The best thing about playing Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is that it makes me feel over-the-top powerful without sacrificing the fear of defeat. It's got great free-flowing combat and a good-sized, good-looking open world full of Lord of the Rings lore to find, but what makes it special is what's...

Great combat; Enemy progression; Losing matters; Mind control

Unexciting campaign missions

I scale up a tower I have never climbed before and survey the land. There are new events in which to participate now, and new adventures to undertake. I leap to the ground below from this dizzying height, landing safely and breaking multiple laws of physics in the process.

Challenging combat encounters make every skill feel useful; Fluid locomotion makes interacting with the game a joy; Nemesis system is fun to mess with; Outstanding sound design enhances the sense of otherworldly peril

Erratic story that concludes with anticlimactic battles; The most interesting mechanics don't appear until halfway through the story

When Talion, one of the last Gondorian Rangers keeping watch at the Black Gate, and his family are brutally executed the night of Sauron's return to Mordor, he awakens to find himself inhabited by an Elvish Wraith, "banished from death" – trapped between the worlds of light and dark – and bound to...

I've been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien since I was a boy. The fantastical world he created never disappointed, regardless of the entertainment medium it was presented in. His books kept me awake long into the night and Peter Jackson's film adaptations often left me breathless.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a new release from developer Monolith and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the same team that made the gaming industry pause and take notice to the Batman Arkham series.

Crafting a quality game based on either The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit is no easy task. The gameplay aspect is rarely the greatest challenge, instead creating a story that intertwines with Tolkien's universe is where many games falter.

Ho there, have a seat, grab an ale, light your pipe and allow me to recant a recent tale you may find most intriguing. I found myself atop a silver spire, bewildered with the events that recently transpired, looking out into the vast expanse, towering gray mountains and barren earth staring back at...

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a tremendous experience and is well worth the time and the money. The protagonist of the story is Talion, a ranger, and he is accompanied by a Wraith, Celebrimbor.

Finally we have a LoTR game worthy of many hours of our time! Shadow of Mordor brings free roaming adventure and game changing new features together to make one amazing game. One of those games where you get lost in its mechanics and find yourself putting the story on the back burner.

The Nemesis system alone is worth giving this a go, let alone the Lord Of The Rings setting. Better than every other LOTR game, never again will we settle for mediocrity when our favourite book/film licenses get picked up.

Open-ended stealth; with nary a fail-state in sight; The Nemesis system helps to build some epic stories

Being cross-gen: the environments suffer because of it; Some mechanics feel derivative alongside the newer ideas