Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

In the light of the previous Tolkein generated games like the Lord of the Rings games of previous years, expectations for the latest Middle Earth title were inevitably high. On the other hand, being released in a year filled with delays, broken games and constant patches for bugs, expectations were lowered. I am pretty happy to say, however, that Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor is an amazing game, and gave me more fun than any game has in a long while.

Starting with presentation, this game is gorgeous. And the scary thing is I'm not even sure that this is a game where the developers had a main focus on the visual aspects that make you stop and take notice even though there are ten Uruks slashing at you at the same time. Seeing as the game is set in Mordor, you'd expect to see a lot of dark colours with fire and smoke playing a big role, and it does, but while those darker colours are present and create a strong atmosphere for the desolate land you play in, the greens and beautiful sunsets that make you stop what you're doing and take a screenshot or a photo with the in-game camera, are perplexing to behold. These brighter colours also play a large role in the game's setting, as, if players tire from the darker colours of Udun they are greeted with the much brighter and livelier colour pallet of the second half of the game where you travel to an opposite area of Mordor to continue your quest. Not only are the in game graphics great, but for the short flashback cut scenes that occasionally occur through the game's story, players are pleasantly greeted with the scenes that could easily be illustrations in motion from the books themselves. The game's audio-presentation is brilliant also, with strong vocal performances from stars Troy Baker and Nolan North, who are supported by a great script, and a cast of voice actors that bring Uruks and the Tolkein world in general to life. In fact, seeing as I only realised that Troy Baker and Nolan North were the main voice actors of the game during the end credits, this speaks great credits of the performances given by both. As far as the story goes, it's one that keeps you interested from it's shocking beginning through the whole game. The story will interest anyone who's read or seen a Tolkein movie or book, and makes great use of characters like Golum, whilst shining a new light on the origins of Sauron. However, this is not a game that is completely character and story driven, and while both character and story are a great feature of the title, this is a game that is led thoroughly by it's gameplay.

Whilst the game may draw a lot from the successful gameplay of the Arkham games, and draw some code from Assassin's creed II, the gameplay is fantastic. And it must be said, it may not be completely made up of original mechanics and it's own style of gameplay, but in this instance, using a perfect blend of both games it draws from, whilst tweaking some things to suit this world a bit better, it has all worked out perfectly. I have to say that this gameplay is some of the best and most fun I've ever experienced. For the first time in years in an open world game, I've continued to play past the 25 hour mark it takes to complete the game and still love my time in Mordor, collecting as many trophies as I can, and generally just enjoying the brilliance that the game offers.The combat system is definitely one of the high points of the game, drawing most of of itself from the batman games, however the countering system is much improved and is much more responsive, meaning that if you've got too many enemies on you at once, you'll stop whatever you're doing to counter someone about to stab you in the back. The combat system also rises above batman's as with Tallion (the main character) your swords make you feel more powerful, and the hacking and pounding you might have to put on the dark knight's villains are simplified, with some added, lovely gore. With Uruk blood and heads flying everywhere, this saves a lot of time, and you'll never feel under-powered when attacking an enemy, especially when the powers and special skills begin to come into play.While you'll have fun killing Uruk after Uruk and enjoying yourself, navigating the great world and landscapes that Mordor has to offer can also be great fun. However, this can sometimes seem a little slow, especially in the opening few hours when you haven't really got anything to speed you up like the sprint boost over objects or the ability to mount Caragors or Graugs giving you some extra pace. While most of the time you'll end up going all swords blazing to take out as many enemies as you can, stealth is always a huge option in the game, and you can enjoyably pick off your enemies one by one first before taking the louder approach. You also have other options to deal with packs of enemies such as distractions, branding them, or poisoning them and watching the mayhem fold out in front of you.

The best part about the gameplay is how satisfying it all is. The amount of options there are, the great combat and animations with well timed mechanics, all feel great, and not at any point in the game did I feel like it was controlling me, I was always the one causing a great kill to happen, and the game made me feel great for doing it all. Even after 30 hours of the game, I still love watching some specific kills, and none of the finisher animations feel overused. 2 minor downfalls of the gameplay, though, are a slightly overused quick-time event that's used for countering enemies when your last legs, mounting beasts you've been hunting, and sometimes places it feels a little squeezed in. While it's not an annoying quick-time event, once you've used it a few hundred times and it fails you a few, it does start to become a bit of an annoyance. The other criticism I have for the gameplay, was the final boss battle. We all love finally getting to the last fight in a game, you've beaten your way through hundreds of enemies, and finally you can inflict revenge on the character that's screwed you over in the first place. But why would we want to watch a cut scene of the main villain getting killed, when we could just as well give him a few slashes first, or at least have a go. This, though, is an ending that feels and seems a little rushed in some ways. Whilst it's a nice tie off in the story, I feel like they could have given it a little more time for us to digest the cool plot twists that they put in front of us, not abruptly end the story after a very quick final chapter. However, this is a minor setback in what is an amazing game, and while that's the end of the story, if you're anything like me you'll spend hours and hours after it enjoying what last few side quests, upgrades and hunts that the game is left to offer you.

Finally, one of my favourite bits of this game, is the attention to detail given to the brilliant enemy system. It would be all too easy for the developers of a game to simply make a dozen animated enemies and send them out. But no, WB decided to create something really worth beating, a whole enemy system that gives your enemies meaning, creates new bosses with different skills than the last, and quite frankly giving the game one of the most frustrating (in a good way) deaths from any game ever. Every death brings in new upgrades for the enemies, meaning that if they kill you, they'll not only be promoted in rank, but they might gain new abilities, grunt followers, or defenses that make him harder to kill next time, but the best thing has to be using the intel system to your advantage so you know exactly how to attack each new enemy best. It's always fun to force a weak Uruk to spill the beans on a higher up, then use that higher up's fear of bee's or vulnerability to ranged attacks against them. Not only is using the system against them fun, but also branding them so you have control over them, then forcing them to fight one another is very enjoyable. But for once this is a game that you really get the sense that the immersive world you're in is happening around you, not for you. The different Uruks, all with their separate characters, motives and names, will fight one another for power, all trying to reach the high rank of Warchief.

To sum up, Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor is a brilliant game, with amazing gameplay, presentation and a story that will keep you interested from it's dramatic opening sequence to it's somewhat abrupt ending. This is one of the most satisfying and fun single player adventure games to play that there has been in years, and whether you're a true Tolkein nerd or a casual fan of the movies, you will love the immersive world of Mordor, and what's more you will love exploring it and making it yours for all the time you're playing it. This is definitely worth the price of the game and then some for the amount of fun and time you'll have with it, how this did not get more game of the year prizes puzzles me.