Finally hype is not misleading in advance!

It's been 13 years, that Peter Jackson with us one of the most comprehensive, detailed most loving and most epic book adaptations of all time (only surpassed by Harry Potter) delighted and set new standards. Before his films Elves small, mostly female and invisible beings who hides in treetops and hollow roots were to mischief or protected the forest and its creatures. After the films elves were in the collective consciousness of the people suddenly graceful, profound warrior and master blacksmith (and of course it was finally normal that there are male elves!) And that's just one of the many cultural impacts that had the movies.

On the side of the Lord of the Rings video games for a long time had the same problem, as almost all licensed products. Loveless Video Games Fast Food! While many of us have vivid memories of the whole Disney games, Aladdin, The Lion King, etc., and we like to remember back.

But if you're honest, all these games were rather bad cobbled together evidence of a time when the video game industry has not worked with the numbers as it is today.

But over the years there were repeated to shine moments filming / Buchversoftungen, Dune, Indiana Jones, Star Wars (of which there were even some very successful games: X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Knights of the Old Republic, battlefronts etc. ), James Bond Golden Eye, etc. and in recent years there was even a little more good Versoftungen, not least because, of course, more money now is to bring in the area. So then it came more recently to such masterpieces as Metro 2033 or the Batman games. The LEGO games are in the context always called, even if they are not please everyone, well done you definitely.

The Lord of the Rings books and movies have spawned naturally also the unavoidable license garbage that you already know. In between there were also as small jewels.
"Battle for Middle Earth" was an incredible entertaining and very lovingly designed game, Lord of the Rings Online was able to prevail against all odds against other, established MMO giant, at least so far, that it was able to secure a place and now has been running for 7 years!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the newest licensed product to the saga and it opens a new chapter on. Both in the timeless success story of Tolkien's universe, as well as in terms of quality and creativity of licensed products.

CONTENTS:

Temporally located between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", the player takes control of Talion, a Ranger who must view in defending the Black Gate to Sauron's army only with how his family is executed and then shares their fate , But that is changing rapidly, a mysterious Ringwraith brings us back, and in a kind of voluntary obsession he accompanies us and drives us forward and expand our as Ranger anyway very big "talent tree". For Talion is not the only one in the mood for revenge.

More I would not say to the story, is not necessary. To be honest, the story is not the highlight of the game. This does not mean that it is unimportant or even bad. But you can say with a clear conscience that it is indeed a solid and captivating but also replaceable history.

But that is not the strength of this game, but the opponent! Yes, exactly the opponents. To be more precise, orcs. To date, more than cannon fodder wasted and eternal scum of Middle Earth just as an opponent, Monolith awaken with their "Nemesis system" the orcs to life.

We kill orcs not just, we intervene in their social and military structures. We leave an impression or even a scar.
Higher-tier orcs, we have seriously injured in a fight and then fled, remember the next time you encounter to the final battle.
For the first time our death also has a meaning. The orc who has done us, gaining power and rises. He also remembers the next time you encounter to us, surprised that we did not stay dead.

Going into details of the Nemesis system is beyond the scope of a normal review, the strategic depth that can be achieved is tremendous.
We can from the point at which we have unlocked all the skills, influence the hierarchy of the orc army as we would like.

We can pick a favorite among the lower ranks and "accompany" him. In his showdowns and duels support and help him rise through the ranks.
We can give assassinations among the Orcs in order to send death threats, collect information about unknown opponents, or they just kill. The possibilities are enormous.

When you start the game, you will be thrown unceremoniously into a battle tutorial. Pretty soon it becomes clear what is the inspiration for the battle system, namely the Batman series. The free-flow combat system of the bat was here in its fundamentals adopted 1: 1 and refined. Are you saying that it's not quite so severe, it can even occasionally forgive mistakes, the inexorable timing principle of Batman is loosened slightly. There is even a skill which enables further build combos if you concede a goal, and also the time window for the combo is gracious. One can use a built combo sometimes run across an arena to the next opponents and just go.

But the real basis for this game is Assassin's Creed. Race, horseback riding, climbing contract killings, viewpoints unlock the card to complete the entire quest system ... all strongly reminiscent of the Assassin's Creed franchise. And that's a good thing. It is the game, it feels perfect.

TECHNOLOGY:

Monolith are no veterans in the genre, but they have more extensive experience in the story-heavy FPS range, Blood 1 & 2 should be mentioned in the same breath with other shooter classics like Wolfenstein, Doom and witches FEAR 1 & 2 have invented the horror genre quasi. Interesting fact in this connection is, the monolith was first to play one of the few really good licensed products of that time and is still mentioned with a satisfied grin, namely Alien vs. Predator 2!

One notices Mordor shade but that the boys and girls feel in other climes well. It feels very dynamic and intuitive and you get used to incredibly fast to the controller.

The engine is used LithTech no bombast engine as the Crytek or Frostbite, and you can tell by looking also that it was developed more in the shooter range has always been. Mordor shadow comes in terms of appearance is not to Assassins Creed or Far Cry ran, not nearly. But that is no problem for the game. The grundätzlich very bleak and barren landscape of Mordor looks wonderfully ugly.

And the weaknesses that reveals the engine in the vastness of the game every now and then, it looks like by character design back from ... the main characters, Talion, the Ringwraith, the other ranger and people encountered in the story, are all all very detailed and wonderfully inspired by the movies. But the real strength is also reflected in the design with the orcs. The diversity and creativity, was created with the hundreds of individual creatures, is impressive. I catch myself repeatedly with this is that I am working for hours with only the orcs and the Nemesis system, look at me the Orcs, they go to see, with them fighting and let them then pull back.

CONCLUSION:

Prince of Persia is the mother of climbing action adventures. The Sands of Time saga is in my opinion one of the most epic and brilliant miniseries games Stories of all time. For some reason I never became so warm with Assassins Creed, like many others. The first part bored me after 10 hours solid, the second part is the only one I've completely durchgesuchtet, and otherwise I have all the parts only viewed and then left lying again. Mordor shadow took me back so packed as Prince of Persia The Warrior Within has done his time, and the reason is quite simple:
Assassin's Creed is to beauty and details of the world in which one moves to none, eye-candy! The controls are buttery soft and you feel after the first hour to play as if you sit on it for years.
But just the topic that gave the game the name, namely the Assassinationen, had never really weight in the world. Always entertaining and relevant to the mission.

Mordor shadow completely focused on precisely this aspect. Any action with the enemy, every battle, every murder or own death during attempted attack has an impact on the game. No run alike. The quests are not on each pass the same, the opponents. Not only that, you can see the quests and their difficulty even affect themselves by carefully planning, off the bodyguards of the victim and / or replaced by his own spies and and and ...

I do not think that the monolith is the last word on the subject / genre!