Ryu’s Musings – Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Title: Middle Earth – Shadow of Mordor
Publisher: Warner Brothers
Developer: Monolith
Language: English
Format: Disk/Digital
Genre: Adventure, Action, RPG-liteSynopsis:
In Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power, and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.
Every enemy that players face is a unique individual, differentiated by their personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Through the Nemesis System, enemy relationships and characteristics are shaped by player actions and decisions to create personal archenemies that remember and adapt to the player and are distinct to every gameplay session. Gamers are able to craft their own battles, enemies, and rewards within the dynamic world, which remembers and adapts to their choices, delivering a unique experience to every player.
So, as promised in my earlier ‘bites’ post, lets get on with the big one!
one of the elements i couldn’t really cover in my Bites post was the story, as i hadn’t completed it yet. Also i didn’t want to comment on the few bits I’d seen given how divisive the story has become, i felt it was better to wait until I’d finished the story completely. Which i now have!
So how’s the story you ask? Honestly, i liked it. While it’s not going to be seen as the greatest masterpiece of story ever written; the story Christian Cantamessa gives us is interesting and fairly true to the setting. Yes, this does mean I’m taking the opposing side in the on going argument of the story.
As you can imagine this game has becomes a love or hate thing for many. With die hard fans of the lore decrying it as changing the lore, and then people who never read the books saying it’s pretty good. Well, I’m one of the lore nerds, having grown up on Lord of the Rings, read all the lore; and at once point was able to speak and write elvish lol.
So yea, i love the lore. Yet i like this game, how can that be? Simple really, the game isn’t part of the lore. The developers made a big thing about this that while the game ‘slots’ into the lore, it’s not canon and shouldn’t be considered canon. Rather it’s a ‘what if’ story based on the Middle-Earth lore.
For me, I’ve never been able to fully enjoy the movies because of my love of the series, the movies were based on canon, and are considered canon. Now that’s a reason to get annoyed, as the movies changed so much and cut out so much (Curse you Jackson for not having Bombadil!!!). This game however takes place between all the accepted lore where there’s nothing accepted, so for me, accepting and enjoying the story was easy.
How is the story? Well, as i said i personally liked it. However it’s not without some rather large flaws. One of the biggest is Talion, I didn’t feel anything for the guy. During the tutorial, which doubles as a prologue, Monolith did an amazing job of making you feel for Talion and his family. They built up a great character, and then it fell flat on it’s face and became weird.
Part of this is due to immersion, because of the way the game is broken up, into 20 story missions, it doesn’t feel very fluid. As a result if you’re like me, where you spend the first 15 hours of the game doing nothing but killing uruks, you’ll completely forget about the story, so you get immersed into this mass murdering character, only to have immersion destroyed and replaced by the story character. the result of course is a disjointed sense of immersion.
That’s not to say the story is bad, because frankly it isn’t. Once i stopped focusing on the side missions and ran the story missions i found the story to be bloody awesome. The characters all have personality and amazing voice acting. we’ve got a female character that wears proper armour, no bikini with no tits and ass hanging out all over the place. Yet she still looks damn sexy throughout!
So, let me give you a quick overview of the story, I’ve made the following in white text so as not to give you spoilers. It’s up to you if you want to read it, but bear it in mind it DOES contain a lot of spoilers:
Talion, a ranger captain, is part of a Gondor garrison stationed at the Black Gate. The garrison is attacked by Sauron’s Uruk forces led by 3 Black Númenórean captains; the Hammer of Sauron, the Tower of Sauron, and their leader the Black Hand of Sauron. Talion, his wife Ioreth, and his son Dirhael are captured and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. However, Celebrimbor (who suffers from amnesia due to his status as a wraith) instead ends up merging with Talion, saving him from death. The two of them set out to uncover Celebrimbor’s identity as well as to avenge the death of Talion’s family.
Over the course of their travels, Talion and Celebrimbor have multiple encounters with Gollum, who has the ability to see and speak with Celebrimbor due to his prior contact with the One Ring. Hoping that Celebrimbor will lead him to the One Ring, Gollum leads Celebrimbor to relics of his past, each of which restore parts of his lost memories. Celebrimbor gradually recalls how he was deceived by Sauron, in his guise as Annatar the Lord of Gifts, into forging the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor ultimately assisted Sauron in forging the One Ring, but was able to steal it from him. Celebrimbor proclaimed himself the Bright Lord of Mordor and raised an army of Orcs against Sauron. However, the Ring ultimately betrayed Celebrimbor and returned to Sauron. Sauron then punished Celebrimbor by executing his wife and daughter, in front of him, then killing him.
