Game with live orcs. Review of “Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Review of the game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor ⇡ Your personal nemesis

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor unexpectedly surprised me. I was expecting a weak game within the famous “Lord of the Rings” universe, but what I got was an exciting adventure through the world of “Middle-earth.” Of course, there is no chance of becoming the game of the year, but my list of favorite games has definitely expanded. Not without flaws, but the impressions of traveling around Mordor are quite positive.

The disadvantages, of course, are hidden behind the shadow of Mordor, so I will begin my brief review by looking at the positive aspects of the project. Firstly, the graphics are amazing and beautiful, the detail of the world is incredible. No words are needed here - you just need to see it with your own eyes. As for the combat, it was completely migrated from Batman, with the only difference being that the hero was given a bladed weapon in his hands, and only because of this the combat system outwardly seems more comfortable and pleasing to the eye. Undoubtedly, this is a plus, but essentially there are no changes. True, we must pay tribute to the developers, the battle animations are extremely spectacular, sometimes epic, and combo finishing moves with flying heads will not let you get bored throughout the game.

I consider the currently fashionable comparison with Assassin's Creed to be incorrect. The most that is common here is climbing towers, with the help of which a map and new tasks are revealed. Moreover, our hero walks, runs, fights, and climbs in a completely different way than this does any Assassin's Creed character. Well, it's different here. As for some similarities, I’ll say the following: how else can you depict climbing, running, or sword fighting? So how? Unless the fighting style and gait can be slightly changed. But the general behavior of a person is always the same. So, in the absence of your imagination, talking about a mediocre clone of Assassin's Creed is the same as calling Call of Duty and Battlefield clones of Borderlands.

The plot itself unfolded somewhere in the middle between the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbits trilogies, that is, the connection is minimal. Most importantly, the meeting with Gollum took place, and we don’t need anything more. In general, in three words about the plot: darling, my darling...

Shadows of Mordor do not cause any discomfort, since the optimization has not let us down and computer resources are used wisely. By the way, the system requirements are too high. The game at the highest possible graphics settings runs freely without any brakes on computers whose system requirements are approximately two times lower than those specified by the developers as recommended.

About the cons. You know, they say that there is not enough content. I would agree if I hadn't played it myself. In my opinion, what we have is quite enough. The downside is something else. Mordor is a rocky desert. That is, with any graphic, the whole wretchedness of the playground will be noticeable to the naked eye. It seems beautiful, but also disgusting at the same time. It seems that everything is done by hand, but all this beauty is monotonous. From time to time the player needs at least a minimal change of scenery, but there is none. Look to the left and to the right - you see everything the same. Everything is somehow dark. What do I want to say? Making almost the entire game in a dark, dark, rocky desert is a big mistake! Well, we need more light!

Probably the most famous fantasy universe of all time is Tolkien's Middle-earth. Beautiful novels with philosophical overtones, memorable characters, millions of fans around the world, stunning film adaptations - it is difficult to overestimate the contribution of The Lord of the Rings and related works to world culture. Of course, quite a lot of virtual entertainment based on immortal works has been released, but there are still no truly good games among them. Fortunately, the situation is quite capable of being changed by a new work from the famous studio “Monolith Production” called “Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor” - an action-adventure game with third-person stealth elements with the ability to take over the consciousness of your enemies and truly living orcs.

Although the action takes place in Tolkien's world, the developers deliberately abstracted themselves from famous works: the events take place in the time period between the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo. Most likely, this trick was made in order to give oneself freedom of action and not later receive scoldings from the writer’s fans for the fact that “everything was wrong in the book.” The plot tells about the fate of the watchman of Gondor, Talion, before whose eyes the Urukkhai kill his wife and son, and then himself. In principle, the game could have ended there if it weren’t for the spirit of an elf from the Second Age, the one who once forged the legendary rings of power. He merges with Talion's soul, as a result of which an immortal warrior-pathfinder comes into the world, filled with a thirst for revenge, systematically moving towards his goal, leaving behind mountains of orc corpses in the black wastelands of Mordor. The elven ghost helps our hero in any way he can: he makes him invisible, teaches teleportation, and even gave him a ghostly bow. As we progress through the plot, our abilities will develop: very soon our hero will have the opportunity to lay his hand on an ordinary orc and find out information about the squad leader from him, and after a while it will be possible to gain complete control over the enemy, which gives, in fact, unlimited opportunities for creativity. Help in battle - please, open the gate to the castle - no problem, kill the commander - well, he will try. Another memorable skill is brutal execution, when we are asked to dismember the defeated enemy with particular cruelty. The surrounding Uruks may be so impressed by your actions that they will run away in fear and try not to catch your eye (messing with sick people is more expensive for themselves).

