For most of the review, click here: https://backloggd.com/u/gamemast15r/review/5035186/
The weird thing with this game is that I’m not really a Lord of the Rings fan, or a Tolkien fan or anything related to high fantasy aside from Elder Scrolls and a few other things here and there. I never watched the movies or know much about it aside from a few characters and the several memes that have come out of the series. However, I remember reading about this game somewhere in the mid 2010s, specifically reading about the Nemesis System. The idea that I could fight random people and their stories change and adapt based on my actions sucked me in, and due to this I put it on my wishlist for Xbox One. At one point for my birthday I believe, my mother got it for me and having gotten curious about it I put it in and gave it a shot during a really depressing period in my life. I loved this game, the random encounters I would have and would play it with my buddy Nick, specifically grabbing a guy named “Feldush Giggles”. Wanting more to satiate this need, I picked up its sequel Shadow of War full price (I think 2017-2018) and just went ham on it for months at a time. I loved my time with that too before it came to an end, though recently in the past couple of years I ended up playing both games again. Shadow of Mordor was given to me by my dude Bad Ghosts, who actually made a video review of this game I’ll place here AND bought it for me on Steam:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4dwKEWpQs6s&pp=ygUbQmFkIGdob3N0cyBzaGFkb3cgb2YgbW9yZG9y
The Nemesis System as a concept is basically centered around this: you have thousands of Orcs in Sauron’s army in any given time, each led by 19 Orc Captains and each one of them led by one of the five Elite Warchiefs. The Warchiefs are the head honchos while the ones below him are their subordinates. If you’re whole goal is to take over the region, how would you do it. Normally it would be to kill them, and you very well can do that. However if you kill one, another one will take a slot, and without a lot of humans to help, you’re basically in an everlasting cycle of orcs dominating each other. What do you do? Forcefully brainwash them of course! Or kill them! But the thing is, every choice you make affects every facet of every other thing, as their relationships to each other (rivalries, allies, positions) organically change over time alongside their strengths and weaknesses. You get killed by one orc over and over again and he will get stronger and stronger, taunting you with how many times he’s killed you over multiple encounters until you take him out and brainwash him. You could blow one up and burn him to death, have him come back later on in the game wanting to take revenge, have his name change and ALSO gain a weakness to fire. You have trouble learning someone else’s secrets, find a snitch (green logo above an orc) and sneak up to them using the Wraith power and steal the knowledge. A slave orc could kill you and become a captain with a new reputation as due to your wraith powers you’ll never truly die, and work him up to Warchief before killing/dominating him. Dominate an orc (which they have a chance to resist, especially if they’re not weakened, which is labeled as green around them) and then send them a death threat, which boosts up their level and amount of guards in exchange for the gear drop to be a much higher level (if you land the final blow of course) or send them after another orc to ensure a power struggle. Missions pop up all the time in a big area, and the truth is you don’t need to do anything if you don’t want to, as you could dominate a bunch of them and watch them duel each other to the death to see who wins. Advancing time helps the flow of how the Uruks move, allowing newer orcs to come into play and having older orcs both enemy and ally die or potentially betray you in the process. Everything is random and honestly it’s just a chef’s kiss because it leads to more immersive and emergent gameplay stories instead of just having a linear game. [spoiler]Every character is different, every name is different, every personality different, every interaction different, every location and everything is unique in its own way and everyone has a chance to die even if they’re your favorite orc. [/spoiler]The only true critique I could give this system is that it isn’t as big as it was in [spoiler]Shadow of War, with the ability to take over huge regions and assigning orcs as different positions like your bodyguard or another bodyguard. That’s saved for the sequel.[/spoiler] Does that mean that it’s not worth playing this game’s Nemesis system? No, it’s still worth it even to see the beginning. I wish more games were able to use this system and it wasn’t trapped behind an awful Warner Bros. patent because it’s a damn shame. Still though, it helps lift this game up to crazy heights.
Overall I’ll say that besides the Nemesis System, the game isn’t really revolutionary in any other way. Does that make it a bad game? God no. Again the combat feels safe and familiar enough to get the general gist of how it flows (especially if you’ve played Batman) and everything operates basically the same, like smacking them with a Wraith Stun before slashing enemies repeatedly to unleash a combo of pain, knocking higher level enemies to the ground and finishing them with an execution (RT + X). You’ll learn to balance this soon fight wise but once you get it going it feels both genuinely powerful and challenging whenever the captains show up. The Bow is a bit more unique in the sense that you can pull it out mid combat and aim for the heads of enemies (or feet to pin certain ones if they try to run) and even do it midair while in slow motion. Even the stealth kills from your dagger (sword hilt in-game) allow you the flexibility of regular kills or scaring enemies nearby away through sheer brutality. The parkour is pretty solid and effective too, with no real actual thoughts to be had on it other than thank god there’s no fall damage. But again the main reason to play this is the very effective Nemesis System, a gameplay mechanic which I find to be so interesting that it convinced me to want to play a Lord of the Rings game in the first place. Too long; didn't read version: it's not original but it's fun!
Links:
https://gamesbeat.com/game-boss-interview-michael-de-platers-postmortem-on-middle-earth-shadow-of-war/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_War
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/8/14835708/middle-earth-shadow-of-war-lotr-interview-gameplay-trailer
https://kotaku.com/the-messy-story-behind-youtubers-taking-money-for-game-1644092214
https://www.polygon.com/2016/7/11/12149350/warner-bros-shadow-of-mordor-youtube-ftc-settlement/
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/Shadow-of-Mordor-Accused-of-Actually-Using-Assassins-Creed-Assets/
https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/01/shadow-of-mordor-dev-was-never-worried-by-assassins-creed-comparisons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Productions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dwKEWpQs6s (Ghosts Review)
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/shadow-of-mordor-director-discusses-assassin-s-creed-copycat-claims/1100-6419812/
https://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/11/27/crafting-the-black-lands-the-art-of-shadow-of-mordor.aspx
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/lord-of-the-rings-prequel-shadow-of-mordor-is-not-a-movie-game/1100-6417287/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3330488/
https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/middle-earth-shadows-of-mordor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsar1TrD2nQ (Soundtrack)
https://gameinformer.com/gamer-culture/2019/07/28/shadow-of-mordor-was-once-a-batman-game
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/shadow-of-mordors-beloved-nemesis-system-exists-because-the-publisher-threw-a-tantrum-about-second-hand-sales/
https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/12/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-announced
