There comes a time in every gamer’s life when you realize, “There are too many things to play!” Sadly, I’ve reached that point in my life and I must admit that I can’t play everything when they come out, beat them, and also write about them. Luckily, I have just enough free time to put in work on a bunch of the games I’ve yet to finish.
That being said, welcome to Jordan’s Backlog, my feeble attempt to get my thoughts out about all the games I’ve been playing without being able to review them all. Because, let’s be honest, I’m no professional, but I can get things done (most of the time).
First things first, I really like this game. Shadow or Mordor is a essentially a hybrid of systems that debuted in other games and are implemented perfectly in this action-adventure title that takes place in the Lord of the Rings universe.
You play as Talion, a ranger of the black gate who is murdered by one of Sauron’s Black Captains in the first ten minutes of the game. However, instead of meeting his slain family in the afterlife, he is denied death and becomes fused with the spirit of a Wraith. Before you start thinking that this game is made for Lord of the Rings fans, you’re wrong. Shadow of Mordor may take place in the same universe as J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels, but the game itself has nothing to do with the books or the movies.
Anyway, the crux of Shadow of Mordor is the “nemesis system”. As Talion, you fight orcs, or “Uruks” if you’re a stickler for such things, as they make up the bulk of Sauron’s army (Sauron is the big bad of the game, by the way). As you play through the story, you unlock more and more wraith powers for Talion to use and with these powers you can eventually start creating an army of Uruks for yourself.
But let’s take a step back. In the Uruk army there is a sort of political structure that is based off of strength. The stronger an Uruk is, the more likely the Uruk would be a captain. And above those captains are the warchiefs. As time in the game progresses, any of these Uruks can have rivalries with one another. They’ll openly challenge one another, set up ambushes, or just generally be jerks to each other in order to advance themselves in the ranks of the Uruk army. However, one of the easiest ways for an Uruk to become a captain, raise his power, or possibly become a warchief is to kill the “grave walker,” a.k.a., Talion.
Once Talion gets killed by an Uruk, your killer will be named as he taunts you one last time before the screen goes black. However, since Talion is denied death until his mission is completed, you’ll be spawned back at a checkpoint tower. When you look at your list of Uruk captains, your killer will have a red mark above his head denoting that he is your killer, or nemesis if you will. It’s up to you to take out your nemesis as quickly as possible, but be warned, should you fail to exact revenge against him a second time, your nemesis will grow even stronger.
I should make special note that once you defeat a nemesis in battle, there’s no guarantee that that Uruk is dead forever. There is a chance that Uruk could have survived your assault and will come after you for revenge. And boy, some of these Uruks can be fairly tenacious, I once had to kill an Uruk five separate times before he finally bit the big one. I have to say though, I will miss Nazu Spear Master, no matter how much of an insufferable mute he was. Everytime he showed up, he would awkwardly stand at a distance and just gnash his teeth at me before he eventually threw a spear and I basically had to murder him.
Imagine my surprise, however, when he showed up again an hour or so later, but this time sporting a sweet scar on his chest where I stabbed him. After the fifth and final time I killed him, his body was badly burned from when I had set him on fire in of his previous lives, a bag over his head from when I beheaded him another time, and I whole lot more scars from the various other ways I dispatched him. Sadly, he finally died when I managed to explode his brain with my wraith powers. And, to be honest, I’m partially writing this to honor his memory. No matter how great it felt to finally put him down.
I could go on about Shadow of Mordor but I haven’t yet completed it and I can’t say for sure when I actually will. So in the meantime, enjoy these screenshots.
