Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Reviews
There's plenty to see and do in Mordor when you're dead; all that's left, in the words of a wise old wandering wizard, is to decide what to do with the time that is given to you.
'Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor' combines familiar combat tricks and trademark Tolkien scenery with a unique Nemesis system to deliver one of the best new-gen experiences of the year.
The tech specs are demanding, but this is the Middle-Earth game to rule them all.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's great action and dynamic enemies make both victory and defeat an amazing experience.
A far better game than many would've imagined, not just in terms of its action and Lord of the Rings authenticity – but in bringing a genuinely new idea to gaming.
By turning your every death into the start of a personal vendetta, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor makes you that much more invested in its open-world. The savage combat and satisfying stealth are just the means to exacting your ultimate revenge.
A challenging and fascinating adventure in emergent gameplay, but not without growing pains
Shadow of Mordor's political machinations and rambunctious action make it a cut above your everyday Lord of the Rings game.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor tells a good story but provides the tools to discover even better tales
An inventive and thoroughly enjoyable adventure that honors the legacy of its fiction while simultaneously expanding its boundaries.
This perfectly competent open-world game gets a heck of a lot more interesting when it throws an endless host of savage, dynamic AI enemies into the mix.
Shadow of Mordor is a great first step into the open-world action-adventure genre for Monolith. It up-ends what's come before with the Nemesis System, which brings the player closer to the game with personalized foes. The game isn't perfect - resurrecting foes can be frustrating - but those issues won't hold you back from enjoying yourself.
Ultimately, like many ambitious projects, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor doesn't deliver on everything it sets out to do. Although Monolith's heart is in the right place and the studio honors the lore, it doesn't really add anything that's worth seeing outside of some solid open world gameplay. It isn't a bad game, it just feels far too repetitive for its own good.
Middle-earth just wants the player to explore it like a playground. You can climb up structures, leap from them to tackle a wild creature of the land, and even enlist your own group to drive the dramas that ensue. Shadow of Mordor paints the pictures that rest somewhere between bookends.
If you're fond of Tolkien, you should enjoy this side story without being too offended by the updates to popular lore. If you've enjoyed Assassin's Creed, you may appreciate the visceral change of pace the game brings to the genre of open-world stealth. The world feels alive and treacherous, the combat gives you lots of gruesome options, and the enemy army is always evolving. It might not offer the challenge you crave, but if you enjoy killing orcs, there are two maps filled with the savage monsters and they're all looking for a fight.
Shadow of Mordor is without doubt the best Middle-earth game available on consoles. Though not entirely original (then again, what is nowadays?) all of the elements which it borrows flow in sync with Monolith's intuitive Nemesis system, creating something both immensely fun and replayable. That's not to say the game doesn't start to lose steam, especially once you've hit the thirty-hour mark, long after you've finished the story and explored the world. Still, when you eventually come to that milestone you will undoubtedly have had your fill.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor wears its influences on its sleeve, but integrates them so well with its own ideas that it stands up as a unique achievement on its own.
More than just a great Lord of the Rings game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor marks a new era for the franchise that can be enjoyed by fans and the uninitiated alike.
Shadow of Mordor takes the focus away from new generation resolutions and framerates, and really starts to show what types of gameplay innovations are possible given the more powerful console hardware.
Dark, compelling, and occasionally unflinchingly brutal, Shadow of Mordor is Lord of the Rings for grown-ups. It's not just a good game based on an established franchise, but a fantastic game in its own right and one that deserves to be judged purely by its own merits, and not by what has come before.