Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2369 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,686 out of 2369
  2. Mixed: 489 out of 2369
  3. Negative: 194 out of 2369
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  1. TimTeamTebow
    Oct 5, 2014
    5
    It was a decent port, so I guess it has that going for it.

    The combat was essentially from Batman arkam but worse. It added a ranged attack that can instantly kill people, more slowmo so countering was extremely easy, and just less satisfying hits.

    The nemesis system was barely noticeable.
  2. Veber
    Oct 5, 2014
    5
    Shadow of Mordor's main problem is that it tries to copy other games (Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham Asylum) without understanding what makes those games worth playing - it's not climbing. sticky running and fighting f*ckton of enemies at once that makes AC likable; and beat-up system of Batman doesn't really work as good with actual swords.

    Overall we have an openworld game with    Shadow of Mordor's main problem is that it tries to copy other games (Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham Asylum) without understanding what makes those games worth playing - it's not climbing. sticky running and fighting f*ckton of enemies at once that makes AC likable; and beat-up system of Batman doesn't really work as good with actual swords.

    Overall we have an openworld game with tiny world, inane captain system, endless slashing through always respawning hordes, tacked-on stealth and no hubs, short campaign and annoying cutscenes    … Expand
  3. pazmacats
    Oct 5, 2014
    2
    Why make an open world game if the world is deleted every 5 minutes and starting a mission resets the entire world? It doesn't matter if you killed 0, 100, or 1 million orcs. When you start a mission the "start mission situation" is loaded. As soon as the mission ends, the "standard world" is loaded.
    So, the "open world" serves no purpose, it's a glorified tutorial/XP grind stage.
    What    Why make an open world game if the world is deleted every 5 minutes and starting a mission resets the entire world? It doesn't matter if you killed 0, 100, or 1 million orcs. When you start a mission the "start mission situation" is loaded. As soon as the mission ends, the "standard world" is loaded.
    So, the "open world" serves no purpose, it's a glorified tutorial/XP grind stage.

    What the player is left with is the combat and the missions.

    The game might be nice if you never played a button masher action game. But after playing for 1 hour I realized that I've already played this game 10 years ago. It was called The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and it had better mission, better combat, nice characters, humor, style, story and it was immersive, varied, and straight to the point.

    In comparison, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor feels bloated, generic, poorly thought out, unimaginative, repetitive, monotonous and needlessly long-winded/pointless.

    ---

    Oh, and WHO thought it would be fun to play as a UNDEAD NOBODY slaughtering 1000s of orc clones again and again and again?    … Expand
  4. Ceridwen8
    Oct 5, 2014
    6
    If this is the 'game of the year,' it must have been a really weak year. I know this has received great reviews, is supposedly 'authentic to Tolkien,' and reputes to be challenging & involving. I haven't found it worthy of those high reviews.

    In theory, if there are no major bugs or technical problems, a game deserves, say, a 7 of 10. And if it were titled 'Medieval-ish guy in Bad Guy    If this is the 'game of the year,' it must have been a really weak year. I know this has received great reviews, is supposedly 'authentic to Tolkien,' and reputes to be challenging & involving. I haven't found it worthy of those high reviews.

    In theory, if there are no major bugs or technical problems, a game deserves, say, a 7 of 10. And if it were titled 'Medieval-ish guy in Bad Guy Land,' I'd probably go with 7. But this sells itself on Tolkien, so the best I can do is 6.

    If you're not a Tolkien purist, some of my complaints won't matter. So I'll start with game play. I found it difficult at first, until I realized I was substantially over-thinking it. Once I accepted that this is left button, right button, pick a finish, then it dwindled into the 'painfully easy' game play that I should like, being casual, but don't, because it's boring. There was NO fight I couldn't escape if necessary. (Apparently, orcs have very short attention spans.) It's a style I don't care for, but maybe it works, as it seems to be a copy of Arkham Asylum, with something like AC movement. Personally, I don't like the movement at all. I don't feel connected to it - you climb sheer walls easily, but can't climb a simple rock pile. There's no balancing involved - your guy just stays automatically in place. Holding down the shift key to stealth, constantly, got painful after awhile. Targeting was strange - I very often kill the wrong person. But it rarely matters. Climb up, wait, then hop down again. Orcs don't remember well, either. Oh, & don't fight near a wall, or you'll lose sight of your attackers. (more annoying than dangerous)

    In any game, LOTR related or not, I expect some story. This has to be the most generic, tedious, 'I don't care what happens' story I've come across in a long time. It feels completely unrelated to Tolkien's world, except for tossing in 'facts & figures,' and some Tolkien words/names. I cannot imagine calling this game 'innovative,' as I've seen in other reviews. It just screams cut & paste to me, with nothing new. Maybe the orcs vying for power? But I found that completely uninteresting. Worse, your elf-ghost Celebrimbor (I'd call this a spoiler, except it was in the trailers) seems set on you using the weapons of the enemy against him. When I got to that part, I'd essentially lost interest entirely, especiaily when I MCed orcs, & gave them blue eyes. The dwarf was generic-annoying, too. The women, cliched. The comic relief orc wasn't funny.

    There is no exploration, no world to investigate. No loot, no chests, no surprises. No choices at all, no character development. The fan-fic named Talion is stunningly dull and screams, again, "Generic Video Game Hero,' to the point that he's essentially on a revenge quest. I would have preferred to play as the elf, though he came closer to a Warcraft elf than anything Tolkien.

    In other LOTR-related games, there's some story, some exploration. (that's the best part of LOTRO, at least - you feel like you're in a scaled-down Middle Earth - aka, it takes a few minutes to ride from Bree to Weathertop, as opposed to weeks.) But in this - nothing. Warcraft is closer in spirit, & this one lacks Warcraft's whimsy. If you're not going to be remotely true to Tolkien, then make up your own game! Elder Scrolls has their own world, as do Warcraft, Guild Wars, Dragon Age... Granted, they take a lot from Tolkien, but that's true of all fantasy, including Star Wars. But this is based on Middle Earth, & other than tossing in Tolkien words, I'm not feeling it. Yet I've read tons of reviews insisting that it's 'so accurate!' This takes place just after Gollum is leaving Mordor, I guess, yet a lot of Mordor is green & growing (with Lorien flowers...) and for some reason, Gollum recognizes Celebrimbor as a ring maker... No clue why that relates to the One Ring, but apparently to Warner Bros Gollum, it does. I don't remember him coveting Gandalf's ring, after all.

    Anyway - I deeply dislike this game. Not like ESO, which was an utter failure in pretty much every way, but in its laziness, & in its ability to rack up great reviews for nothing. Either there are a lot of 'interested parties' posting, or the gaming world really needs to get higher standards.    … Expand
  5. Tosecitas
    Oct 5, 2014
    9
    A fantastic sandbox. I love It so much, Its replayable, exciting, beautiful, addictive all I could expext for a new IP. Just give It a try and watch the videos in youtube, tough you have to be there to feel the anger when a orc leader kills you and goes up in the ranks, even regular orc footmen can kill you and pave their way up its just so compelling. About the gameplay you have AC-likeA fantastic sandbox. I love It so much, Its replayable, exciting, beautiful, addictive all I could expext for a new IP. Just give It a try and watch the videos in youtube, tough you have to be there to feel the anger when a orc leader kills you and goes up in the ranks, even regular orc footmen can kill you and pave their way up its just so compelling. About the gameplay you have AC-like parkour and stealth mechanics, excellent batman arkham combatstyle. The collectibles are great, having to look into fantastic modeled objects to unravel their tales. The only bad thing is that some side quests are a little repetitive but in any case, Its a lot of fun.… Expand
  6. Soujirop
    Oct 5, 2014
    9
    First, I was very eager to play a game of LOTR after the last movie of the Hobbit. And I was very hyped to put my hands in Shadow of Mordor since I saw the first trailers almost a year ago. It met my expectations, and I literaly had to force myself to stop playing through the day, since the fun made too often me lose time perception. The game also had it's flaws: no epic LOTR hugeFirst, I was very eager to play a game of LOTR after the last movie of the Hobbit. And I was very hyped to put my hands in Shadow of Mordor since I saw the first trailers almost a year ago. It met my expectations, and I literaly had to force myself to stop playing through the day, since the fun made too often me lose time perception. The game also had it's flaws: no epic LOTR huge war-battles, little character customization, little diversity of environments, and orcs, uruks and more orcs to battle (I wanted to slash some humans too!). But now to more serious issues:

    The graphics of the game are absolutely amazing, in every single sense. High quality shaders, textures, perfect movement animations that make your combats worthy of an action movie, and great facial expressions that increases the immersion and the feeling that the characters are alive. Because, honestly, these orcs are VERY alive. Be sure to download the 10Gb Ultra Graphics free patch and equip yourself with a good graphic card to experience the whole thing.

    The music is overall good and LOTR style. A few themes are particularly pleasant to listen to, while others go unnoticed, but all do just fine accompanying their respective scenes. The voice acting is just perfect.

    The gameplay is a 10/10. Never felt so good fighting on a PC videogame. The keyboard+mouse is extremely easy to use and ultra responsive. Talion does exactly what you want in the very moment you press the key, without delays. He can jump and climb through almost everything, and the two big countries you visit, while not as big as other open-world games like Skyrim, do fine in giving you this sense of a huge world that will be difficult to fully explore. Moreover, there's tons of things going on in the world: uruks hunting in the forest, orcs drinking and partying on their inmense fortresses, slaves revolting on a campament, and a large list of etc. The best of the gameplay is the nemesis system, this is, to summarize, a system that gives the characters the best artificial intelligence you have ever experienced in a videogame. The uruks have an impressive sense of awareness, they know exactly where they are, what's around them, who's around them, and they will often point all this through their dialogue. They also have very good memory, speaking about things that happened in their past encounters with Talion, or simply things another Uruk did to them in the past and how they want revenge. But it is not only about dialogue, they will act in consequence: how good I felt when I saw an uruk running away from me in the distance while saying "I'm out of here! I don't want him to throw me into the fire as he did with the captain!!", yea, that random captain I burned alive just yesterday... Another one, that was pretty tough, was apparently tired of me escaping from him many times, and the first thing he said when we met again was: cut his legs! He will never run from me again", after that, he pointed out that he would throw me off the bridge in top of we were fighting. It really impressed me how perfectly they recognice even little details on their environment. There's honestly no way to express how good this nemesis thing is, but you will notice early in the game, period.

    The story is pretty cool and in my opinion the developers where quite careful not to break with the official lore, while at the same time create an original story. I agree with some reviews that say it has not a huge amount of drama, but LOTR was never very dramatic imho. At least the game tells a chapter of the story that you have not seen in the movies, and it was interesting enough to keep me exploring the world seeking the bonus artifacts and memories that completed the lore. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit rushed, but at least it gave room for a sequel.