Each enemy, from the simplest warrior to the main bosses, is unique. Each orc not only looks different, but also has its own character, fighting style, strong and weak traits, and fears. For example, in order to defeat one commander, it’s enough to wave a burning torch in front of his face so that he runs away in wild horror; another will have to be set against the Caragors, local wargs (by the way, if you wish, you can ride them yourself), and the third, who looks like a mountain of muscles and capable of flattening you with one blow, you can be panicked by insects. Therefore, when planning to clean up the face of the next captain, it would not be superfluous to take a couple of “tongues” and find out all his weaknesses. Moreover, if one of Sauron’s spawn is lucky enough to kill you, he will immediately receive a promotion, new weapons and armor. As noted, our ward is now immortal, and if he dies, he will return to life again in a certain place, but do not rush to rejoice too much. The orc that killed you will not only recognize you, grimace in surprise and say a few “kind words,” but will certainly try to repeat his feat, which will be much easier for him to do than the first time: he is already ready for your battle tactics, yes and his characteristics have increased since the previous meeting. Moreover, all orcs really exist in this world along with the player: they hunt, fight, guard the camp, challenge other orcs, die at the hands of their own and seize power. For example, if one orc is in charge of a camp today, this does not mean that in a couple of days it will not be controlled by another, and the corpse of the previous commander will not end up in a ditch. This whole system is called "Nemesis", and it really works, immersing you very deeply into the game.

The game has an open world, although it is divided into locations - we go wherever we want, chop whoever we want, there are many secondary tasks. Most of them, unfortunately, are of the same type: save the slaves, open the towers, eliminate the captain. But there are also several non-trivial tasks, such as creating a legend for a weapon. For destroying strong opponents and completing quests, we receive points, which are spent on improving Talion's characteristics and unlocking abilities. During your travels you will meet characters familiar from childhood. So, during the conversation between the main character and Gollum, it turns out that they have a lot in common.

In terms of gameplay, the game most closely resembles a mixture of Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham City. Talion climbs walls and climbs ledges no worse than an assassin, and the features of buildings must also be taken into account when completing missions, since often the easiest path to the goal lies along the upper levels , and not on the ground. The easiest way to go through missions unnoticed, fortunately, there are great opportunities for this: silent murders and bushes in which you can hide. But sooner or later the moment comes when you have to engage in open battle, which is exactly what resembles what we saw in the game about the dark knight, only with a sword and dismemberment: jumps, rolls, finishing moves, counter-strikes, mental blows, piercing attacks and sword blows cutting enemies from top to bottom. There are also plenty of enemies: in a small area you can be surrounded a leader, a couple of captains and a couple of dozen ordinary warriors. By pressing everything in a row, you will definitely not be able to win: you need to accurately guess the moment of impact, not forgetting about defense.

I have only good things to say about the graphics and voice acting - they are magnificent and perfectly polished especially for this game. Orcs look so natural that sometimes it seems that the monitor has learned to convey smells. By the way, all this splendor takes up as many as 5 DVDs (in the PC version), which is a kind of record. And I should say a big thank you to the translators “SoftClub” for leaving the original voice acting in its original form, providing the game only with Russian subtitles.

Unfortunately, Shadow of Mordor also has its downsides. Among them is a weak role-playing system, which, in fact, consists only of the presence of a leveling tree (there is not even the ability to choose a line in the dialogue), dull landscapes, tasks of the same type, the absence of new armor, weapons and different types of enemies.

