REVIEW: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

by Lucas Schmidt

By blending elements from popular action series like Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham, fans of Tolkien’s Middle Earth now have a place to live out their fantasy of fighting endless waves of orcs. An enrapturing story won’t be found here, but an excellently designed society of orcs and a robust, fast-paced combat system will keep you coming back for more carnage.

Set in between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Shadow of Mordor follows the story of Talion. He’s a captain of The Black Gate that sits between the wastelands of Mordor and the kingdom of Gondor. But on the eve of Sauron’s return, Talion is killed along with his wife, son, and fellow soldiers. Death however is just the beginning of Talion’s journey.

He is resurrected from the grave by an ancient wraith who initially has no recollection of his identity or his past life. So he and Talion venture into Mordor to find Sauron’s Black Captains and force them to break the curse that binds the wraith to him. This quest however quickly dilutes into one of generic vengeance and mundane treasure hunts. The treasure hunts lead you to artifacts that spark the wraiths memory and allow him remember bits of his past life. The few non-orc characters you meet will usually need your help in killing orcs and in return they often give you information to help you find a Black Captain, or lead you to another artifact.

 

Artifacts such as these grant Talion and the wraith a glimpse into the past, and are often the objective of many quests.

These characters are bland and only serve the purpose of giving you objectives and teaching you basic gameplay mechanics. By the end of it all, you likely won’t remember any of their names or anything about their personalities. To make matters worse, the story’s climax is a confusing mess that doesn’t explain what happens to important characters and sets up a sequel in a cliché manner. But despite having an awful narrative, Shadow of Mordor is well worth your time thanks to its invigorating combat and procedurally generated orc society.

The basic combat mechanics of the Batman: Arkham series have been essentially skinned over to fit the lore of Middle Earth. Combat consists of you leaping from one opponent to the next, striking them with your sword instead of Batman’s fists. All the while you block, roll, and counter enemy attacks before they strike at you. As you build up your hit streak you unlock the ability to instantly execute enemies with a few quick swings of your sword. These executions are nothing short of mesmerizing. Talion lops off heads with precision and brutally slashes and stabs orcs with extreme prejudice. Once Talion has accessed all of his abilities, an entire squad of enemies can be easily wiped out in only half of a minute.

Being able to simultaneously fight several orcs is made possible by the supernatural powers of the wraith.

In addition to the sword are Talion’s dagger and bow. The dagger is used to stealthily eliminate enemies who wander off on their own or who aren't paying attention. The bow however is attached to the wraith who can slow down time to allow for incredible accuracy. It’s easy to land arrows into the heads of several orcs in quick succession and silently eliminate them from any distance. Arrows fly with incredible speed in a straight path, making the bow both easy to use and extremely precise. Shadow of Mordor’s bow gameplay is easily the best I've experienced in any video game I've ever played.

A robust set of unlockable skills ensures that you are always becoming more powerful as the game progresses. By the time you reach the end of the skill tree you’ll be pulling off instant executions about four times more frequently and most of your skills will be significantly more deadly.

The other role-playing aspect is the rune system. Each of Talion’s weapons can be equipped with up to five runes that alter and improve their effects. Runes are dropped by slain captains and war chiefs, and act as a continual source of rewards. But the most exceptional aspect of the game isn’t its combat or its role-playing elements. The nemesis system is the truly note-worthy aspect of Shadow of Mordor.

Caragors can be mounted and ridden to hastily get across terrain and up ledges, while also making quick work of orcs.

Every orc you fight has their own appearance, name, title, strengths, weaknesses, and weapons. They’re vastly more varied than the enemy base of just about any other game. The strongest of these orcs are the warchiefs. There are ten in total and each of them commands their own pack of captains and soldiers. These captains are always fighting amongst themselves, looking to climb the hierarchy ladder by assassinating, ambushing, and bullying others. The wraith gains the ability to enter the minds of captured orcs later in the game, allowing you to bend them to your will. You can send them to betray their masters, assassinate another captain, or start a riot. All of these create interesting ways to disrupt the army of Mordor and add a macro-style management system that gives an additional sense of purpose to the intense combat.

When you are killed by an orc, time in the world passes before you are resurrected. During this time, the orc who killed you is promoted to captain and other captains continue to fight one another in their never-ending struggle for power. Captains who kill you repeatedly will become significantly stronger and will taunt you every time you encounter them. This adds a personal touch to your battles unlike anything in any game that’s come before.

The great gameplay and superb macro-management of the orc society are capped off with some well-done aesthetic designs. A blue glow emanates from Talion and orcs whenever actions involving the wraith are performed. And parts of Talion are replaced with the transparent, decayed body of the wraith at times when he performs inhuman abilities like jumping several stories to the ground. These serve as a continual reminder that the wraith has possessed you and is greatly enhancing your abilities.

The wraith reveals himself to defend you from attacks and allows you to perform extraordinary feats in combat.

The crunching sounds of metal clashing on metal and swords tear through flesh are audibly prominent in fights. You sword rings out as you slash it through the air and skulls break with a resounding crack. These realistic sounds add an extra layer of authenticity to the games design and make the already stellar combat even more exciting.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ushered in a new generation of video games less than one year ago. Since then, few games have come close to showing what the potential is for games of this generation. Shadow of Mordor is now the best example of what innovation in a new generation title can look like. From its exemplary combat to its one-of-a-kind nemesis system, Shadow of Mordor is clearly a game that utilizes the capacity of new technology to create a rich, believable world that provides a unique experience to every player.

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Graphics by Savannah Smith