    In summary, the game is not perfect, but probably one of the best games of 2014.    … Expand
  7. eelegendo
    Oct 5, 2014
    1
    Constant crashes. It freezes every 10 minutes, if during a bossfight (my character gets hung in the air) I lose that one, so the boss gets promoted... BTW: if I get killed by a caragor, why an Uruk gets promoted? It happened.

    Needs 6 gb of vram? For what? Is this a NASA project? If I turn everything to ultra, my character's face is still bland and lifeless. So again, why is the 6 gb?    Constant crashes. It freezes every 10 minutes, if during a bossfight (my character gets hung in the air) I lose that one, so the boss gets promoted... BTW: if I get killed by a caragor, why an Uruk gets promoted? It happened.

    Needs 6 gb of vram? For what? Is this a NASA project? If I turn everything to ultra, my character's face is still bland and lifeless. So again, why is the 6 gb? ACIV looks the same and runs better on my machine.

    The main story is really short and the bloatware (bloatgame?), the timed and collect missions are for kids, who have lot of time for doing nothing. Sorry. I've been playing a few ten minutes when I suddenly realized that I'm into the 5th mission of the 20 possible! That is 1/4th of the whole main storyline. Otherwise it is pick this up, collect that, killed 10 in 3 mins... Ridiculous.    … Expand
  8. Llaerrick
    Oct 4, 2014
    8
    As it stands, Shadow of Mordor is a very polished and well put together game. The graphics and artwork is good even on mid-settings. Unfortunately, due to an aging rig, I was not able to play on high/ultra, but despite the age of my rig (which might have been top of the line about 5 years ago), I did not encounter any real performance problems yet. Also only had the one crash/hang so farAs it stands, Shadow of Mordor is a very polished and well put together game. The graphics and artwork is good even on mid-settings. Unfortunately, due to an aging rig, I was not able to play on high/ultra, but despite the age of my rig (which might have been top of the line about 5 years ago), I did not encounter any real performance problems yet. Also only had the one crash/hang so far in game which I suspect was likely more due to windows update than anything else.

    Game-play wise, the combat (of which there is a lot of) plays a lot like Assassin's Creed. Combat is fast and furious and can be pretty fun. The overwhelming number of enemies sometimes make it feel a little like Dynasty Warrior. There is a decent blend of close-combat, stealth and bow/range, although generally, the combat will always be more close-up. The attribute system is really basic and more about supplementing play-styles rather than a build (i.e. more health, more 'arrows', more rune slots). There is no 'loot' in this game. Instead of loot, high level enemies drop 'runes' of degrees and powers which you use to supplement your weapons (sword/bow/dagger). Considering it is a ported game as well, the control scheme is actually pretty decent and intuitive (you can rebind your keys if you want but I didn't really have to). While some have expressed a strong preference for using a controller (which I also have), I didn't really find the need for it and am satisfied with keyboard/mouse.

    The Nemesis system is intriguing and nicely implemented. It gives a certain amount of novelty in game play beyond what is normally scripted. I am hoping there will be improvements and tweaks to this concept which definitely adds to the enjoyment and play time. There is nothing more 'fun' than taking on a mission to take out a Warchief in a warcamp surronded by his bodyguards when two of your 'nemesis' turn up un-invited with their own entourage.

    On the bad side, the whole thing can become a little dreary after a while. The combat is fun but fighting can fall into a basic pattern after a while. While the map is quite large, after a while Mordor looks the same. Content-wise, I was hoping for a little more.

    All-in-all, a good solid game that should keep most happy for quite few hours. Hopefully more content will be forthcoming. A very promising start and one that may hopefully spawn perhaps a new franchise/concept with the Nemesis system/concept.    … Expand
  9. toddone
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    Superb PC port. Great game design, graphics and audio. I recommend using a controller. The NEMESIS system is very innovative. I can see future games copying this design.

    Monolith start writing the acceptance speech for "GAME OF THE YEAR"!!!
  10. Vornim
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So overall, I'll give this game a 9.9/10. One of the best games I've EVER played!

    I'll start with what made this game not a full 10/10 for me. First, disappointments:

    - I was very frustrated with the fact that every time I died, I had to wait about 5-6 minutes waiting and watching all of my enemies become promoted and get even stronger. I kept thinking to myself "Well if I died to this guy before because he was too hard, now it will be impossible to kill him! He got an upgrade!" It was amazing and something I've never seen in any other video game. Very dynamic and calls for some high tactical decisions, which is cool and fun! Although highly frustrating at the same time.

    - It took a while to get used to the controls, and set up controls/settings in the beginning. I have an above average gaming computer, and I hated the look of Medium graphics and High was too much. Had to toy with it myself for a good hour before playing, and disabling VSync improved my performance (with the downside of having some screen tearing). Also spent another half an hour figuring out how to set the key bindings, because I do like to play with controls that I'm used to and familiar to.

    - The final boss fight was meh. I was expecting something bigger! Some incredibly dificult fight that I would die hundreds of times before finally killing him and screaming "YES!!!", making the neighbors think that I have tourettes. It was some disappointing "Press this button. Okay now press this button. Finally press this button. Congrats, you've won!" I mean, really? Come on, at least give me a challenge! I've fought Captains more difficult than the Black Hand of Sauron! Heck, a regular Uruk is more difficult!

    Even though these things made my game experience a little lacking to it's full potential, there are many many things that I really enjoyed about this game!

    + This game is a mix between LOTR/Hobbit story universe, Assassin's Creed roaming and adventure style, and any recent Batman game's combat.

    + There are abilities which change how the game is played completely! The "shadow strike to mount a Caragor/Graug" ability is badass. Super quick too.

    + I love how the Uruks ranks work, and I loved seeing and helping Ratbag (who was completely unworthy to ever be an Uruk to begin with) become Warchief. Branding all of the Captains and Warchiefs is something I haven't done yet, but I think I can do it now.

    + The story itself. I loved how even though I am not Talion, the game sucks me into the story and really feel the hurt that Talion feels when anyone mentions his emotions putting weight into his step, and making his combat sloppy, or when any Black Captain mentions his wife and son. The feels are real.

    + I've been waiting for this game for about a month now, freaking out over any new content made. Usually when I do this to a game, it gets disappointing to play because I know it all. Not this game, it really pulled it together and made me love the game even more!    … Expand
  11. Vixen
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    15hours, still enjoying it. Great nemesis system, never seen before. Added to the great Arkham combat system it makes a sweet mix that any fan of batman series and lotr could possibly like.
  12. DwarfChieftain
    Oct 4, 2014
    8
    A captivating and dynamic game with nearly-unlimited strategies and ways to complete your missions. The graphics are one of the best I've seen in PC gaming after Crysis 3/2. Although it is a fun experience, hunting warchiefs and captains can get either boring out of repetitiveness or impossible out of failed fights.

    The Nemesis system is unique and realistic.
  13. SoupDragon63
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    A great game and my favourite on the xbox one! True, there are some similarities with Assassins Creed, but SoM offers far more in the way of depth and variety. Still working my way through the story, but brilliant so far.
  14. CartoonHead
    Oct 4, 2014
    9
    This wins my illustrious action title of the year. Just remember it is an action game and not some deep life changing experience . It does what it does well and better than anything else this year.
  15. Ireland914
    Oct 4, 2014
    9
    Outstanding game. Borrows heavily from games like Assassin's Creed and The Arkham series but that is not a bad thing. Fighting is very fluid and dynamic, enemy captains are unique and become quite challenging. The story and voice acting are phenomenal. There is also a lot of content and exploring to do. This is easily a contender for game of the year.

    The only negatives I can think    Outstanding game. Borrows heavily from games like Assassin's Creed and The Arkham series but that is not a bad thing. Fighting is very fluid and dynamic, enemy captains are unique and become quite challenging. The story and voice acting are phenomenal. There is also a lot of content and exploring to do. This is easily a contender for game of the year.

    The only negatives I can think of are some very minor issues with camera angles and a slight lack of variety in some of the map areas.    … Expand
  16. SenshudoTV
    Oct 4, 2014
    8
    To summarize, I would describe Shadow of Mordor as a flawed gem. There are some questionable design choices, such as the decision not to include a compass for navigation in a game entirely about getting from place to place, or the heavy reliance on quick time events. But this type of thing hasn’t been done before and in any experiment there is bound to be a few failures. Shadow of MordorTo summarize, I would describe Shadow of Mordor as a flawed gem. There are some questionable design choices, such as the decision not to include a compass for navigation in a game entirely about getting from place to place, or the heavy reliance on quick time events. But this type of thing hasn’t been done before and in any experiment there is bound to be a few failures. Shadow of Mordor is a genuinely original, thoroughly enjoyable action-adventure game and I would highly recommend you give it a try.… Expand
  17. Dethstar
    Oct 4, 2014
    5
    It has been a bad year for console ports. With games like DR3 & Dark Souls II suddenly reversing earlier builds and actually removing features on launch day deceiving PC gamers one could not blame us for being cynical. Against this backdrop one would have to try hard not to shine even with minimal effort.

    I have a love/hate relationship with this game. First I am a massive Tolkien    It has been a bad year for console ports. With games like DR3 & Dark Souls II suddenly reversing earlier builds and actually removing features on launch day deceiving PC gamers one could not blame us for being cynical. Against this backdrop one would have to try hard not to shine even with minimal effort.

    I have a love/hate relationship with this game. First I am a massive Tolkien fan. (thought I better disclose that as it colours my review of this game) I also like open world games.

    SOM is very open and free roaming. Not a huge environment but there is a lot you can do and the atmosphere does go a long way towards meeting expectations.

    The story is very good and the characters compelling with none of the odd choices of accent or corny lines which often ruin the atmosphere in console centric light weight RPGs. Great voice acting and dramatic music completes the package.

    The combat is not particularly immersive favouring a flashy looking cinematic style which is essentially a click fest which is equally usable by anyone from 5-50. Character development gives you flashy finishing moves and skills and this does exactly what it is mean to do, give the illusion of depth. It is fun, but don't expect any real immersive combat here in console land. Having said that, it is the most fun combat I have experienced from one of these console clones. Far better than similar styles of game such as the Arkham series etc.

    Graphics have been upgraded with some PC specific enhancements and these are welcome but not by any means state of the art. One feels like someone was ticking a box on an excel spread sheet.... AAAdded Tick. Ambient Occulssion Tick. Not how well it was done or to what depth.

    It is very poorly optimised with no SLI support. Owners of even relatively powerful GPU are likely to be left wondering at their 30 or less frame rate. The frame rate issues can make it seem as though the controls are glitching as the performance is highly irregular.

