So, this year in gaming has simply been exquisite.Since I'm mainly a connoisseur of RPG/story-heavy games, I've been very underwhelmed with games over the past few years. For one reason or another, I've never quite found many good games that really caught my attention and made me go "Wow, this is amazing." That's not to say that there hasn't been good games, but just that I've never found them, or, if I did, never quite liked them.
And one of those is "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor," a rather underwhelming story about a man who died, I guess, and is now forced to wander the darkness of Mordor in search of some way to redeem himself/pass on into the afterlife. I have been so dramatically underwhelmed by this game that it's been more reminiscent of "Assassin's Creed," just with "Lord of the Rings" slapped onto the label in order to appeal to different fanbases.
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Furthermore, it is so repetitive. After a while, it becomes the same old, same old; you now have this new baddie to kill/maim/terrorize, bringing nothing new to the table. And not only does this make for stale gameplay, it makes for a very stale story, as no character or plot development is added save for the fact that you have to go and kill the three bosses.
See this scene? She is only there for like, five minutes. Super interesting... but you'll never see her again.
Story and Characters: 3/10
Are there any? Not any that are very important. Of course, there's the nod to the main series with the appearance of Gollum and such, but there are no dwarves, no elves, and all that's left are a bunch of random humans whom no one has any real emotional attachment to. The main character is bland and boring, seen more as a tool for revenge and a plot device rather than as an actual character with motive, rhyme, or reason. Similarly, the few scenes in which we see his wife and children, while sweet, are not truly enough to build up a repertoire of memories in order for us to truly feel their rapidly approaching deaths. It all becomes rather mundane after that, and there are no additions. While the elf is given some backstory, it is again made mundane by not bringing any true changes to the world or the way the characters act, but instead in whom you have to now go hunt. Rinse and repeat, cutscene, then into the recycling can. Do they even pay a green fee for that?
Gameplay: 5/10
The gameplay is interesting enough in that it presents us with some interesting ideas and uses of the setting in which they live, but after a while, it seems to become nothing more than a recycled and dressed-up version of "Assassin's Creed," albeit with a few more orcs in it. After that, though? It's either a fetch quest, or a test of different ways of how to best your opponents, and there aren't many. It becomes very monotonous and tiring just to watch again and again as you run through the same motions, so much so I started launching into fights already with a yawn beginning. To put it simply, it was boring, and it never did anything new to change that.
Spot any shadows? Nope, neither do I. Standard fantasy landscape.
Setting: 1/10
The game says this is the "Shadow of Mordor," but I had to double check, because it looks nothing like it save for the fact that there are orcs all over the place it doesn't look anything like Mordor. I had never heard of things such as caragors or graugs before this game, which takes off a point for having to exert random creatures no one had ever heard of. I haven't see the Tower of Baradhur, or any black riders, nasguls, etc. any of the original horrible monsters that made the land of Mordor so treacherous and vile a place. Instead, it is, in fact, bright most of the time, and lacking the true depravity and darkness that made Mordor itself. Even important geographical landmarks such as Mt. Doom, an integral part of the landscape as the site of the forging of the ring, are completely missing. Is this even "Lord of the Rings" at this point?
Final Rating: 3/10
"Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor" is simply not a great game to buy. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone, it is a mere rip-off of the "Assassin Creed" series and "Lord of the Rings." I can't say I'm proud to have this as part of my repertoire of games, other than that it seems to be a game that's good to kill a couple of hours or to serve as a hors' d'oeuvres to a game that isn't a crude amalgamation of its predecessors.
This should seriously be our environmental policy, though, considering how good they are at re-using ideas others have.
