![]() ![]() The fighting is fast and as you get to upgrade Talion’s abilities, taking on groups of orcs becomes a welcome challenge. ![]() Luckily, it does this well in both cases, though not perfect when it comes to the latter. ![]() When it comes to gameplay, Shadow of Mordor borrows a lot from its WB Games sibling, Batman: Arkham Asylum, for both combat and traversal. What I’m trying to say is that the screaming just feels out of place and it happened often enough that I had to mention it here. Other times, even more oddly, your cover doesn’t get blown and you can’t help but feel that the orcs are big dumdums. Sometimes your cover gets blown and it makes you wonder why you even bothered with the stealth up to that point. At several points in the game, Talion will interact with a plot device and just scream at the top of his lungs. Most of the development goes to Talion and the wraith in his body and that stuff does work, but it would have been great to see some of the others shine beyond “oh that’s a typical dwarf” basics. Firstly, with an average 15-hour run time, I don’t think the game flushes out some of the side characters enough. Not necessarily with the performances, but with the use of them. Despite this, I do have a problem with the game here. They are all great in the game and feel natural in their characters, at least once you’re able to accept the fact that Troy Baker is Talion and you can disassociate his voice from all the other notable characters he’s played. Shadow of Mordor has a big voice cast featuring names like Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Claudia Black, Nolan North, and more. Though, when notable names and moments came up within the context of the specific story at hand, I couldn’t help but feel like Leanardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood pointing at the TV. ![]() In an odd way, I was invested in the narrative without being wholly interested in all the characters. I found the Shadow of Mordor campaign to be very engaging and several key points of the game genuinely came as a surprise to me. This entanglement means that Talion cannot stay dead, and it is up to him, and the powers granted to him thanks to the wraith, to exact revenge. However, before he can pass to the world of the dead, his body becomes a vessel for a wraith who shall go unnamed to avoid spoilers. You play as Talion, a ranger of Gondor who witnesses the death of his wife and son before being killed himself. The game starts with a well-crafted opening that effectively blends the story and tutorial together. So, putting aside my feelings towards the adapted works of JRR Tolkein’s epics, this review will focus exclusively on what I played during my eighteen hours with Shadow of Mordor. From my understanding, the events of the game are plausible within the historical context of the fictional world, but they are not set in stone. It’s a good thing then that Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor isn’t canon. #MIDDLE EARTH SHADOW OF MORDOR PC REVIEW SERIES#My knowledge of the series lore doesn’t run deep. That being said, I haven’t gotten around to reading the books yet, despite owning the complete series box set, and for some people that will recontextualize where I stand in the fandom ranking. In my opinion, they are near-perfect movies and their ability to transport the viewer to the far fantasy world of Middle-Earth is second to none. ![]()
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