Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor
- Michael
- Oct 13, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Introduction
Everything starts with the fact that the main hero, a Gondor ranger named Taleon, is killed along with his son and wife, sacrificed to the dark forces. Despite the cut throat, Taleon soon comes to his senses, realizing that he did not manage to die a little. No, life left his body, but death for some reason refused to take a soul, but reduced it to another equally unrepentant entity that had been in existence during the lifetime of the elf, and provided remarkable abilities in terms of possession of arms. Taleon was not the last warrior during his lifetime, and now he turned into a real killing machine - a sword and a dagger, smashing without a miss, a faithful bow, a visionary sight that allows you to see through walls ... It can not be killed - fell in battle, after a while he will be reborn again.
In a country called Mordor, where the gloom spreads
However, the main protagonist is concerned with more pressing questions: who and for what has sacrificed Taleon and his family and, most importantly, where you can find offenders in order to get even with them? To find answers, it is necessary to go too far from the most hospitable place of Middle-earth.
Mordor was created with a look at the fans of the trilogy of Peter Jackson - a style adopted by the designers of Monolith Productions, completely borrowed from the movie. The recognizable architecture of the clumsy orcish structures and the ruins of the former human and elven settlements, the generally gloomy atmosphere of the eve of Orodruin - I would like to say: "Just like in the movies!" I want, but it will not work out - the local Mordor is too small compared with the cinematic vast spaces, spirit at a glance. Immediately everything is much more modest: a journey from one end of the country to another will take no more than ten minutes, if not to be distracted, and the ubiquitous mist even on a sunny day does not allow you to consider anything beyond a hundred or two meters.
However, you begin to notice the small size of the locations only when the problem arises "to pass from point A to point B" - the rest of the time just does not exist, the world is so dense, even small, filled with events and interesting places. Here the slaves wander to work under the escort of guards, here a small orc team warms around the fire and spends time for chatter about the latest news, and just near Karahora (a predatory beast, which at first is difficult to master even the protagonist) escaped from the cage and attacked his guards. This everyday life of Mordor is not at all limited, sometimes very funny situations arise: for example when escaping from Karagor, one of the orcs fell directly into the blazing fire, which the captives he guarded did not fail to take advantage of - they killed the unlucky escort and hastened to hide.
Of course, the artifice of such scenes is visible to the naked eye and the rapture can only come from a completely unsophisticated lover of sandboxes, but their charm cannot be taken away from them. Mordor struggles to show the player that it's not just a decoration, but some kind of a world that lives by its own laws, albeit somewhat simplistic.
Natural selection
Of all the inhabitants of Mordor, it is worthwhile to dwell in more detail on the most numerous part of its population - orcs. The children of Melkor, as Taleon soon learns, although they lead a barbarous way of life, in constant skirmishes, finding out who is stronger, obey the strict hierarchical laws on which an important part of game mechanics is built.
Ordinary Uruks obey captains - the most powerful and cunning orcs, each of whom, in turn, can be the bodyguard of one of the five Chiefs. Battles with captains, even the weakest, are fundamentally different from fights with ordinary orcish trifles, which the protagonist will soon learn to throw in dozens for one fight.
Commanders never go alone, but most importantly, each of them is a unique personality with its weak and strong sides. Some Gorot Meat Eaters (yes, any captain has his own name) is afraid of caragors terrified, but he can not be wounded with a shot from a bow. This is the simplest example; in fact, the character characteristics of each officer with a dozen, or even more. All of them can and should be used in planning a battle against the commander - except that it is easier to defeat, by defeating the enemy with the use of his weakness, Taleon will receive a special rune that improves his weapons. Knowledge of the identity of each of the captains has to be pulled straight from the captured orcs - an elf-ghost can read minds, so after a battle, it's always good to leave a couple of Uruks for interrogation.
Personality and the number of captains are not limited to a rigid framework - from time to time they fight with each other (the victor gets a promotion, and the place of the victim will soon be occupied by a new orc), ambush rivals, feast, execute prisoners, hunt (do not delude yourself, mini-missions on the map, during which you can intervene in the course of events) ...
If the protagonist is not lucky to fall by the hand of an ordinary orc, he will receive a unique name and become a captain, and he will surely remember Taleon and will not fail to mention the previous battle at the meeting. It happens and vice versa - the captain can be returned if he does not cut off his head in battle. A pair of fresh scars and a familiar snout - you'll definitely find out who was lucky to survive in a duel with a thunderstorm of all the orcs of Mordor. For the incessant struggle for power, it's rather amusing to watch - even yesterday the private Uruk, today he battled Taleon, and tomorrow, you'll see, will become one of the Chiefs.
When you get the ability to brand opponents and turn them to your side, the real fun begins. If ordinary Orcs can only be forced to fight with relatives, then when branding the captain of options is already more. You can shoot the commanders among themselves or send your "Uruk" to the bodyguards to one of the Chiefs so that at the right moment he sticks a knife in his back. It is possible to enter secretly the Leader's bodyguards into the entourage of the Leader and, summoning him to a duel, cunningly escape to the nearest hillock, watching from the direction of the leader of the Uruks dying under the blows of former comrades-in-arms.
Screws on the nooks
Not all at once - to enjoy such intrigues, at first you will have to wave your sword yourself. Taleon, as already mentioned, is a first-class fighter, and it is from various battles that most of the gameplay consists. All three weapons - a sword, a dagger and a bow, however, the ranger does not disdain to give cuffs and kicks, as well as to use various skills that he got from the elf-ghost.
The fighting turned out all right - Taleon strikes after the blow, knockdown, cuts, shreds, cuts his head with one sweep of the sword ... Everything is so fast that sometimes the engine does not keep up with the actions of the opponents or the ranger himself: instant teleportation for a couple of meters in order to complete the strike is a common thing. It looks a bit ridiculous, but much more noticeable is the gentlemanly behavior of the orcs - they rarely attack a large number at once.
This does not mean that you can easily deal with a whole crowd in a couple of minutes. Firstly, with a large accumulation of enemies, it is very difficult to retreat and take a breath (the orcs literally press a number). Secondly, besides ordinary fighters with swords and clubs, there are spearmen and crossbowmen, so sooner or later Talion will either have to flee or fall on the battlefield, giving Mordor another captain.
Shadow of Mordor has a few issues with the pacing of skill tree unlocks, but more than makes up for it with a decent hack-and-slash experience, highlighted by the fantastic nemesis systetem.
Rating: 7/10
