Talkin' About Games Reviews: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Shadow of Mordor is a third person action title developed by Monolith. It takes place between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Some people have been put off by the game considering it uses a character and explores some concepts that weren't included by Tolkien and his son. But regardless of your personal feelings on whether or not Shadow of Mordor has a place in Tolkien lore what's presented to the player is a solid action title that can definitely stand on its own.

Review Criteria

I completed the main story of the game within 20 hours while taking plenty of detours for side missions. Discovered every collectible, elevated all of Talion's weapons to Legendary and dominated every warchief in both regions of the game. The game was played on PC with an Xbox 360 controller on Ultra graphics settings.

Story: 7/10

Shadow of Mordor's story won't be winning any awards. It is a tried and true tale of revenge and is pretty unapologetic about that fact. Talion's family gets murdered, as does he. Due to some dark ritual that took place during his death he has found himself bonded to the soul of an elf-wraith which, in addition to preventing him from dying, is giving him some pretty cool powers. Now he and the elf are moving around Mordor, murdering orcs and trying to get revenge on The Black Hand of Sauron who murdered Talion's family. There are some neat sequences within the story such as the tutorial giving players a glimpse of Talion's life before all of these terrible things happened to him. But other than that the story, while decent enough, is pretty predictable. The ending of the game did make me very excited for the potential sequel though, which works heavily in the title's favor.

Gameplay: 9/10

Shadow of Mordor has been criticized for essentially being a clone of Arkham Asylum mixed with Assassin's Creed. This is not a bad thing. The gameplay is all stuff some gamers may have seen before but it's solid and fun. The game does suffer from some issues of abilities that are completely useless (Brace of Daggers) and some that effectively turn you into a god (Shadow Strike Combos) but even with these few issues combat is still incredibly fun and polished and that is what counts. Jumping into the middle of a huge group of orcs and executing every single one of them is fun. Wandering around a stronghold, turning a large number of orcs to your side and turning them all on the Warchief making camp there is fun. Riding a caragor through the plains of Mordor while firing your bow and leaping from it to tackle an orc is fun. Everything about the game's combat and movement is just a treat. On top of that battles require the player's full attention in order for them to succeed. The player will often find themselves outnumbered and Talion can't take many hits before he goes down. This helps make every large-scale encounter really feel like life or death and helps add to the tension, especially when a Captain or Warchief enters the fray. The Nemesis System is incredibly interesting as well. As you kill important orcs others will rise and fill the power vacuum you have left, even ones that have killed you. Some orcs might cheat death and return to seek revenge on you. You will even have your own hand-picked pet orcs climb the ranks to become Warchiefs themselves. The system adds an interesting twist to what would otherwise be a mundane task of hunting orcs, really making the player feel invested in this weird power struggle within Mordor.

Graphics: 8/10

Shadow of Mordor is an absolutely beautiful looking game marred by some minor technical issues. I did encounter some issues of corpses sinking into the ground. Talion's face can look kind of odd at times and some of the textures on the orcs can be questionable. But these are all pretty minor concerns. Mordor manages to look lush and rich in some areas, which is a welcome change from the stark brown that we only saw in the films. The world feels alive with flocks of birds moving through the sky, caragors roaming the wastes, well made foliage and bats flying out of caves as you leave them. Minor touches the team has added ranging from Talion occasionally wiping his sword on his cloak and the expressions on the faces of Orcs as they are defeated and beheaded add a bit of charm to the world as well. What I feel deserves special recognition is the elf-wraith. His model in particular looks amazing and seeing him in the wraith world is just as beautiful as it is spooky.

Sound: 7/10

The game has a pretty decent soundtrack, though it won't be winning any awards. The music is fitting with the areas you are in and the score during combat does feel exciting but I couldn't for the life of me remember the tunes that played. There are some satisfying sound effects like Talion's sword whirling through the air. The voice acting is great as well with Talion's voice actor giving a believable performance but the elf-wraith's performance ultimately outshines every other. The biggest issue players will probably notice is that a lot of the orc dialogue will start to repeat itself when they've gotten well into the game. This can be annoying to some and there were quite a few times where I wanted a Captain to get over his spiel so I could fight him. But it's just an issue that pops up after killing tons of orcs I guess.

