Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

 Xbox One
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 805 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 644 out of 805
  2. Mixed: 83 out of 805
  3. Negative: 78 out of 805
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  1. okie_smokie92
    Oct 8, 2014
    2
    Game is repetitive and tedious. Enemies everywhere, as in you will be overwhelmed from the second you start the game, until the moment you realize you no longer want to struggle without reward. The map is over cluttered and all revealed the moment you start, dashing any hopes of open exploration. The nemesis system serves no purpose than other than to serve itself and its ownGame is repetitive and tedious. Enemies everywhere, as in you will be overwhelmed from the second you start the game, until the moment you realize you no longer want to struggle without reward. The map is over cluttered and all revealed the moment you start, dashing any hopes of open exploration. The nemesis system serves no purpose than other than to serve itself and its own progression. The lack of weapons, and choice of weapon upgrades is ridiculous, weapon upgrades are given randomly after defeating a captain. Story is vague and slow to develop. Characters are all the same. The platforming element of the game is clanky and emulates other popular franchises, while failing miserably. The "stealth" is a bunch of bs and is basically your only fighting chance at survival while navigating the open worlds of Middle Earth. Long tedious navigation with many enemies, only too get to your destination to face only more innumerable waves of hords while trying to kill or interrogate a single enemy while dealing with a sea of enemies. And oh my god, everyone is talking all the time. I had to turn the voice volume all the way down to escape the relentless droning chatter and banter of all NPC's. There's no way to regenerate health except to find random supplies in the wild, WHICH CANT BE STORED. Graphics are last gen quality. The environment, side story telling, and voice acting is fantastic though. The only redeeming qualities of the game in my opinion. Overall such a disappointment. I am so glad I only rented this game, and didn't purchase.… Expand
  2. Mogwai76
    Oct 8, 2014
    4
    Keep in mind that this is my personal view. There is a lot of potential in Shadow of Mordor but today I am returning the game to the store, after only 4 days and maybe 6 hours of play.

    The easy thing first: visually it's ok, nothing outstanding (not for a next gen experience) but it's ok. Orcs and main character look great though and overall the atmosphere is good. The environment looks    Keep in mind that this is my personal view. There is a lot of potential in Shadow of Mordor but today I am returning the game to the store, after only 4 days and maybe 6 hours of play.

    The easy thing first: visually it's ok, nothing outstanding (not for a next gen experience) but it's ok. Orcs and main character look great though and overall the atmosphere is good. The environment looks very bland and repetitive and level design is average at best.

    Now for the harder part, Gameplay: the biggest strength of SoM is the fact that your actions matter. Killing orc captains or dying to them, has knock on effects and changes the opponents you face and how enemies react to you. This is it's greatest strength, but (in my opinion) also throws up a weakness. A lot of content is based on randomness (AI paths, patrols, locations of captains etc.), so it is not uncommon for more difficult enemies (orc captains) to interfere in your normal gameplay moments and even missions. This can lead to some amazing, unique, gameplay experiences and it's unlikely 2 people will have the same playthrough. But it can also lead to unwanted death, lots of running away and lots of wasted time (setting up the initial target etc.) - in some cases it can lead to an hour or more of wasted in game time. Top this up with your enemies growing stronger every time you die, and for the average gamer out there (which I am one of) this game quickly can turn into a punishing experience, where player death is rewarded with more player death.

    Again, this is my view, and it is down to how I play games, so those who like this sort of challenge, those who like to spend hours working out a strategy and then see it fall to pieces because the game throws a spanner in the works, will have a great time with this game. It does reward you with unique moments and some solid combat and good upgrades.

