Everything GREAT About Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor! 

talion always get to say all the cool lines such as "could you really rest for all eternity, knowing you had the chance to stop him but did nothing." and in shadow of war i really like his "as long as i have breath in my body, my fate is my own"

3:52 I seriously love this. Sure, these games bend a lot of the lore, but it's clear the writers have actually done their research and know what they're playing with. There are many references that are lost to casual fans, but really satisfying to people who have read the Silmarillion. Finding Gorlim's fossilised skull as an artifact was one of the most interesting small things in this game.

I feel I am always finding new roles that the Critical Role cast has done. Never new that Laura and Liam were in this game and Liam did an incredible job with Gollum.

Oh yes. I LOVED this game when it came out. It’s still great. I really hope that you do Shadow of War. As always, great work. Keep it up

Spoilers, I guess. . . Played this game again after Shadow of War and the Bright Lord DLC, and man, Celebrimbor really is one of the best characters of these games. Guy's a manipulative bastard who ultimately ends up being no better than Sauron.

I personally had a SPRAWLING narrative with one particular Uruk captain that killed me over, and over, and over again until he was one shotting me time and time again, I even killed him five times without decapitating him before I F I N A L L Y got a decapitation on him...GOD I love the nemesis system! Greatest thing in any game ever, until Ghost of Tsushima had enemies that become terrified of you and run away because they're not stupid lol

SoM and SoW are so cool The nemesis system is one of the coolest things ive ever seen

I love how Talions eyes glows red when he mentions a new ring.

Ayyyyy i just bought this game(yes i know I'm years late to this game) but it's freaking fun. Story is great and the game can be a little repetitive but it's still fun cause of the gore and the fluidity of the movement

This game came so unexpected for me. I bought it for LOTR stuff, but story never let me go. One of the best games of 2014, along side with Transistor.

Great video. Personally, I liked shadow of mordor more for the gameplay than for the story but also enjoyed the story. You actually emphasized the idea of Celebrimbor not actually having amnesia but manipulating Talion, which is a nice thing. The story ain't groundbreaking but it is pretty solid and fun to experience. However, I LOVE shadow of war. Especially for it's story because we dive even deeper into Talion's psyche and motivations. Would love to see a gamingwins video on that one!

I think it's awesome how they balanced Middle Earth lore, gameplay elements from great games like Arkham and AC and still have its own identity! Love both games!

Dude. You did your Tolkien research. Loved the connection with Fingolfin. Mad respect!

I started with shadow of war and immediately went and bought mordor. Just started mordor today and I already love it. I'm a huge Tolkien fan and so some lore breaks kinda tick me off but not enough to let me not enjoy this game just based off Tolkien's work. I personally love these games and shadow of war is the second game I've 100% on my new xbox. Love it. Awesome video my dude

I met Laura Bailey not long ago and I asked her to sing what she did from Shadow of Mordor and she did. Beautiful singing voice. I also have to say that she's is drop dead gorgeous in person and such a sweetheart. Laura was one of three lady voice actresses I wanted to meet. The other two being Natalie Lander and Tara Strong, whom I've also met. All of them very classy ladies and so sweet to me and my daughter.

The 2 Shadow games were brilliant, espescially the Nemesis System. Too bad there doesnt seem to be any plans for a sequel

I cannot express how glad I am to see a review of this game from someone who knows more about LotR than just the movies.

I had a teacher named Mr Gandalf once, nobody passed his class

There's a LOT to read in the appendices, and it can be overwhelming at times, but I really enjoyed reading through it all, since it made me respect Tolkien's world building that much more

Top 10 in my favorite games, definitely worth playing a couple times. It would be cool to see some Xbox games on here too.

This is one of my favorite PS4 games the combat of Arkham combined into this is amazing, something you should of added as a win is them giving us an actual reason of why Talion can respawn. He's banished from death like the Ringwraiths so the fact he'll reform in time but instead of back in Minus Morgul or the forest Sauron hid in for awhile its Celebrimbor's own towers throughout mordor, the fact time passes as well after talion is slayed is even better as well and doesn't take away from the emersion after dying.

This is probably my second favorite series even next only to Jak and Daxter. We will see if they come out with another game following celebrimbor after the end of the DLC in shadow of war, which was fantastic addition to that game I might add

Middle Earth Shadow Of Mordor was such an awesome and fun game . I have downloaded it for Xbox One and i enjoyed the heck out of it 😮🙂. The combat is so badass and fluid like in the Batman Arkham games and it feels satisfying to kill and slay Orcs and Orc Captains and use fear against them and hunt them down . The Nemesis system is so cool and when you can have your own army by branding Orcs . I have played Shadow of War too and it is a fun game but i find Shadow of Mordor more dark and awesome.

The Celebrimbor's past cinematic scenes are some of my favorite cinematics of all time

This is one of my favorite games of all time. The fact that he’s reviewing it is AWESOME

Man I played this game like 4 times. Gonna really enjoy this video.

I feel like the whole series is so underrated. Such great gameplay and story. Too bad monolith killed shadow of war right from the beginning with the micro transactions for too many players.

I do hope you intend to follow this up with shadow of war and it’s dlc. I know shadow of war was largely disliked, but it’s one of my favorite games out there.

Wow I never realized around half the CR crew is in this. Laura as Talion's wife (and probably other small roles), Liam as Gollum, then you have both Travis and Matt voicing various orcs.