In his search for the Black Hand, Talion allies himself with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads a community of Gondorian outcasts who have settled in Mordor, and Ratbag the Coward, an Orc who offers to bring Talion closer to the Black Hand in exchange for his assistance in ascending the Orc military hierarchy. Talion helps Ratbag ascend the ranks to the level of warchief by killing each of his immediate superiors so Ratbag can take their position, while also assisting Hirgon in saving outcasts who have been enslaved by Sauron’s forces, including Hirgon’s wife Eryn. Talion ultimately leads the outcasts in destroying a monument to Sauron, a public act of defiance intended to draw out the Black Hand. However, the Hammer of Sauron is sent instead; he executes Ratbag, battles Talion, and is ultimately killed by the ranger.
Talion is then sought out by the warrior Lithariel, the daughter of Queen Marwen, who claims to be able to assist Celebrimbor with his mission. Marwen is the ruler of Núrn, a kingdom of sea raiders located in the south of Mordor. She uses prophetic powers to guide Talion and Celebrimbor to another of Celebrimbor’s relics. Later on, she advises them to use Celebrimbor’s powers to take control of an army of Orcs, and use them to lead an assault against Sauron. Talion realizes that Marwen is being possessed by the wizard Saruman, and assists Lithariel in freeing her from his control. However, Talion still carries out Saruman’s plan, and leads his army of mind-controlled orcs in an assault against the Black Hand’s stronghold at Ered Glamhoth. However, instead of the Black Hand, Talion finds the Tower of Sauron waiting for him. The two do battle with Talion emerging the victor.
Talion travels to the Black Gate for a final confrontation with the Black Hand. However, the Black Hand incapacitates him with a spell that also restores the last of Celebrimbor’s memories, then kills himself as part of a ritual that pulls Celebrimbor from Talion’s body and forces him to merge with the Black Hand. This allows Sauron to possess the Black Hand’s body and incarnate in physical form. However, Celebrimbor is able to briefly paralyze Sauron from within, allowing Talion to destroy his physical form. With the Black Hand dead, Celebrimbor wishes to depart for Valinor, but Talion convinces him to stay and attempt to overthrow Sauron. Gazing at Mount Doom, Talion declares his intention to forge a new Ring of Power.
The story is on the surface bloody awesome, but it does have some weird holes that are never really explained. In fact, the story we’re given here (which i took from wikipedia) The problem is, the story given here ISNT explained or shown properly in game. We’re given a short cut scene with each memory, but the movie doesn’t really explain what’s going on. This carries on through out the story, while on the surface we’re given a great story, it’s full of holes.
Yet i have to admit that even with these holes, i really enjoyed the story. The characters were bloody awesome and the voice acting was some of the best I’ve seen in a while.
So long story short (pun intended!) The story for the game is good, but not great.
The Combat System.
The combat system is the exact same system used by the Batman Arkham games, with one huge difference. In the Batman games, to keep with the lore, you can’t kill anyone. So even while the games were awesome, for me they were never GREAT games, because there was little satisfaction in it. In this game however the combat system is let loos and we get a heavy, powerful and visceral combat system. The action slows down at just the right time to see you lop a head off, but doesn’t get in the way of the combat in any way.
Pretty much all of the batman abilities are in the game in one way or another, which makes for easy adoption of the game. Talion is not as nimble as Bats however. Bats would practically fly all over the screen, but since Talion didn’t have a cape to help him fly he’s left to running. I have to admit i was concerned over how easy it would be to break combat combo’s because of this, but it seems they take this into account and have made it a bit more forgiving on combos for when your moving to the next target.
One thing i LOVED more than anything is that there’s a lot of combat finishers. It’s not simply stab and move on. They (Monolith) put a lot of work into the combat animations giving them a lot of variety and weight. You never feel like your floating through combat, you do feel as though you’re cutting your way through, which i personally loved.
The Movement and Stealth System.
This the copied from AC4 (only AC game i ever played!), and i both like and hate it. I like the free running aspect of the movement, much as i did in AC4. Makes getting around fun and easy. What’s more, because you can climb most things it’s pretty easy to get around unseen. However i didn’t like how you’d come to something that you’d think was climbable, but since the game doesn’t want you climbing there it isn’t. Very irritating, especially in an open world game.
The stealth is functional, but that’s about it, it’s not great but not bad. The thing i hate about it however is that it’s forced on you in a few story missions which have instant failure state if you’re seen. This wouldn’t be TOO bad if the checkpoint saves were more forgiving.
The Open World Aspect.
Again this is something from AC4, but also a bit of Far Cry 3. Areas have towers in them, which you climb to reveal the area. Thankfully there’s not TOO many towers, and they do come in handy acting as fast travel beacons. The world is true open world, with no loading screens while you’re running around it. You will see them though if you fast travel. You will need the fast travel system though as there’s no cars or modes of transport. The only ‘quick’ way of getting around is the caragor’s, and they’re not that quick.
