Another long week in which I'll be traveling, so no guarantee I'll have may blog posts, but I did want to mention that Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is out and it's a damned good game, possibly the first real "must have" of the season. I managed to play a few hours (finally*) this Sunday and here's my initial thoughts:
At it's core Shadow of Mordor is "fantasy Assassin's Creed." Given how well it was done though this little derivation can be forgiven. If anything, think of the Assassin's Creed style of game as it's own special subgenre. It just so happens that a tale about a wraith-possessed ranger fighting the good fight against the hordes of Mordor fits the AC style of game very, very well.
The style and approach to the game is more "movie" and less "other." It is also very polished, so if you've been gunshy about LotR derived properties through bad experiences (like me) then be assured this game exceeds expectations and sets the bar for the future very high.
The lore so far is specific to this storyline and seems to be well-contained. I haven't played far enough to tell you if they deviate anywhere however, nor am I the definitive Middle-Earth expert though I'm certainly no lightweight in that regard, either.
The nemesis system the game employs in which you encounter various orc captains (and other creatures? I don't know) works really well and is one of many distinct touches. The game does something extremely right in this regard that the last few AC games haven't: it really makes you want to find all the side missions and extra stuff. There's something interesting about every item you can locate on the map.
As always I'm playing this on the PS4....the PC specs looked a bit concerning for my aging rig.
Anyway....check it out!
*Also explains why I didn't prep more blog content for the week =)
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