    I have played on 2 machines. One has 2 Superclocked Titans and the other 2 x Superclocked 980s. I bench these machines and often sit at the top of Benching tables for quite a while each time. It still runs poorly on either. Of course, SLI has to be disabled as it ultimately does nothing. ]

    The gameplay itself is absolutely excellent and while there are a few bugs, they are rare (such as getting stuck in some scenery) and not often.

    In fact, this could have been one of the best games this year for the PC in my opinion.

    So why isn't it? Well, setting aside the terrible optimisation for a moment as hopefully, NVidia and AMD will rectify this in driver released, like most console ports they missed the critical measure of why people often refer to something as a "terrible port".

    It has the awful console limited field of view. Something like 65 degrees and squashed so it is like watching the action in someones house, by peering through the mailbox. Compare this with games designed for the PC like Battlefield 4 and most others which available field of view up to 120 Degrees. These limitations are caused by limitations in the capability of console hardware and the fact that there is only much you can show on old TVs. So called "Next Gen" consoles were actually out of date the day they were released catering only to 720p and occasionally 1080. Simply offering a FOV slider means repackaging all the textures with the upgraded perspective and quality needed to support monitor resolutions.

    Personally, I game at between 2560x1440 and 4k resolutions so this just looks ridiculous. It also creates nausea and disorientation in a percentage of the population (between 10 -20% depending on who you believe) which is why we game on PCs (among just wanting the best experience possible).

    So the field of view made it much harder to enjoy the game. Much of the game is about stealth and awareness of your surroundings, pretty hard when you can only see as if you have blinkers on. Console folks probably don't mind this as they do not know any different but moving from more natural field of view ranges to this are crippling. No wonder so many people that purchased new consoles ended up using them as media centres etc and not gaming on them.

    A (10) fantastic game killed off for lack of a proper port to allow for an appropriate field of view.    … Expand
  18. NightAssassin89
    Oct 4, 2014
    10
    Truly an awesome masterpiece, that delves enough into middle earth. The gameplay is addicting, the nemesis system should be incorporated into more games. I can't get enough of it. Anybody who doesn't like it must have some issues.
  19. Orhunkk
    Oct 4, 2014
    9
    At the first look,this game seems like Batman's combat system meets Assassin's Creed.But it's much more than that.Uruk captain-warchief system is interesting and well produced.Graphics are amazing.Animations are very smooth.The story starts a little ordinary but it will get more interesting while going to end.Verdict: 8.5/10
  20. DonJuan
    Oct 4, 2014
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a great game. Simple as that. Yes, some of the fighting is somewhat repetetive, just as AC and Batman games. But, in this game - its partly your own fault if you let it happen. Start using your bow in battles, start using ALL your skills in battle and it will be alot more challenging.

    Story is good, not great. Also like that some of the story is told at certain points in the game (after ress) where it isnt disturbing gameplay.

    Enemy system is great, even though I might get fed up with it in the future if more games start picking this up...    … Expand
  21. masterx1234
    Oct 3, 2014
    9
    OK so before we begin i am in no way a hardcore LOTRO fan at all, im just a casual player, and this is coming from someone who only watched 3 of the LOTRO movies, so lets get on with my review, OK so i decided to get this game on the notion that maybe my 7870 would run the game, and to my surprise i was able t run it on all high settings and maintain a steady 50-60 fps, So this game is inOK so before we begin i am in no way a hardcore LOTRO fan at all, im just a casual player, and this is coming from someone who only watched 3 of the LOTRO movies, so lets get on with my review, OK so i decided to get this game on the notion that maybe my 7870 would run the game, and to my surprise i was able t run it on all high settings and maintain a steady 50-60 fps, So this game is in no way a bad port, in fact it runs fare better than moth other games i try. The game is absolutely stunning on every bit of its amazing looking graphics, OK so aside from its amazing graphics how does the actual gameplay hold out? Well the game starts off showing you how to battle and use the controls and this games combat system is nearly 100% identical to assassin creeds, so if your familiar with that game then you will have no problem picking this game up and playing. The voice acting is top notch and all the characters sound exactly like they should from the films, However with all that said some missions can get extremely difficult, all i can say is be prepared to die....a lot. I find that many of the enemies over power you and you must be sure you gain the proper intel on each enemy before attacking them or else you will just keep getting slaughtered over and over. I found my self playing this game for hours on end not even paying attention to the clock, this game actually made me late for work, that just goes t show you how amazingly immersive the story and gameplay is, This is quite the treat for us PC gamers as most of the games this year have failed to impress me. Is this game worth a buy? Most definitely, you will not regret your purchase! I give this game a 9/10… Expand
  22. BOBdotEXE
    Oct 3, 2014
    8
    BatSassin's cryeed: MordoHood

    batman(combat) +assassin's creed(layout+navigation) +farcry (interaction with environment) +Lotr setting the story's a bit generic, bit it's actied and voiced VERY well. combats quite fun, but a bit limited (batman with less gadgets, and less awesome crazy jumps) the combat feels great, and it may be the best intimation of the free-flow system    BatSassin's cryeed: MordoHood

    batman(combat)
    +assassin's creed(layout+navigation)
    +farcry (interaction with environment)
    +Lotr setting

    the story's a bit generic, bit it's actied and voiced VERY well.
    combats quite fun, but a bit limited
    (batman with less gadgets, and less awesome crazy jumps)

    the combat feels great, and it may be the best intimation of the free-flow system yet!
    but the transitions are not as smooth as the ones in the batman game

    while the story is self is not super interesting, things that happen, and the people that you meet are!

    nemesis system =cool!
    but I bought it for the combat, and exploration (open world roaming)    … Expand
  23. ANTI-
    Oct 3, 2014
    8
    Pros:
    -Combat approaching Perfection
    -Visually Outstanding -Enjoyable Sound -Great Skill Unlocks, the deepest unlocks can make you feel godly in combat -Some excellent character models and armor on the enemies -Decent Story Cons: -Resource whore if you want to turn up graphics settings -a small amount of minor bugs -controls and movement not always as fluid as I'd hope -the    Pros:
    -Combat approaching Perfection
    -Visually Outstanding
    -Enjoyable Sound
    -Great Skill Unlocks, the deepest unlocks can make you feel godly in combat
    -Some excellent character models and armor on the enemies
    -Decent Story

    Cons:
    -Resource whore if you want to turn up graphics settings -a small amount of minor bugs
    -controls and movement not always as fluid as I'd hope
    -the meet and great cinematic when encountering a captain becomes seriously annoying when fighting multiple captains at once
    -lackluster ending
    -the day 1 season pass locking currently available content behind another paywall    … Expand
  24. CriticonRisueno
    Oct 3, 2014
    9
    After 20 hours I can say this game is a solid 8/9

    There are so many ways to kill orcs, so many cool skills, so many things to do, so many random events, so much blood, so many reasons to stop reading right now and go play this excellent game.
  25. SpiRo
    Oct 3, 2014
    2
    Story is bad and boring, basic revenge plot that actually contradicts book facts. Gameplay is also boring and repetitive, you are doing same thing over and over. Nemesis system is interesting at first but after few times you realize it is pointless and brings nothing. Overall i would not recommend it to anyone, specially not for the money they are asking. If you really want to play thisStory is bad and boring, basic revenge plot that actually contradicts book facts. Gameplay is also boring and repetitive, you are doing same thing over and over. Nemesis system is interesting at first but after few times you realize it is pointless and brings nothing. Overall i would not recommend it to anyone, specially not for the money they are asking. If you really want to play this game wait for big sale discount.… Expand
  26. The_U
    Oct 3, 2014
    8
    Arkham style combat, AC style parkour, somewhat Skyrim style mission structure and excellent nemesis system make this game a real joy to play. Sadly the game just doesn't hold up though, I managed to complete the game 100% in 24 hours of in-game time and only about 55-60% of that was truly enjoyable. The game at the beginning is INCREDIBLE, if the game didn't get so repetitive and theArkham style combat, AC style parkour, somewhat Skyrim style mission structure and excellent nemesis system make this game a real joy to play. Sadly the game just doesn't hold up though, I managed to complete the game 100% in 24 hours of in-game time and only about 55-60% of that was truly enjoyable. The game at the beginning is INCREDIBLE, if the game didn't get so repetitive and the story was actually decent I'd say this would have been a game of the year type game, but I got the feeling they just said "Screw the ending we'll just release DLC" because the final 25% of the story missions were just so bad and the last two bosses were extremely underwhelming.

    Hopefully the DLC will bring some epic boss fights to this game and some post-game content because it desperately needs it. I feel like it was worth the $60 even with the poor decisions in regards to the story.    … Expand
  27. Ahzeem
    Oct 3, 2014
    6
    This game is an average hack n' slash set in Mordor. If you're actually using the 10-point rating system correctly, this game does nothing to earn a score above 6. It's not terrible. In fact, it's rather fun. But aside from the mindless and boring combat and almost unbelievably small map, this game is a gigantic "meh". It's certainly a must try on consoles, but PC users should take noteThis game is an average hack n' slash set in Mordor. If you're actually using the 10-point rating system correctly, this game does nothing to earn a score above 6. It's not terrible. In fact, it's rather fun. But aside from the mindless and boring combat and almost unbelievably small map, this game is a gigantic "meh". It's certainly a must try on consoles, but PC users should take note that this game is almost assuredly not worth full price. Seriously, the game offers a maximum 12 hours of main story line, and the filler material is hardly worth mention. Over-hyped. Overrated. Same old crap you've seen a million times before. If you've run out of games to play, this is a solid next pick. But if you have a backlog like most people do, just wait for this game to go on sale and play something else while you wait. It's seriously not worth full price if you have literally any other decent game you've been meaning to play.… Expand
  28. xTobyMc
    Oct 3, 2014
    8
    This is definitely one of the best games of 2014, and I can safely say the entire experience was enjoyable. As a big Lord of the Rings fan, Shadow of Mordor really hit the nail on the head in terms of storyline, atmosphere and combat.

    Combat was extremely satisfying in this game, and the consistent executions of enemies alongside their death animations really made me want to just keep    This is definitely one of the best games of 2014, and I can safely say the entire experience was enjoyable. As a big Lord of the Rings fan, Shadow of Mordor really hit the nail on the head in terms of storyline, atmosphere and combat.

    Combat was extremely satisfying in this game, and the consistent executions of enemies alongside their death animations really made me want to just keep killing everything, it never got old. The nemesis system also works great, with enemies feeling like they have greater personality as they attempt to move up through their rankings, as well as their own unique (and sometimes funny) personalities. My one gripe with combat and gameplay in general would be the controls on PC. As an example, using the button LCtrl was a major part of the game, and it did take a while to get fully accustomed to its awkwardness. The combat also seemed a bit too easy at times, especially near the end of the game.

