Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Lord of the Rings. I will never forget this world. I watched the films many times, read The Hobbit, and played almost all the games in this series. And so, in November 2013, the world received Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Personally, I just pissed myself with boiling water. The previous games are quite old and familiar, but here is something new, something interesting and at the same time intersects with the plot of the original films. But after a couple of hours spent in the game, the “WOW” effect wore off and Golum crawled out. Joke. The shortcomings came out. And I will write about this below.

Story. There will be no spoilers here. Feel free to read. He's cool, interesting, exciting, and his presentation is simply beautiful. We are told about the difficult fate of Talion, the commander of the garrison on the border of Mordor. He lives and rejoices with his wife and son, when suddenly the garrison is attacked by Uruks (so to speak, a new type of orcs) led by the Black Generals of Sauron’s army. And then he dies in the same way as Celebrimbor (elf blacksmith, creator of the One Ring), which binds their souls. And so, the thirst for revenge that unites them returns them to the world of the living. As the game progresses, you will need to fight with the commanders of the Uruk army, making your way to the family killers and at the same time restoring Celebrimbor's memory, because... he, having been killed, wandered for 3000 years in the form of a spirit and does not remember anything from his life.

Graphics. Well, there shouldn’t be any controversy here. Everything looks more than great. The dark tones of Mordor and the very atmospheric drawing of the area create the impression of a personal presence. Overgrown bats fly in the sky, spiders and rats crawl on the ground. Everything is very cool. And for owners of particularly powerful PCs, there are high-resolution textures to see every wrinkle on the faces of headless Uruks.

The combat system here is beyond praise. It’s very similar to the combat of the latest Batman games, but here it reveals itself better and I still prefer blood rather than Bats’ “non-lethal” blows. A large number of brutal finishing moves will appeal to all bloodthirsty gamers. There are few places like this you can see. The animations are done perfectly. There is no such thing as Talion cutting the air with a sword, and someone’s head flying off 5 meters from him. You can play through the game either in stealth mode or go into a frontal attack, but get ready for a battle with 20-40 Uruks, because they are calling for help.

The gameplay of is diluted with one very interesting thing. And her name is “Nemesis”. This is a system that gives commanders their own unique traits. Yes, yes, now each enemy will have his own preferences, voice, character, strengths and weaknesses. Some are afraid of animals, some inspire their retinue, making them stronger, some are immune to shelling, etc. So the tactics of dealing with them will also be different. And when you meet these “leaders” you will see and hear how the Uruk will threaten you with death in 1-2 minute dialogues. A very, very good feature of the game.

The music is good. It is unobtrusive and fits into the overall picture of what is happening. Each sound is unique and immerses you into the game more and more.

There is only one minus of - it gets boring to constantly slaughter Uruks. As soon as you move a couple of tens of meters away from the cleared area, new enemies will appear. So I recommend not playing too much in order to prolong the pleasure. And yes, sooner or later you will see all the finishing animations, and interest in them will fade. But this is a small matter.

I am very pleased with the game and look forward to August to see the continuation of the story of Talion and Celebrimbor!