"Monolith" has developed, if not perfect, high-quality and spectacular action in the famous universe. Even if some aspects of the gameplay were copied from other games, they were copied very high quality, and then perfectly adapted to the realities of Mordor. But the main merit of the developers is in the innovative “Nemesis” system, which makes the game truly “alive”, allowing you to plunge headlong into this cruel and harsh world, and turning your enemies from just another “punching bag” into a real personality. The professor's fans have been waiting for this game for a very long time.

Review of "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor"

After the unprecedented success of his opus magnum, Tolkien began to think about a sequel. And he began to write a sequel with the self-explanatory title “New Shadow” about how Sauron came to life again and wrapped everything up again... Fortunately, the master came to his senses in time and realized that the story was banal and told about nothing. So I put it in a long box, which was dug up by businessmen from Monolith Productions and, unlike Tolkien, they did not disdain.

There is a plot, but, fortunately, the developers themselves understood its simplicity and unpretentiousness, so they were able to cut off the sharp corners. The game will tell the tragedy of Talion, a ranger who became a victim of the tyranny of the orcs. His family, like the hero himself, were sacrificed by the Black Hand - a minion of Sauron, eager for the resurrection of his master. However, the ritual did not go according to plan, and Talion’s body is possessed by the ghost of an elf, whose family also died thanks to the machinations of Sauron. The result is that two kindred souls merged into one semi-immortal body. Many orc commanders, upon meeting the hero, will exclaim in surprise, “Hey, I already killed you! However, all the little people look alike,” which adds its share of irony to the general outline of the gloomy world.

The beginning of the story is banal - the enemies burned down their home, it’s time to take revenge. The middle is canonical - a prodigy has been found to fight evil spirits. The ending is unsaid, so we are waiting for the sequel. Fortunately, instead of a long, slobbering, tedious epic with kilometers of empty, pompous dialogue about nothing, we are shown everything extremely quickly. Short flashbacks about the hero, his past and family - how happy he was before, and how now his happiness has successfully hit the oak. We have a reason to take revenge, the enemy is known, the only thing left to do is to upgrade and destroy the adversaries. And the hero from Talion turned out to be pleasant, he says little and does a lot.

If we describe the combat system in two words, they would be “variable” and “simple”. The combat consists of only two buttons - block and strike. You hit yourself, then block other people’s attacks, and from time to time you either capture enemies or finish off the wounded.

But gradually they begin to stretch meat onto this simple skeleton. Learn to shoot from a bow, slow down time, explode the victim's head, drain life force. The hero's arrows are not endless, and their supply must be replenished using the energy of the orcs. The icing on the cake is the first mass skill that hits in an area and knocks down enemies, and the second that instantly kills all those who fall. After this connection, Talion is officially recognized as a death machine.

The mechanics of the combat system are largely similar to the new Batman games, which means that, despite the limited list of techniques, the variability of their applications is truly limitless. The hero himself performs masterly combinations and beautifully exchanges blows with the orc breed.

Stealth here is typical for AAA games. Its complexity is greatly underestimated - enemies may not see the hero a meter away from them, and using particularly savage executions, we can turn an entire squad into a stampede. Well, at least this narrow-mindedness is easily explained by the appearance of the enemies - what can you take from the thick-headed orcs? Simplicity and accessibility comes with the talents of a tracer - as long as you climb walls, you are completely safe. No one except the archers looks up, and high-altitude guards can simply be thrown down.

Those we have tamed

Promises to make gameplay more interesting through the Nemesis system turned out to be not empty words. The world does not revolve around the hero; the game does not stop after death. The orc that killed the hero becomes a mini-boss (captain) and gradually rises in rank, reaching the leader's bodyguard and then the leader himself. Killing everyone is not an option. One is gone, and an arc comes in its place. So sometimes you honor yourself as the head of the orc personnel department, which is not engaged in saving the world, but in rearranging orcs from one position to another.

The enemies have their own quests - they execute traitors, hunt wild animals, attack each other, and undergo tests. And you will receive bonuses if you do not let them complete their plans. Further - more: when it becomes possible to brand orcs, enslaving their minds, you can become a hardened careerist, gradually helping your “puppets” in quests. Promote branded captains to all leadership positions, and the continent is under your control.