    The story was very well adapted to suit the 'Lord of the Rings' type feel. Admittedly when watching trailers for this game I felt it looked nothing like Lord of the Rings, but after completing the game I can definitely assure you it links very well. The in-game music also sounds like the same composer from the films, you won't be disappointed.

    PC performance is top notch too. Using a single GTX 780 I was getting 70-80fps in 1440p, using high settings. I did also try out the optional texture pack with the recommendation of 6GB of VRAM, and despite having a 3GB GPU, I still got 60fps, although with a few frame spikes. My last annoyance with the game on PC would also be the field of view. There is no option to change it, and at the time of writing this review there is no manual way of changing it. The default FoV is horrible, but I managed to get somewhat used to it after a few hours.    … Expand
  29. VittorVinicius
    Oct 3, 2014
    9
    This is a pretty good game. It's a very refreshing game, different from all the other open worlds out there. The stealth aspect could use some refinement, but the nemesis system is impressive and sophisticated!
  30. Theguyoo
    Oct 3, 2014
    10
    So much right here. Decent visuals, an excellent PC port and voice acting's superb. The story isn't bad either, more to the credit of the IP than anything else but I think that's perfectly fine. Combat is smooth and varied, but not too easy until the late game... Assassin's Creed take note!

    The greatest feature by far however has got to be the Nemesis system, or whatever it's called.    So much right here. Decent visuals, an excellent PC port and voice acting's superb. The story isn't bad either, more to the credit of the IP than anything else but I think that's perfectly fine. Combat is smooth and varied, but not too easy until the late game... Assassin's Creed take note!

    The greatest feature by far however has got to be the Nemesis system, or whatever it's called. The randomly generated Orcs are so much more interesting than I had hoped, and possessing one and leading it up the ranks behind the scenes is sooo much fun.

    For such a polished and innovative title to come out of what is basically a movie tie in is inspirational.    … Expand
  31. garlor
    Oct 3, 2014
    7
    asassins creed got lost into mordor and decided to take a stroll, direct sword combat is dull and boring,

    attacking the warchiefs is more interesting, you move around recover hit points and spirit arrows by draining orcs, kill the body guards and run away before the mass of orcs gets to you, it took me around 30 minutes to kill one of the warchiefs, wandering around camp then killing    asassins creed got lost into mordor and decided to take a stroll, direct sword combat is dull and boring,

    attacking the warchiefs is more interesting, you move around recover hit points and spirit arrows by draining orcs, kill the body guards and run away before the mass of orcs gets to you, it took me around 30 minutes to kill one of the warchiefs, wandering around camp then killing one bodyguard at a time, then recovering, releasing animals etc

    it's a decent game, world map is a little small, control is weak, it is hard to choose which of the 50 orcs around you to attack and do a finisher    … Expand
  32. scb29
    Oct 3, 2014
    9
    A very beautiful game with epics fighting, nice story, graphics and sounds.
    Enemy system is funny. It's a good mix of RPG, Hack'd slash, action and infiltration.
  33. Dragon
    Oct 3, 2014
    10
    This game is simply outstanding. It has many elements of Assassin's Creed, Batman games, Prototype, with an interesting Middle-Earth twist and an interesting boss system. The non-quest activities are also a blast. The game has AAA production values and has been great fun so far.

    Highly recommended!
  34. Stevincent
    Oct 2, 2014
    9
    So I’ve put about 40 hours in the game thus far, it says I am 53% through the game. Now I’m not one for doing a lot of side quests, but this game is just so amazing there is a real incentive to do everything in the game, you find yourself running around collecting artifacts listening to memories and free the slaves. You find yourself going out of your way to save slaves. The enemies haveSo I’ve put about 40 hours in the game thus far, it says I am 53% through the game. Now I’m not one for doing a lot of side quests, but this game is just so amazing there is a real incentive to do everything in the game, you find yourself running around collecting artifacts listening to memories and free the slaves. You find yourself going out of your way to save slaves. The enemies have some real context, they feel real. When you are slain he becomes a captain and can become more powerful. You’ll find yourself scouring the countryside for these captains to get your vengeance, and sometimes he will even kill you again, make that eventual victory even more potent. You’ll find yourself just killing off captains. There is so much to do in this game, and all of it stays fresh from the runes you get and the abilities you unlock really makes this game a fairly unique experience even though its mechanics are shared with the Batman and Assassins Creed series. Unlike those games this game gives you a real reason to do all the content in the games and get completely lost in them.

    Music: Ok, I’ve never felt more epic in a video game. When you are facing captains or are locked in an epic battle, the music starts taking cues from what you are doing on screen. You will punch a captain and the trumpets will start blaring and makes a string of combos feel more cinematic.

    Graphics: I haven’t had a single issue running this game and boy does it look amazing, I am running everything on ultra, it’s nice to see how far the lithtech engine has come from the days of F.E.A.R.. I’ve had a few issues where some U/I would disappear making it hard to complete some missions where I just had to quit and restart the game.

    Controls: This game feels very much like batman with the sword fighting. But I believe it feels much more fluid in this game and as you unlock more moves and finishers in the game the more fluid it becomes. I am playing with an xbox 360 controller and I felt a bit limited. I’d be using the bow and ill be using my right index finger to pull the bow and find myself needing to hit the right bumper to shoot a fire arrow which took some finger acrobatics. NOW I did have some issues with the way the game handled navigating the world, sometimes I wouldn’t jump a wall when I should have been which could get annoying when you are trying to evade enemies. Also sometimes the screen will tell you to push a button to do an action and the game will do a completely action when you press the button, which can really suck when you are trying to jump down but instead you jump on top of someone in the middle of a pack of Uruks. But these minor control issues don’t make the game any less enjoyable.

    Story: Play it, there are a ton of great characters and well-acted dialogue. The word is even enriched by the enemy soldiers when you are sneaking around and you hear them talking about you as your legend grows.

    There isn’t too many bad things about this game. I still haven’t beaten the story, so I will update this review when I have completed it. But for now this is very much worth every penny and I have to recommend it to everyone even if you aren’t a fan of Lord of the Rings, I think this game has something to offer everyone.    … Expand
  35. Nightrist
    Oct 2, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Middle-Earth is a good game. Not exactly an excellent game, let alone a masterpiece, but a good game. While it is good to see a decent book/film franchise game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor stands to me as just a slightly above average game.

    Story: 7/10 The story take place before the original trilogy (LoTR) but after the Hobbit. You are Talion, a ranger of Gondor cursed with immortality seeking revenge. The story seems forced throughout the story, with a lot of seemingly random characters you find hard to care about (except MAYBE the dwarf, but even then his story was meh). The end seems really rushed, with 2 almost back to back bossfights with little buildup whatsoever. Even with a 7/10 I'm feeling a bit biased because I am a fan of Tolkien's universe.

    Graphics: In terms of a AAA game, the graphics are pretty average (which means pretty good looking relative to most games). All the scenery except maybe 1 or 2 places seem a bit bland. There's two main areas of the story: a slightly barren plain with scattered ruins with 1 or 2 fortresses, and a slightly more fertile 'hilly' area with scattered ruins and 1 or 2 memorable fortresses. Overall none of the areas are that memorable, the area seems pretty bland even (even if it is Mordor). As others have said, the PC version is a pretty good port, no lag with my 660 GTX, frame rate was consistent with a few stutters here and there (probably due to my tower overheating).

    Gameplay: 8/10 Here's where the game shines. Combat is fluid from gut wrenching executions to bone shattering take downs. Combat feels basically like the Batman Arkham games except with a lot more blood and gore (yay!). The game feels pretty hard at the beginning (I died a bunch) but as you become more experienced at dealing with mobs (damn beserkers!) and leveling up your weapon/skill tree, you become more confident in taking greater challenges. At some point I went from "O man 3 captains better run" to "A warchief and 3 captains? Come at me bro."

    Replayability: 6/10 And here's where the game gets stale. Basically SoM holds the same problem the AC games hold: other than the main storyline (which even then feels like glorified side quests) there arent a large variety of side quests to keep you interested. You got your free the prisoners quest, your combat (stealth, archery, sword play) quests, your tracking quests, and maybe 1 or 2 that I forgot to mention. "But wait! what about that neat rivalry system I keep hearing about?!" you might ask. Well while it was cool for the first few hours, once I found out that each Captain or warchief is essentially just a slightly more difficult mob character (with little truly unique game play attributes), it quickly got stale. Captains show up basically every other fight, sometimes 2 or 3 at a time, and soon you just categorize them as the 'slightly harder mob enemy' in a fight. Chieftains are the same basically they are just slightly harder captains you can fight once you do some prerequisite (like stealth kill 5 guys) side mission. Bottomline is that while the system may seem cool at the start, a few hours in it quickly becomes stale.

    Overall, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a good game to sink maybe a month or two while you wait for the next anticipated 'good' game (but by now, everything seems to be a letdown to me, maybe its cause I'm spoiled and hard to impress :P ) My suggestion is to buy it on a steam sale down the line (even if its only 25% off) full price at the moment, however, may not seem worth it.    … Expand
  36. nightcritic
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    This game is fantastic. It combines the best of assassins creed 2 and batman arkham asylum. I am not including any spoilers so I will not say more than that. TRY THIS GAME.
  37. subdued_genius
    Oct 2, 2014
    7
    At its current price its not worth the money and the hype. The reason why I bought this game was because of the Nemesis System and the game did not fully deliver in that regard.

    Pros: The game was fun. The combat was well polished. The voice acting was superb. The Orcs are funny/interesting. The cape looked very good (Dark Ranger skin). Meh: The Nemesis system wasn't impressive. I    At its current price its not worth the money and the hype. The reason why I bought this game was because of the Nemesis System and the game did not fully deliver in that regard.

    Pros:
    The game was fun. The combat was well polished. The voice acting was superb. The Orcs are funny/interesting. The cape looked very good (Dark Ranger skin).

    Meh:
    The Nemesis system wasn't impressive. I rarely saw it in play or making a factor in my playthrough.
    The graphics for the PC isn't impressive and is pretty standard for HD 1080p games with a high-end PC rig.

