Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Game of the Year Edition (Xbox One)
When it comes to more modern licensed games, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment might be one of the most reliable publishers when it comes to game quality, even if they do often get a bit overzealous when it comes to monetization and paid DLC. Games released under their banner often accurately capture the spirit of the adapted franchise while still giving it a unique spin that makes it an enjoyable gaming experience, with series like the LEGO titles and the Batman: Arkham games pleasing series fans and players alike. When Warner Bros. turned their attention to The Lord of the Rings franchise, these elements carried over well, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor inventing a new story and new characters for J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe that make for a wonderful fit for both the series and for a video game.
The game begins though, quite surprisingly, with our protagonist’s death. Talion is a man who stands watch on the wall that separates the desolate and dark lands of Mordor from the rest of the medieval fantasy realm of Middle-earth, but he proves a poor defender when the orcs of Mordor launch an attack on it, the minions of Sauron slaying him with ease as the dark lord begins to rebuild his power between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. However, Talion is not yet allowed to die, a wraith choosing him to be his host as it tries to discover its old identity and finish whatever business keeps it trapped between life and death. Talion and his new wraith ally now share one body, heading off into Mordor with a mix of Talion’s martial prowess and the abilities of the spectral amnesiac. Mordor is teeming with orcs though, and while Talion’s inability to stay dead means he can fight them endlessly, he can’t necessarily fight them effectively if he just charges at them with just his sword and ghostly powers. Instead, he’ll need to learn the hierarchy of the orc forces, taking down key commanders and manipulating the stronger Uruks to diminish their power and force out the leaders responsible for his own death and the death of Talion’s family.
The integration of series elements is done quite expertly in Shadow of Mordor, the game putting a lot of focus on original or unexplored elements of the Lord of the Rings canon while still mixing in some familiar faces. Talion himself is a new invention, as are his main rivals during his quest through Mordor for revenge, Sauron having a few new high-ranking servants who serve as targets Talion can face in a battle whose fates are not a foregone conclusion despite this being a prequel to the true conflict with Sauron that other characters are involved with. There are new and interesting personalities to encounter along the way too so we’re not just left with Talion and the wraith to work with, a dwarf who loves to hunt having an over-the-top personality that draws out some more jovial moments from the usually stoic and focused Talion and a cowardly and silly orc named Ratbag serving as an unfortunate ally for Talion as his early attempts to manipulate the power structure of Mordor involve him teaming up with the only orc willing to work with a human. Familiar faces for Tolkien fans show up as well, but they are not an overwhelming or showstopping presence, each one having a purpose for being there. Even Gollum, a character whose sole focus on the One Ring of power could have relegated him to a weak cameo, finds a legitimate reason for his presence in the plot that doesn’t feel forced.
The game isn’t quite the sweeping epic journeys that the books it pulls from are, partly because of its limited setting, but its story does feel a good fit for the adventure being told. Mordor, despite being a deliberately desolate land, still finds ways to have defined areas so the game world isn’t too similar throughout, orc fortresses and ruins helping to give areas more character and the game even choosing to later explore a less-traveled area of Mordor with a distinctly different geography and tone. Since Shadow of Mordor is an open-world game, the need to have distinct areas is a necessity as you’ll be running on foot to many of them, although there are fast travel options to unlock and the size of the regions you visit aren’t too overwhelming to traverse when you need to get to a mission or point of interest.
As for how it plays, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has some clear inspiration from the Batman: Arkham games, this action title focused primarily on quick attacks and counters. During a fight, you can time your sword swings right to make them deal more damage, attempting to match your character’s strikes with your button-pressing rhythm more rewarding than mindlessly mashing the attack button. When an enemy comes in to strike though, a quick button press can instantly take you to countering their attack and forcing them away so you may continue fighting, and this is definitely a necessary skill as the orcs of Mordor love to gang up on you. Swarm tactics are incredibly common on their part, most of them quick to call for help if they’ve spotted you, but you have a few stealth options and ranged options to work with. While your sword is great for close-up fighting, you can take out foes from afar with a spectral bow or sneak up on them with your knife, each of these weapons having special runes you can apply to give them different attributes or make them more effective. More interestingly though are the skills you gain as you level up for completing quests and defeating enemies, many of them having some clearly useful applications in battle or the overworld. Your attacks in combat can get new skills and finishers, your stealth options can become lethally effective, your bow more efficient, and your spectral abilities can all be boosted as you progress, leveling up definitely being a rewarding experience.
While the orcs do like to gang up on you, each of your combat approaches have their uses and their flaws to encourage play variety. If you want to go in and fight them up close, you’ll find that being surrounded by angry Uruks makes it hard to counter properly, and what’s more, some can’t be countered or might be resistant to your regular attacks. Taking down orcs from far away with your bow, distracting them, or picking off a few from the shadows will make the skirmish easier or may even finish it if you can avoid drawing attention from their allies, meaning many missions have different ways to achieve victory. Your wraith’s powers are incredibly useful for stealth and shooting as well, Talion able to view a spectral world that lets him see orcs through walls to set up his traps or effectively prepare an ambush. The wraith powers are actually a pretty clever way of essentially giving him super powers, Talion able to survive high falls and do some unusual acrobatics as he calls on his supernatural ally to up his abilities. One of the more interesting skills the wraith gives him though relates to the orc politics of Mordor, that being the ability to dominate their minds.
