I’ve held off on buying this game because I only buy AAA games when they’ve got some age, all the bugs have been ironed out, and they fall in price. Well, I’m glad that I waited because last month, I bought both Middle-earth games and all the DLC for less than C$10. Based on all the time I’ve spent on this game today, I’d say it was worth it.
I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. When I was 10-years-old, I read the trilogy in five days. Never before – or since – has a fictional world felt so fleshed out.
As it happens, I’m also a fan of Monolith Productions, the developer of Shadow of Mordor. They have made some of my favourite PC games of all time, including Blood and No One Lives Forever. Based on their track record, Shadow of Mordor had to be good.
And it is!
This is one of the best open world hack-and-slash RPGs that I’ve ever played. It is on a completely different plane of goodness. Perhaps better games exist, but will I enjoy them as much? That remains to be seen.
Like many games of its ilk, Shadow of Mordor is about fighting evil. You largely do this by killing orcs. You can either shoot them with a bow, sneak up behind them and slit their throats, or take on entire hordes and beat them to death.
But to me, what sets this all apart is that these aren’t random goblins. Let’s say a random orc gets the better of you because he managed a killing blow. His reputation increases amongst the orcs, he gains power, and now there’s a whole storyline about how he ended your life. Once you find that orc, he remembers that initial encounter, and things get real.
Speaking of death, the big gimmick of this game is that you can’t die. In fact, you’ve been banished from death. Instead, you’re somewhere between life and death, cursed to merge with a wraith. So every time you “die”, you just return as an undead hero – ready to wreak havoc again.
In a practical sense, this means that when you die, you don’t start over from scratch. Instead, your “death” becomes part of the continuous story. It’s nifty to experience, and I’ve never encountered anything quite like it.
I’m also impressed with the controls. Playing this game with a keyboard and mouse is a dream. It’s games like this that make me happy that I have a mechanical keyboard because it all feels so satisfying. I could play this with a gamepad, and it would probably be good, but I’d be giving up precision – and I just don’t want to do that.
Graphically, Shadow of Mordor is about as good as it gets for a game released in 2014. It still looks good now, and I think most people who play this on ultra settings would agree. But it’s also interesting to see how much graphics have improved over the past 10 years. Things like hair physics and lighting are radically different from 2014. Shadow of Mordor isn’t yet at the point where it’s “retro” in terms of graphics, but you can see its age.
It’s the sound department where this game consolidates itself as truly “epic”. The voice acting is superb. Combined with the orchestration of the soundtrack, it gives this game a cinematic feel.
Playing this on my Steam Deck is tempting. It’s “verified” for Steam Deck. It would probably work well. However, Shadow of Mordor and all its DLC demands around 80GB of space, and I just don’t want to put it on my Deck. Besides, I got to experience it on my 24” monitor running at 1920x1200 resolution with a 75fps framerate. So that’s fine.
I can wax poetic forever about the goodness of Shadow of Mordor, but this is one of those games that continues to be awesome as time goes on. Monolith, you did well. This is why I love PC gaming.