The Bottom Line: 8/10

Shadow of Mordor, while short, is an incredibly fun and well-made game. Combat is entertaining throughout the entire game and while the story isn't very impressive the gameplay alone is more than enough to keep players coming back for more. Definitely at least worth a rental if you're strapped for cash and can't commit to purchasing it. But if you have the cash it's definitely a title worth owning and replaying.

Which MOBA is Right for You? DOTA 2!

Welcome back! After looking at League of Legends I felt it was only fair to look at its number one competitor, DOTA 2.

DOTA 2 is touted as the "true sequel" to the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients that League of Legends is also based on. And to keep that identity it has kept a key mechanic that League of Legends decided to do away with. In DOTA 2 you have the option of executing your own minions to keep opposing players from obtaining gold. This concept of "denying" is but one of the many features that helps DOTA 2 carve out its own identity when compared to the ever popular LoL. That's not to say that DOTA 2 isn't popular though. The International Championship was just shown on ESPN recently and it had one of the largest prize pools in the history of competitive gaming.

Just like League of Legends DOTA 2 can have games that can average roughly 40 minutes. But unlike League of Legends you cannot surrender and must play every game through until the end, unless another player leaves the game due to connection issues or frustration. At that point you may leave the game without penalty. Some take issue with this while others argue that no game of DOTA 2 is every truly over until a player sees 'Victory' on their screen. What side of the fence you fall on can only be determined after playing a few (hundred) games.

So you might be asking: Why should (or shouldn't you) play DOTA 2?

You Should Play DOTA 2 If:

You are a MOBA veteran!

I'll spell it out plain and simple here: DOTA 2 can be a really hard game to pick up. This may be why many people choose to avoid it. Every character is available from the start, there's tons of items that only truly become valuable when you activate them in the midst of combat and you will lose the Gold that you use to acquire these items if a player kills you. Death has a real weight in DOTA 2 and some players even feel punished for dying. Because of these factors I would not recommend DOTA 2 to a new MOBA player. However, there's a lot for veteran players to love. The heavy reliance on activated items really sets apart the truly skilled players from the others. Those that know how their items work and when to use them will win fights more often than not. The deny system also rewards players for paying attention to their minions and towers and for knowing when a particular thing is beyond hope. There's also no way to teleport back to base without buying an item like in other titles. Instead you need to have a Courier (that can be killed) bring you items. So veterans that know how to sustain themselves well throughout the game will be rewarded while those that rush in foolishly will most likely be punished,

You want a large cast of varied and unique characters!

One complaint I hear a lot about League of Legends is that characters aren't varied enough. While I can't attest to whether or not that's true I can tell you that is definitely not the case with DOTA 2. The whole cast is rich and varied, not only in design but in abilities as well. Would you like to play as Juggernaut and slash your way through large groups of enemies while being invincible? Would you like to be Necrophos and have your very presence hurt your enemies before you execute them? There's tons of possibilities! And there's tons of ways to play them too. Every character has guides written by other players and you can filter them in-game to know the best items to buy and the best order to get your skills in. It's great!

You want a friendlier* community!

*Now the community in DOTA 2 isn't great by any means. But out of every MOBA I'll be listing it is the one that had the most enjoyable community. There will be plenty of occasions where you're insulted and where you'll meet players that will intentionally die. No worries there. But DOTA 2's addition of in-game voice chat has opened up a ton of opportunities. The second I speak into a mic other players will speak up and a sort of camaraderie is formed. We coordinate better, we laugh, we even give advice that is constructive and not hateful. I can easily say that the games where I have spoken up have all been far more enjoyable than those where I haven't. So if you hop into a game of DOTA 2 then speak up. Chances are you'll find a new friend.

You Shouldn't Play DOTA 2 If:

You know when it's over and actually want to do something about it.

The lack of a surrender button is a cause for concern. There have been plenty of games I've played where we were losing terribly either because our team was playing poorly or someone on our team was intentionally trying to make us lose. Sometimes the enemy team simply won't want to end the game. And there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to wait. Some people are fine with this but there is a concern when fun stops being a factor and you just want the game to end so you can hopefully have fun next game.

You want players to actually finish the game.

