As a Fan of Assassin's Creed I Enjoy Shadow of Mordor


For the next two weeks I'll be writing my impressions of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. This week I'll be discussing the game-play and how it compares to the Assassin's Creed series.

I played the Assassin's Creed series from the first game through Assassin's Creed III. I enjoyed Assassin's Creed I, II, and Brotherhood, but Revelations and III were uninspiring at best. Somewhere it lost its way. The quality probably decreased because Ubisoft released a new game every year, instead of spending three years.

Shadow of Mordor takes most of the classic elements of the Assassin's Creed series; stealth, sword fighting, open-world, assassination, collectibles, and wall climbing, and places them into the world of the Lord of the Rings.

Trapped in Mordor and surrounded on all sides by hordes of orcs and Uruks, the main game-play element is stealth. There are three ways to avoid detection; hiding in bushes, crouching in plain sight, or standing on a raised platform. There is no lighting or shadows to worry about (which is ironic considering the name), and torches won't give away your position if you are crouching. From a stealth position Talion (the character you play), can assassinate any hapless orc that wanders by. But the orcs that fall into your “stealth” attacks are so loud in their death throes, it's amazing that a whole camp of orcs don't jump you immediately. You can be knifing an orc, and three feet away his buddy (with back turned), doesn't respond to his deafening scream. Orcs only notice movement in front of them, or running. That's unfair to say. They barely notice anything in front. It seems as if their sight angle is as narrow as a flashlight beam. This isn't game breaking. Its easy to put this failure down to orcs being orcs. Yet it makes the stealth too easy. Orcs also fail to pursue. I haven't played an Assassin's Creed game in a while, but I feel that soldiers in AC doggedly chased you for miles, but the orcs give up after a few yards.

When discovered, if you chose not to flee, the combat begins. Its reminiscent of AC and the Batman: Arkham system. A horde of orcs converge, and you fight them off with a series of attacks, counter attacks, and abilities. Each successful block and attack adds to the combo meter, while each failure resets it to zero. Reaching certain numbers allows for the use of powerful abilities. It is similar to AC and Batman, yet it felt both easier and longer. Though there are different types of orcs (sword, shield, archer, spear) they never feel distinct like they do in Batman, or as deadly as I remember AC to be. Yet it seemed difficult to kill the enemy until you unlock stronger abilities. The most efficient way to win a battle was to use archer mode which slows the enemy down, and eliminate the orcs all with one kill head-shots before they can even touch you.

The major variation between AC and Mordor is the addition of free-roaming bosses. The game places twenty special Uruks upon the map. They have power levels (a number between 1 – 20 that indicates their relative strength), and special abilities. Interrogating orcs will unlock knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses which can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, I never found these Uruks all that dangerous. If you ran into three at once, it might be time to leave, but if you're cautious it's possible to snipe their followers with arrows, and then stealthily assassinate them one at a time. The only deadly ones are those with the ability 'No Chance'. Normally when you are about to die, the game provides a last chance mini-game to stay alive. This mini-game is too easy. But an Uruk chief with 'No Chance' prevents this and kills you outright. In spite of the Uruks being too easy, they are amazingly diverse. There are over one hundred Uruk names, and another hundred Uruk titles, and each time you fight an Uruk they greet you will a voiced line which includes their name, title, and a little bit about themselves. The variety of models for the Uruks is also impressive. This makes each of the Uruks feel unique. I can say that I've killed about twenty to forty and I felt they were always aesthetically different. Unfortunately, I feel that there are only about three to five different types in terms of game play.

Mordor uses an open-world map where Talion can wander across two fairly large areas. They are not the largest in video game history, but they are sufficient. Like most other open-world games fast travel can be unlocked by visiting different regions. In Mordor you climb ancient Elven towers and then can immediately travel to them at any time. It's also possible to domestic the local wolf-like creatures to ride them around. The map has a good variety of fields and cities, that allow for different opportunities when completing missions.

The game uses a variety of different missions, some mandatory and others optional. In the first region the mandatory missions drive the story, but are very railroaded. You need to eliminate five Uruk Warchiefs. The first assassination is completed through a series of prescripted missions. After that you're free to go about the other four however you like. And yet, you must complete a boss battle that has a series of incredibly annoying rules. Normally, going after a Warchief is a careful game of preparation where you take out his followers from the shadows with arrows, blow up explosives, and release monsters into the area. When it trouble you retreat to the tops of buildings to recuperate. But against the boss of the first region: in a cut-scene Talion walks right up to the boss and declares himself. Worse than this, during the battle you are not allowed to leave the ground. If you climb up one level the game gives you six seconds to return to earth or you have to restart.

In the second region Talion unlocks an power that sets the game apart from AC and Batman. Branding give you the ability to convert orcs and Uruks to your side. This can be done either from a stealth position, or by grappling a weakened Uruk. The orc blends in with his fellows, until you command him and then he will fight other orcs. This ability allows you assemble a host of orcs and Uruks that fight for you. It is also used to move the story along in region two, but that will be discussed next week.

There are other aspects; RPG elements, collectibles/mini-missions, and wall climbing are well done. We will take a closer look at them next week as well.

In terms of game-play I would say that Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has some interesting ideas that differentiate it from AC and Batman, but the Uruks (the most unique aspect), fail to set themselves apart from each other by being too similar and easy to defeat.

Note: Yes, I know that the Shadow in the Title has nothing to do with hiding, but with another type of shadow. Next week.

Shadow of Mordor Series:

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