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Gameplay is a tried and tested formula that works well and is very popular; it keeps in line with other titles in this genre. The best way to describe Shadow of Mordor is a mix up between the Batman series of games and the Assassin’s Creed series of games. The combat is free-flowing with hit multipliers and combos to take down swarms of enemies, on top of this like I have previously mentioned you unlock extra combat abilities through the Ranger & Wraith skill trees so by the time you reach the second map area Talion is quite powerful and you can mix up your attacks when surrounded.
There are 2 large maps to explore each with six silver towers, these towers are similar to the vantage points in the Assassin’s Creed games and you will climb them and strike the anvil at the top, this will then show you what is available in the area to collect and also any missions that are available. It took me approximately 18 hours to get to the second map on the game as I did go off and find all the collectibles from each area. These collectibles when examined show a glowing blue point on them and you have to rotate and turn the item to find it, once found you are told a bit of a story about the item you have found which adds to the games lore and immersion in Middle Earth.
The stealth system works in the same way as the later Assassin’s Creed games (Assassin’s Creed III & Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag), pushing up against an object has Talion edge up against it allowing you to move to a corner and peak out to see what you are up against. You can also climb destroyed structures allowing you to watch patrols and drop stealth kill enemies if they break away from their pack. If you are spotted you can also hide within high grass like areas to evade attackers if you have set an alarm off in a Stronghold. Whilst trying to evade you can also use the environment to your advantage. If you are being chased by numerous Uruks, you will see carcasses hanging in places and fly nests. Shooting at a fly nest causes it to drop and most Orcs will scatter and give up the chase as they have a fear of them when there is a swarm. You can also shoot the hanging carcasses but you do need to be aware that this attracts at least 3 Caragors and they will attack you immediately if you are spotted by them, they will slow your pursuers up though as they attack Orcs also and anything else that may get in their way.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor essentially tells two stories: Talion is on his path of vengeance against The Black Hand and his Captains for the slaughter of his family, and you also have the Celebrimbor story arc which see’s you collecting Elven artefacts which restore his memories and you get some nice flashback scenes telling his tale alongside additional wraith abilities. You can see a lot of work has been put into the Middle Earth lore and both settings expand on why you are doing what you are. The Celebrimbor story could have easily just been tacked on to pad the game out but they have fully expanded it so you learn more about the smith that created the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor’s story arc is told through the Gollum missions, he has collected and hidden various Elven artefacts and knows him as The Bright Master, after recovering an item you will then get a flashback and can examine and read about it from the games menu.
Visually, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a beautiful game and the engine scales well across low end systems right up to the Ultra HD visuals (additional free download from Steam if your system can handle them) which requires a graphics card with 6Gb of Video Ram (VRAM). Unfortunately to get a card with that much ram you are looking at a GeForce Titan GPU. Looking on the Steam forums from what I can see most users with around 4Gb VRAM on their cards have been managing to run the game with the Ultra HD texture pack backed with an i7 CPU. With the events of the game taking place between The Hobbit and the Rings Trilogy, Mordor isn’t quite the desolate place you will see in the movies. The initial map is quite grey with Strongholds, mountains and well trodden paths due to it being closer to the Black Gate. However once you reach the second area, it is still plush and green and looks absolutely superb. It has been untouched by the forces or Sauron with plenty greenery. After looking at the different settings in the game ideally to get the best experience visually you will need to be running the game in 1080P (1920×1080) and using the medium preset as a minimum. High does give extra visual fidelity to textures up close and on the ground but whilst the game is moving and you are playing you will not notice much difference between medium and high. The Ultra setting is absolutely fantastic but I could barely pull 20 FPS (Frames Per Second) even with 720P resolution.
The sound on Shadow of Mordor is very similar to the movies: the music is very orchestral and when you are in combat ups the tempo. The Uruks while sitting around their camp fires about talk about “The Ranger” and “Grave Walker” and what they would do if they found you. After setting off alarms in the Strongholds they shout out if they see you clambering away across the roof tops, if you manage to evade them they will start talking about you running off and how you must have now gone. After taking out a few of the Captains and you gaining power smaller groups will run away from you in fear shouting out he’s here to try and get some back up, it all adds to the immersion whilst playing and the evolution of your character. Combat has the usual clangs and bashes of swords during combat whilst Uruks shout get him and taunt you. The collectibles you find scattered round the map after examining them read out to you the story behind them, there is a lot of voice work put into the game. All cut scenes are voiced as are mission dialogues from Gollum and other NPC’s you will encounter on your travels through Mordor.
Dwight Shultz (The A-Team) voices quite a few of the Nemesis Orcs and Hallas, Liam O’Brien voices Gollum (Does a lot of Video Game voice work, Resident Evil 5 being one of them and Gollum sounds similar to Andy Serkis) and Alastair Duncan (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo & Taggart) voices Celebrimbor.
Go to page 4 for the conclusions on this game.
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!