Middle Earth : Shadow Of Mordor Review - Review

Shadow Of Mordor is an action role playing game developed by Monolith Productions, it is set in the Lord Of The Rings universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien and takes between the events in The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.

You fill the shoes of a ranger captain called Talion who has the responsibility of guarding the black gate of Mordor. The opening scenes skip from the past to the present and show how Talion's wife and son are captured and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. The opening scenes serve to tell the backstory and also as a tutorial for basic combat and functions within the game overall this is very well done and the cut scenes and tutorials link together seamlessly and do not ruin the immersion in the game world and story at all.  During these opening scenes Talion also gets killed and is resurrected by the wraith of Celebrimbor who merges with Talion giving him wraith like powers and abilities, you then set forth in the world with the two objectives of avenging the death of Talion's family and finding the identity of Celebrimbor. By completing various missions in the game you receive flashbacks of Celebrimbor's past which reveal secrets regarding his identity.

The game is an open world type game with the map being fairly large (there are two different maps in the game) though even combined they are nowhere near the size of other RPG games such as Skyrim.

The in game map has story missions, spots to find ancient items and reveal some of the history of the world and various side missions littered across it. There are only 20 story missions in the whole game which may not seem like a lot but there are a vast amount of side missions and challenges available which help to elongate the playtime. I found myself trying to clear out all the side missions before progressing the story as these help make Talion stronger and grant him new abilities, once you unlock a few regions of the map in the game you will soon find yourself overwhelmed with choices as to how to spend your time. You unlock new areas on the map by finding forge towers, these can only be seen whilst in the wraith form of Celebrimbor (you change into wraith form by pressing L1 on the controller) once found you climb these and select to reforge your sword this then opens up the area and all the new missions and ancient items it contains.

You character upgrades come from earning both experience from fighting and collecting as collecting Mirian which serves as currency in the game. Abilities are upgraded by selecting different powers from a skill tree whilst upgrades to your sword, bow or dagger are purchased by using Mirian to unlock extra rune slots on the weapons, runes are then obtained by defeating Uruks ranked captain or higher and slotted into the weapons to gain further powers. One thing I found a bit disappointing is that you are stuck with the same weapons and armour for the whole game and there is no way to customise the look of your character, this might only be a disappointment for me though as I prefer games with tonnes of weapons and armour combinations available like in games such as Skyrim or Diablo 3.

The graphics, music and atmosphere in this game are really well done and are a sight to behold whether it be the weather effects and how when it rains all of the surfaces on your character or buildings become shiny and look drenched in water or the amazing and highly gory combat moves that can be performed in the game. Speaking of combat the system used in this game is simply amazing and one of the best I have ever had the pleasure to come to grips with. When you first start the game you will die a lot and feel vastly underpowered and overwhelmed by the moves available especially when ganged up by 5 or more Uruks with the unified goal of separating your head from your body, the fights come thick and fast but as you progress s you will find the button presses required to execute moves become more like second nature. The animations during fights are some of the smoothest and most fluid I have ever seen in a game and fights are a joy to partake in, you are never stuck into one action or move if you press the button to strike an opponent and realise that another enemy is about to hit you then you can quickly parry and the game will respond instantly by cancelling the strike you were about to unleash and carrying out the parry command.

The other innovative and interesting part of the combat system is the hierarchy system, if an Uruk opponent kills you he then has the chance to be promoted to a captain and next time you meet him he will remember your first encounter and taunt you aggressively, if you fail to kill the captain on your second encounter he will then level up even further and become a much tougher opponent during future encounters. The hierarchy of the Uruks is displayed on it's own screen and power battles between different Uruks take place frequently with the victorious Uruk gaining even more power and a possible promotion to become a veteran captain. You can gain intel and find out the various strengths and weaknesses of Captains by finding intel points on the map or by defeating lesser Uruks and interrogating them before you kill them, one particular Uruk captain was terrified of Caragor (a beast in the game kind of like a large wolf) and his reaction was hilarious when I came riding up to him whilst mounted on one of these beasts, he took off fleeing whilst screaming hysterically. It is touches like this that make you feel more involved in how the game world is shaped and makes you feel more immersed in the game.

Overall twenty story missions might not seem like a lot and you could most likely get through the whole game in 12 to 15 hours if you chose to only partake in the story missions but there is so much more on offer here from upgrading your character to collecting ancient artefacts that will hold your interest for a long time. The story missions and in fact the story of the whole game isn't really innovative or exciting and I found the whole hierarchy system to be of much more interest than the story itself and this was what kept me coming back to the game. It is never fun to get killed but when you have the chance to actively hunt the Uruk that just killed you and exact your revenge then this just adds another dimension of depth and replayability to the game itself. If you are a fan of action RPG games then I highly recommend to add this game to your collection, it doesn't have anywhere near the depth of customisation in games like Skyrim or the Dragon Age series but what it does deliver through stealth gameplay and the combat and hierarchy system will keep you interested for a long time.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Warner Bros Games

The Pros

+Amazingly fluid and varied combat, partnered with an innovative hierarchy system

+Graphics, music and atmosphere sell the world

The Cons

-Story is not that interesting and the world is only slightly more so

-No visual options for your character, so everyone gets the same person