The only thing i didn’t like was the way the main and side missions were displayed. Instead of them being dynamic you make you’re way to where they are on the map, there’s a marker that hangs in the space, you hit RB and it starts the mission. A minor gripe, but it does break immersion a little.
The Nemesis and Vengeance system.
This is where the game really shines, and also where it’s biggest mistake was.
The whole point of the game is killing Uruks. Initially to destroy their command structure, with the ultimate aim dominating it. When you die, the Uruk that kills you mocks you a little, then gets promoted to a captain; he can then begin working his way up to war chief. However he remembers he’s killed you, and when you inevitable run into him again he remembers you, how he killed you, and mocks you even more.
It works in reverse as well, if you kill a captain there’s a possibility of him coming back to life. If he returns he’ll have some nice new scars, maybe a missing eye, bag over his head, all sorts of things to show how bad you hurt him. He remembers how you killed him and swears his revenge.
During the fights the banter between the uruk and you is just hilarious, in a great way. You can easily see if a captain you kill is coming back to life in the army section. If the guy you killed is lying as a corpse in the spot he was in, then he’s still alive. If it’s empty then he’s dead.
However, as i said, this is also the games weakness. The entire game is built around this one feature, which means if you get tiered of killing Uruks there’s nothing really left to do. Unlike the other open world games mentioned here there’s no mini-games. No cards, darts or anything else really to distract you. For me this was not a huge problem, but after 25hours of gaming I’d come to get a bit tiered and longed for a bit of a distraction.
For some people this will become a huge problem, and end up becoming a stumbling block for the game. I do however think it’s worth persevering with as it is very satisfying.
I must note however that the abilities are badly gated, to the point that you can’t really enjoy the game until you’ve completed over half the game. For me this is a big let down, as these abilities are KEY abilities to the functioning of both the vengeance system and the game as a whole. Yet there are loads of other abilities just up for grabs whenever.
Tiered systems aren’t a bad thing, but in this case we have a double system. The first is a genuine tiered system, unlocked through gaining ‘power’, which you get taking down captains, and completing captain missions. The second however are abilities you only unlock through story missions. However as i said these abilities are IMO central to the game, and the fact they aren’t given earlier limits the game.
There’s no loot in the game, so all the killing feels a bit lack lustre when you realise you’re not gaining anything for it. Only time you gain anything is when you fight the captains and warchiefs, they drop runes which slot into your weapons. However I found these to be disappointing to say the least. Runes are level based, with higher level runes being nothing more than a few percent increase. In the end i just stopped picking them up. Even the the ‘Epic’ runes were disappointing as hell. In the end it feels like there’s no real loot gain in the game, which i find a bit of a disappointment.
You find collectables around the world, and these give you both lore, and ‘money’, which you use to upgrade your weapons, health and abilities. There’s nothing special about these, and once you’ve unlocked them all you’re left with a chunk a chunk of change that has no real use.
I pre-ordered the game and got a skin, which frankly looks awesome. The Dark Ranger is a sort of sith/assassin skin and frankly it looks amazing. However Monolith decided, for what ever reason, to not have multiple cut scenes so that the scene you get matches the skin you’re wearing. Instead you’re stuck with the normal skin, which while nice, is a huge design flaw in the game IMO.
The graphical fidelity and optimisation.
HOLY SHIT THIS GAME LOOKS GOOD.
In the run up to launch there was a lot of anger and debate over the Ultra DLC that Monolith were planning to release. To run the Ultra settings, according to Monolith, would require a 6GB graphics card, which essentially meant you needed a Titan, Titan Black or Titan Z, as they’re (AFAIK) are the only ones with 6GB of VRAM.
I run a 4GB 770 OC card and unfortunately i found that the performance running the Ultra setting was abysmal. A lot of stuttering, some lag, and after a few hours I got a pop-up saying it was running out of ram and wanted to close the game to free it up. I ignored it and 20minutes later the game crashed. I dropped it down to High and the game runs smooth as butter, played for 12hours straight without problems.
However I’ve also noticed that some people have run Ultra with 780ti’s and the new 970/980 cards with no problems, so you’re mileage may be different.
What i will say is that even on high the game looks gorgeous and runs smooth as silk. I played for hours without any sort of issues, not stuttering, no lag, no nothing. It surprised me just how well this game performed on launch, I’ve never had a game run this smooth from day one. However it’s worth noting that this experience is not universal, some have experience issues when launching the game. though this does seem to be a very vocal minority.
So, my conclusion
Do i think this game is worth buying? Oh hell yes! For me this is my GOTY so far. However I’m just not sure it’s worth the obscene price of the console version. the PC version however is a must have! Especially since the PC version can be picked up seriously cheap.
My Rig:
i5 4670 3.5ghz
8gb ram
GTX 770 4gb Gigabyte OC card
Solid review, I plan on picking this up eventually once I cover a few other PS4 games I wanna play.