Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year – PlayStation 4
- Become the most feared force in Mordor in a new chronicle set before the events of the Lord of the Rings
- Exploit the individual fears, weakness and memories of your enemies as you dismantle Sauron’s forces from within.
- Harness the Spirit of vengeance to inflict brutal combos while mastering powerful new skills and weaponry.
Winner of over 40 “Best of 2014” Awards including Game of the Year, Best Action Game and Most Innovative Game. Most Innovative Game – IGN Game of the Year – GameSpot Game of the Year – Joystiq Best Action Game – The Game Awards
List Price: $ 19.99
Price:
|
95 of 103 people found the following review helpful
 A rare, special kind of game (of the year), By
Relytia (Portland, OR) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)
Once in a blue moon, or approximately half a dozen times each console generation by my estimation, we get a licensed game that rises up beyond the mediocrity expected of it and ends up being something special. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is undoubtedly one of those gems. Not only is it a great licensed game, it’s a great game PERIOD, and one of the first this gen to actually attempt new ideas I have not really seen anywhere before. This is easily the best game set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth setting since the Lord of the Rings movie tie-in games from way back in the day, and honestly, I think it’s the best Middle Earth game ever. Now, in this game-of-the-year addition, you get more of it, which is fine by me. I actually bought the standard version when it was new as well as the season pass, so I have indeed experienced everything this package has to offer. Ordinarily, I’d be annoyed seeing a 6 month old game I bought at launch get a game-of-the-year addition, but I realize this isn’t for me. This is for future buyers/players and let me tell you, if you’re new to Shadow of Mordor, you’re in for a treat with this edition, as it is undoubtedly the most complete version. The main game’s story takes place between the events of The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings, after Sauron’s defeat by the white council and before the Fellowship of the Ring is formed. You play as Talion, a ranger of Gondor stationed on the Black Gate. He lives a life of relative peace with his family until one day they are besieged by sinister servants of Sauron along with an army of Orcs and Uruk-hai (the smarter, fiercer, stronger orc variety seen in FotR). These villains proceed to ritually sacrifice his family in front of his eyes before turning the knife on him. Rather than perishing, however, Talion’s tragedy calls an unknown, amnesiac Wraith who joins with him in some strange union that keeps him alive and in seemingly good health. Talion and the Wraith join forces to put a stop to Sauron’s machinations. Each has their own motives for doing this, Talion’s quest being one of revenge and the Wraith’s a quest to rediscover their own identity. The game also dives heavily into the history of Celebrimbor, the legendary Elven smith who crafted the original rings of power. On paper, this all sounds like it should be exceptional, especially for hardcore fans of Middle Earth since there’s so much central lore explored here. Some of the concepts might seem screwy enough that it’d be non-canon to the books, but I believe it is considered canon to the movie universe version. Sadly, though, the game fails to really deliver on the great story potential. SoM is just not very good at exposition. Talion isn’t a particularly interesting or likable character. He’s about as generic a gritty protagonist as you could imagine, and often his behavior is inconsistent, one moment acting in a noble, selfless way, the next being rude and alienating his allies and friends for no reason. The Wraith is rather emotionless and bleak, like a more depressing Spock. Quite often, supporting characters are introduced and dropped from the plot before you ever have a chance to really know them or see them develop even to care. Many cutscenes are obviously designed to have emotional punch, but they fall flat far more often than not because of that. You’re more likely to scratch your head than laugh at the out of place humorous scenes or tear up at tragic ones. Honestly, a lot of details regarding many of these characters, including key ones, are relegated to the in-game codex/appendices. It’s almost Final Fantasy XIII levels of bad in that regard. Yikes. The plot also has major pacing issues too, some events flying by way too quick and others being unnecessarily drawn out. Many of the big plot boss fights are disappointingly anticlimactic. Same can be said for the ending as well. I also found that the voice acting is hit or miss. Thankfully the main two characters, Talion and the Wraith, as well as some supporting like Gollum, have excellent voice overs, but others are lacking. One dwarf character whose Scottish accent is laughably inconsistent, really stands out. So in summary, SoM’s story is undoubtedly its weakest component and the only aspect I’d describe as a "con." It just seems like a major shame that a game set in a universe so ripe with potential for an…
32 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Truth in the title, By
The Dark Lord Dante (California) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)
I actually own the normal edition but i have the season pass so i have all the content in this edition and basically…yeah, it was absolutely Game of the Year last year, nothing else even came close.
