Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor was more than I ever expected it to be. I remember going through all the early reviews of the game as I had pre-ordered it a few weeks before it fully came out. I was excited any new information about it, and I was not disappointed.

Early reviews of the game as I had pre-ordered it a few weeks before it fully came out. I was excited any new information about it, and I was not disappointed.

In Shadow Of Mordor, you follow the tragedy of Talion. The start of the game sets the tone as him and Talion’s family is slaughtered in a ritual created by your enemies, but Talion survives with some new powers to boot. 

The game is alike to Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham Asylum in combat. You can either choose to take out your enemies silently or you can do what I do and start a massive brawl. The game’s combat flows very smoothly,though with the mass amount of enemies you can soon find yourself overwhelmed. As you progress through the game you can fix that problem by gaining new abilities that cut down the time it takes to finish off your enemies, these skills have both stealth uses and others as well.

There are also abilities designed around the wildlife of Mordor, find yourself overwhelmed? Find a hulking, large animal to ride on to cut down on the enemies, which tends to be most of the animals. You will also unlock other abilities such as teleportation, slowing down time, and lighting your sword on fire. All of these will easily save you in a rough spot, and if you get caught up somewhere and surrounded, you’ll be glad you had these.

Shadow of Mordor also sports the unique Nemesis system, there are boss enemies in the game that have their own unique abilities and interactions with other bosses. They will attack others for power and look to become the strongest out of all of them, but you can disrupt that. With certain powers, you can even control them to help you fight, or challenge another boss with your help of course. With this in motion you can easily gain control over the strongest enemies in the game, except now they’re working for you.

The Nemesis system can easily backfire on you as well, if you die to one of the numerous smaller grunt enemies in the game, they will become a boss enemy to duel later, gaining their own set of unique abilities and upgraded armour. The enemies that killed you also will have unique dialogue with you, usually taunting you about how easy you were to put down last time.

These enemies all have some unique fears and weaknesses that you can exploit, sneak through the enemy camp and put them down silently, or charge in on a giant beast feared by the boss, fun any way you try it.

All in all the game kept me entertained for a long time, the campaign taking about twenty hours without doing many side missions. The game has much more to offer with those extra missions and challenges, its a lot like Assassin’s Creed in that regard which it takes awhile to fully complete the game. Even without those, it is very satisfying roaming around and fighting hordes of enemies with your leveled up powers. 

Fight your enemies head on or at a distance, or with a giant, hulking beast. Shadow of Mordor offers options to all kinds of players and it is well worth the buy, it will last as one of my favorite games this year. Feel free to check out IGN’s review here, http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/26/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review