The Lord of the Rings franchise has covered games for previous generations, all reasonably following the same pattern so when Shadow of Mordor arrived at the Black gate of my Xbox One it presented some unbroken ground for a story which is so well known that a new twist was possibly likely to struggle. Welcome to back to Mordor as a new hero has emerged from the ashes, and that’s not the ashes of Mount Doom…
Enter Tailon, a former ranger of Gondor, now you’d be forgiven for thinking Tailon had been a bad lad and had been dismissed as a ranger, the sad fact is that Tailon is actually back from the dead. Yeah, bit more complex. The game starts with you finding out Tailon met his maker seeing his family sacrificed in a surprisingly dark turn of events for the start of a game; this is Lord of the Rings afterall. Things get a little more off the beaten track when the ghost of an elf (Celebrimbor) appears and guides you through most of your journey across Mordor.
The story itself is a little underwhelming, this is of absolutely no surprise to me considering it has to take on what is already a solid story in LOTR anyway, but it does have its memorable points throughout and throws up some interesting and memorable characters. It’s a tale of vendetta as you’d have already guessed as Tailon and Celebrimbor travel across the barren Mordor lands to right what wrongs have been done onto them. The Story includes characters from the main plot of LOTR including Sauron and Gollum as well as a few others you might remember!
Aside from the story the game takes on an Assassins Creed style gameplay with lots to do in terms of side missions. This includes crumbling Orc strongholds, reforging towers and freeing slaves from their Orc masters. Plenty of bang for your Buck then in Shadow of Mordor and with an wide variety of enemies and creatures to battle against the game makes you come back for more time and time again.
One of the ways Shadow of Mordor really excels is through its enemy progression system, it’s one of the best I have seen. Every time you are killed by an enemy, a simple orc grunt or orc captain maybe, they instantly receive a power boost, and often a rank upgrade making them the bane of your life if you ever run into them again. One of the clever ways the producers have incorporated the original story into this is the duels between Orc leaders offering them further progression. All this adds to the sense of pride when you actually take them down.
In previous games like Shadow of Mordor we have seen enemy profiling used to very little effect but this is another area in which Shadow of Mordor really tenses it’s muscles. Each captain or special character such as Kolthug Giggles will have strengths and weaknesses. Take Kolthug for example, not your average Orc, he’s fearless lucky for us, and can never flee but if you get an enemy who is afraid of fire for example they won’t approach you if you are near fire. The y flee should they be burnt and this is a consistent feature across the every Orc Captain I encountered, as well as this there was a wide range of things they could be afraid of such as poisons, certain types of beasts or the type of weapon you were holding.
So how do you take this badboys down then? The combat system shines in its glum surroundings and makes the game a challenging, diverse and fun experience which begs you for more. Finishing moves are easy to perform and look great with swift and smooth precision but are difficult to perform should you be attacked by more than one orc which is a fair compromise in my opinion. The diverse weapons such as Daggers and Bows give you the feeling of Legolas and Aragon rolled into one character, Coupled with the ability to mount the fearsome creatures, Caragors, which are like medium sized bulls with huge teeth that are a real pain to defeat at times. It’s a recipe that just keeps on giving! Tailon's own ability to use supernatural powers come in handy later on in the progression controlling beasts and enemies as well as allowing kill chains to rack up with quick hits in slow motion. This is also how Tailon gains Intel on possible enemies but more about that later!
As I found out sadly, I am not very good at eliminating captains and was often left to the mercy of the last chance system, as the captains start to do there finishing moves, whether that be one final arrow or a smash of a club the game has a very simplistic final defence system which works fantastically. It’s a simple as pushing the left thumbstick into a circle on the screen and pressing the right button, depending on the strength of the opponent this can be very easy or very difficult, But always rewarding.
The overall layout and player progression system works well, keeping you intregiued about potential opponents and creating the need to gain Intel rather than just kill every orc in site. Accompanying this is the appendices which adds more depth to the story line as well as the before mentioned progression system. This system comprises of multiple prongs, with about 50 unlockable abilities over the course of Tailon’s quest. This is where Tailon's special ability comes from as well as linking in Celebrimbor who assists Tailon in gaining the intel that the pair need to hunt down orc leaders. Intel is key to fighting your enemy, going in blind won't cut it most of the time and the game makes good use of this, and flexs its muscles once again.
Overall its clear to see why Shadow of Mordor has been giving such great reviews and publicity in it’s first week of release. It’s a clear definition of how this type of game should be, great depth, brilliant progression system with a combat ability to match. Graphically it’s not to shabby either and at times looks good, but it’s nothing to rave or rant over. Shadow of Mordor is going to keep you coming back for more and more, for fans of Lord of the Rings it’s a must, but the casual gamer will enjoy all that Mordor has to offer.
Thanks to XCN and Microsoft for giving us the chance to Review Shadow of Mordor and there continued support!