In the same way that a talented painter might mimic the style of an old master the developers of Shadow of Mordor have borrowed heavily from the Arkham series of Batman games to create a game that answers the question “what if the people who made Arkham City made a game in Middle Earth about a ninja?” The final product is a highly polished exploration of the generic. It looks like a great game, it plays like a great game, but, no. They carry the brush strokes of the master, or, in the case of great video games, the deftness of design that advances the whole medium without causing existing hardware to explode.Īs such Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is not a great game. Great games, like great works of art, are originals – they capture something that speaks of their time and place in the world, yet resonate forever. With Shadow of Mordor it seems Warner finally found the right formula to make great Lord of The Rings games, they still have to build on it, particularly increase the diversity in the game and not the same generics characters and story.The most impressive thing about Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is just how much like a great game it manages to look. But the game shines thanks to its gameplay, clearly inspired by Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham series it also adds its own touch with the Wraith that gives you unique abilities like mounting wild beasts, controlling enemies or the nemesis system. The side activities are a little repetitive too, but the Army system is a true marvel and will provide infinite content, it took me 30 hours to finish the game with approximately 10 of them spend only to slaying captains (in other words expect 20 hours to finish the game at 100 percent).
The universe could be more developed too with a bigger map with more locations and also more diversity in the enemies and allies, but it's still a pleasant world to play in. The story may be the weak point of the game with undeveloped characters and missions that, for the most part, have too simple level-design it will not remain in your gamer memories. First as I said the game looks good with a lot of details it also runs perfectly fine without any frame-drops even when there is a lot of characters on the screen and without any bug. Shadow of Mordor is an appealing title with nice graphics and of course the beloved universe of Lord of The Rings would it live up to those Shadow of Mordor is an appealing title with nice graphics and of course the beloved universe of Lord of The Rings would it live up to those expectations, well I believe it does. It would have been good if cut-scene side-missions were available or the side-missions already in place had more variety and better objectives. My only major gripe is that after the campaign is finished the side missions (archer, sword, dagger and outcast missions) dont have enough variety to sustain 5-10hrs of grinding. The story was also really good as well, although at times it felt a bit thrown together (you can approach certain missions in whatever order you want, so branching side-stories can feel lost in the overall narrative). Even when you're completely leveled up its still possible to swamped by so many Orcs that even as a badass ranger you never truly feel safe in Mordor, this is especially true at the beginning of the game. The gameplay is reminiscent of Assassins Creed (free-roam, free-climbing) and Batman Arkham Asylum (combat), but it very much feels different. The gameplay is reminiscent of Assassins Creed I really enjoyed this game, its everything I hoped it would be when first seeing it. I really enjoyed this game, its everything I hoped it would be when first seeing it.