Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC, Linux, Mac, XBox One, XBox 360, PS3, PS4, and Select Toaster Ovens)

Barad-Dur wasn’t built in a day. Sauron’s rise to power was actually a slow crawl and Mordor was not always the blasted hellscape depicted in the novels or movies. No denizen of Middle-Earth would have called it lush but it was recovering from the battle between the Alliance of Men and Elves and the Orcs of Sauron. You play as Tallion, a Ranger posted in a settlement around The Black Gate, making sure that all is quiet in Mordor. But Sauron’s power is growing quietly in the dark places where men dare not look. The Black Gate is attacked by an army of orcs and the settlement is raze,  Tallion and his family are killed, and things generally go to hell. Made the vessel of an ancient wraith and restored to a mockery of life –by one of Sauron’s agents no less– Tallion now has the power to take revenge and fight Sauron’s orcs and destroy his generals. Meanwhile the wraith has forgotten who it was in life and must scour Mordor for pieces of his past.

History

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was developed by Monolith Productions creators of the Condemned series and, one of my personal favorites, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator. Monolith wanted to create a game in which in-game death had consequences, non-player characters would respond to the player’s actions, and to create unique orcs that the player would recognize. This all eventually became the Nemesis System which truly makes the game stand out.

From a narrative standpoint, Monolith wanted to show what occurred in the gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, something that does not see much exposure in media.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was released on September 30th, 2014. It’s competition was Hyrule Warriors (WiiU), Stronghold Crusader II (PC), and Borderlands: The Pre-sequel (PC, PS3, XBox 360).

Experiences

I was always a pretty big fantasy nerd and in Elementary School my father suggested that I read the Hobbit. I was probably a little too young for it, I had a hard time visualizing the characters and events but I did understand the story. Even though I was a little in the dark I knew that I wanted more Middle-Earth. It was a good time for a blossoming Lord of the Rings fan, Peter Jackson was making his movies, new editions of the books were hitting store shelves, and even non-nerds were getting excited about it. There have been LoTR games being made since the days of the Commodore 64 and it took a long time for designers to really get things right. Shadow of Mordor is definitely a step in the right direction.

This is no fabrication. Shadows of Mordor was the name of the C 64 text adventure Lord of the Rings game. Everything old is new again.

Gameplay

As a Gondorian ranger Tallion is a master of stealth, blade, and bow. Fortified by the power of the wraith he’s  a true force to be reckoned with. Possessing powers of ghost vision, insight into hearts of his enemies (the ability to see their strengths and weaknesses), summoning a ghost bow, control the minds of lesser beings — I ask myself frequently why Sauron thought it was a good idea to put a ghost in Tallion’s head– , and allowing him to endure death. But should Tallion die the orc that killed him will be celebrated as a great fighter and promoted to a command position. Tallion’s Ranger training will be put to the test now that it’s him vs. the legions of Sauron.

I mean lesser in terms of brain power, not size :D.

Most of the game takes place around the Sea of Nurn and the Black Gate. Here orcs go about their business, enslaving local humans, trying to kill each other, having grog drinking contests, trying to kill you, and marshaling their forces for the coming war. The game is mostly about interrupting these activities and delaying the war machine by whatever means are available to you. Orcs having a grog contest? Poison the grog and see what happens. Free local slaves and they’ll feed you information about the commanders and even assist you in battle when they can.

And there are a lot of commanders to mow through.

The Gush

The Nemesis System is the big pull for the game, it shows, and it paid off. Every commander has strengths, weakness, abilities, a primary concern, and personality. Some of these traits can create an enemy that is truly difficult to face except under special circumstances. On top of all this, you can fight Commanders that have defeated your friends for bragging rights. They’re not all just mindless mooks, there are some who stand out and will kick your ass. Hunting these guys isn’t just a task, it’s a genuine pleasure.

The game rewards you with extra experience for using the commander’s weakness. INCENTIVE!

It’s something quite small but whenever Tallion encounters an orc commander the soundtrack fades away and is instead replaced with what sounds like every orc in all of Mordor chanting the commander’s name. It really pumps you up to fight this guy and simultaneously let’s you know that this guy is serious business and will murder your face. The chant resumes when Tallion is about to be killed by a commander, just so you remember the name of the bastard who killed you should you fall.