    The bad:
    The game is too easy and rewards you over-abundantly. You can literally kill any NPC you desire if you have some skill or familiarity with the combat mechanics. You can save up for the most powerful powerups without a skill-tree requirement or prerequisite. The result is you just need to save up for the unlimited executions skills (The sword first) and the game become mindnumbingly easy.
    The music was also bland and forgettable. Some of the best music in my opinion are from Skyrim and Mass Effect. The music in this game is neither ambient/environmentally supportive nor is it mood-inducing/pace-setting. It was boring and forgettable and you never really felt any real EPIC moments.
    The storyline and story-telling/writing was poor and very forgettable. I honestly played through the game not caring, which says a lot about the writing, pacing, and overall direction of the story. Furthermore, a lot of the storyline quests are basically gigantic tutorials...How to brand an orc, how to dominate an orc, how to stealth kill, how to do this or that. I feel that's probably why the game's story was so boring.

    The biggest fundamental flaw of this game is the lack of difficulty settings. Basically the lack of customizability for the game's difficulty level means that the game was far too easy and rewarding in my playthrough. The game ranks probably a solid 3 out of 10 for difficulty in playthrough. The result is because it is so easy, I never/rarely die. Because I rarely ever die or fail to kill an orc I want to kill. I never really get to see the full effects of the Nemesis System. So what was the PRIMARY SALES POINT of this game became at most a secondary characteristic.

    TL;DR version
    These are the questions I asked when I bought this game (If these apply to you then you and I probably will come to the same conclusions).
    1) Why is this game attractive or interesting? The Nemesis System seems innovative and interactive.
    2) Is the game fun? Yes.
    3) Should I play this game? Probably.
    4) Is it worth the hype and money (currently $50 dollars/$75 dollars for premium)? No.
    5) Is the Nemesis System great or impressive? I don't honestly know. The game's difficulty level (or lack thereof) made it pretty much a non-existent factor in my playthrough.

    Statistics:
    100% Progression completion.
    44 hours in game (I left the game on a lot of the time, I think I spent at most about 20-30 hours playing though).
    69% of the steam achievements unlocked.

    My personal rating probably a 70% or a 3.5 out of 5.    … Expand
  38. kache
    Oct 2, 2014
    7
    Good game, some very good ideas that I hope will be taken by other games in the future. DLC politic is ridiculous. Not worth buying now, wait for GOTY.
  39. Veska
    Oct 2, 2014
    8
    If i read about this game first time, i dont believe it, that would be good game. But now? I play only 2 hours, but if you love combat system from Batman, mechanics from AC and world of Middle Earth. Get this. Shadows, Orcs and original dabing (Glum and others) and graphic of fallen land Mordor. Finally, it is a worthy representative new AAA game and doesn´t dishonor univerze the Lord ofIf i read about this game first time, i dont believe it, that would be good game. But now? I play only 2 hours, but if you love combat system from Batman, mechanics from AC and world of Middle Earth. Get this. Shadows, Orcs and original dabing (Glum and others) and graphic of fallen land Mordor. Finally, it is a worthy representative new AAA game and doesn´t dishonor univerze the Lord of the Rings.

    Positives
    You have two differences "people", that you can use in fight or traveling.
    Combat system combinate Batman, AC and others and take the best from each.
    Facts of the bleakest land of Middle Earth.
    Others stories about mens and legends, that you read in books.
    Beautiful graphics and once one download free HD textures and turns everything on maximum settings, the game looks amazing.
    Different captains of orcs who have their advantages and weaknesses, and if that person controls, the game offers a completely different dimension than boring killing in AC.
    If you killed by captain, he becomes stronger and can killed other captain to get better position in Sauron´s army.

    Negatives
    I have found nothing so far.

    9/10    … Expand
  40. Grutzy
    Oct 2, 2014
    9
    Shadow of Mordor is the best example of what "emergent gameplay" should be that I've seen yet. The combat is smooth, the story surfacing is smart, and the variety is refreshing. I find myself thoroughly enthralled with this title and can't wait to devour more of it. The loss of one point is due to the somewhat sticky camera when in the thick of things or when gameplay camera is reallyShadow of Mordor is the best example of what "emergent gameplay" should be that I've seen yet. The combat is smooth, the story surfacing is smart, and the variety is refreshing. I find myself thoroughly enthralled with this title and can't wait to devour more of it. The loss of one point is due to the somewhat sticky camera when in the thick of things or when gameplay camera is really zoomed in. Other than that, nothing overly frustrating or annoying here. I definitely feel it's worth the money and time for any open world RPG fan, and it's got a lot to offer those new to the genre.… Expand
  41. FWordFizz
    Oct 2, 2014
    9
    It's literally just a better version of Batman: Arkham City. This isn't a bad thing at all though despite what it sounds like. The people who made the game said, Lets make a Lord of the Rings game, but BATMAN it. And it worked. It's a blast to play and never really gets boring. The story is **** but hey it wasn't written by Tolkien. Honestly this game needs more Lord of the Rings aspectsIt's literally just a better version of Batman: Arkham City. This isn't a bad thing at all though despite what it sounds like. The people who made the game said, Lets make a Lord of the Rings game, but BATMAN it. And it worked. It's a blast to play and never really gets boring. The story is **** but hey it wasn't written by Tolkien. Honestly this game needs more Lord of the Rings aspects though. We have an elf ghost... some rings... gollum... really, really generic orcs.... thats it. The orcs are slightly better than usual though because of the Nemesis system that is really cool. It makes me feel like the Illuminati or something. THATS RIGHT KIDDIES YOU CAN BE THE BAD GUY NOW. And it feels damn good.… Expand
  42. kamgeforce
    Oct 2, 2014
    8
    Shadow of Mordor is pretty much only about endless killing of orcs but quite frankly I wasnt bored for a second. The combat is great, the animations are very fluid and combos looks much more naturally because of that then in AC for example. Graphics in general are great, although you ll need some serious piece of hardware to enjoy it on max settings. The nemesis system is very originalShadow of Mordor is pretty much only about endless killing of orcs but quite frankly I wasnt bored for a second. The combat is great, the animations are very fluid and combos looks much more naturally because of that then in AC for example. Graphics in general are great, although you ll need some serious piece of hardware to enjoy it on max settings. The nemesis system is very original mechanic and it makes even your deaths meaningful. I have a few complaints though. If you are a huge LotR fan like me, you ll be prob dissapointed by the story, especially the ending was kind of crap. That leads me to the final "boss battle" which is pretty much just a quick time event. I also expected a little better OST considering how brilliant soundtrack the movies had and most of the weapon runes you can find are kind of boring and dont really do that much. But overall Shadow of Mordor is the first AAA title of 2014 that lived up to its hype.… Expand
  43. Shogun2013
    Oct 2, 2014
    8
    The game is more of a mix of fable as far as the free roaming capabilities and assassin's Creed fighting it's npcs is where the game gets so good the way they can remember you and actively run away in a fight if need be but the game does get redundant at times with the go here kill here missions they should have a more (for lack of better term) meaningful story. I don't know maybe if theyThe game is more of a mix of fable as far as the free roaming capabilities and assassin's Creed fighting it's npcs is where the game gets so good the way they can remember you and actively run away in a fight if need be but the game does get redundant at times with the go here kill here missions they should have a more (for lack of better term) meaningful story. I don't know maybe if they had missions that made you feel that you really had to do them and quick just to see what's next it would've been better for me at least. One thing I could not stress enough is how refreshing it is to have enemies remember you when they kill you that is personally one of the best features regarding the game overall it's a decent game to pass time I give it 8.5 out of 10… Expand
  44. Kryptical
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    My game of the year so far, haven't found anything I hate. Can be a little easy sometimes but then you get an Uruk with Invulnerability to ranged and Combat mastery so you can't do finishers and you just get wrecked over and over and over until you have a personal vendetta against that one uruk. I didn't care about the war-chiefs any more, I set out and made EVERY captain my pawn to takeMy game of the year so far, haven't found anything I hate. Can be a little easy sometimes but then you get an Uruk with Invulnerability to ranged and Combat mastery so you can't do finishers and you just get wrecked over and over and over until you have a personal vendetta against that one uruk. I didn't care about the war-chiefs any more, I set out and made EVERY captain my pawn to take down this one guy that killed me 4 times. It's been the only time I've died and I will have my vengeance.… Expand
  45. Inq
    Oct 2, 2014
    6
    I see a lot of overwhelmingly negative reviews simply because this game doesn't reinvent the wheel - this is obviously **** behaviour. I also see lots of 10s because "OH MY GOD IT'S SO AWESOME" - grow up, your opinion is also crap.

    Please bear with me for a well-explained statement on why this game isn't terrible, but also not as good as most of you make it out to be. Firstly, the    I see a lot of overwhelmingly negative reviews simply because this game doesn't reinvent the wheel - this is obviously **** behaviour. I also see lots of 10s because "OH MY GOD IT'S SO AWESOME" - grow up, your opinion is also crap.

    Please bear with me for a well-explained statement on why this game isn't terrible, but also not as good as most of you make it out to be.

    Firstly, the core movement and combat mechanics are taken from the Assassin's Creed and the Arkham series. Games have been copying off other games for decades and if it works, who am I to judge, no real problem here. However, the Arkham combat is very simplistic. It looks guttural and feels satisfying to kill enemies - for about 10 minutes. Afterwards you will realize that you have very little impact on the combat and one press of a button will initiate finishing moves of several seconds. Combat is akin to a visual novel, not a video game.

    More ways to go about combat open up with rising level - some even change the way you go about combat slightly, but none of them truly stand out and in the end it's more of the "very low effort - high (visual) reward"-bullcrap that AC and Arkham have been pushing. This is a game for casual gamers. Whether you take that statement as an insult is up to you.

    What's more - the Story, apart from being ridiculously slow (you could easily finish the main campaign and most of the side quests in less than 15 hours) is bland, boring and forgettable. You don't care about any of the characters because they have onedimensional personalities at best. "I lust for revenge" "I am the comic relief" "I am a woman and in need of help" "I am evil" ... blergh.

    What's worse than the story? The way it is presented. Most Main Quests require of you to follow a friendly NPC around and GOD FORBID you move more than 5 meters away from him even though it's perfectly clear to you what to do next. No, no you filthy peasant, you better **** wait until the game allows you to pursue your next objective. Call of Duty-esque messages like "YOU ARE LEAVING THE MISSION AREA" will haunt you. Additionally,

    [VERY MILD SPOILER]
    the final boss fight is one of the most laughable encounters of the last decade, seriously. I have never felt so unsatisfied in my life. [/spoiler] Now, what does that leave us with? Weapon challenges, surely. The missions itself are very welldone and even mildly (really, MILDLY) challenging - after all this is a casual modern game for casual modern gamers. But what's the reward for doing all 10 missions for a weapon? Uh, 10 glowy bits on it. Really, that's it. No awesome additional elemental effects, no new moves, **** nothing. Great.

    There are several other types of side quests which are tolerable, I suppose. I couldn't really be arsed to do the slave-freeing missions myself after the first two, but that might just be my personal taste.