It's actually pretty cool. You believe that the world lives, that the characters are not fixated on the protagonist, that, in addition to hunting for the ranger who still does not want to die, they also have their own affairs, goals and thoughts. This makes me happy.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor- a big, massive, complex game with a ton of content generated on the fly. There may not be anything special about it other than the gameplay mechanics, but it's definitely one of the best mechanics in an open world game. If you are not put off by the mixture with the Middle-earth setting, as well as the need to constantly mow down enemies at every step of the journey, the project is a must-read.

« There the leader of the orcs boasted of his exploits and showed the hand of Barahir, which he had cut off, as evidence to Sauron that their mission was accomplished, and on that hand was the ring of Felagund. Then Beren jumped from behind the rock and killed their leader, and, grabbing the hand with the ring, disappeared, protected by fate, because the orcs were confused and their arrows flew in disorder.».
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. "The Silmarillion"

But before you continue reading this review, you should be prepared for the most important thing: if you are an ardent fan of the original works of Mr. Tolkien or at least Jackson's films, then you better not even look in the direction of the creations of Monolith Productions. Because what they did to the spirit and concept of the original works can lead to outright shock and stupor. Get ready to see a real potpourri of blood, violence and severed limbs of orcs, in which there was no place for pomposity or any behind-the-scenes games. Here is a cruel and unforgiving game that doesn’t care about circumstances or any dogmas.

Are you still reading these lines? Great, then together with you we will continue our fascinating journey through the main components of the game. Let's start with the most important thing - the plot and the main characters. The scriptwriters of the project made the right move by choosing the most interesting and practically unexplored part of the history of Middle-earth - the period between the previously mentioned “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. The main character of the game is a ranger named Talion, who, together with a detachment of brothers in arms, guards the giant Morannon Gate (“Black Gate”) - the only barrier for the Black Riders to the main route to Mordor from the northwest. But one ill-fated evening, their small garrison is treacherously attacked by an army of Uruks led by the mysterious Black Hand of Sauron. The minions of evil are organizing a real genocide for the brave defenders of the peace of all of Middle-earth. And Talion was the least fortunate of all in this story: the main villain left him alive for a reason, no, he needed his body in order to bring Celebrimbor himself, one of the most ancient elves and creator of the legendary One Ring, back to life, and infuse his spirit in Talion. But for this it is necessary to carry out a dark ritual during which not only the ranger himself, but also his entire family must be sacrificed. Having seen the death of his loved ones, and then his own death, Talion finds himself in the world of shadows, but he was not destined to unite with his son and beautiful wife in heaven, because the “Spirit of Vengeance” had completely different plans for him. Having risen from the ashes and gained immortality, our hero gathers his last strength in order to take revenge on the killers, and at the same time destroy everyone who stands in his way.

Conventionally, the script can be divided into two main parts: the clichéd story of Talion himself and the intriguing memories of the elf. To be completely honest with you, the project’s writers did the same thing as their teammates: they took a little bit from everywhere and molded it into something similar to a coherent story with textbook characters, a simple narrative and predictable developments. Template-based secondary characters quite often replace each other on the main stage without even having time to really play their role. The events taking place around Talion could have happened to any of the characters in games, films or books, but it was our protagonist who was lucky. The only thing that saves the situation is the “Lord of the Rings” universe itself, to which this project belongs - skillfully inserted pieces, similar in atmosphere to scenes from the original films, can easily brighten up a boring story of one revenge. But we will not deny that the encyclopedia about the game universe built into the game turned out to be interesting reading and can be recommended to any player.