This might be the best Assassin’s Creed game that I’ve ever played. You’ve probably heard it a million times before but it bears repeating that this game is basically the free running and faffing about mechanics that are integral to the Assassin experience… but with orcs. And as the ancient Gygaxian philosophers once said Orcs are greater than Templar or something.

The Kvetch

Shadow of Mordor feels like Christmas morning in which your Father got you Legos, your mother got you tinker toys, your grandfather got you Lincoln Logs, and your Aunt got you megablocks. Each on their own is amazing and incredibly fun to play with but even though you could play with them together they don’t exactly fit. They don’t have the cohesion that they could. You can control these orcs and pit them against each other but there’s no end to that means. You have to do it for a few story missions but there’s nothing you can really do with it in the normal game.

Sometimes when you kill a commander they return with a chunk of metal holding them together. I named one of these guys Chucklenuts because all he would do was laugh when we clashed. The first time he came back I was almost honored and pleased to see Chucklenuts, so glad was I the opportunity to kill him twice. It started to get really old around the fourth time.

Yeah, he’ll just walk that off.

I gotta put my canon scrutinizing glasses as far up my nose as I can and complain about the Uruk-Hai. Orcs have been around in Middle-Earth ever since Elves got twisted and deformed. The Uruk-Hai are basically super orcs created by the wizard Saruman in order to better conquer Middle-Earth. They’re more bigger, stronger, and more disciplined — good on you Saruman… buuuuuuuuuut I’m pretty sure that at this part in the canon of Middle-Earth that the Uruk-Hai hadn’t be created yet. It’s a pretty minor quibble but I am curious why the decision was made.

I’m very curious why the game omits the Wargs and Trolls, replacing them with Caragors and Graugs respectively. I’m genuinely curious if these are canon creatures or if Monolith couldn’t get the rights to the original creatures or something.

Oh yeah… I still don’t know why Sauron put a wraith in Tallion. I dunno, maybe his agent did it on their own but… then… why did Sauron’s minion do it? I’m so confused.

The Verdict

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor goes for $49.99 on Steam, and I don’t mean to downplay the game because it’s very fun and enjoyable, but I just don’t think it lives up to its price tag. If you’re a fan of Middle Earth and have a strong desire to kill some orcs and get some revenge then I’d recommend picking up this title on sale for $30.

Next Week: Max Payne 2

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

Introduction

 There have been a few Lord of the rings games, from the disastrous Super Nintendo title –which should have been called Hobbits in Caves: The Game– to the Playstation 2 series of hack and slash games. It was time for The Lord of the Rings to be more than a game where you kill orcs one after another in real time. It was time for The Lord of the Rings to be a game where you killed orcs one after another with TURN BASED COMBAT. You play as a group of adventurers who totally aren’t the fellowship of the Ring — I mean, you don’t have a hobbit character so it’s totally not the same– and you must go… find Boromir for some reason. And then go do other things too… it’s… weird.

This is Berethor, the main character. Now that I look at this guy I don’t think he ever smiles. He’s actually got that scowl bolted to his face.

History

This game was made by Electronic Arts — put the torches and pitch forks down, you can go commit mob violence after this is done. They got Steve Gray on board, this guy worked on Final Fantasy VII and Parasite Eve, and he had wanted to make a Lord of the Rings RPG since the 90s so there was legitimate passion in this project.

EA owned the license to make games based on the movies and this created some weird snags in what they could depict. This meant that they could only use things that had been in the movies or WERE NOT in the books — this will important later.

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age was released on November 2nd 2004. It’s competition was Half-Life 2 (PC), Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (PC), and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2).

Experiences

Gray said that he wanted this game to sort of dance around important events in the series, “You travel on a sort of “S” curve that weaves in and out of the path of the Fellowship through the story of the trilogy.” This meant that in moments that you’re closest to them you’d want to be doing the coolest things, right? That’s what I thought when I was 17. I wanted to fight the Balrog with Gandalf, defend Helm’s Deep, fight the Witch King of Angmar — which are all things you get to do in the game. But looking back on it, it seems so silly and so dumb.

