Sometimes, the mixing of genres can mean absolute death for a game. Some gameplay styles do not mesh well with others. Sometimes a platformer just can't resemble what should be a fighting game and sometimes 3D just doesn't belong with certain controls. It really takes a lot of consideration and testing to come up with a formula that nails it quite so well as Shadow of Mordor. With Assassin's Creed mixed with Batman Arkham series while painted with Lord of the Rings. Whoever thought this up was a visionary, as it blends magical elements with stealth along with different ways to accomplish missions of assassinations and massive explosions involving flying orcs.
The controls in combat come from the Arkham series, without a single doubt and it was so well utilized that you really just noticed it and moved along with it. You were too busy slicing and dicing horrible orcs while stabbing and shooting them with magical arrows. You have an arsenal of magical elements, such as shooting an arrow into campfires and making them explode, again, involving flying orcs on FIRE! You need to fight your way through their ranks and go after the Captains, and then go after their Commanders before you need to reach Sauron's Generals.
You don't know satisfaction before you cut down an entire army of orcs. It's a bit more satisfying than Dynasty Warrior, because it feels a bit more meaty and visceral. The realism of the gameplay comes through a lot more clearly since you can only fight them one at a time, but there are ways around that. It's also great when you get the skill to block the attack of two foes at once using your dead elf friend. That's right, you shadow a body with a dead elf, since you are a dead human who was killed but continuously comes back.
Now, from a story standpoint, an immortal warrior who is able to take down an entire army of orcs and can't be actually killed is a terrible element. From a gameplay standpoint, that just means you don't need to hit continue and run out of continues only to restart the whole game after a number of deaths. What this also means, is that the orc that kills you get promoted. That's right, they literally have a ranking system of orcs that rise up through them as they kill more things. Everyone that kills you gets an up in power and ability.
The military ranking system with the stronger commanders is one of the best elements of this game, and that is saying something. With such a great combat system and beautiful graphics, the ranking system where you need to learn about ranking orcish members. Some of them are indestructible against things like range or death strikes. Some of them are enraged by beasts or even afraid of beasts. There are even nests of bugs and some commanders will run away if they drop on them. It takes trial and error and as you learn about these commanders, you start to learn how to test their limitations. The higher ranking commanders or the Warlords, are the strongest of them and there are just so many ways to find satisfaction in bringing a plan together to kill them. Test out all of your weapons and your death moves and find ways to kill them as quickly as possible and you are rewarded with weapon upgrades that will help you immensely down the line.
Even one of the smaller game elements of this game is very entertaining, when you gain the ability to brainwash the orcs into your own army. Then you start to brainwash commanders after you soften them up with stabbing and even infiltrate their ranks in the story mode with a spy of your own. It's really awesome to see your own horde of orcs go against another horde of orcs and watch them fight and kill each other. It's just one of those things about this game that makes it endlessly replayable. Even the beast taming elements are fun, though perhaps not with as big of a dose as they gave us with the beardless dwarf. It was a useful thing to bring, especially when you can use them to kill the commanders with their fears.
It is something to say that this game is far superior to its sequel, Shadow of War. That game is literally unbeatable unless you grind endlessly or buy content in order to upgrade your own orc army. They took one of their best elements of the first game and used it to try and sell microtransactions. The game itself is, otherwise, the same basic game as Shadow of Mordor. It's just a good thing that they focused on making the first game awesome before they unleashed that horrible blight upon it. It is one of the best PS4 games and it still is very entertaining to replay and use old abilities to kill many orcs and even make your own little makeshift posse of orcs with mindcontrol and raid an entire orc village with them. It's all on the table, but you just need to remember to check your drinking skin. One of them is water, but the other is orc blood. Virtua Responsibly.