A separate scale in the interface is responsible for the number of combo attacks collected: the better you perform a dodge or strike, the faster it will be possible to activate the hero’s special abilities. And the list is huge: from teleportation over short distances with exploding the heads of orcs to capturing the minds of enemies and riding the wild beasts of Mordor. It looks unusual and fresh. In addition, we have described to you only part of Talion’s abilities, and there is also an elven ghost with his keen eye and long bow. He shoots only with ghostly arrows and in a special slow-motion mode - he looks deadly and very impressive. And one well-aimed shot at barrels of grog, bonfires, hives with Mordor flies and cages with Caragors will help you quickly escape from the orc army or even kill a valuable general. But you shouldn’t think that the enemies are stupid and take advantage only in numbers; in fact, they often build quite interesting schemes for defense or attack, for example, while one distracts your attention with its light blows, the second actively throws spears at your back. The damned orcs, in the end, were able to lay down on both shoulder blades? Don’t rush to restart the checkpoint, because the game has a special system with a QTE scene that appears at the very moment when the enemy makes the final decisive blow over your head. It's well made, but often you'll miss a small ball that appears on the screen or press the wrong button at a certain time, which will lead to Talion's instant death. Or not?

And don’t be surprised if, during the next battle, some disfigured orc, when he sees you, shouts offensive words and remembers a previous meeting, after which he lost, for example, an eye. Yes, they are vindictive bastards. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses: some of them are deathly afraid of the Karagorov, and some are invulnerable to melee weapons. All you have to do is find out this and quickly deal with a high-ranking enemy. How to do it? First you need to find the orc informant and interrogate him thoroughly. After you find out the identity of the captain or leader, you will still have to find him in one or another piece of the location, and this is quite difficult. Often Uruks will appear literally out of nowhere, adding to the game the effect of realism of what is happening. In addition, the Nemesis system works in real time, and after killing one officer, another will take his place almost immediately. In the second half of the game, a new, more interesting ability of the main character will appear - he will be able to subjugate his opponents and force them to do things that they could not even think of before. You will be free in your actions: do you want to kill the Uruk commander with the help of his bodyguards? Please, no one minds. Want to secretly take some orc to the very top of the hierarchy? No problem.

PlayStation 4 owners will also be glad to know that the developers of this project took advantage of some of the features of their console, namely the built-in speaker in the DualShock 4. It seems like a small thing, but it allows you to immerse yourself even more in the dark past of Talion, and at the same time once again listen to the voices of the powerful a cast led by the best trio in the gaming industry: Troy Baker, Jennifer Hale and Nolan North. As for the localization into Russian made by 1C-SoftClub, surprisingly, we had practically no major complaints about it. This time, the team of translators did something that they had almost never managed before - to translate tons of text normally in a literary manner, without trying to insert some kind of heresy between the lines, which is unacceptable for this kind of project. The only major drawback that I was able to notice during the walkthrough was that some of the task descriptions did not match what then appeared in the user interface at the top of the TV screen. It looks a little strange, but does not interfere with the gameplay itself.

Evil “bosses” are made, not born, teaches us. Transforming a green little guy into a formidable commander is no easier than “leveling up” a brave ranger. Actually, this game is not so much about revenge, magic rings, Sauron and the battle for Middle-earth, but about orcs and Uruk-hai. With the help of the Nemesis system, the vile thugs of the Jacksonian film trilogy gained character, becoming characters rather than just cannon fodder. If it weren't for this, hardly anyone would have looked twice at this hybrid clone and .

Remember and take revenge

Mordor City's Creed

In a word, it’s definitely not worth taking on for the sake of drama. Moreover, they spread it over 20 boring plot episodes, which cannot be called anything other than a drawn-out “training lesson”. You'll spend a good two-thirds of the campaign learning the basics of controls and game mechanics.

The second half of the story sags especially badly, when the brown wastelands are replaced by green hills and plains, not yet desecrated by hordes of orcs. A chain of missions about the QTE hunt for graug, which in the same Assassin's Creed would be classified as side games, far-fetched to the main outline. The “don’t get caught” and “don’t raise the alarm” tasks quickly become boring. The arsenal of silent tricks here is modest, in the primitive society of orcs there is no place for “social stealth”, and anyone who has gone through the fire and copper pipes of Arkham will master the local tests without difficulty.