    To me personally the game does not cater enough to average gamers, it aims at the hardcore crowd I feel and that's a shame. Even a simple "easy mode", reducing the damage taken by the player character, would have made this game a lot more enjoyable to gamers like myself.    … Expand
  3. Daoler
    Oct 13, 2014
    4
    This game is boring. The visuals are correct, but nothing new or surprising. The game system is copied directly from Batman Arkham series!! every movement, every combo, even the button mapping in the 360pad.. everything is batman.Very disappointing. Super poor open world and repetitive missions and objectives. Always the same, (find captain, kill captain, move to next...) This game is aThis game is boring. The visuals are correct, but nothing new or surprising. The game system is copied directly from Batman Arkham series!! every movement, every combo, even the button mapping in the 360pad.. everything is batman.Very disappointing. Super poor open world and repetitive missions and objectives. Always the same, (find captain, kill captain, move to next...) This game is a shadow of what it pretended to be...
    As I said before, this game is boring, and repetitive. Is Batman Arkham series with another Skin.    … Expand
  4. Athomeonarock
    Oct 19, 2014
    3
    Seriously ... What the f. This game is terrible. It has some nice graphics, and it's fun to behead Orcs for about 2 hours. That's it , it's the whole game. If you play for 5 minutes you have played the entire thing. I can't believe this is so highly rated, metacritic is ether hacked or on the take. Do not buy!!!. Don't belief me, play someone else's before you buy.
  5. pasteeater
    Mar 1, 2015
    0
    Play this game if you want to put your controller through your TV screen. Terribly frustrating and "cheap" feeling. Button presses will occasionally not register, which matters quite a bit during the course of the game. The combat system is similar to Assassin's Creed, but not as polished. Avoid if you value your controller and/or TV.
  6. velvetmeds
    Oct 12, 2014
    0
    This game is incredibly overrated, wtf are reviewers and users thinking? The game has good fighting/combat, though even that is entirely ripped off of Batman Arkham (which still does it better than this game), everything else is a yawn fest. Bland, empty, lifeless open world which is a chore to travel through, boring story, lots of useless padding of the kind that you find in many UbisoftThis game is incredibly overrated, wtf are reviewers and users thinking? The game has good fighting/combat, though even that is entirely ripped off of Batman Arkham (which still does it better than this game), everything else is a yawn fest. Bland, empty, lifeless open world which is a chore to travel through, boring story, lots of useless padding of the kind that you find in many Ubisoft games... damn. This game would have been a lot better with a more tight, focused experience instead of trying to do many things and artificially increasing play time. But i guess this is what gamers want nowadays, doesn't matter if it's boring or not, they just want it to take hours to play through. Quantity over quality mentality...which i disagree with.… Expand
  7. wler711
    Dec 4, 2015
    2
    What a piece of JUNK! Never have I played a game with so much potential that fell so short. It has its moments: Graphics are good, and combat mechanics are actually fun and not too complicated. Yep, that's it. There are WAY too many enemies that wander around, so this game is 99.9% constant fighting (read: dying). It's like they tried to have something along the lines of Assassin's CreedWhat a piece of JUNK! Never have I played a game with so much potential that fell so short. It has its moments: Graphics are good, and combat mechanics are actually fun and not too complicated. Yep, that's it. There are WAY too many enemies that wander around, so this game is 99.9% constant fighting (read: dying). It's like they tried to have something along the lines of Assassin's Creed but produced something more like Mortal Combat. EPIC FAIL! If you want to feel like you're actually progressing and going somewhere in an open-world RPG, definitely look elsewhere.… Expand
  8. Broyax
    Nov 14, 2019
    2
    Un mélange d'Assassin's Creed et de Batman sur la licence neuneu du Seigneur des Anneaux, pas de quoi vraiment se réjouir en vérité... Les combats sont donc comme les Batman & Co, une suite de bourrinage et de mini-QTE en somme (appuie sur Y quand on te le dit, voilààà c'est biiiien, maintenant con-tinue de marteler X...) avec au bout de chaque séquence de bourrinage, des coups spéciauxUn mélange d'Assassin's Creed et de Batman sur la licence neuneu du Seigneur des Anneaux, pas de quoi vraiment se réjouir en vérité... Les combats sont donc comme les Batman & Co, une suite de bourrinage et de mini-QTE en somme (appuie sur Y quand on te le dit, voilààà c'est biiiien, maintenant con-tinue de marteler X...) avec au bout de chaque séquence de bourrinage, des coups spéciaux qu'on peut déclencher... en appuyant sur deux touches en même temps (X+Y ou A+X et ainsi de suite) : il s'agit bien d'une saloperie de jeu de baston à la con mais avec des roulades aussi ! à certains moments en tout cas, les vrais QTE bien cons et très nazes sont là pour vous faire bien chier.

