Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a open world third-person action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which takes place in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium. The game takes place in the 60-year gap between the events of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. It is a story of revenge, slaughter, and mystery set entirely in Mordor, the Land of Shadows. At its center is Talion, an ordinary man who loses everything, including his mortal life. The game is set in a fully open world, and features various role-playing game elements such as experience points and skills. There are various ways the player can complete their main objective. Aside from the main storyline, there are various side quests and random events the player can complete within Mordor. The melee system is inspired by that of the Batman Arkham series. Getting into a good fighting rhythm, using both regular attacks and counter-attacks will improve the player's combo multiplier. A unique feature of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis system. Every enemy in the game has their own name, rank, and memory. These enemies will continue to do their own jobs and tasks even when they're off screen. If the player does not kill an enemy in an encounter, this enemy will remember the player and change their tactics and conversations based on the encounter.
Information
Release date: September 30, 2014
Age rating: Rating pending
Age rating: Adults only
Rating (IGDB): 82/100
Available Platforms
Social Media
Media for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Steam Reviews
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Recommended Posted September 25, 2025 on Steam Ok game with a amazing game play loop. Warner Bros, if you aren't going to make a new game with the Nemesis system, destroy the patent please. I want to see what other developers can do if you won't use it. -
Recommended Posted January 16, 2026 on Steam Get this if gameplay is all you care about. This game has an incredibly rich, Arkham-esque combat system where cinematic and funny stuff happens pretty much all the time. It's unironically one of the funniest games I've played recently, for all the right reasons. You can spend hours after hours fighting orcs and it never gets boring, especially with the nemesis system allowing for generated Captains and Warchief orcs to appear that offer a great deal of variety. On my first play session, I literally just ran around for 6 hours or so killing Captains. Orc banter is a mix of intimidating, interesting, and comedic, and you'll never get tired of hearing them talk to each other, or say conveniently ironic things. If you're looking for something with a bigger focus on story, role-playing, or scripted cinematic spectacle, look elsewhere. This game's story really isn't that great, and the final boss fight is absolutely terrible. It's literally just a quick-time event. But, if you just want a fantasy-based action game to pick up and play, this is a prime choice, and I'd happily revisit it just to get a fix. -
Recommended Posted April 20, 2026 on Steam Still holds up in 2026. Not a single ork looked the same or said the same lines, its still impressive nowadays. -
Recommended Posted June 15, 2025 on Steam ---{ Graphics }--- 🔲 Awful 🔲 Bad 🔲 Will do 🔲 Decent (Nothing special) ✅ Stunning 🔲 Visual Masterpiece ---{ Gameplay }--- 🔲 Bad 🔲 Okay 🔲 Nothing special 🔲 Good ✅ Very good 🔲 Try not to get addicted ---{ Audio }--- 🔲 Bad 🔲 Not too bad 🔲 Decent ✅ Good 🔲 Beautiful 🔲 Masterpiece ---{ PC Requirements }--- 🔲 Potato ✅ Decent ✅ Fast 🔲 High-end PC 🔲 Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- 🔲 Just press a bunch of buttons 🔲 Easy ✅ Significant brain usage ✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master 🔲 Difficult 🔲 Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- 🔲 Nothing ✅ Only if you care about 100% ✅ Average grind level 🔲 Too much grind 🔲 Insanity ---{ Story }--- 🔲 None/Not important in this game 🔲 Bad 🔲 Average ✅ Great 🔲 Well written 🔲 One of the best I've had the pleasure of playing ---{ Price }--- 🔲 Free 🔲 Cheap ✅ Under priced ✅ Acceptable price 🔲 Overpriced 🔲 Complete waste of money ---{ Bugs }--- 🔲 Never heard of ✅ Minor bugs 🔲 Can get annoying 🔲 Bugpocalypse: Proceed with caution ---{ Length }--- 🔲 Very Short (0 - 4 hours) 🔲 Short (4 - 10 hours) 🔲 Average (10-30 hours) ✅ Long (30-50 hours) 🔲 Extremely long (50-100+ hours) ✅ For 100%: 50-80 hours 🔲 No ending ---{ ? / 10 }--- 🔲 1 🔲 2 🔲 3 🔲 4 🔲 5 🔲 6 🔲 7 🔲 8 ✅ 9 🔲 10 -
Recommended Posted September 30, 2025 on Steam If you want God of War with a B movie vibe, this game is kinda your dream mash up cool concept, decent execution, but also frustrating in ways that make you shake your head. The setup is straight out of Kratos territory multiple weapon types, platforming sections, boss fights, all mixed with mythological monsters and over the top dialogue. The “so bad it's good” banter between Talion and Celebrimbor is a highlight it leans into cheesy, campy tropes in a fun way that often works. There are definitely moments when it feels like you’re watching a low budget fantasy flick, and that charm is kind of irresistible. But it’s not all fun and games the enemies are super repetitive and uninspired, so combat loops become samey fast, except for the nemesis orcs which are hilarious still to date. Animations and combat variety are shallow you’ll recognize the same monster types over and over, and once you’ve fought a few bosses, they don’t surprise. Also, some critiques emphasize that the bosses can feel cheap too long, unbalanced, or built more to palliate runtime than to deliver satisfying challenges. Performance troubles don’t help frame stutters, lag, sometimes input delay during action or platforming sections. These flaws become especially obvious during quick time event sequences or boss encounters where timing matters. Several reviews also complain about camera angles and how they sometimes hamper platforming or combat clarity. Visually, the game does okay for what it sets out to do. It’s not a AAA polish spectacle, but the art style leans intentionally cheesy, which kinda works for the tone. It doesn’t pretend to be more serious or high budget than it is, which gives it a certain identity. Sound design and voice acting follow suit some moments are good, others feel stretched thin or hammy, but it’s mostly part of the package for this kind of game. It's my personal favourite LOTR game, and I believe it's better than it's sequel and I whole heartedly recommend to everyone. -
Not recommended Posted August 2, 2025 on Steam Warner Bros. sucks for taking the nemesis system away from gamers. David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Priya Aiyar, Bruce Campbell, Robert Gibbs and on and on of executives that don't care about gaming, the gaming industry, or gamers. There is no failing for people like them because they can wash their hands of all of us, go on a lifetime vacation of not caring and we get left with BS