The authors also treated the structure of virtual Mordor carelessly. Each of the two locations can be easily run from corner to corner in 3-4 minutes. To see on the map what additional activities are available in the sectors, you must certainly climb the ghostly tower and “unlock” it by hitting the anvil. Then, as it should be in modern “sandboxes”, the districts will be full of icons: collecting artifacts, searching for secret writings on the walls, simple tests with a sword/dagger/bow, rescuing slaves... If you want to collect money in order to get another 20 units of health and open weapons, new slots for runes - forward, with songs.

In addition to the “observation towers”, from Assassin's Creed They also copied “X-ray” vision, which displays key objects and opponents through the folds of the landscape. His justification is logical - they say, in fact, it is the elven spirit who looks like this - but, really, I already want to find the repository where the design document lies, from which the developers of “AAA hits” draw the same ideas year after year, and burn it to hell.

Uruk-hai: a success story

Only Nemesis pulls out this secondary lack of ideas. In fact, it did for “bosses” and “half-bosses” what it did with weapons in : each villain was created by a random number generator.

The game forms the initial position on the “chessboard”, where the captains and generals of the dark army stand, at the start. The addition to the name determines the personality type. Most warriors are ordinary bullies and rude people, but if you're lucky, you can run into alcoholics, silent people, poets, and even singers melodiously chanting threats against you. They also have a set of weaknesses, strengths and favorite techniques. One can be immediately killed with a silent blow, another is terrified of betrayal, the third flies into a rage upon seeing a caragor... The more seasoned an orc, the fewer phobias and vulnerabilities he has and the more dangerous attacks he has.

It is not easy to earn a promotion in rank. The best way to advance is to kill the hero. Having finished off the persistent ranger (he, however, will be resurrected at the top of the nearest tower), the ordinary bloke receives a name, a nickname and the respect of his brothers - in short, he ends up in the orcish “pantheon” and becomes one of Talion’s personal enemies.

The bad orc is the one who does not dream of becoming a general, so the captains do not sit idly by. Red icons flash on the map every now and then: somewhere two greenskins are having a duel, somewhere else there is a drinking party, a little further away they are recruiting recruits for another gang... We have the right to ignore all events, although it is much more interesting to intervene and disrupt plans. After all, if Talion dies (or we waste time), the game will automatically calculate the results of the skirmishes and promote the surviving captains in rank.

Plus, you can’t miss the chance to run into an old “buddy” again! It’s impressive precisely in moments like this, when the orc who poisoned the ranger ten minutes ago says something like: “Did you find the antidote?” Or: “Because of you, I now walk around with this scar!” There are an insane amount of contextual cues in the game, and no less work has been put into them than into the colorful appearance of the thugs themselves, which changes during the course of their misadventures.

However, before the meeting, it doesn’t hurt to collect a dossier on the victim - grab some poor guy by the scruff of the neck and, with the help of a ghost, pick his brains. Only then will you reveal the identity of the unknown captain and find his Achilles heel.

This ability is fully revealed after the 10th story mission, when Talion begins not only to “scan”, but also to brand orcs, signing them up as his supporters. It allows you to pit enemies against each other not only in battle - say, order an unwitting ward to kill a competitor or start a rebellion against a senior in rank. One of the players, having spent several hours on a tedious “pumping”, subdued all the captains and generals, filling the entire “chessboard” with his proteges, called them to a meeting and... finished them off with a super skill.

Of course, Talion's efforts are a drop in the bottomless sea of ​​Sauron's plans. The cells will not be empty for long - new minions of darkness will replace the dead. No matter how you try to harm the army of the dark lord, everything is in vain.

Still, Nemesis is worthy of praise. It really makes the playthrough unique and breaks up the tired formula. It’s much more fun to hunt your sworn enemies than to watch pre-rendered cutscenes and yawn over the next obligatory sequence in which Talion, overcoming bad level design, cures an elf from amnesia.

However, minus the tutorial, the main missions are barely related to the orcs' struggle for power. Only twice during the campaign, as if remembering the existence of Nemesis, the authors put a lock on the plot mission and, without bothering themselves with explanations, ask to eliminate four commanders. A very lazy and arrogant approach. Although, of course, no bolder than the opponents who are reborn right under our noses in the newly “cleared” camp. , which stubbornly populated the savannah with crowds of ferocious blacks, is finally put to shame.