Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

   

     My latest video game conquest took place in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, in the land of Mordor to be more specific. Only Shadow of Mordor did not feel like a Tolkien tale, and that's because it was not meant to. It was much too dark for that. The story focuses on a ranger named Talion who is charged with guarding the Black Gate of Mordor. Upon the Dark Lord Suaron's return, Talion and his family are murdered. Talion does not stay dead for long as he is possessed by a wraith who you later find out to be Celebrimbor, the smith who created the Ring of Power. You play the game under the impression that you and the wraith were bound together as part of a curse that only defeating the Back Hand of Sauron can reverse. Later you realize that Celebrimbor chose you as a host and is using you to take revenge on Sauron. The game ends in a cliff hanger in which the player is left wondering whether he really accomplished anything or had just been used by the Dark Lord himself.

     Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has me torn. On one hand, the gameplay was phenomenal and on the other, the story felt rushed and short. The game did not end with a warm and fuzzy feeling, which is okay, but it also left me thinking "what just happened?" It seems as though the main campaign was meant to lead the player to a series of clues which would tell the true nature of his body's ghostly occupant. If this is true, then the apex of the story should be the point in which you learn the truth about Celebrimbor's past and future intentions. By the time this point comes along, you are given enough clues to guess it for yourself. There are just too many coincidences for the game's central conflict to be that much of a mystery. At this point in the story you learn that Celebrimbor has been using you, and continues to use you for the rest of the game to defeat the Black Hand of Sauron. What bothers me, aside from being able to guess the story's big mystery before it happens, is that after you fulfill the wraith's desires, you do not know what becomes of Talion. The ranger starts out as a victim who is not yet permitted to die and be with his family, and ends with a red glow in his eye uttering the words, "The time has come for a new ring." What does this mean? Did Talion forfeit all control of his body to Celebrimbor? Is Talion himself drunk on power now? Did the Black Hand not really die, but bind with Celebrimbor and Talion instead? WHAT'S GOING ON!?

     The entire main quest took me 18 hours, but it could have probably taken 12 if I spent less time exploring. In my opinion, this is way too short for a new age open-world game. Much more time could have been spent introducing other NPCs and letting the player discover substantial plot twists. Even the boss battles felt short and unsubstantial.The final two bosses of the game take less than ten minutes to defeat and neither feature a true battle. I was severely disappointed that I did not get to put all the skills I had mastered throughout the game to use in the final battles. After all, the player spends a good amount of time customizing weapons and training to learn new abilities throughout the game.

     Shadow of Mordor was a very fun game to play, but much too short and weak in the story department. Some DLC that further explains Talion's transformation at the end of the game could help the overall experience. Monolith/WB have a great track record for developing games with fun and challenging combat dynamics (see Batman), but I would like to see them spend more time on story and character development like the developers at BioWare. In the end, I do not regret playing Shadow of Mordor, but I do regret buying it.