It’s been a while, I had … “forgotten” to talk about this game, a pearl, in a certain sense, of those set in the exciting “Middle Earth”, or rather the fantastic world created by the mind of J.J.R. Tolkien, or that of the “Lord of the Rings”.
Even though I bought it some time ago, I later abandoned it, basically I was wrong initially, in the sense that I got lost in “secondary” things, we’ll get there.
The game is set between “The Hobbit” and the aforementioned book, as Wikipedia also says. The protagonist is a man, more precisely a wanderer named Talion, a character invented by the creators of the video game, along with others, such as the main villains: “The black hand of Sauron”, a group of dark wizards in the service of the dark lord .
They killed Talion’s family and the protagonist himself but he lives again, thanks to a mysterious ghost, who is later discovered to be none other than Celebrimor, a fundamental character, the creator of the rings of power.
The game features mechanics taken from others: it is a mixture of stealth and action.
In the game there are some towers, all the same, which reveal points on the map, very similar to Assassin’s Creed from this point of view, with the difference that, however, they are not towers or different points, in fact.
Plus you can kill from hiding places and lure enemies.
Combat works with combos, quick hits, parries and counter attacks. A special ability can be used at number “8” of the combo. From this point of view it is the same as the mechanics used by the Batman games in truth.
So let’s say that not everything is precisely original, if not the story and the presence of famous characters, such as the aforementioned blacksmith elf, Gollum, and Sauron himself.
In the game there are the power struggles between orcs and Uruk, in this case the latter are “simply” stronger and bigger orcs.
By killing some of them, the hierarchies between them are altered, in constant civil war, undisciplined, savage. They are the main enemies, because “The Black Hand” is characterized by human beings, they are the only enemies to have (at least) this aspect.
So only the bosses are like that, or at least, the final ones in the various areas, instead the orcs are everywhere.
This game also features creatures called Caragor – beasts similar to large dogs, but with a more demonic aspect.
You can unlock the ability to ride them alongside Graur: other wild animals of mordor: gigantic humanoids similar to trolls, but perhaps less large.
In fact, at the beginning of the game you see some of them, and you think they are actually trolls, but they are a little different.
It is a game that presents these and other novelties and can bring any lover of the genre and the “old” novel / film with which many of us grew up closer.
Of course, creating totally original games is difficult, so where the similarity with other titles can be considered a defect, I would say that instead, taking the best of others, sometimes, you can create something good.
It was a really interesting and fun game, with well done fights, along with the rest… maybe it’s not something memorable, but it was okay.
I don’t know what the sequel is like, I’ll play it one day: “Shadows of war”, in which I hope they have solved some flaws: the setting doesn’t vary much in this game, and it’s a bit repetitive, basically you always go to hunting orcs, situations and character abilities change, but little else.
It was a game from 7.5-8.00, nothing more.
See y’all, next time.
Lo scrittore Volante 