![]() You get smart, learning to isolate targets or cut down the numbers with stealth or bow attacks. Persevere, however, and things slot into place. Throw in some awful camera angles and the fighting can be infuriating. In Middle Earth, it seems, just the one stab to the throat is no discouragement. What’s more, the finishing moves seem to take ages, leaving you vulnerable to an incoming attack unless you break to counter, at which point your would-be victim jumps up for another go. You’ll find yourself under attack from too many orcs and spending too much time countering to land a decent blow. As in the Batman games, you’ll often find yourself surrounded by multiple enemies, using quick, well-timed counters to ward off incoming blows, then fighting back with quick slashes and – if you can down your foes – a finishing move.Īt first the combat is a struggle. Unfortunately for him, the odds aren’t exactly piled in his favour. When all else fails, he can take the orcs on face to face. This is where the game is at its most Creed-esque, to the extent that it does the same automatic parkour tricks when you hold a button. He can also dangle from a ledge and stab them from below, or use the wraith’s unearthly bow to slay them from a distance. Like the stars of Assassin’s Creed he can sneak behind orcs and stab them from behind, or climb to a vantage point and jump them from above. One is to interrogate those directly below, taking him up the chain of command, while the other is to use the services of a delightfully Machiavellian, albeit hapless warchief wannabe the almost lovable Ratbag the Coward.Ĭue multiple assassinations, infiltrations, straight up fights and the occasional boss battle, all of which test Talion’s interesting and varied skillset. To do this he needs to identify his targets, and there are only ways to do it. Our hero’s only hope of finding peace is to kill the Black Hand, but how does he get to this fiendish sorcerer? The answer turns out to be murdering his way up the ranks of Uruk-Hai, slaughtering the captains, their commanders and the warchiefs at the top. Sadly, Talion doesn’t get to relive the same day in smalltown USA he gets to wander around Mordor slaying orcs. Instead, he finds himself trapped in a kind of limbo, alive but bound to the wraith of a long dead elf-lord, and doomed to keep coming back to life until he can avenge his kin a bit like the fantasy equivalent of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. However, death turns out not to be the end. His fort over-run by orcs and his wife and son slain by a mysterious figure known only as the Black Hand of Sauron, Talion himself is slaughtered. Here your protagonist is Talion, a ranger charged with defending the walls surrounding Mordor just as Sauron returns to the scene. Key characters from the lore are bought into play and not used cheaply, and while those who’ve studied the Simarillion will doubtless have a dozen or more complaints, those who love The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit and the movie adaptations will find that Shadow of Mordor feels like a natural extension. The design of scenery and characters is 99% WETA and Peter Jackson, but the plot stretches deep into Tolkien’s backstory, so that the tale of a ranger of Gondor, bought back from death to avenge his murdered family, has richer implications than you first expect. Nor, to its credit, does it wear its license lightly. And Shadow of Mordor does bring something new to the party, and while this feature sounds like a gimmick, it turns out to be surprisingly profound. Meanwhile the hard-hitting, counter-heavy melee combat is closer to the Batman style, down to the slow-mo finishers when you put down the last enemy in a gang. It’s another free-roaming, open-world adventure with the focus on combat and stealth, and while there are elements of Assassin’s Creed in its stealth kills and free-running acrobatics, it’s much less focused on urban spaces or vertical exploration. property: the Batman: Akham Asylum/City/Origins series. In fact, it has as much in common with another Warner Bros. While descriptions of the game as Assassin’s Creed goes to Middle Earth aren’t entirely wide of the mark, they also don’t do the game justice. It’s hardly the world’s most original game, but that doesn’t mean its short on thrills, drama or innovation. More importantly, it’s a whole lot better than you might expect. Shadow of Mordor is the best Lord of the Rings game for nearly a decade, though considering the competition, that isn’t really saying much. Available on Xbox One (reviewed), PS4, PC.
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