While it’s not available from the get-go, the spectral domination power perhaps plays into the most interesting aspect of Shadow of Mordor, and that’s going up against the power structure of the Uruks through what is known as the Nemesis system. While there are plenty of regular orcs who will fall to your blade easily, the Uruk leaders put up a greater fight, their ranks including roles like captains and lieutenants all the way up to warchiefs. These special orcs all have more health and more defined personalities than the regular foes, the player needing to take down members of the group to get info on higher ranking members to weaken their hold on Mordor. However, Uruks can have special conditions before they’ll appear or special traits like being immune to stealth kills, resisting attempts at execution-style attacks, or they’ll come with weapons coated in fire or poison. However, these leaders can also have fears to exploit, the player able to weaken them by doing things letting setting them on fire or unleashing the natural monsters of Mordor on them… but some of them are instead emboldened by their hatred for such thing, making the reconnaissance of interrogating lesser orcs a good way to avoid trouble and gain an edge. These guys aren’t just tough either, they have plenty of personality, encountering them always beginning with an introduction and a line from them that helps make them a more meaningful foe. Dumb ones, silly ones, cruel ones, drunk ones… the Uruk leaders come in many forms, but even more interesting is that any orc can become a leader if they manage to score a kill on you. The power situation shifts over the course of play, and while you can make a meaningful dent in it by eliminating leaders, falling to your enemy will lead to power struggles and new foes filling holes in the hierarchy. If you fall to a leader, they’ll even recognize you when you fight them again, and it’s quite easy to establish a rivalry if a particularly nasty one keeps taking you down. The native creatures put up a good fight as well like the large monstrous cats called Caragors, the giant Graugs, and the human-like cave-dwelling Ghûls able to skirmish with you or the orcs, the player able to turn them against their enemies and even ride some of them around as orc-killing beasts of war.
For the most part, the mission structures in Shadow of Mordor complement the game’s structure well. The story missions keep the game moving quickly and provide some fun interactions with characters and interesting battle scenarios, but the side missions definitely make deviating from the main plot worth it. In particular, the missions meant to increase the legend of your three main weapons are particularly good at challenging the relevant combat styles, the sword getting heavy combat focus, the bow requiring quick and accurate aim, and the dagger getting some stealth focused missions. These challenges are about mastering the excellent combat system on offer, which perhaps makes them stand out as much better than the weaker survival challenges, hunts, and resistance focused missions. The survival challenges are just about finding certain things as you explore and the hunts about killing certain creatures, best done as a passive task rather than something actively pursued, but the resistance missions almost all seem to be based around the idea of there being three captured prisoners you have to free from the orcs. The layouts are different, but the goals aren’t quite as varied as the weapon quests, story missions, or downloadable content that is included for free in this Game of the Year Edition. While resistance missions and other collectables are meant to make the open world have a bit more to find, the downloadable campaigns add some more meaningful missions to chase after you’ve completed the main story content. Besides the restructuring the challenge modes add to the main game structure, the two extra plot-focused expansions have a distinct feel and focus. Lord of the Hunt involves Talion and his dwarf friend needing to take down a new set of Uruk warchiefs who specialize in using the monsters of Mordor, the player even getting new ways to interact with the wildlife for some distinctly new battles with the orcs and monsters. The Bright Lord story, meanwhile, focuses on the wraith’s life before the events of the game, the focus now being even more on taking control of orcs and the player able to build them up as allies more than ever. Both focus in harder on elements of the game to make them stronger, almost making them like the weapon quests but for monsters and mental domination and ultimately ensuring that Shadow of Mordor has plenty of focus on its most interesting elements in what is seemingly its definitive edition.
THE VERDICT: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Game of the Year Edition crafts a marvelous new tale in the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien, bringing in new ideas that blend well with established elements to make a game that turns the most desolate place in Middle-earth into one brimming with character and content. The combat is solid and encourages many playstyles, putting up a fight for each approach but providing plenty of unlockable skills to constantly evolve it over the course of the game. The Nemesis system makes fighting the orcs even more interesting, your enemies coming not only with personalities but character-focused weaknesses to exploit and strengths to overcome. Whether it’s the story of the game’s characters, the power structure of the Uruks of Mordor, or the many challenging layouts for combat encounters, there always feels like there’s something strong driving the play, something made even greater by the included DLC focusing on areas less explored by the rest of the title.
And so, I give Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: Game of the Year Edition for Xbox One…
A FANTASTIC rating. This return to the setting of Middle-earth manages to have a distinct identity in the series while still carrying over many of the great elements of the rest of The Lord of the Rings, already making it a pretty faithful new tale in the universe that fits in well with its smart mix of old and new. Interesting characters to follow is one appeal, but interesting foes to fight certainly pushes it even further, the fact any orc can become a named character with a personality and growing history if they take you down making the Nemesis system an incredibly interesting way of structuring the opposition. The combat system already does an excellent job of both empowering the character with plenty of interesting abilities while also making sure that foes can still put up a fight, but involving Uruk captains opens the door to many new and varied battle situations that are further helped by missions and story expansions that ask for different approaches to fighting. The weak structure of a few side missions can’t weigh it down too much due to their optional nature, and they can even be decent to dabble in from time to time since the game’s core systems are strong enough to make light visits to resistance missions more opportunities for interesting avenues for ability use.
The title “Game of the Year” doesn’t really mean a whole lot in the video game world, especially since any old publication can hand the title out to whatever game they please, but Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is definitely a game that deserve to be in the running for one. While here it just means its a version of the game with the downloadable content included for free, it is certainly an excellent example of what 2014 had to offer and what adventures Middle-earth still has in store for us years after Tolkien finished his work in that realm.