Warner Bros had amazing success with the Arkham gaming franchise and it looks as though they've learned the right lesson from it.
An intellectual property as great as Batman shouldn't be wasted on a crappy movie tie-in game. Rather, the world of Batman should be the basis for an original game that stands on its own and doesn't have to be tied to the release of a specific film.
That system has now been applied to the works of JRR Tolkien, and the latest game set in the Lord of the Rings world is a cracker.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a great, original game set between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, when Sauron has reclaimed Mordor and is using it to develop his forces in preparation for taking over the world.
Players take on the role of Talion, a ranger who in the prologue has his family massacred by one of Sauron's mates and gains wraith-like abilities in the process. He's mad, so sets out on a path of vengeance.
Talion discovers more about the spirit that compels him, frees loads of human slaves, goes on adventures with Gollum, discovers the origins of the Rings of Power and slays masses of the Dark Lord's followers.
It's brilliant having an original game set in Tolkien's world because we've read and watched so much on it already. References to Middle-earth lore mean something you already know, as the world is so well-established. That learning, world-building stage a lot of fantasy games have to go through is conveniently skipped.
Mordor specifically is a very interesting setting and one I know surprisingly little about. I can easily recall scenes from the movies set in the Shire, Mirkwood, Minas Tirith, Lake-town, Helm's Deep, the mines of Moria and so on, but when I think of Mordor I mostly just think of Mount Doom.
Spending hours upon hours in Mordor with this game has given me a far greater appreciation for the area, and things like just how much its inhabitants love 'grog'.
Coupled with the ideal setting for a fantasy game is Shadow of Mordor's groundbreaking Nemesis System.
In a nutshell, it means the enemies all form part of a large, complex and ever-evolving society. You waste hundreds if not thousands of baddies in a hack and slash game such as this, but in Shadow of Mordor they're all unique, randomly generated individuals.
Sauron has various underlings helping him prepare for his antics in Lord of the Rings, and underneath them is a hierarchy of Captains and War Chiefs, who in turn command their armies of Orc and Uruk. You can pull up information on this hierarchy at any point and look at their names, character models, strengths & weaknesses etc.
Of course not all of the thousands of minions form part of the hierarchy, but if one kills you, the camera zooms in on them to reveal their unique features and name as they are promoted to Captain.
As a Captain, they'll compete in power struggles with Sauron's other Captains, and you can track them down for revenge if you like. Random Orcs get promoted even without killing you, too, as the system is constantly working by itself.
The Nemesis System means that every play-through of the game is unique, with different characters every time.
It also means that the Orcs and Uruks will remember what's happened between you and them previously - if they've killed you, they'll gloat and if you've scarred them, they'll remind you of it before trying to exact revenge.
You really have to try Nemesis System to get a sense of its magic and believe me, it is magic. I have lost several joy-filled hours to it.
Any fantasy RPG is going to be held up to the mammoth series that is The Elder Scrolls, and rightfully so. While I fell head-over-heels for Skyrim more dramatically than I have with Shadow of Mordor, they're actually quite different games that are really difficult to compare.
But one advantage this game has over Elder Scrolls games and many RPGs can be summed up quite simply: no looting!
You don't have to waste any time searching every inch of a dungeon or cave looking for hidden treasure and you certainly don't have to kiss goodbye to hundreds of hours spent ferrying sellable goods back and forth to buyers, to then buy goods to create other items with and so on.
There are some items to pick up and a great upgrade system in Shadow of Mordor, but they're streamlined to make sure the bulk of the game is focused squarely on the fighting. This is a really wonderful, freeing benefit.
The heavy focus on fighting wouldn't work if the fighting was stink, but it rules. There's a lot of cool stealth action, Arkham-style free-flowing brawls and some awesome magical stuff like draining and branding. How the combat affects, and is affected by, the Nemesis System makes it extra great.
There are loads of little touches that tickle me pink every time, too, such as when a War Chief marches onto the battlefield, a chanting of his name blasts out of the speakers. So cool.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is great, but far from a perfect game.
The biggest problem with it is in the movement controls. In recent years, fluid movement across all sorts of environments has become commonplace in third-person games. It's a little clunky in this one.
Often I wouldn't start climbing up a wall when I wanted to and was sure I pushed the right button at the right time. This is always frustrating, but it's infuriating when you're trying to escape a battle that is looking grim.
The main storyline could be stronger, too. It's simple and I love how it sits alone as a fresh narrative in Tolkien's world, but it's not very memorable. The dynamic, random character developments that came out of the Nemesis System ended up more compelling than the scripted storyline.
There is something else that has left a bad taste in my mouth over this game. It's something that hasn't come from the game itself and is certainly not the fault of its designers, so it may seem harsh to bring it up, but I feel I must.
A PR company called Plaid Social committed a highly immoral piece of marketing around the game's release, bribing notable YouTube users into advertising it and falsely presenting the adverts as reviews. The contractual terms around these bribes were extremely heavy-handed and bizarre, and rightfully caused outrage.
I'm not sure if what Plaid Social did with Shadow of Mordor broke any specific laws in the regions they were carried out, but it really shocked and disappointed me that this sort of deplorable practice actually happens - especially when it's so unnecessary as the game is legitimately great!
The Nemesis System is amazing and the sort of high-level entertainment that only a game can provide over any other form of storytelling medium. It forms the heart of this amazing Middle-earth game that deserves to do well, despite the actions of Plaid Social.
And what next for Warner Bros in this exciting new age of treating their intellectual properties right gaming-wise - a Superman game as great as the Arkham titles? A Hunger Games console release to rival the 2013 Tomb Raider? A kickass Matrix game?
The very least I'm hoping for is another Middle-earth game that expands on the solid work of Shadow of Mordor. In the meantime, I have to track down Ronk the Watcher, in case his duel against Krimp the Pickler fails and the bloody revenge I seek is stolen from me.
Four-and-a-half stars.
3 News
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
:: Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive
:: Developer: Monolith Productions
:: Format: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
:: Rating: R13
source: newshub archive