    Now, one feature I actually do like. The "Sauron's Army" system. You can identify captains, dominate them, pitch them against each other, protect your branded ones against ambushes and ensure they're victorious in challenges to help them advance and eventually become bodyguards and assassinate their warchiefs. Nice little system. Too bad you can't access the fun part of it (branding and dominating captains) until around 70% of the campaign have passed.

    Oh, fun fact: That team of war chiefs you've been training and improving? Yeah, they're gone after the final mission.

    Get this game when it's on a budget or if you know about ways to acquire it without paying. It is not worth the full price if you've got half a brain.

    If you, however, enjoy intense action that you have little to no impact on and are otherwise above actually contributing to a video gaming experience, get it. Also feel free to think about your life.    … Expand
  46. papisotoromek
    Oct 2, 2014
    3
    How's this possible, that so repetitive and frustrating game is so high-ranked and praised by both critics and gamers.
    Story is simply boring and cliche, moreover it's not within the spirit of LOTR books or movies. It has revenge driven hero who's absolutely dull and says nothing interesting through the whole game.
    Nemesis system at first glance is very interesting, but in short time    How's this possible, that so repetitive and frustrating game is so high-ranked and praised by both critics and gamers.
    Story is simply boring and cliche, moreover it's not within the spirit of LOTR books or movies. It has revenge driven hero who's absolutely dull and says nothing interesting through the whole game.
    Nemesis system at first glance is very interesting, but in short time becomes a great problem. Yes, the orcs are different, promote when they kill you and it's more or less engaging, but when you realize that it never ends it's no fun anymore. New orcs replace dead ones and you can fight with them whole eternity. The same problem is about wandering through the map. Mordor is very small and cramped and overcrowded with opponents who's respawning all the time. It's no pleasure when you cannot find peace anywhere on the map and you are forced to fight or run straight and try to escape from next and next hordes of enemies.
    Fight is simply mashing buttons but when it's taking to long, orcs are gathering quickly and you're outnumbered and powerless. Then you die and some random orc is promoting forthwith. As I said it's very frustrating and repetitive.
    Next great problem is camera which is uneasy to operate and during the fights is to close to our hero. Because of this we cannot see all enemies and sometimes we don't even now that we could block some attack from behind.
    Graphics are mediocre and it's the same with the sound.
    If this game would provide compelling story and develop Nemesis system into something bigger than never-ending orcs replacement and rotation, it could be just good one, but it's not satisfying at all and essentially is a very small game with no interesting content.    … Expand
  47. loadedzen
    Oct 2, 2014
    9
    This is how you port a game to pc, no shortcuts have been taken with this game and it runs very well on my computer. For the actual game, it's incredibly entertaining, satisfying and implements a very cool nemesis system which isn't half arsed either. Sure it does take elements from assassins creed and the batman games, but this is for the better of the experience and when your combat isThis is how you port a game to pc, no shortcuts have been taken with this game and it runs very well on my computer. For the actual game, it's incredibly entertaining, satisfying and implements a very cool nemesis system which isn't half arsed either. Sure it does take elements from assassins creed and the batman games, but this is for the better of the experience and when your combat is this fluid you won't be disappointed. This was definitely worth the money on steam.… Expand
  48. Marshy
    Oct 2, 2014
    7
    After playing this game on pc, I can easily say it is a great game but there is alot of bugs and stupid systems Like the controls it is just horrible, I find my self smashing the space bar to sprint but half of the time it dose not work,

    The story is just above par, It didn't really make me feel any connection to the Tolkien at all and i didn't want to know what was going to happen    After playing this game on pc, I can easily say it is a great game but there is alot of bugs and stupid systems Like the controls it is just horrible, I find my self smashing the space bar to sprint but half of the time it dose not work,

    The story is just above par, It didn't really make me feel any connection to the Tolkien at all and i didn't want to know what was going to happen next, I just kept at it cause it is part of the lord of the rings universe.

    The game-play is great. Combat is smooth and fluid the whole open world is stunning and run great on my system for a PC port the game runs perfect could not ask for a better job, Now and then the textures get messed up but still nothing too bad to complain and make a big fuss about.

    If your looking for a open world game with great combat and not too arsed about story middle-earth is the game for you, You will have hours of fun taking Orcs body parts off    … Expand
  49. Lordgrey
    Oct 2, 2014
    5
    Assassins Creed in Mordor. This all what you need to know about this game before you play it. Nothing novice. The same old song with cool final strikes but without interesting storyline, atmosphere and gameplay.
  50. Onslaught23
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    Don't listen to the naysayers. The game is absolutely marvelous. Monolith stood up to our expectations giving us a game that innovates with the Nemesis System and giving us a living beautiful murky world to explore and to fight. The story is great and this comes from a man that he is absolutely freak with the lore of Middle-Earth.

    The visuals and the audio are top notch and immerses you    Don't listen to the naysayers. The game is absolutely marvelous. Monolith stood up to our expectations giving us a game that innovates with the Nemesis System and giving us a living beautiful murky world to explore and to fight. The story is great and this comes from a man that he is absolutely freak with the lore of Middle-Earth.

    The visuals and the audio are top notch and immerses you greatly. No bugs, no glitches (for me at least) as of now so go and spend your money in something that you can invest many hours.

    10/10.    … Expand
  51. Jitomate
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    Game is like a combination of Batman AC meets Lords of the Rings and it just works very well. The atmosphere and vibe of Mordor is captured perfectly and while not cannon, it still feels very much like LOTR.

    Gameplay mechanics are tight and combat is incredibly satisfying. If you're a fan of LOTR and Batman games, you need to play this game.
  52. Graphic
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    Giving this a 10 to help balance out from the people who don't know how to do reviews. This game is a solid 8.5 and for a first entry by a company all I can say is bravo. This genre is not my thing and yet I have had an amazing time playing this game and have even purchased a season pass as I am excited to see where they take this. Try it for your self and make up your own mind.
  53. DukeMcFishy
    Oct 1, 2014
    9
    Shadow of Mordor takes the best of the Batman and Assassin's Creed 1 to 3 games. Add the Nemesis system, shake it a little and you got a thrilling action packed game.

    At first when I read about and seen some promotional videos I thought that after a few hours you wouldn't care about the Nemesis system anymore, but I was wrong. Every time a "Captain" kills you he gains strength / a power    Shadow of Mordor takes the best of the Batman and Assassin's Creed 1 to 3 games. Add the Nemesis system, shake it a little and you got a thrilling action packed game.

    At first when I read about and seen some promotional videos I thought that after a few hours you wouldn't care about the Nemesis system anymore, but I was wrong. Every time a "Captain" kills you he gains strength / a power level and the humiliation it gives you leaves you a deep feeling of wanting revenge. When you encounter him again he will mock you. This is for me the biggest strength of the game. It isn't a gimmick that wears off fast.
    When you defeat the captain in battle he will remember that, when you flee from battle he will laugh at you and when you got slain he will remind you of your failure last time when you meet him again on the field of battle. End his life by separating his head from his shoulders and he will stay dead. The Nemesis system is great. It will also show the strengths and weaknesses of the Captains and Warchiefs so you can plan on how to defeat them.

    - The combat is as good as the Batman series, so that's a plus.
    - The stealth is serviceable, but nothing great or revolutionary. It works.
    - Parkouring is as fluent as in Assassin's Creed, if not a little bit better. I haven't gotten stuck which happened with AC
    - The Nemesis system is something new that this genre need in my opinion. It seems gimmicky but it isn't.
    - The graphics are good, but nothing revolutionary.
    - The PC controls are good. No mouse acceleration and the correct key prompts will show up on screen.
    - Music and voice acting are top-notch.

    The only downside to Shadow of Mordor is that it is what it is. An action game in an open word, so it does get a little bit repetitive. Luckily the combat is great.

    I would have given this game an 8, but due to the fact that there are almost no bugs and the game is very well optimized for the PC Monolith deserves a point extra.

    Great job Monolith.    … Expand
  54. Sedgie121
    Oct 1, 2014
    5
    For me the PC version is practically broken, I literally just downloaded it, the game feels horrible with a 360 controller, there are random frame drops, bear in mind I had my settings on medium/low with a fairly good graphics card and i7 processor, also scenes weren't showing, I was really looking forward to playing this game being as it came out on PC first, I then noticed it was £30 onFor me the PC version is practically broken, I literally just downloaded it, the game feels horrible with a 360 controller, there are random frame drops, bear in mind I had my settings on medium/low with a fairly good graphics card and i7 processor, also scenes weren't showing, I was really looking forward to playing this game being as it came out on PC first, I then noticed it was £30 on steam...now I know why, I like a lot of features of the game like the nemesis system and the combat is nice fairly satisfying, but the PC version? na, I'm going to get the PS4 version as I know I'm going to enjoy it a lot more, £30 might seem like a bargain, but not for the PC version, but being as I'm giving this game a chance on PS4 with all the promising features, I'm gonna give it a 5… Expand
  55. rabaker07
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    I generally have low expectations for the next big console hit. And this game wasn't even highly anticipated or hyped. Shadow of Mordor has knocked my socks off. Graphics are excellent and will get even better if I buy a GTX 980. And that's without the mod community stepping in. This could get ridiculous. It plays like a console game, but not like a port to PC. Controls are intuitive andI generally have low expectations for the next big console hit. And this game wasn't even highly anticipated or hyped. Shadow of Mordor has knocked my socks off. Graphics are excellent and will get even better if I buy a GTX 980. And that's without the mod community stepping in. This could get ridiculous. It plays like a console game, but not like a port to PC. Controls are intuitive and not overly complex. The story is fun and certainly reminiscent of LOTR, and cut scenes are artfully spread throughout without coming off as boring or contrived. Not in a while have I thought about a game throughout the day while still at work. This is one of those games.… Expand
  56. CC11
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    This game is a mixture of the Batman: Arkham series combat style with the Assassin's Creed platforming/climbing and world style and the (albeit non-canon) LOTR world and lore. One of the better purchases I've made recently. 10/10
  57. Seroneth
    Oct 1, 2014
    9
    A great game overall! I spend 7 hours straight playing...which is something I have not done with a game in a long time! It plays a lot like Assassin's Creed with some extra's thrown in. I've really enjoyed the NEMESIS system. I have also enjoyed the upgrade and talent system...it's indepth and you can tell it makes a difference with your play style.

    It can seem a bit easy sometimes, but    A great game overall! I spend 7 hours straight playing...which is something I have not done with a game in a long time! It plays a lot like Assassin's Creed with some extra's thrown in. I've really enjoyed the NEMESIS system. I have also enjoyed the upgrade and talent system...it's indepth and you can tell it makes a difference with your play style.

