering Uruks are
upon you.
By far the best feature of
Shadow of Mordor is the nemesis system. This is the first time I have played a
game whereby getting killed by an enemy means more than just respawning half a
second later and getting another whack at it. No, instead once you’re killed by
an Uruk he may get promoted within the army and get some fancy new armour and
maybe a scar that you inflicted upon him in your previous encounter; and he’ll
remember it so that the next time you meet he might make a comment on how you
burned him last time and through learning his weaknesses you might learn he has
a developed a fear of fire because of it and can exploit said weakness in this
encounter. The system works and by the end of it you might find yourself with a
rival whom you’ve been battling all throughout the game yet can’t seem to quite
finish him off. The majority of the side
quests, which are an add-on to the main campaign, follows this. You are able to
leisurely skulk across the map interrupting various captains’ feasts and
hunting expeditions with a sword through their chest, or if you’re not up to
scratch, your chest. There is a level of customisation with the weapons as once
you kill an orc captain he will drop a ruin which may add a certain modifier to
your weapons to make them more personal to you. Later on in the game you get a
branding ability, instead of killing these
captains, you’re able to mind control them and put them under your command and
send them on missions to disrupt other captains progress and create power
struggles within the Uruk hierarchy. The branding system is satisfying and it
is gratifying when you’ve done some preparation and turned a warchief’s
bodyguard against them and they do all the work for you in hastening his dispatch.
Setting
The setting of the game
takes place within two distinct areas of Mordor; you begin in a barren
wasteland much like the Mordor described within the Tolkien books the ground is
coloured with different hues of brown and grey. And you end it in the Sea of
Nurnan a lush and verdant area. This is a welcome change because the standard
perspective upon Mordor is that of Barren wasteland and it is nice for a little
variety in the locations. Unfortunately ‘Barren’ can be used to describe the
open world as a whole, while it is rather big there is little to do other than
the main story missions as the side quests are some variance on ‘Kill this’ or
‘Get this’ and have little imagination or plot development added to them. It
would have been nice to see a few more well-crafted side quests which would
fill you in on some of the lesser known lore of the areas and perhaps acquaint
yourself with some new and interesting characters.
Conclusion:
Positive Negative
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- Good fun combat
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- Little to do In the open world
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- Faithful to lore
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- Fairly weak story
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-Graphically appealing
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- Short
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- Nemesis system
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