Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

It probably comes as no surprise that Shadow of Mordor's strongest point is its ambitious Nemesis system - and boy, is it a strong one. However, a lack of focus and other engaging options results in no one part feeling completely fulfilling.

Shadow of Mordor begins with a tragedy befalling protagonist Tallion; him and his family are captured and murdered by the Black Hand of Sauron in a blood sacrifice. Tallion, however, is revived in a state neither living nor dead, tied to the spirit of a mysterious elf who also seems to have a connection to Sauron and his minions. The elf promises revenge for Tallion if he agrees to help him achieve the same, and the death of Tallion's family is more than enough motivation. Well, that's Tallion's motivation. However, a bare minimum of character development and emotional investment from Tallion's family left me grasping for any outside reason to care about his plight.

All of that said - and I'm not excusing lack of character development - this changed once I began the game in earnest. I found a fight against some orcs almost immediately and quickly dispatched them. High on my victory, I picked yet another fight... and met my first captains His name was "Shagflak the Vile" and he used a crossbow. A few seconds into the fight, he fired three bolts into my chest and then a final one to finish me. I was dead for my first time after barely ten minutes of play. I revived at a checkpoint and it was not very long before I met my Vile friend again. He told me he was going to "Kill me as dead as my pretty wife" before crossing his bow with my sword again. In Shadow of Mordor, this was my motivation: screw orcs. I had just had my first interaction with the Nemesis system, which aspires to have every ranking soldier in Sauron's army remember their encounters with the player. The ambition and work which clearly went into this system cannot be overstated. I would fight many an orc, kill countless captains and die almost as much after my initiation with Shagflak, but every skirmish was spurned on by the invigorating feeling that a disgusting, familiar face was waiting in the next enemy camp.

Unfortunately, this feeling diminished as I entered the late game. See, all of these captains contained within the Nemesis system have strengths and weaknesses you must avoid and can exploit respectively. So, a technique used to beat one captain won't work against another... in theory. As I entered the second half of my playthrough, I made a discovery: almost none of the captains had a defense for a certain technique; those that did, invariably did not have one for its sister technique. Either, if performed successfully, would render the captain defenseless and open to another attack. Rinse and repeat. Any orc, captain or not, would fall to my tactic with ease. This revelation turned the encounters I both looked forward to and feared to mere chores. Of course, power fantasies can be fun, but after already spending many hours with Mordor, I was beginning to tire of the Nemesis system's good features, never mind its disappointing ones.

Meanwhile, the story of Mordor trucks along at a slow and boring pace. It tries to make the best of what it has, but seems to be kneecapped by being tied to the Lord of the Rings mythos. The aforementioned lack of development continues for nearly every character, including Tallion and the elf, unfortunately. Despite collectibles within the world which are specifically for enriching the world you are exploring, Mordor elects to explore almost every other character rather than the ones you play as. However, travelling around the world is enough of a joy and the world building is robust enough that collecting these is still fun.

Regardless, some life is breathed into the characters by the commendable voice acting. Troy Baker puts on an English accent - as seems to be law in LotR material - as Tallion, and is perfectly acceptable. However, Nolan North steals the show as the elf spirit. Hearing him shout lines like "Suffer me now!" or "I seeee you!" in a voice which sounds so unlike any of his other famous roles is a nice surprise. It's easy to forget he has such range when he is type-casted so often. It might be easy to get caught up in all of these other points and not mention how darn good the game actually looks. I actually experienced some Uncanny Valley moments in this game, and that's meant as a compliment. Being able to pick out individual hairs on a beard or braids in hair is something I may never get used to, but it sure looks amazing. It is a shame that these wonderful graphics are somewhat squandered on two separate world environments whose color palates can both be broken down to: green, darker green and grey.

I don't mean to take away the Nemesis system's incredible ambition and accomplishment - it is the first of its kind - but I just think that this current tech could be used to create much more incredible player experiences if it was focused more tightly. However, this is the present and Shadow of Mordor has made a game with an incredibly engrossing, player made story (which is probably better than the actual story) and it is a blast to play.