It might be awesome to fight the Balrog but it’s established that Gandalf was the only one who held a candle to the being of fire and shadow– he’s really the only one in the in-game fight who can do any damage anyway. The Witch King was totally Eowyn’s fight, she had that guy’s number, and for some auburn haired dude with a sword and a shield to finish The Witch King off is just sort of insulting. I don’t know how it could have been done any other way but I think it might have been best not done at all.

So none-canon that it hurts.

Gameplay

The game is an RPG with turn based combat so there’s not much to talk about when it comes to the gameplay department. Each character has hit points and Action Points –mana points, basically– which they expend to use special abilities. Each of the characters follows Final Fantasy class design pretty closely. We got a warrior, red mage, blue mage, knight, thief, and… whatever Eaoden is — seriously he’s hard to encapsulate, it’s like the designers just gave him all the leftover abilities and called it good. You can have four party members out at any given time and can even switch them out in the middle of battles too.

That series of portraits in the upper right hand corner show what order the turns will be in.

Items are extremely valuable in this game. Although some are dropped by enemies you’ll mostly be relying on what you find in chests throughout the game. This game might not have given me potion paralysis — the reluctance to use items unless they’re truly needed– but it certainly didn’t help it either. Each character has unique equipment that actually alters their appearance.

What makes an RPG really shine is the story and the characters, in this department The Third Age is lacking hard. I struggle to remember any distinct traits about any of the characters and have a hard time remembering why their adventure was important for any reason other than that Fellowship thing being mighty important.

The Gush

Evil mode is the most original and incredible idea this game introduces. After you beat a chapter you can play through that chapter again in Evil Mode. Evil Mode is a series of fights where you play as the monsters fighting the heroes. Beating the good guys unlocks new equipment that just sort of teleports into your character’s inventory but the only thing that’s more awesome — even if it is dumb — than fighting the Balrog is being the Balrog.

“Pardon me, I think I’ll just pass if you don’t mind.”

Each character plays really differently, especially Eaoden — I mean, he’s got attacks that raise your opponents stats but do more damage. It’s really easy to make a team that matches your playstyle from the given characters.

The divergences between this game and the established series are actually pretty good. Helping the elves kill some orcs while they leave their homes is pretty cool. Killing Grima Wormtongue at a random Rohan town was sort of weird but not totally bad. You also take alternate routes through places Moria and other locations.

The Kvetch

Any dialogue voiced by a member of the Fellowship is either reused clips from the movie or was impersonated poorly. They got them into sound booths for the other games, I don’t know why they couldn’t do it for this one.

Attack animations are fluid and quick but spell animations take forever. I think an hour of gameplay was just waiting for Idrial or orcs to throw spells around. I would eventually stop using her spells just because their animations just took so damn long.

If I have to watch this troll beat his drum one more time…

When a character isn’t in combat they don’t get experience points. If you pick a team you’d best be ready to commit because those other shmucks are gonna get left in the experience point related dust. Character’s join at roughly the same level so they all get a fair shot but if you didn’t keep Elegost around then you can be sure that when you need his bow to fight someone then you won’t be having it.

I don’t know if it’s explained in the game, I didn’t catch it when I played through, but I had no idea what any of the stats did. Strength, Spirit, Constitution, Speed, and Dexterity aren’t exactly a good representation of what they do. I understand what Constitution and Strength do but what’s the difference between Speed and Dexterity and what does Spirit do at all?

The final boss is the fucking Eye of Sauron. There’s no real build up. You fight the Witch King and after he dies it’s just *bloop* fight this asshole. He’s big, got a lot of health, and is a total pushover. When he’s dead, cut to credits. It’s the dumbest thing in any Lord of the Rings game ever.

The Verdict

What it comes down to is that if fighting the Balrog alongside Gandalf doesn’t sound like the stupidest, canon breakingest, over the top thing that you’ve ever considered doing in a game then you’ll find this game palatable. Or at the very least, if you can look past doing stuff like that then there’s a solid RPG underneath.

Next Week: Killer 7