Talion is having one of those classic bad days. The ranger of Gondor was just minding his own business while stationed at the Black Gate when he’s attacked by the forces of an evil chap named Sauron. After witnessing the ritualistic murders of his wife and son by one of Sauron’s top soldiers, Talion himself falls victim to the blade only to find that rather than meeting his family in a fun-filled afterlife he is instead cursed to continue wandering the earth while sharing his body with a newly attached Wraith friend. You know, Monday shit.
If you didn’t gather already Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is an action game set in the Lord of the Rings universe. The events of the game take place between the ending of The Hobbit and the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. As mentioned the game puts you in control of the ranger Talion and his new spirit partner whose name I’ll reserve for the sake of not spoiling one of the game’s more interesting surprises. The two combine their powers together in an attempt to get Talion his revenge and send him off to the afterlife in style. Of course you can’t just go killing Sauron’s top guys, first there’s a massive Uruk-hai (a smarter man than me could tell you how those are different than Orcs) army to contend with.
This may sound intriguing, but while the game’s plot does its best to keep things interesting, Talion is not a particularly interesting lead and by the end of the game it really feels like the whole adventure just existed to string you along from point a to point b. The Middle Earth setting almost does more to hurt the game than help it. Die-hard Tolkien fans may find themselves upset by some of the liberties taken with the game’s lore (even if officially it is non-canon), and people averse to Lord of the Rings might make the mistake of not playing a really damn good game because of the connection.
But whatever issues may exist with the story in Shadow of Mordor will be almost completely forgotten about after you have some time to play with the incredible new Nemesis system. What is a Nemesis system you ask? Oh boy… Well first of all you should know that Mordor is littered with unfriendly Uruk-hai warriors who are all organized into a hierarchy. There’s standard grunts who don’t have names or ranks and can be mowed through by the dozens, then there are captains who are named characters with their own unique personality traits and a little more strength than the average grunt, last you have war chiefs, the big bad boys that take a lot of effort to bring down and oftentimes keep captains around as bodyguards.
The Nemesis system is dynamic, meaning captain’s traits are at least partially randomized. They will also mutate based on their interactions with you. Shoot a captain in the face with an arrow? He may show up later with a metal plate welded over his eye and an immunity to ranged attacks. Use a monster you’ve enslaved to mow down an opponent? You may find that the next time you meet they’ve adopted a healthy fear of that creature. Fears and weaknesses can not only be used to kill a captain more effectively but will also ensure that you’ll receive better upgrade tools after wiping out an opponent.
The Nemesis system really makes it feel like the world moves on with or without you. Uruks don’t necessarily get along with one another and you’ll frequently stumble upon in-fighting and captains attempting to usurp their superiors for more power. If you’re killed by a regular enemy they’ll be promoted to captain, often filling the spot of an enemy you had previously killed and undoing a portion of your hard work. Death will also pass enough time that conflicts among the Uruks are resolved and most captains will level up and become even tougher to beat. It’s been a long time since a game made me afraid of death, but Shadow of Mordor does a great job of making running away feel like a better option than going down in a blaze of glory.
The game will frequently drum up unique scenarios that I can all but guarantee you’ll be sharing with your friends. Talion’s revenge is fine and dandy and all, but it’s way more interesting to talk about the time you were just about to complete a stealth challenge when three captains (two of whom were already involved in a conflict with one another) crashed the party and threw the whole thing into a chaotic mess.
At this point there have been numerous write-ups explaining how simple the Nemesis system actually is. Sure it may not be incredibly revolutionary on a technical level, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling revolutionary, and in this case that’s more than enough. The game may be playing a trick on you, making you think the world is deeper and more elaborate than it actually is, but I doubt that will dampen your experience at all.
I was already pretty satisfied with my experience in Shadow of Mordor by the game’s halfway point. It could have ended right there and I would have had plenty of nice things to say about it, but then you open up an entire second map as well as your abilities to brand (ie enslave) Uruks to do your bidding. At this point I was growing weary with how trivial combat had become, but now all of the sudden I had an entirely new method for dispatching enemies at my disposal. It’s an absolute blast to send a death threat to your rival before turning all his bodyguards against him and unleashing a massive surprise attack.
The game’s biggest drawbacks really manifest in its difficulty curve. The upgrade system eventually turns Talion into such a behemoth that any shred of difficulty will have pretty much completely vanished by the time the game closes out. The free-flow combat system of Arkham fame is here, and much like Batman, there’s really only two buttons to press in combat. How much that will actually upset you probably varies. Personally I don’t mind having a stripped down system so long as I look awesome while killing dudes and Mordor definitely delivers on that front.
Shadow of Mordor easily earns its place among my favorite games I played this year. It has its share of problems, but the Nemesis system feels so new and fresh that it’s impossible for me to let it go with anything less than a perfect score. Don’t let the Tolkien setting turn you off, this is the game everyone is going to be trying to emulate for their open worlds in the coming years, and I absolutely can’t wait.