    It can seem a bit easy sometimes, but then all of a sudden you'll find yourself facing about 30 mobs and a few Captains.... that's when the adrenaline hits ...

    Great game!! Def worth the purchase.    … Expand
  58. Power_Gamer
    Oct 1, 2014
    8
    This is a really good game and a really good port of it.

    If you liked the Batman's combat and Assasin's Creed style of wall/roof-climbing you'll love it.

    Story is so-so, but the gameplay is very good and enjoyable.

    If you want well made ports on your PC, support this game.
  59. Rahlekk
    Oct 1, 2014
    8
    While it may SEEM like a re-skin of Assassin's Creed with a Batman: Arkham Asylum combat system, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor soars above and beyond, combining a satisfying combat system with unique enemies within a beautiful world.

    The main word of this review would be NEMESIS. The nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor generates unique and sometimes hilarious enemies that will remember    While it may SEEM like a re-skin of Assassin's Creed with a Batman: Arkham Asylum combat system, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor soars above and beyond, combining a satisfying combat system with unique enemies within a beautiful world.

    The main word of this review would be NEMESIS. The nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor generates unique and sometimes hilarious enemies that will remember previous encounters, gloat at you, flee from you, and sometimes generate a feeling of vengeance which leads to a thirst for revenge, making killing a previously encountered captain extremely rewarding. Each playthrough is completely unique, featuring different enemies with different strengths and weaknesses that make no encounter ever the same.

    Never has Mordor been as gorgeous. SoM features two zones, Udun, the darker side of mordor, filled with ruins and strongholds, and Nurn, a grassy, valley type area that Sauron will use to feed his armies. I find myself in awe at the areas, watching the beasts slaughter the Uruks from a distance while I smirk with glee.

    For those of you worried about PC performance, be relieved, as the specs released seems to be a bit over-zealous, with most people being able to run the game on High settings (myself included) with only 2GB of Video RAM and not the greatest specs. (Running an i5-4670k processor, and an NVida 750ti, high settings, 50+ FPS, 8GB RAM, and 2GB VRAM)

    While SoM features a great combat system and a fantastic Nemesis system that pulls some serious weight and is the star that continues to shine, it's brought down by a story that doesn't meet expectations and can sometimes be dry, as well as a combat system, that while extremely satisfying, finds itself getting repetitive.    … Expand
  60. NubyYuby
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    Absolutely fenomenal !! Benn playing for 10 hours straight - haven't found a thing that would turn me off. Very happy i pre ordered it. After playing it i went straight and bought the Season Pass DLC boundle.

    I play using the Logitech F710 gamepad and i would advise any PC gamer getting this to also play using a gamepad.

    To sum up worth getting - hope they make a franchise out of it !
  61. Jhango1
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    This game is awesome. Takes the best things from other games and combine it into a unique and brutal experience. The nemesis system is awesome and the game is not at all repetitive. I spent 7 hours in the games just messing with orc leaders. A must play!
  62. crowbarPhysicis
    Oct 1, 2014
    9
    Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while it may have a similar system to Assassin's Creed, establishes itself as unique with its creative and innovative enemy system, wonderful graphics, and well-designed world. The only issues are combat can get a bit too left-click right-click if you get too tied down without a captain nearby (rarely happens) and the stealth mechanics are a bit lacklusterMiddle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while it may have a similar system to Assassin's Creed, establishes itself as unique with its creative and innovative enemy system, wonderful graphics, and well-designed world. The only issues are combat can get a bit too left-click right-click if you get too tied down without a captain nearby (rarely happens) and the stealth mechanics are a bit lackluster (Dishonored and Hitman have ruined me). Aside from those two minor things, this game is definitely worth its cost.… Expand
  63. Herroprs
    Oct 1, 2014
    10
    Are you looking for a game with a good story after destiny broke your heart? This is the game for you. Not only will this game reveal its plot to you but it wont bait and switch legendaries for blues with you!
  64. Sawt00th
    Oct 1, 2014
    5
    This game is like a water-slide. Fun, no choice of direction and you forget about it when you move onto the next one. Combat physics is hard to apply to games, as would planning for a myriad of styles, they forgo these issues by implementing an Arkham Batman style of combat, which is lovely in small doses and for 1080 vids to showcase the game, but after killing the zillionth Ork you beginThis game is like a water-slide. Fun, no choice of direction and you forget about it when you move onto the next one. Combat physics is hard to apply to games, as would planning for a myriad of styles, they forgo these issues by implementing an Arkham Batman style of combat, which is lovely in small doses and for 1080 vids to showcase the game, but after killing the zillionth Ork you begin to get bored. Free-running needs to die, it needs to leave games right now, Assassin's Creed has been a cancer of the video game market. The basic formulae has been set by Arkham and AC they just needed to re-skin it and force through a story. Not a game that will capture you for very long should you be an adult that has developed a brain capable of logical and free thought. I gave it a 5 purely for the fact that it's well optimised. But let's be really honest if you have that many people at the top of their game creating a product you'd bloody well hope it was optimised.… Expand
  65. samuelmason900
    Oct 1, 2014
    9
    It has been long time Since I played a game like this large openworld,fluid combat,talion is great and Nemesis system the new concept which makes this game unique from any other open world Rpg games and side missions are not boring all are interesting,tons of gameplay hours This Week of mine is going to Sunk with this game
  66. Nasty
    Oct 1, 2014
    9
    Do you like Batman arkham and Assassins creed series? If you do, this is must have.
    Combat system is like in Batman - simple, fast, smooth and very good locking.
    Story lacks a bit behind, but i didn't particulary cared bcs it's fine and gameplay just blowing your mind so you will not care much too. I dunno what to say more about this game...it's just fun to play and in long time i play    Do you like Batman arkham and Assassins creed series? If you do, this is must have.
    Combat system is like in Batman - simple, fast, smooth and very good locking.
    Story lacks a bit behind, but i didn't particulary cared bcs it's fine and gameplay just blowing your mind so you will not care much too. I dunno what to say more about this game...it's just fun to play and in long time i play game that really don't try hard on everything and is just entertaining.    … Expand
  67. dp77777
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    It's a hack and slash akin to the batman game, but it is VERY fun. It is just the right amount of challenging to where you have to be focused and smart to win and there are cool creative ways to kill orcs.

    The best part about the game is being in LOTR and feeling like I'm standing against a tide of orcs. The voice acting and story is engaging and excellent. It is a great game if you    It's a hack and slash akin to the batman game, but it is VERY fun. It is just the right amount of challenging to where you have to be focused and smart to win and there are cool creative ways to kill orcs.

    The best part about the game is being in LOTR and feeling like I'm standing against a tide of orcs. The voice acting and story is engaging and excellent. It is a great game if you like action games or LOTRs.    … Expand
  68. ALB13
    Sep 30, 2014
    7
    Did you enjoy Assassin's Creed but wish there were more Orcs, Elves, and Rings involved? If so, this is your game. As someone who enjoys the mixture stealth/parkor/brawling the AC series brings to the table, I have been heartily enjoying Shadow of Mordor.

    Pro: Hundreds of orcs to slaughter in fun, careful, or frenetic ways. Game looks good. The Nemesis system creates numerous    Did you enjoy Assassin's Creed but wish there were more Orcs, Elves, and Rings involved? If so, this is your game. As someone who enjoys the mixture stealth/parkor/brawling the AC series brings to the table, I have been heartily enjoying Shadow of Mordor.

    Pro:
    Hundreds of orcs to slaughter in fun, careful, or frenetic ways.
    Game looks good.
    The Nemesis system creates numerous engaging enemies, some of whom show up at the absolute worst times (this remains a Pro since it keeps the game interesting).

    Con:
    If you don't like Assassin's Creed style game play, just avoid this one.
    Will probably drive Tolkien purists insane for some reason.
    Melee combat has a shallow learning curve, very few encounters require more thought than "bash bash bash counter bash bash bash counter bash bash KILL bash bash counter etc."

    Big Con:
    The Nemesis system isn't as deep as it could have been; preview materials would have had us believe that defeated foes could be turned to your cause and used to your advantage. This is not the case. There is a single orc that can be turned to your side, and his activities are pre-planned. Other enemies can be interrogated for useful information prior to execution, but any suggestion that you can use one defeated foe to sow chaos in the camp of another is, at least six hours into the game, untrue.    … Expand
  69. dreadnought
    Sep 30, 2014
    9
    I was suprised, i thought it was another generic grind fest, but shadow of mordor has some really cool mechanics and gameplay that make it...surprisingly very good!
  70. Smackk
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    This game is a lot of fun. It is definitely similar to the recent batman games but offers a new twist with the Nemisis system as well as skill trees and weapon runes. Ive only played 2.5 hours so far but it is a lot of fun if you want to play a open world RPG. The graphics are also very good as is SLI scaling. With my SLI 780 I have no problem maintaining 60 FPS @1440p(90 fps average inThis game is a lot of fun. It is definitely similar to the recent batman games but offers a new twist with the Nemisis system as well as skill trees and weapon runes. Ive only played 2.5 hours so far but it is a lot of fun if you want to play a open world RPG. The graphics are also very good as is SLI scaling. With my SLI 780 I have no problem maintaining 60 FPS @1440p(90 fps average in the benchmark) with Max settings except textures which are on high. For 1440p High textures you need at least 3 GB vram ( I checked my cards Vram usage it uses 2.8-3gb) for Ultra Textures @1440p it looks like you need 6gb. The game is very well optimized and runs very smooth with SLI even though a Nvida SLI profile does not exist it is still possible to force SLI through control panel. This is a really good game.… Expand
  71. Feroxz
    Sep 30, 2014
    5
    This game is not bad, it's just not as great as most people claim it to be. The story is generic and doesn't really fit into LotR universe; combat is taken from Arkham games; most of other mechanics (freerunning, stealth, detection system) is taken from AC series. And the only truly original feature, Nemesis system, is far too simple and repetitive to keep you playing this game longer thanThis game is not bad, it's just not as great as most people claim it to be. The story is generic and doesn't really fit into LotR universe; combat is taken from Arkham games; most of other mechanics (freerunning, stealth, detection system) is taken from AC series. And the only truly original feature, Nemesis system, is far too simple and repetitive to keep you playing this game longer than 10 hours. The longer you play this game the more flows you start to see: unpolished gaps in combat system, repetitiveness of missions, dumb (even for orcs) AI. I do not recommend buying this game at full price, wait for sale and only then consider a purchase.… Expand
  72. allencolbeck
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    This game is awesome. It has amazing graphics, the harpist is fun, the story is pretty good and there is always something to do. There are hundreds of side quest that keep you busy and the orc system is like non I've seen before
  73. Putin2000
    Sep 30, 2014
    1
    If you take the gameplay of Assassins creed and mix it with the combat system of Batman arkam asylum you will have Shadow of Mordor. Its a hack and slash with some funny stuff thrown in (the enemy system) but in the end it all comes down to grinding through hordes of generic orcs while spamming attack (left click) and deflect (right click).