DOTA 2 is also the game where that I saw had the highest volume of players to leave games. Players would usually leave if our team was doing poorly. Now you can safely leave the game without penalty if someone else has left. But that takes 5 minutes of them being out of the game or them actually hitting the button that disconnects them from the match entirely. Now most leavers will just leave and after five minutes you can leave as well with no penalty. But if they have a bad connection and keep dropping in and out then you can't leave until a full 5 minutes of them actually being disconnected elapses. This can be rough and has annoyed me on more than a few occasions. I wish I could think of a better system for them to implement but I honestly can't.

You don't like some overly complicated characters.

DOTA 2 has some characters that seem needlessly complicated for a MOBA. The most common one that is complained about is Invoker, a character that requires you to combine elements via specific button combinations in-game in order to cast his spells. DOTA 2 also has a lot of characters that only seem suitable for facing certain teams. Anti-Mage and Silencer are great if your enemy team has mages but they don't really perform as well if the enemy team doesn't meet that requirement. DOTA 2 definitely has more characters that are designed to fill certain niches. That isn't to say all of its characters are like this. But if a player accidentally picks one of these heroes when the conditions for them to perform well aren't met then it's likely that that player will not do well or enjoy themselves.

And That's a Wrap!

Well guys that's my look at DOTA 2. I apologize that I haven't gotten every article out within a week but this has taken far longer than I expected. I hope you'll keep coming back to find out which MOBA is right for you!

Which MOBA is Right for You? League of Legends!

We couldn't really start this series without starting with the most popular MOBA out there. Odds are that if you have friends that play video games then at least one of them play League of Legends.

League of Legends is one of the MOBAs that follows the standard format set by the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients. There are three lanes constantly spawning enemies (or creeps) and a jungle full of enemies. Both teams of five players try to push up the lanes and destroy the enemy turrets and, ultimately, their base. Whichever team destroys the enemy base first wins.

Each player picks one character and boy are there a lot to choose from! League of Legends is sitting around 120 characters now with plenty more on the way. This would normally seem daunting to new players but when you just start out your character selection is restricted somewhat. There is a small portion of the roster available for "Free" each week. The rest of the roster is locked unless you buy them with in-game money, which you get by playing matches, or by paying actual money for a different in-game currency. If you like a character you played during their free week but don't have the in-game money to buy them by the end you'll either have to pay real money to keep playing as them or wait until you can get enough in-game currency. Some people see it as a way to force people to spend money. Others see it as Riot limiting selections so that people don't get overwhelmed by the sheer number of champions. It's really your call on what you see it as.


Games can be pretty lengthy, averaging 40 minutes. So it's definitely not the kind of game where you can expect to get a quick one in before you go to work. But honestly the game length doesn't impact the fun factor that can be had from this game. But now let's get into the meat of the discussion: Why should you (or shouldn't you) play League of Legends?

You Should Play League of Legends If:

You are new to MOBAs! 

League of Legends is by far the easiest MOBA to pick up out of all the ones I'll be covering. A pretty well done tutorial is presented to the player at the start of the game. Players also have the option to play matches against the computer to perfect their skills, but every other MOBA I will be looking at offers that as well. Probably one of the biggest boons for LoL is that it has the largest number of characters that are easy to pick up and play. Most characters don't deviate from the standard four abilities and one passive layout. On top of that it's very easy to transition between characters. A good Ashe player should be able to pick up one of her other damage dealing counterparts, Caitlyn. This holds true for a lot of League's characters so the player should be able to build a good stock of champions to play very quickly. This isn't to say that there aren't some complicated characters, but a new player is more likely to play a less complicated character if they simply pick based on looks or at random.

You want to find matches quickly!

League is afforded many advantages by being the most popular MOBA out there. ANd one of those advantages is a very short queue time. Waiting more than a minute to find matches is a very rare occurrence. So if you're looking to get into games quickly and don't want to wait then LoL is going to give you the quickest transitions from menu to play that you could hope for.

You Should Not Play League of Legends If:

You want to make new friends!

