The Lord of the Rings is a franchise in the same realm as
Star Wars with its recognition, in that if you slap the name on something, or create something in the universe, fans lose their goddamn minds. This is why there are so many video games surrounding the two franchises, and their subsequent spin-offs such as
Clone Wars and
The Hobbit.
The market is flooded with games from both of these beloved franchises, with varying levels of success. For every
TIE Fighter, there will be a
Shadows of the Empire (which may have been fine when it was new but DOES NOT hold up). So which side of the scale will
Shadow of Mordor fall? Will this be a thrilling adventure like
Third Age? (yes I enjoyed that game) or will it be middling like
Conquest? (had its moments but felt mostly meh).
It's very easy to explain this game's mechanics by using other games to compare it to.
Shadow of Mordor feels very much like a mash-up of
Assassin's Creed and the
Batman: Arkham series. If that sounds intriguing to you, then you have a pulse. Now, how about I mention that it does those mechanics as well, if not better, than those other titles? Yeah, now I got ya!
The story takes place between the events of
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings. You play as a ranger named Talion (who is voiced by Troy Baker, dude gets work!) who's family is murdered by soldiers of Sauron. Talion is also killed, but is revived and posessed by a wraith, which grants Talion wraith-like supernatural powers to go back into Mordor (you can simply walk into Mordor if you want) and exact his revenge on Sauron. Of course, there had to be a familiar face for fans to interact with, so Gollum makes an appearance and ends up being a main story point, sharing similar interests with Talion and being very intrigued by this Wraith that possesses Talion.
OK, so let's get back to this whole
Assassin's Creed/
Batman mash-up I was talking about earlier.
Shadow of Mordor is an open-world game in the style of those two games. Traversing the world is very similar to that in
Assassin's but I find it to be even more fluid and overall better here. In
AC, you would need to hold a couple buttons and find the one thing you could grab onto to get up a building. It worked, but it had its frustrations for sure. In
Shadow, you hold A and up on the left stick (Xbox One, you could imagine what it is for PS4) and Talion will zoom up the side of a ledge or building. It is so simple to get around and doesn't leave you fumbling with the controls. You can also unlock an ability that gives you a speed burst after a short hop over an obstacle, or the ability to ride wild mounts in the world, all of which makes traveling the open world easy, quick, and rewarding.
How does Batman fit in? Ah yes. The game is played from a third-person perspective, and when you do your normal (simple) walk into Mordor, the camera shifts putting Talion just to the left of the screen, which is how Batman walks, you also walk faster when crouched, like Batman, but the big connection is the combat. The
Batman: Arkham series is best known for its outstanding combat system, and rightfully so since it's one of, if not THE, best combat system in games. On Xbox one, X does your normal attack, Y does your counter, A dodges (and vaults over shielded enemies) B gives you a Wraith Stun, and Right Trigger and X can execute a downed enemy. It does go deeper though, Left Trigger aims your bow and arrow, even giving you a charge shot and the ability to slow down time to line up that headshot. Also, after a certain number of strikes, you can perform an execution with Y and B together to quickly finish a fight. It goes on from there but you get the idea. The fighting is very fluid and it is just as frustrating when your combo gets broken because you know you screwed up. The executions are brutally awesome and the whole system is as satisfying as it ever was.
Even with all this awesomeness, those pale in comparison to the coolest thing in the game, and one of the coolest things I have seen in ANY game: the
Nemesis system.
This may be a little hard to perfectly describe, so follow my road map here; There are 5 main Orc Warchiefs, who all have several "right hand orcs", who also have Orcs working under them, who have orcs working under them, so 5 Warchiefs and 3 rows of captains in the chain of command. Your job is to thin the ranks by hunting these Orcs down and getting to the Chiefs. These captains could be anywhere on the map and each have unique strengths and weaknesses which you learn by interrogating other officers, which is useful information since some Orc captains may be invulnerable to specific attacks.
You may think that once you kill an Orc Captain, then it's just on to the next one, but oh no. Over time, new orcs will fill in the vacant space in the army, so you could be taking out orcs forever if you really wanted to. The current orcs in the army also level up over time, they will also randomly attack other captains to gain more power, so the captains are constantly moving within the army.
Oh, but it goes on. Let's say you meet your demise at the hands of a random orc in the middle of a heated battle, that no name orc suddenly has a name, gets a level boost, and becomes a captain in the army. These captains also remember what happened during the last encounter, if they've killed you before, they will mention it, if you killed them before, they may appear with scars or other disfigurements and be even more pissed off because they want revenge. There are a lot of random factors at work with this, so no two people will have the same experience. The whole system is incredible and is the reason why I haven't made it far in the story, because I just want to seek these monsters out and bring hell upon them.
Worth noting, if you get this game (and you absolutely should) get it for these newer consoles or PC, since the Nemesis system will be scaled back in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
Aside from unlocking abilities from XP, you also acquire runes by slaying orc captains, which give buffs to your sword, bow, and dagger. These runes are definitely helpful when you get into big fights, as they can increase damage or restore health.
It's very easy to get distracted in
Shadow of Mordor with so much happening, which makes it a real testament to the game that all these distractions are fun and keep the game fresh throughout. The Nemesis system is an absolute leap forward in the genre and will be the reason I put tons of hours into this. I haven't even mentioned the fact that the game looks incredible, and the voice acting is top notch (Troy Baker AND Nolan North in the same game, so duh).
While I can sit here and say it's a little bit
Assassin's Creed and a little bit
Batman: Arkham, the fact is that
Shadow of Mordor takes inspirations from those franchises, puts its own unique spin on it, and comes out one of the best games of the year and an absolute must-buy for any action game fan.
