Poll: What do you think of Shadow of Mordor?

4 thoughts on “Poll: What do you think of Shadow of Mordor?”

1. The game play itself is fun and rather interesting. Sadly I cannot say the same for the story. I am glad that they tried to create a game set outside the movies I wish though they had done a better job of it. In our world there are certain rules, natural and physical laws you might call them, that govern things and the same is true of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. When men die they leave the circles of the world and do not come back from the dead. Yes there are the Oathbreakers, the Men of the Mountain but there are not living nor are they really dead. When the elves die they are summoned to the Halls of Mandos, they can refuse that summons of course but doing so seems to show that they have fallen and been corrupted by the Enemy.

   Things need to be changed to even make a game, to some extent lore must take a back seat to game play, but you need to be careful how much you change. Once you start fiddling with the basic laws of a thing it is very easy for that thing to stop being what it is.

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   1. Well, current film and game makers care less and less about Tolkiens works. While Turbine still tries to fit more or less in the lore, others (like Jackson in Hobbit) do not care at all. The more so, story in the Shadows of Mordor is much more disgusting that things that Jackson did. It is insane and stupid in my eyes. Surely there could have been made an interesting story around Middle Earth without using wraiths as main heroes – for example game in which we are taking part in the war of northern Númenórean kingdoms against Angmar, or in the first war of Elves and Sauron (with living Celebrimbor) or we defend Ithilien a few decades before War of the Ring, or we fight against Sauron forces in Northern Mirkwood, Dale and Iron Hills. But no, genial game makers need to break lore totally, cause Tolkiens works are not interesting enough, genial game makers need to improve them… I prefer Tolkien, so no chance I will ever buy SoM.

      And I am afraid that even worse things will come in future cause WB will be eager to make more money on Tolkiens world.

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2. I actually thought that the lore was outstanding – a better reason to play than just the (excellent) game itself. If you forgive the game its central conceit, the depth of research and lore-consistency is remarkable.

   I mean, Tolkien would never have approved of anything from LOTRO to the movies to SoM, but the lore of this game fits pretty seamlessly into the lore of the legendarium – and adds a cool chapter.

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   1. Considering Tolkien almost gave rights to The Beatles to make a film, I wouldn’t say what Tolkien would and wouldn’t approve of. Christopher Tolkien however, definitely wouldn’t approve.

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