Nemesis system makes orcs personal
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 positive reviews
“it’s wild how quickly you start remembering specific Orc captains who killed you, ran away, or came back stronger just to ruin your day again”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗
Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 92%Very Positive · 92%Monolith Productions2014Stealth · Action · Adventure
The verdict
A brutal Arkham-style orc-slaying action game carried by its Nemesis system, with a forgettable story and repetitive missions. Skip it if you dislike repetition or clunky keyboard controls.
Great for
Fans of Arkham-style combat and Middle-earth who want to hunt orc captains, ideally on sale with a controller
Main risk
The loop gets repetitive, the story and QTE ending are weak, and PC controls are clunky
What players love
Fluid, brutal Arkham-style combat
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“Everything feels smooth and responsive - both sword combat and archery are satisfying to use, and there are tons of fun abilities to unlock.”
Steam review · 30.9 h played ↗
Atmospheric Middle-earth setting and presentation
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The voice acting is also worth mentioning, strong performances all around, especially from the main cast.”
Steam review · 28.6 h played ↗
Aged well, cheap on sale
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“Does not feel oudated, at all. Shadow of Mordor aged like fine wine.”
Steam review · 21.6 h played ↗
Fun power fantasy with stealth and executions
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“You are extremely powerful and the game does not shy away for allowing you to feel that way.”
Steam review · 15.7 h played ↗
What players complain about
Repetitive missions and gameplay loop
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“The game is extremely boring and repetitive, giving no sense of progress whatsoever.”
Steam review · 12 h played ↗
Weak, forgettable story and anticlimactic ending
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“this ending might have been one of the worst in any game ive played. incredibly lackluster and anticlimactic”
Steam review · 13.3 h played ↗
Clunky controls, especially on keyboard and mouse
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“This game literally puts 5 actions on the same keys, I'm not joking.”
Steam review · 19.7 h played ↗
Endless enemy spawns and swarming captains
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“When you want to fight a captain one-on-one, the game just spawns 3 more captains out of its ass.”
Steam review · 11.2 h played ↗
Crashes, save loss and launch failures
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 negative reviews
“crashes to desktop very frequent.”
Steam review · 33.9 h played ↗
Too easy, undermining the Nemesis system
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 negative reviews
“the nemesis system requires you to die in order to work properly, so the fact that you almost can't die unless you decide to try and solo a stronghold makes it useless.”
Steam review · 13.3 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support44 GB
Minimum
OS64-bit: Vista SP2, Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1
ProcessorIntel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz
Memory3 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 | AMD Radeon HD 5850
Storage44 GB available space
Recommended
OS64-bit: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1
ProcessorIntel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 | AMD Radeon HD 7950
Storage57 GB available space
OS64-bit: Vista SP2, Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1
ProcessorIntel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz
Memory3 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 | AMD Radeon HD 5850
Storage44 GB available space
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