Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world action-adventure video game, where the player controls a ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, consisting of his wife and son, are killed by those that lead them. Players can travel across locations in the game through parkour, riding monsters, or accessing Forge Towers, which serve as fast travel points. Though Talion is mortally felled in the game's introduction, the wraith of the Elven Lord Celebrimbor is able to use his power to keep Talion alive, along with gifting him wraith-like abilities to exact his revenge. Missions in the game feature main story missions that follow Talion's quest for revenge, side missions that involve following Gollum to find artifacts that are tied to Celebrimbor's past, missions to free the human slaves that have been captured by the Uruk armies and forced to work for Sauron, and additional quests to help forge new abilities for Talion's sword, bow, and dagger. The player also has the freedom to pursue side quests and roam around Mordor, with special activities to collect specific flora or to hunt certain creatures, or to find old artifacts or Elvish seals. Completing quests earns the player a number of rewards: experience points that are used to unlock new abilities for the player from both Talion's ranger and Celebrimbor's wraith skills, a Power value that allows the player to access more powerful abilities to unlock, and an in-game currency called "Mirian" that the player can use to improve Talion's health, wraith skill capacity, or forge new slots on his weapons to add additional runes (as described in the Nemesis System below).
In completing missions, the player can have Talion engage in melee, ranged combat, and stealth approaches, with some missions rewarding the player more for completing the mission in a specific manner. Talion's ranger abilities are enhanced through Celebrimbor, allowing the player to mix combat with special focus-based attacks; these latter attacks can be used to slow time down while aiming with the bow, drain focus out of an enemy foe, or, later in the game, brand the foe to become an ally of Talion. The combat system uses an attack-chain system that enables the player to perform special moves after building the chain to a large enough value, such as instantly draining a foe of focus or performing an area focus attack. With the combat system, they can also counter and dodge attacks. Stealth is a critical element in some missions; several areas are considered Strongholds and should Talion's presence be discovered, an alarm will sound and more Uruks will arrive to try to kill him.
Nemesis system
A core feature of Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis system. The game can track any Uruk (A nastier orc, the general antagonists of the game) that the player comes into contact with. While there are "generic" Uruk for the player to fight en masse, and will be as cannon fodder as part of Sauron's armies, the game will begin tracking Uruk that perform any notable talents within the game, such as killing the player, or surviving an encounter with the player. These Uruk will be promoted into captains. Defeating these leaders will help to weaken Sauron's army, and these leaders will drop a rune which the player can install on Talion's weapons to provide additional buffs in battle. Alternatively, being killed by a leader will cause the current mission to be cancelled and the player returned to a safe point to continue exploring, and the leader will gain additional power, making him more difficult to defeat in the next encounter. If the procedurally generated Orcs survive an encounter with Talion, they will also be promoted. Further, such deaths are tracked through online servers, and the player's friends on the various network services will be notified of this death and be offered the chance to accept a Vendetta mission, and exact revenge on the Uruk. If the mission is successful the game will give rewards to both the original player and the victorious friend.
The leader Uruk will have a range of strengths and weaknesses, the latter that can be exploited in combat to quickly weaken and defeat the leader. The player can gain knowledge of these through finding intelligence mostly by draining and interrogating marked Uruks for this. Being able to exploit such weaknesses in defeating the leader will gain a better quality rune and more experience points in this manner. Once the player gains the ability to brand Uruks, they can brand these leaders and convert portions of Sauron's army to their side. At this point, the player can use the Nemesis system to trigger infighting within the Uruk forces which they can then directly participate in, helping to weaken the army further. Uruks that survive their encounter with Talion will remember this when Talion combats them again; for example, an Uruk who was thrown into a fire by Talion might want revenge on him for being disfigured.
Synopsis
Setting
The game takes place in the 60-year gap between the events of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. The family of Talion (voiced and motion captured by Troy Baker), a ranger of Gondor responsible for guarding the Black Gate of Mordor, is killed by the armies of Sauron, but Talion is revived with "wraith-like abilities" and heads into Mordor to exact his revenge. Mordor is not yet a barren wasteland in this story. The player will encounter Gollum (voiced by Liam O'Brien). Talion discovers that the wraith who revived him is Celebrimbor (voiced by Alastair Duncan), the greatest Elven smith master of the Second Age, who also seeks revenge against Sauron.
Plot
Talion, a captain of Gondor, serves within a garrison stationed at the Black Gate of Mordor. The garrison is attacked by Sauron's Orc forces led by three Black Númenórean captains: the Hammer of Sauron (John DiMaggio), the Tower of Sauron (JB Blanc), and their leader, the Black Hand of Sauron (Nolan North). Talion, his wife Ioreth (Laura Bailey), and his adult son, Dirhael (Jack Quaid), are captured and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon into himself the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. However, Celebrimbor (who suffers from amnesia due to his centuries as a wraith) instead merges with Talion, preventing him from dying alongside his family. Talion and Celebrimbor then depart to both uncover Celebrimbor's identity—increasing his/their power—and avenge the death of Talion's family.
Over the course of their travels, Talion and Celebrimbor encounter Gollum multiple times, who is wandering Mordor in search of his "Precious" (The One Ring). Gollum possesses the ability to see and speak with Celebrimbor due to his prior contact with the One Ring, and pledges to serve the "Bright Master". Hoping that Celebrimbor might lead him to the One Ring, Gollum leads Celebrimbor to relics of his past, each of which restore parts of his lost memories. Celebrimbor gradually recalls how Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, deceived him into forging the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor ultimately assisted Sauron in forging the One Ring, but was able to steal it from him. Celebrimbor proclaimed himself the Bright Lord of Mordor and raised an army of Orcs against Sauron. However, the Ring ultimately betrayed Celebrimbor and returned to Sauron. A victorious Sauron then punished Celebrimbor by executing his wife and daughter (whom Sauron had taken hostage to force Celebrimbor to aid him) before finally killing him with his own smithing hammer.
In his search for the Black Hand, Talion allies himself with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads a community of Gondorian outcasts choosing to settle in Mordor, and Ratbag the Coward (Phil LaMarr), an Orc who offers to bring Talion closer to the Black Hand in exchange for his assistance in climbing Mordor's military hierarchy. Talion helps Ratbag ascend the ranks to the level of warchief by killing each of his immediate superiors, finally becoming Warchief himself. Talion then goes after the other Warchiefs in Udun, weakening Sauron's forces in that area. Soon enough, Hirgon has a plan to draw out the Black Captains. Using acquired grog and blasting powder, Talion helps the Outcasts destroy a statue dedicated to Sauron. Instead of the Black Hand answering the "message", the Hammer of Sauron is sent, punishing Ratbag for not answering his duties to kill the ranger. Talion and The Hammer then face off, with packs of Uruk joining the fight, but after a savage battle, Talion manages to kill The Hammer.
