Back in June I was lucky enough to have been given 50 free “virtual shares” in Game. Those shares rose in value and on Friday I cashed them in to the tune of £153. So naturally I headed into town on Saturday and pre-ordered my copy of GTA V and PES 2015, but I also picked up a copy of Shadow of Mordor.
The game is set prior to the events of the Lord of the Rings and sees you play as Talion, a Ranger of Gondor hiding his family near the Black Gate. Needless to say that’s probably not the best place to hide when Sauron’s making his return and Talion’s family are soon discovered and slaughtered in front of him. Talion too is killed, but we come to realise that Talion can’t actually die – he’s trapped between life and death and has a wraith with him act as his guide and your teacher as you learn the game.
I began to play over the weekend and, after learning the basics, almost instantly discovered one does not simply walk around the outskirts of Mordor, yet alone into it. It’s incredibly tricky to make it 600 yards without being seen. Needless to say I was set upon by a band of Orcs and soon found myself outnumbered. Some of these characters even graciously introduce themselves and tell you how they’re going to rip you apart.
It was after my first (not very) glorious death that I was introduced to the full extent of the games Nemesis system. The Uruks all have unique names and personalities, which are generated randomly with each playthrough of the game. If you kill them you’re rewarded, but if they kill you they can be rewarded with an increase in power and potentially they may decide to attack those above them in their social structure. This leadership ladder will constantly change as you play the game, with the Uruks all fighting each other in a massive power struggle. The hierarchy has Grunts at the bottom, then Captains and then Warchiefs, who will surround themselves with as many as 4 Captains which makes killing them particularly tricky.
Once I’d familiarised myself with the system I began to see some of it’s nuances in action. I was unfortunate to have been killed by Zog the Puny twice, and he soon climbed the ladder from Grunt to Captain. The interesting thing was that the second time I ran into him I noticed his appearance had changed slightly, he was wearing the scars from our previous battle. He also made a comment about having killed me before, which both are nice touches to make it obvious that these guys remember you.
The game play itself is easy to pick up and will be familiar to anyone who’s played Assassins Creed or the Batman games. There are free running, stealth and hiding aspects right out of Ubisoft’s playbook, while the fighting is clearly inspired by Rocksteady. There’s one button for attack, one for counter and one for throws. You’ll soon be taking on a whole batallion of Orcs by making the most of these simple controls. Yes there are times when it feels like you’re manically button bashing but you’ll forgive it those moments for the times it all just seems to work perfectly.
Of course you can upgrade your skills and unlock new moves like execution, which was one of the first I unlocked. I found pulling that off pretty tricky at first, due to switching the way I held the controller to press the buttons and also because several other Orc tossers were trying to kill me at the same time.
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As well as a sword you also get a bow and arrow, and you can take advantage of your focus (a bullet-time type aspect) to help you get away the perfect shot. The bow is one of the instances where your mysterious wraith friend helps you out. Him being with you gives you certain powers, and as he’s an Elf naturally he’s great with the bow. This comes in particularly useful when a raging Caragor is charging at you. Caragors can be ridden, you can see my first experience of that in the video below, and there is something fun about releasing one from a cage inside a Uruk camp and watching it attack!
Of course you can upgrade your focus, as well as your health, skills and weapons. All pretty standard fare for this kind of game. The number of upgrades seems pretty good and should give you plenty of options as you advance through the game.
The story itself isn’t up to the standards I’d expect from a Lord of the Rings spin-off but the quality of the Nemesis system is what really helps Shadow of Mordor stay in contention with similar games. It’s well thought out, well executed and quite unique. The maps (there are two of them) are smaller than those of other games in the genre, but they are perfectly formed and full of great AI characters who interact with each other and yourself with equal hatred and well written dialogue. Add to that the fact that Monolith have basically taken the good aspects of Arkham/Creed games and improved upon them, you get a great gaming experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_pskmhrC-Y&list=UUnVb5qDAqZlAIIPfdZFpA3w