![]() Currency unlocks health and focus improvements, as well as extra arrows and rune slots on the sword, dagger, and bow. Runes are found by defeating orc Captains, and are quite diverse in their effects, while the ability upgrades and unlocks make some really interesting elements available. Rather, he upgrades by acquiring runes that can be applied to his weapons and by spending points/currency to improve his (and the Wraith’s) abilities. Talion doesn’t unlock new weapons or armors in the game. There’s less in the way, though, in general, so it doesn’t become an issue nearly as often as it does in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Talion gets a bit too sticky, at the worst possible times. However, as with the Assassin’s Creed series, the movement mechanics get a little wonky when you’re sticking to cover. The world is alive, and side missions are always popping up, so you can quite easily spend a great deal of time not progressing the main story, but still progressing Talion. The entire map is accessible, but finding the larger cohesive area’s Forge Tower and “reforging” it opens up map details, such as collectible locations and more. Each specific region, however, is part of a larger cohesive area. This makes combat just as fluid and entertaining as it is in the Arkhams, and that’s not a bad thing.Īs with the Assassin’s Creed series, the map is divided into multiple regions. The counter, dodge, and leap systems are all just where you’d expect them, too. Attacks chain into high combo multipliers which, later on, allow you to use special attacks. In group combat, Talion feels faster than Batman, but the same basic principles apply. Talion’s free-running ability is very reminiscent of the Assassins, as is his ability to stealth kill an enemy while hanging on a ledge and his ability to leap down onto an unsuspecting enemy sword first. That said, gameplay first! If you’ve played either Assassin’s Creed or the Batman: Arkham series (or both), you should be pretty familiar with most of movement and combat, respectively. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth (and, by extension, Arda) stands in a class of its own in my estimation I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion before I hit double digits, with countless rereads in the years following. I’m going to keep my commentary on the Tolkien connection to as low a level of pedantry as I can. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is neither an afterthought nor a cash-grab it is an incredibly well developed game with a connection to Tolkien’s world that hits more than it misses (though the misses could be seen as…foundational). This results in, more often than not, two negatives: a bad game and angry fans of the source. ![]() Too often, licensed games are merely an afterthought, or an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the source material. There are only a few licensed games that truly stand out in my memory as enjoyable, or even passable, and even fewer that struck me as truly excellent. The most difficult hurdle that any licensed game has set in front of it is the same thing that makes it so very desirable and marketable: the license. The Wraith, whose identity will be discussed later in the review (I’d say “spoiler alert,” but WB already came out and spoiled it through trailers, which is another thing I’ll get to), enters Talion’s body, resurrecting him and granting him extraordinary abilities, though he is unable to remember his identity or history. The Ranger, Talion, was killed by the Black Hand after watching his wife and son sacrificed before him as part of a dark ritual. In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie, a Ranger and a Wraith set out on a path of vengeance against the Black Hand, a lieutenant of the Dark Lord Sauron.
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