Shadow Of Mordor: The Breakdown

Since I only got to play this game on the Thursday before the review I had to post about another game. But over the weekend I got to playing this and beat it. I'd have to say coming from a world with Assassin's Creed and made by the producers of the Batman: Arkham series, this game really welcomes the foretold "Next Generation" of games.



Now when I say "welcomes next gen" I mean that it introduces so many unique game play features and really shows off capabilities of the new consoles. (I played this on PS4 by the way) On the other end of the spectrum this game stretches across, there are many, many features and abilities this game "steals" from other games. Now I have been trying to steer clear of game play and go directly to story, but with so many features and very controversial game play features, I may break that self set rule. But I will at least start with the story so you can just read that and not the game play segment if you really don't want to.

 Now Lord of the Rings has a LOT of back story and I am glad for the sake of this Breakdown that Shadow of Mordor keeps the story simple and the over complicated plot to a minimum. That said...

SPOILER ALERT: SPOILERS FOR SHADOW OF MORDOR AND MINOR SPOILERS FOR LORD OF THE RINGS

The plot of this game does require a minor knowledge of the Lord of the Rings series, so I will explain everything like the read didn't know. Please excuse me if I am explaining things like you are a child. The game starts off with you, playing as Talion, a ranger of Gondor, an elite force sworn to protect the south areas of Middle Earth from the breaches of Mordor and all the evil that comes out of that place. One day the evil manifests into an army of the evil Uruks (orcs) run by Sauron, that overrun the wall and kill everyone inside, including your wife, your son, and you for a blood sacrifice. You are then "banished from death" and are unable to go to the afterlife, staying in limbo. In limbo your soul is merged with an elf also living in limbo and your souls are bound together. This elf gives you the powers of a wraith, which is someone trapped between the land of the living and the dead. These powers include mind control, super speed, and a magical bow. This wraith is Celebrimbor the greatest blacksmith of the 2nd Age, and more importantly, the creator of the rings of power. Celebrimbor was convinced by Sauron, under a disguise, to forge the rings of power for man and dwarf. Celebrimbor also forged the one ring to rule them all, the one that Frodo and Bilbo found. He also secretly forged the rings of power for the elves before Sauron captured him and tortured him to death, killing him and his family with Celebrimbor's own forge hammer. He is now on the same quest for revenge as you. You and him go out to find the person who killed Talion and set the curse upon you, the Black Hand of Sauron. Talion and Celebrimbor's quest for revenge drives them to free the slaves the Uruks are holding captive and break their hold on the land by means of killing, controlling, and overall chaos.

Now to the game play. The game play of this game is very much a cluster of good and bad. It does use mechanics from other games, mainly the Batman: Arkham series and Assassin's Creed. Because it uses a free flowing combat system, and has an upgradeable skill tree, Shadow of Mordor uses the Batman system of attacking enemies freely an being able to attack enemy to enemy without stopping.  You build up a combo meter until you can unleash a devastating special attack. The combat system, except for the added gore of using a sword, is almost an identical copy of Batman's system, complete with a stun and a vault over enemies button. You also have a bow that uses magical arrows from Celebrimbor and it has its own skills like fire arrows and skow motion focus. I honestly never really used it but it does add another option in combat. It can also be used in the other part of Shadow of Mordor aside from open combat, which is stealth, and is also similar to Batman's system, with an ability to see enemies through walls and stealth kill them using a variety of methods. You can stealth kill enemies from behind, in front, or from above them. There are also special stealth kills like Brutalize, which brutally kills the enemy and scares off nearby enemies. The only real difference in combat and stealth from that of the Batman: Arkham series is the Wraith abilities, which later in the game allow you to "Brand" enemies, making them fight for you in battle or stealth brand them and activate them as a distraction. The branding ability also works on the various animals in the game, like four legged wolf-like creatures calld Caragors and giant troll creatures called Graugs. You can ride these animals after stunning them and have them fight for you. Branding also utilizes the major mechanic that drives and distinguishes Shadow of Mordor, the Nemesis system. The Nemesis system is a complex system that creates and upgrades the in game Uruk Captains and Warchiefs. They are randomly chosen normal enemies that are upgraded and turned into mini bosses. Each one has Strengths and Weaknesses in battle as opposed to normal enemies. They are also able to upgrade and become more powerful if they kill you, survive a battle against you, or retreat from a battle. They can actually get scars and burns from battle if they have fought you and will talk about these scars the next time they fight you. They can also go on their own missions to kill other Captains or complete challenges to be promoted and become more powerful. You can actually interfere with these missions to kill the Captain or randomly find them in combat. The Warchiefs are different in that they can have weaker Captains as their bodyguards, and can fight you with these Captains at their side. If you kill a Warchief it lessens the amount of normal enemies that spawn but like with all Captains a Uruk has a chance to eventually take their position. And back to the Brand system, you can Brand Captains and make them yours, allowing you to control them and tell them to kill Captains or become a Warchiefs bodyguard and betray them. This introduces a kind of champions system where you can help your Captain rank up and get promoted so he can kill troublesome Captains for you. The Nemesis system is the spine of Shadow of Mordor and really makes it the next gen game we were promised. There are other missions than Captain missions and the story, including sword, dagger, and bow missions that forge the legends of each of your weapons and changes their appearances. You can also free the human slaves around the map to find out information about Captains and their weaknesses. Overall the majority of your time will be spent on Nemesis missions and the story, which are both very good.

After having had beat this game and exploring the story it had to offer Shadow of Mordor is the next gen game we deserve. Like the Dark Knight. Alot like the Dark Knight actually. But still its own thing. The nemesis system really helped drive Shadow of Mordor's ratings and sales home.