Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ Game of the Year Edition

I've seen a lot of reviews here complaining about this or that mechanic or situation. I disagree. It takes timing and some strategy, but all the tools to win any encounter are provided. The story missions provide the basics, it is up to the player to sophisticate from that. My only gripes with this game are two, and I will offer other players a workable solution for each: 1. Pacing and "power fantasy" hazard: The game awards too much XP and Mirian, allowing for fast acquisition of abilities. This ruins the pacing by making the player so powerful that his ability progression may outpace his mastery of combat mechanics and enjoyment of their novelty. I recommend only picking a new ability after killing an arbitrary number of captains (10 or 5 or whatever works for you), and only adding rune slots for a weapon after you've done a challange mission relating to that weapon. Some abilities are overpowered. I recommend forgoing some of them if you can, and see what happens. I also recommend eschewing the dlc starting runes completely. Following this advice makes the game harder in the beginning, but more interesting, at a pace that forces you to master and experience the system fully. 2. The default music volume is too loud - sometimes it will mask audio cues in combat. Not strictly a problem as music volume is adjustable, but I think this should be pointed out. In other news: The Nemesis system is more sophisticated than people give it credit for. As you move through an area - it generates a sequence of events for you - in my estimation this is done through the same "pathing" mechanic used in story missions, it's simply not represented in the UI objectives etc. Play slower and with more intent, eschew fast travel as much as your time allows, and pay attention to the (uncaptioned) banter the enemies say.

Stealth action adventure where you mow down hordes or Uruks? Very nice Does it get repetitive? yes Lots of abilities to help you in battle, fastpaced combat and smooth controls. Proceduraly generated elite enemies spice it up, even if sometimes you get the short end of the stick, like a captain that is a battle master inmune to ranged attacks and cannot be jumped over. even if it's not canon the story is interesting, and since I'm not that into LOTR I couldn't care less about lore accuracy. Unfortunately I couldn't complete all side quests, the last quest for the sword bugged out and couldn't complete it even after several tries, other than that performance was flawless. It didn't blow my mind, but is good enough I was gonna give it a 4 star, but since the game robbed me from that sidequest I'll give it a three

How to do a lot with a little. You'll re-traverse the same territory over and over, whether completing the (short) main story, or grinding any of the repetitious side quests. Flashy Arkham-style combat combines well with Assassin's Creed-style stealth, but the lack of variety to the missions and areas can make the late game a chore. Graphics and production values are among the best of its time, though, and if you love hunting and defeating an endless stream of orc captains (using a framework called the Nemesis system), then the positives far outweigh the negatives. Plus the game can be completed in 30-40 hours, a rarity among more recent sandbox / open-world games. 7/10

There's a ton of content here for the price, the campaign is servicable, not ground-braking but it get's the job done, the gameplay is the selling point here, the combat is fluid as butter while also being visually amazing thanks to the graphics and animation. This is a must buy even without a sale, you'll get your money's worth.

Pros: -Combat; arkham like, easy and adaptable. -Movement; like a river the hobbit flows. -Fast travel; not needed but cool. -Nemesis sistem; interesting addition. -Got it for free. -Skins; yay. -Gollum; Yay. -Celebrimor; Let's go Boysss! -Mordor; You got me by the balls bro. -Elf powers/Ring Realm; I am sold. -Cool story? I am in. -Can run on my potatoe; what the hell bro, I'll buy the deluxe. Optimization is the best I've seen yet alongside the Tomb Raider Saga. You've got a potatoe? buy it. You get two games in one; Arkham X Orcs X Ac. -Runes: played witcher? you get the idea. Cons; -Can get boring; easily, I mean it. -Fast travel is useless; Walk man walk, they are trying to get you... -Mordor is boring; which goes according to the lore so nothing on that one. Well yea, actually yea. Exhibit E. -Use of nostalgia to hide flaws; -Exhibit A; enemies are super easy to kill. You played Arkham? You already played this. -Exhibit B; Arkham X AC re-skin. -Exhibit C; Powers are cool but most of the times... useless. Stealth kill this, stealth kill that, don't fuck up your combo, boom you are done. And if you mess up is either the nerves or you are not used to the game yet. -Exibhit D; Mordor is boring, period. Which having the amount of lore you have is not cool man. Which leads to; -Exhibit E; same enemy a thousand times, orcs? we have them, trolls? we have them, ghouls? we have them, no kill'em a thousand times and move to the next mission. Same issue as Batman and Spider-Man 2018... what do you know? -Exhibit F; Weapons, most useless period. Bow and sword, you are done. -Exhibit G: Goddam towers like Far Cry. So what the five stars? I enjoyed it despite of how luckluster it is, truth is it should be one. But since I can't play many games on my potatoe it gets five. Shout out to the devs for that. Great Optimization, period. And good game, overall and in my humble opinion. Is Tolkien, more or less, so I am in.