Out of all of the MOBAs I've played on this list LoL easily takes the cake as the one with the most hostile community. It unfortunately doesn't help even if you are a low level player considering a lot of veteran players will make second accounts to artificially increase their win percentage. But even moreso it seems as though your average LoL random is hostile right out of the gate. Players will berate you for not doing well, berate you for doing well if they consider the kills you got "theirs" and sometimes simply berate you to make themselves feel better. It's a tough community to get along with and there have been many newer players I've tried to get in the game that have left simply because of the community. But if you have a thick skin when it comes to people on the internet and/or a lot of friends that already play you can potentially just ignore the toxic players and keep on going. other times they'll go out of their way to ruin your game for you. It varies.

You don't want to "pay" for stat boosts!

This is actually the one area I take issue with the most in LoL and that's the Rune system. There are two ways to customize your characters. You can use masteries, which are trees of different ability buffs. Points are rewarded to you as you level up and once your account hits level 30 you can invest all of the points you wish to customize your hero. 

The other way is runes. Runes can only be acquired by spending IP, the currency that is given to you after simply playing games. You can spend IP to purchase runes and further add boosts to your character. For some people this is great. But to me it seems pretty flawed. See, you can also buy Boosts which will give you more IP after finishing matches. These you can only get with real money. Say you really want to buy a character. Great. But you won't be able to maximize that character's full potential unless you buy runes with that same IP. So you either need to invest more time into the game to get runes or simply pay money to spend less time getting runes. This presents the problem that players who have runes, regardless of the way they got them, have an inherent advantage over other players. Add to that the fact that some runes are rather expensive (some costing as much as a single character) and that there are lots of "junk runes," runes that are useless, and you find a bit of a problem. New players won't know which runes are junk and which aren't, so they can end up spending IP on something that is pretty bad. Throw on top of that the fact that players only get a limited number of rune pages and the only way you can buy them is with a ton of IP (more than any single character) or money and there's a recipe for a system that masquerades as something free but encourages the player to invest money into it to maximize their gains faster. I feel it imbalances the game on not only a monetary level but on a mechanical level as well and the fact that a lot of other MOBAs forgo any systems similar to this entirely is a big tell for me.

And that's a wrap!

Well guys that's my look at League of Legends! Stay tuned to take a peek at some other great MOBAs in the coming days. Hopefully I can help you all find which MOBA is right for you.

Which MOBA is Right for You?

Sorry about the lack of activity recently. But a lot of it has to do with this post!

It's no secret that the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena if you were curious) is one of the hottest genres of gaming out there right now. This has obviously led to a huge amount of MOBAs being produced in recent years. There are so many that it's hard to know where to begin!

While it is very important to play games that your friends also play we won't be taking that into account with this next series of posts. Over the course of the next week I'll be taking a look at four of the most popular MOBAs out there. Strengths, weaknesses, communities, styles of gameplay, etc. I'll be touching on everything I can about them. Hopefully, by the end of this series you readers will be able to use this little guide to find a MOBA you truly enjoy. Maybe it's the game you already play. Maybe it'll be a new MOBA I've touched on that you'll try and fall in love with. Or maybe it won't be any of them at all. Regardless I hope this series helps you all to find the MOBAs that are, or aren't, for you!

No Need to Import Save States! Praising the Keep.

It's no secret to anyone following the gaming press that Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the most anticipated games of the year. After the lackluster performance of Dragon Age II (which I really did like) people seem poised to either see Bioware bring those fans back to the fold or to see them fail on a truly massive scale. Inquisition has a lot riding on it and a lot has been promised. But the question is: will Bioware live up to those promises? I think they have the potential to and that they're heading in a good direction with the title right now. I'm a very huge fan of one of the features they had announced early on in development.

Dragon Age Keep is going to be a new feature that integrates with every copy of Inquisition on every platform. It will ensure the player can construct save states that they are comfortable with to ensure that their Inquisition experience shows events that pertain to exactly what they chose in all of the other Dragon Age games. The Keep will make it so that no matter what platform every player has played on that they will be able to have the Dragon Age experience that they want. This seems like a great feature but some people are a little up in arms about it after a post from the official DA Facebook page yesterday.