    Le maniement reste en conséquence de quoi très lourd et ces combats s'avèrent chiants et d'autant plus répétitifs qu'on va en manger jusqu'au bout... si on tient jusque là. Et pourtant, on passe pas mal de temps sur ce Mordor, grâce à l'infiltration assez réussie même si le mode discrétion impose de maintenir la gâchette sans arrêt (un mode on/off peut-être...? non, ce n'est pas prévu, alors maintiens la gâchette, voilààà c'est biiiien).

    Ce monde ouvert bénéficie en tout cas d'une bonne ambiance, les Orcs se révèlent hargneux à souhait, souvent drolatiques d'ailleurs dans leurs dialogues et commentaires (la VF est excellente à ce propos). Toujours est-il qu'un nombre hallucinant d'Orcs peuplent ce monde, car ils reviennent sans cesse et on doit veiller lorsqu'on se promène à ne pas choper l'agro comme dans un sale mmo de merde (pléonasme évidemment) !

    Il n'est pas rare de se retrouver encerclé par 15 à 20 Orcs en colère, dont 2 ou 3 boss enragés et le seul moyen de se soigner est d'aller... cueillir des fleurs (sic !). Le héros a le charisme d'un beignet soit dit en passant mais on peut jouer avec un autre avatar, en l'occurrence une Elfe blonde qui n'amuse pas le terrain.

    Pas mal de trucs à ramasser ici et là qui aideront à débloquer des trucs et des machins, sans compter des missions secondaires à profusion... Le fait d'aller buter des boss à n'en plus pouvoir finit par lasser et le fait de pouvoir les manipuler n'intervient que trop tardivement dans le jeu... alors qu'on en a vraiment marre. La maniabilité laisse aussi à désirer au niveau du parcours et des déplacements, le personnage s'avére peu réactif et la caméra fait de la merde.

    En ce qui concerne la réalisation, les graphismes ne sont pas mal du tout et les chargements restent limités (leur Path Engine est tout-à-fait à la hauteur). Quoi qu'il en soit, je dois avouer que j'aimais pas les Batmous, donc je ne suis pas plus étonné que cela finalement... mais fort déçu quand même alors que l'infiltration encore pêrfectible laissait espérer un meilleur potentiel. Mais les combats mettent le jeu par terre et la répétition globale du jeu est décidément aussi ennuyeuse que fatigante.    … Expand
  9. 123mattatwood
    Jan 10, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is lame was not worth the money I was verry disappointed wish you could refund games seems wrong claiming to be the game of the year and play something so f...n stuipid......… Expand
  10. Oleksandr_
    Feb 10, 2021
    0
    Patenting the nemesis system, despite your game being created base on others' ideas. The industry is built on innovating of existing ideas.

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best Xbox One Game of 2014
11
#11 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2014
10
#10 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 2, 2014
    90
    Addictive combat with a multitude of variants and silky smooth gameplay make this hard to put down. [Issue#255, p.51]
  2. X-ONE Magazine UK
    Nov 8, 2014
    90
    An open-world classic driven by systems over story. [Issue#117, p.76]
  3. Pure Xbox
    Oct 21, 2014
    80
    The much talked-about Nemesis System also plays a big role in injecting personality and connecting the player to the game world.
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