Shadow of Mordor is a very solid open world game set in the Lord of the Rings universe with gameplay elements reminiscent of those in the Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham series. The Nemesis system is a pretty neat addition, and I found it incredibly satisfying when getting revenge on an Uruk that previously killed me. I can issue them a death threat, determine what their fears/weaknesses are, hunt them down, and get my payback (usually with a pretty sweet upgrade for one of my weapons).

The visuals are very nice. Even with the free HD upgrade add-on, I can play on very high settings with little to no optimization issues. Even without the texture updates, this is a really nice looking title.

The DLC is...okay. It feels like more of the same to me as the original base game and campaign. Having said that, Torvin was one of my favorite characters in the game, and I was really happy to get to do some more missions beyond the base game that involved him.

Outside of the Nemesis system, there isn't too much gameplay-wise that hasn't already been done in a lot of other similar open world/action adventure titles, but this is still a fun experience and worth checking out if you can get the GOTY edition for a decent price.

Shadow of Mordor is a very solid open world game set in the Lord of the Rings universe with gameplay elements reminiscent of those in the Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham series. The Nemesis system is a pretty neat addition, and I found it incredibly satisfying when getting revenge on an Uruk that previously killed me. I can issue them a death threat, determine what their fears/weaknesses are, hunt them down, and get my payback (usually with a pretty sweet upgrade for one of my weapons). The visuals are very nice. Even with the free HD upgrade add-on, I can play on very high settings with little to no optimization issues. Even without the texture updates, this is a really nice looking title. The DLC is...okay. It feels like more of the same to me as the original base game and campaign. Having said that, Torvin was one of my favorite characters in the game, and I was really happy to get to do some more missions beyond the base game that involved him. Outside of the Nemesis system, there isn't too much gameplay-wise that hasn't already been done in a lot of other similar open world/action adventure titles, but this is still a fun experience and worth checking out if you can get the GOTY edition for a decent price.