Here's a screenshot of that post. If this is taken as fact then there will be no simple importing of saves into Inquisition. All of the world building will need to be done through the Keep. Some people are up in arms about this, claiming that they'd rather just import their saves and that this could lead to things like no support for bringing your saves into Inquisition far later down the line once the Keep goes down. But here's the thing. People have been constructing and sharing saves for these titles for years. There are entire sites dedicated to preserving and sharing save files to give players different experiences. There are those that constantly make claims that one of the reasons Dragon Age: Origins is so great is because of the fact that it's great for modding. If this is the case then isn't it safe to assume that modders will find some way to preserve and share save states? Even when the Keep goes down very far into the future I have no doubt that people will be able to craft their ideal Dragon Age experience even ten years from now.

What do you guys think? Is the Keep an excellent idea? Do you feel cheated by not being able to import your saves or are you content with the options Bioware has given you? Are you excited for Inquisition or do you feel like Bioware will drop the ball? Hit me up in the comments and I'll catch you all next week.

The Three States of the Video Game Protagonist

Welcome back everyone! Sorry about the lack of a post last week. I had this particular one all finished and then the file got corrupted. It's a damn shame but no worries, I've brought the post back for you!

So I've started playing the absolutely lovely Dragon Age: Origins again. I lost all of my previous save files and now need to ensure that I can adequately construct the world I want in Dragon Age: Inquisition. But as I've been playing through this and looking back on The Witcher, Dark Souls, Tales of Xillia, etc. I've started to think more and more about the general outline of the video game protagonist. And I've put this little article together about what I believe the three most commonly presented forms of the protagonist are. It's not just how the character is presented but also how the player is expected to interact with the world and deal with the obstacles in their way that influenced these categories. So, let's jump right in.

The Player as the Protagonist

Found in: Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls, Knights of the Old Republic

This seems to be one of the most common trends from the last console generation. The player is given a protagonist to mold and construct as they see fit. They create their character's appearance, fighting style, voice package, etc. and are sent off on a grand adventure. Over the course of the adventure there are events that are out of the player's control yet they are given plenty of reign to act as they see fit. Maybe the player can kill NPCs and lock out certain parts of the game as a result. Maybe certain options are only available if the player has met certain requirements with how they built their character. Usually this protagonist is not actually referred to by name or referred to by a nickname. And the character is generally silent. This way generally allows the player to have greater influence on the story. But in many of these games the story has a high chance of suffering as a result. Making all of those branching pathways is time consuming and in order to allow that freedom there are times where the story can't be very tightly written. If someone is looking for freedom with little to no restrictions this will likely be their favorite option for a protagonist.

The Player Influences the Protagonist

Found in: The Witcher, Dragon Age 2,Mass Effect, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Walking Dead

A trend that has been emerging in games is the offering of limited choice to the player. The player is given a set protagonist with their own goals, dreams and motivations and the player gets to decide exactly how they will achieve those goals. Much of the story will likely be set in stone with a few areas here or there where the player can influence the outcome. The player will have some input regarding the players actions and interactions with the world but if the protagonist wouldn't do something, say slaughter a bunch of helpless villagers for example, then the player will be unable to carry out that action. Certain areas and options in the game may also be locked based on the player's actions, just like in the previous choice. This option tends to allow for a tighter story but less freedom. Players that are looking for a good balance of the two will likely favor this option.

The Protagonist Leads the Player

Found in: Tales of Vesperia, The Final Fantasy Series, Tomb Raider, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Metal Gear Solid

Called the "Linear Option" by some in this type of game there is no way for the player to influence the story or the attitude of their character. The protagonist is a fixed person with their own motivations and goals and the player has no input on what those are. The challenges that stand in the player's way will be solely gameplay related: combat, puzzle solving, etc. The story in this type of setup is fixed and its outcomes cannot be changed. There is little to no freedom in this kind of game but it tends to offer players the tightest and most well-written story telling experience. Players that don't care about having an impact on the story and simply want to sit down to a solid narrative and good gameplay will likely favor this option.

When it comes down to it I really don't have a preference. Each option has its pros and cons and can influence the gameplay and narrative in plenty of unique and interesting ways. But what do you guys think? Is there a certain style of protagonist that you find that you favor? How important is choice to you in a video game? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time.

Technical Difficulties

There is no post this week due to technical difficulties that caused me to lose the entire post. Such a shame! I'll be back next week and hopefully my luck will be better.