    On top of that, add in uninteresting story,    If you take the gameplay of Assassins creed and mix it with the combat system of Batman arkam asylum you will have Shadow of Mordor. Its a hack and slash with some funny stuff thrown in (the enemy system) but in the end it all comes down to grinding through hordes of generic orcs while spamming attack (left click) and deflect (right click).

    On top of that, add in uninteresting story, booring characters, small map, BONUSES AND COLLECTABLES and mediocre graphics and you have a 4 out of 10.    … Expand
  74. Ozone021
    Sep 30, 2014
    9
    This game feels like everything AC tried to be but couldn't even after 6 or more games. Interesting story, solid controls with combat and parkour elements and most important good OPTIMIZATION.
    I say AC because it feels like and AC game (10x times better) but combined with Batman games. It's that good.
    7790 runs at 40 fps (avg) with everything at high/very high.
    4gb RAM
  75. whereupon
    Sep 30, 2014
    5
    Visually beautiful, interesting story, but the breaker for me is that the PC version is clearly a port from console based on the interface...W to go forward, while pushing SPACE to sprint, while also pushing L-CTRL to do something, something. The look and initial feel were akin to Skyrim, which had a very PC interface. I wish I'd know how it was designed prior to pre-order.
  76. PeregrineOmega
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    Shadow of Mordor plays like a cross between Assassin's Creed and Arkham City and that's not at all a bad thing. The combat is inspired yet refined. The Nemesis System is a unique addition to any game which actually sparks emotion from the player and challenges you to punish your enemies.

    Additionally, the game is f**king beautiful. Every year WB publishes a game that seems to push the    Shadow of Mordor plays like a cross between Assassin's Creed and Arkham City and that's not at all a bad thing. The combat is inspired yet refined. The Nemesis System is a unique addition to any game which actually sparks emotion from the player and challenges you to punish your enemies.

    Additionally, the game is f**king beautiful. Every year WB publishes a game that seems to push the limits of what to expect visually and aurally from games and Shadow of Mordor continues the trend.

    Great combat, rewarding gameplay, compelling story and unbelievable visuals. What's not to like?    … Expand
  77. Jonhuggs
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    This is one of the better AAA games in some time. The graphics are very good and seems to be very well optimized on pc with no lag what so ever on my HD 7870 video card. The combat is batman Arkhamish, and my wife was like I didn't think the new Assassin's Creed was out yet, although I was wearing the dark ranger suit. I've been playing with an Xbox 360 controller and it works flawlessly.This is one of the better AAA games in some time. The graphics are very good and seems to be very well optimized on pc with no lag what so ever on my HD 7870 video card. The combat is batman Arkhamish, and my wife was like I didn't think the new Assassin's Creed was out yet, although I was wearing the dark ranger suit. I've been playing with an Xbox 360 controller and it works flawlessly. All in all very good game and worth it for action RPG fans and LoTR fans alike.… Expand
  78. Chomag
    Sep 30, 2014
    7
    The game looks very good and there is quite some fluff content but it becomes pretty dull and repetitive rather fast.
    The control is annoying with kb and mouse as the game suffers from retardum consolitis and this is very clear.

    There is really not a lot to do in the game.
  79. Ondopher
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    With some issues aside, which I hope will be patched soon, the game stands to its hype. Extremely fun & promising combat, with awesome visuals and not to mention the much loved world setting of Middle-earth, which I'm sure even non-Tolkien fans will rejoice. This is a RPG that I cannot wait to delve further into
  80. Negolash
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    That's greatest Assassin's Creed game.. Faster, greater, bloodier with gore, interesting mechanics in world you love. Killing generals with different styles are fun.
  81. Xyzpl_29
    Sep 30, 2014
    5
    Very disappointing game. Nemesis is good. Unfortunately it is all what this game 's got to ofert. Other features are taken from other games [sorry for my poor English]
  82. Bryjoered
    Sep 30, 2014
    8
    @Garfoodle Get off your high horse man. Not good graphics? Please, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, the graphics are amazing. "Overused batman style of combat" WHAT????! You mean one of the best combat systems in any 3rd person action game ever. Did you want to hate this game? Have you even really played it before. What is one of your favorite game? I bet it's some@Garfoodle Get off your high horse man. Not good graphics? Please, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, the graphics are amazing. "Overused batman style of combat" WHAT????! You mean one of the best combat systems in any 3rd person action game ever. Did you want to hate this game? Have you even really played it before. What is one of your favorite game? I bet it's some low budget indie title isn't it. You're a video game hipster douche aren't you? God, you annoy me.… Expand
  83. Nordec
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    This game is incredibly good, fascinating and exciting. It gives you the opportunity to explore Mordor in a unique way with a pretty OP character named Talion. Despite the little time I have played the game, I thought it is amazing! This gane offers on an Open-World concept that works pretty well like the Batman Arkham series and Assassin's Creed series. In truth could Shadows of MordorThis game is incredibly good, fascinating and exciting. It gives you the opportunity to explore Mordor in a unique way with a pretty OP character named Talion. Despite the little time I have played the game, I thought it is amazing! This gane offers on an Open-World concept that works pretty well like the Batman Arkham series and Assassin's Creed series. In truth could Shadows of Mordor managed without The Lord of the universe, but I am thankful it is in Middle-Earth! :D… Expand
  84. Garfoodle
    Sep 30, 2014
    5
    WWhile it's not a bad game,per say,it is a dull one. It relies too much no the now overused Batman style combat,and too little on LoTR universe and story. The new "make your own army" thing is cool, but.much like the Ass Creed mission type of the same nature, it falls flat. And then there is the small map. And the lack of a real,loot system. And the mediocre graphics. Anyway, now I'm justWWhile it's not a bad game,per say,it is a dull one. It relies too much no the now overused Batman style combat,and too little on LoTR universe and story. The new "make your own army" thing is cool, but.much like the Ass Creed mission type of the same nature, it falls flat. And then there is the small map. And the lack of a real,loot system. And the mediocre graphics. Anyway, now I'm just rambling. The game is Ok. Not bad, not good,not worth $50. Stick to Skyrim with mods if you're looking for a solid LoTR experience… Expand
  85. newbiee
    Sep 30, 2014
    9
    At first glance this game seems like Batman meets Assassin's Creed with Witcher elements mixed in. I wasn't really sold on it until I realized how robust the Nemesis system is. I was messing around fighting a Graug and my health was down to about 1/4. Then out of nowhere a Captain that I identified in the Army of Sauron as being in the next zone over appears. He says "OH IS NOW A BADAt first glance this game seems like Batman meets Assassin's Creed with Witcher elements mixed in. I wasn't really sold on it until I realized how robust the Nemesis system is. I was messing around fighting a Graug and my health was down to about 1/4. Then out of nowhere a Captain that I identified in the Army of Sauron as being in the next zone over appears. He says "OH IS NOW A BAD TIME?!" I'm like 'damn right it is' and I barely escape. The Captain is ballsy enough to go toe-to-toe with the Graug and gets wasted. This Captain had the tracker trait and came after me. There is so much going on under the hood with the Nemesis system and it is awesome.

    Only potenial problem I see is this great system becoming stale, but by that point players should have got their money's worth out of the game.    … Expand
  86. ar1ur
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    Absolutely fenomenal !! Benn playing for 10 hours straight - haven't found a thing that would turn me off. Very happy i pre ordered it. After playing it i went straight and bought the Season Pass DLC boundle.

    I play using the Logitech F710 gamepad and i would advise any PC gamer getting this to also play using a gamepad.

    To sum up worth getting - hope they make a franchise out of it !
  87. Rimthalen
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    In the first 20 minutes of gameplay I felt sadness and rage, I wanted to poke the Hand of Sauron in his face with the sword he used to kill my family, and I kicked an uruk in the butt until he died, He DIED!

    10/10 Would Kick @$$ again.
  88. Shuamd
    Sep 30, 2014
    9
    Even allowing the fact that this product mechanics is clearly partly based on the Assassin’s creed game series (and in somewhere The Witcher), it is an absolutely original and entertaining game. IMHO, the system NEMESIS in combination with the “open world”’s freedom and perfectly embodied in graphics Middleearth - is a kind of so to speak active RPG, where the player, within the frameworkEven allowing the fact that this product mechanics is clearly partly based on the Assassin’s creed game series (and in somewhere The Witcher), it is an absolutely original and entertaining game. IMHO, the system NEMESIS in combination with the “open world”’s freedom and perfectly embodied in graphics Middleearth - is a kind of so to speak active RPG, where the player, within the framework of the worldsetting of course, creates its own story of vengeance and confrontation.… Expand
  89. Patxy88
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    Gran videojuego,mezcla un poco Assasins Creed y la trilogia de Arkham con la genial ambientacion del Señor de los Anillos para darnos una de las grandes sorpresas de este año.Recomendable.
  90. Jezath
    Sep 30, 2014
    10
    Its good to see that studios like this still feel the need to take a risk and innovate.. What we all figured would be some sort of gimmick is actually an incredible system that works behind the scenes even when you think it isn't.. Follow the in game story yes, but make your own story using the nemesis system and your suddenly in a whole new world!! Graphics are what you expect nowadaysIts good to see that studios like this still feel the need to take a risk and innovate.. What we all figured would be some sort of gimmick is actually an incredible system that works behind the scenes even when you think it isn't.. Follow the in game story yes, but make your own story using the nemesis system and your suddenly in a whole new world!! Graphics are what you expect nowadays from a AAA title along with the sound.. The gameplay has the best elements with almost assassins creed style assassination manoeuvres..… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Best PC Game of 2014
11
#11 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
10
#10 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Nov 1, 2014
    90
    Solid action wrapped in a fascinating simulated Orc society. [Nov 2014, p.52]
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 25, 2014
    72
    After you get used to the world of Shadow of Mordor understanding comes: there is nothing to do in it. Chieftains – pretty serious opponents at first – in the end due to the lame balance become the whipping boys. Storyline is buried under muddy reasoning about rings, elves and dark lord. As a result you like the Shadow of Mordor gameplay but you do not want to go to the finish. [Nov 2014, p.64]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Oct 19, 2014
    70
    Only thanks to the Nemesis system stinky orcs from Peter Jackson’s movies rise above being cannon fodder and turn into actual characters. If this cool system weren’t here, no one would have looked twice at this hybrid clone of Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed.
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