The combat is amazing, the voice acting and motion capture is incredible, the new Nemesis System is a genuinely amazing innovation that breathes new life into a fairly stale genre. The story is good but definately not the highlight, a lot of people have said the story is lack luster but i personally thought it was good, it’s just it seems lack luster compared to your own story of helping some random orc rising through the ranks to become warchief. Definately worth the money, hell it’s worth buying a PS4 for it. No other competition, definately Game of the Year.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
I like the Lord of the Rings movies and the idea …,
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year – PlayStation 4 (Video Game)
Wow, when i first saw this game a ear ago for some reason it caught my attention, I like the Lord of the Rings movies and the idea of fighting some of those epic battles like Legolas and others would get into sounded really fun. So it shipped out quick and when I updated it and started playing, I played it for 5 hours straight… I could not put the controller down, and I’m going to order another controller because the game is so much fun. You get to fight orcs and fight them in a Batman Arkham combat style which fits this game perfectly. Killing the Orcs never gets old, and then there is something called the nemesis system, you might have heard about this system, it basically creates Bosses out of Orcs you fail to defeat in battle, and what is really cool is that if they kill you, they remember and taunt you when you come back. Oh yeah, you are basically immortal, some kind of man possessed by a ghost, that gives you Supernatural powers! So yeah the game gets even better even after you are a bad arse ranger, you become a Supernatural Ranger. This fighting system is so cool too, because it’s like the battles are choreographed but they are all random, and the Orcs fight you and randomize their attacks. You can counter just like in Batman Arkham City etc. and you also get to shoot magic arrows, and ride something called carogaurs{sp} I don’t know if I’m spelling that right, but they are like a tiger/gargoyle like from the first Ghostbusters movie. Oh and i played for about 4 hours before i found out you have this supernatural power called "drain". I was like whoa, i should have used that more, no wonder i never had magic arrows, and it’s cool too because it stuns orcs. Now i’ve gotten my butt kicked a few times trying to get revenge on the Bosses, and they get stronger each time they kill you or they survive an encounter with you, lol. They also taunt you when you come across them again. You’ll spend the first 2 hours learning how to be a badarse MMA sword fighter/Supernatural ghost fighter, and it’s fun because soon you’ll be creeping up on a gang of orcs, take out 1 or 2 with a stealth kill then finish the other 10 with your untouchable fighting skills. This game makes you feel like a badarse and it’s pretty fun. It doesn’t really get boring either because as more orc reinforcements pour in and you keep dropping them you feel like you are getting better and better at fighting them. You might be on the edge of your chair as you get surrounded by 10 orcs and you start going steven segal on them.
A definite buy! If you like fighting games, Batman games and Supernatural Lord of the Rings goodness check this out. |
Related PlayStation 4 Games Products
A rare, special kind of game (of the year),
Once in a blue moon, or approximately half a dozen times each console generation by my estimation, we get a licensed game that rises up beyond the mediocrity expected of it and ends up being something special. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is undoubtedly one of those gems. Not only is it a great licensed game, it’s a great game PERIOD, and one of the first this gen to actually attempt new ideas I have not really seen anywhere before. This is easily the best game set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth setting since the Lord of the Rings movie tie-in games from way back in the day, and honestly, I think it’s the best Middle Earth game ever. Now, in this game-of-the-year addition, you get more of it, which is fine by me. I actually bought the standard version when it was new as well as the season pass, so I have indeed experienced everything this package has to offer. Ordinarily, I’d be annoyed seeing a 6 month old game I bought at launch get a game-of-the-year addition, but I realize this isn’t for me. This is for future buyers/players and let me tell you, if you’re new to Shadow of Mordor, you’re in for a treat with this edition, as it is undoubtedly the most complete version.
The main game’s story takes place between the events of The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings, after Sauron’s defeat by the white council and before the Fellowship of the Ring is formed. You play as Talion, a ranger of Gondor stationed on the Black Gate. He lives a life of relative peace with his family until one day they are besieged by sinister servants of Sauron along with an army of Orcs and Uruk-hai (the smarter, fiercer, stronger orc variety seen in FotR). These villains proceed to ritually sacrifice his family in front of his eyes before turning the knife on him. Rather than perishing, however, Talion’s tragedy calls an unknown, amnesiac Wraith who joins with him in some strange union that keeps him alive and in seemingly good health. Talion and the Wraith join forces to put a stop to Sauron’s machinations. Each has their own motives for doing this, Talion’s quest being one of revenge and the Wraith’s a quest to rediscover their own identity. The game also dives heavily into the history of Celebrimbor, the legendary Elven smith who crafted the original rings of power.
On paper, this all sounds like it should be exceptional, especially for hardcore fans of Middle Earth since there’s so much central lore explored here. Some of the concepts might seem screwy enough that it’d be non-canon to the books, but I believe it is considered canon to the movie universe version. Sadly, though, the game fails to really deliver on the great story potential. SoM is just not very good at exposition. Talion isn’t a particularly interesting or likable character. He’s about as generic a gritty protagonist as you could imagine, and often his behavior is inconsistent, one moment acting in a noble, selfless way, the next being rude and alienating his allies and friends for no reason. The Wraith is rather emotionless and bleak, like a more depressing Spock. Quite often, supporting characters are introduced and dropped from the plot before you ever have a chance to really know them or see them develop even to care. Many cutscenes are obviously designed to have emotional punch, but they fall flat far more often than not because of that. You’re more likely to scratch your head than laugh at the out of place humorous scenes or tear up at tragic ones. Honestly, a lot of details regarding many of these characters, including key ones, are relegated to the in-game codex/appendices. It’s almost Final Fantasy XIII levels of bad in that regard. Yikes. The plot also has major pacing issues too, some events flying by way too quick and others being unnecessarily drawn out. Many of the big plot boss fights are disappointingly anticlimactic. Same can be said for the ending as well. I also found that the voice acting is hit or miss. Thankfully the main two characters, Talion and the Wraith, as well as some supporting like Gollum, have excellent voice overs, but others are lacking. One dwarf character whose Scottish accent is laughably inconsistent, really stands out. So in summary, SoM’s story is undoubtedly its weakest component and the only aspect I’d describe as a “con.” It just seems like a major shame that a game set in a universe so ripe with potential for an…
Read more
Was this review helpful to you?
|Truth in the title,
The combat is amazing, the voice acting and motion capture is incredible, the new Nemesis System is a genuinely amazing innovation that breathes new life into a fairly stale genre. The story is good but definately not the highlight, a lot of people have said the story is lack luster but i personally thought it was good, it’s just it seems lack luster compared to your own story of helping some random orc rising through the ranks to become warchief.
Definately worth the money, hell it’s worth buying a PS4 for it. No other competition, definately Game of the Year.
Was this review helpful to you?
|I like the Lord of the Rings movies and the idea …,
A definite buy! If you like fighting games, Batman games and Supernatural Lord of the Rings goodness check this out.
Was this review helpful to you?
|