Wake up babe gaming wins posted at 2:33 AM

Literally just started a replay when I discovered your channel. Great video dude. I love these games and another lotr game I love is War in the North. The latter Wasn’t mind blowing but was a fun action rpg to play over a weekend

I remember in this game, I built a whole nemesis with one particular Uruk. Today, I don't quite remember his name, but I remember his title, being "the Cook". In my head, it felt like I was hunting him, he would drop in on me, it was a glorious mess, every time ending with my loss. Every skill I got was trying to build a better way to beat him, and I kept grinding skills just to have a shred of hope that I would be able to kill him the next time. It was a glorious rivalry, and I was finally able to kill him, decapitating him in battle. Didn't really have any similar nemeses in Shadow of War, but I certainly had some issues with some captains here and there. Loved this series, loved playing through each of them. Such a great experience!

The Tower is my favorite antagonist in this game. I remember the first time I played this being terrified of his voice and design.

I think the best part of these types of channels is the narrator having a pleasant voice to listen to at any moment, so take a sub.

You have no idea how happy I was to see you make a video on this game. Keep pushin out the good content ; )

I remember when I first played this in college and I was OBSESSED with hot beautiful everything was and how amazing the combat felt. Yeah, I killed pretty much all the captains I came across as well because the stealth and ranged attacks became incredibly OP if you focused on upgrading your abilities and weapons. I eventually found decent enemies and allowed them to get stronger before recruiting them, only for them to completely slaughter the Talons at the end of the game. I was happy to see them up the difficulty with the nemesis system in Shadow of War, because those captains, warchiefs and overlords were a different breed of monster. Glad you covered this, I hope to see you cover Shadow of War next!

I wish they used Sauron speaking in the Black speach in the narration in the beggining. Would've been a nice touch

I’m glad this video exists, I have wanted to get back into shadow of war since I have it, but I didn’t understand the plot since I didn’t play this game, I’m glad a creator I really enjoy has helped me understand a game I didn’t before

I start my senior year in…5 hours. But fuck it, I’ll stay up for you man 👨🏾‍🦯

Imagine the nemesis system in a superhero game like batman arkham, with criminals who defeat you and who you arrest evolving

“That’s what’s got me hyped for the Amazon series.” Well that didn’t age well.

As far as the nemesis system went, personally I never really took it too literally. I took pretty well to the combat in my second go-around, so I didn't develop nemeses, so much as "next targets".

For the nemesis system I sometimes don’t get to experience it often, I often times found I had to crank the thing to high even max difficulty in order to get challenged. Same goes for shadow of war, however I will say shadow of war did add something that did shake me up a number of times. If you do shadow of war I’ll talk about it.

I really like how positive this channel is... keep it going 🤘

The fight with the Uruk at the end was the only Uruk I remembered because really early on he killed me so I tried to get revenge, twice, failed both before I have up and once later in the game I fought him again and killed him. Then he came back. Then he came back at the end

Let's all be honest. We all did it at least once. Where we jumped off a high place, landed on a ork, and just before assassinating him we whispered... "I am the night. I am... Batman."

This is one of my favourite games ever made. Keep up the great work with these videos.

If you look closely in the cutscene when Talion gets killed, in the lightning flashes you can see his eyes were brown. It's a nice detail that death drained all the prominent colors from him; brown eyes, browner hair, a living skin tone. There's orc dialog where 1 says he saw something 'like a pink-skin (human) but it was gray'. I wish there'd been more in game remarks about it.

Good game. I had many fights with orc captains that were nearly impossible because of the randomly rolled abilities and weapons. It didn’t help that every time they killed me they got stronger.

You should've give a win to the voice behind of the many of the uruks Steve blum.

Fun fact in som if u make sure u have no nemesis, when u fight the tower on the island ratbag is the nemesis

I really enjoyed this game due to it being a much more brutal lotr Arkham game with a very unique system And that ending that cliffhanger made me hyped for shadow of war

I loved the sequel (never actually finished SOM because i started it when years and years ago and don't have access to it any more) but I keep hoping for a final 3rd game to round out the trilogy where you conquer all of Middle-earth or maybe even try (and fail) to lay seige to Valinor

God damn it, I need to go to bed but I guess I'm watching this now

"No mortal man" Well, we all know how nitpicky Middle-Earth is with wording so as soon as Talion became semi-immortal we should have known

Great vid, hope you do shadow of war next 🔥🔥

As a person that has never been a huge fan of the lord of the rings or the hobbit I can say that this is my favorite or second favorite game I have ever played. It is only contested by AC2 at the top and I have played many games in my life. I've played every far cry, a majority of the assassins creed games, and a lot of it indie games (including a game called bug fables that I think is highly underated), and none of them come close to the shear excitement and enjoyment that this game brought me. Love the combat, the atmosphere, the nemesis system, and especially the branding.

Why this review is ten times better than the rest on RU-vid?

i would love if u culd do the second game as well, great video btw

I got ptsd fighting a war chief and tens of uruk while two or three captains come from nowhere bringing their whole Squad of orc gangbangin me.

I stumbled onto this channel about a week ago and I'm fucking hooked! Fantastic content my dude!

This was great even though ive never played the game i love the way you talk about things hopefully ill get to see you win infamous second son :)

2 things about this game I love. 1. I never knew two Crit Rol people were in it 2. I was so full of surprise and fury when my most hated nemesis came back from the dead outside the Tower’s fortress it was amazing

Great work as always. Though if I could I’d like I suggest a game to feature, Okami

Now I want to see a review of Shadow of War!

that was amazing, you made many great insights that made me like the story that much more, shadow of war next? though i assume that's going to take a while considering how much bigger of a game it is (and that's okay! quality always over quantity), i especially love how you showed alot more details on celebrimbor's manipulations, made me realize that's he's similar to sauron in more ways than "haha i want to dominate the world too"

This game and shadow of war are the most slept on games I've seen fr

16:30 It's my headcanon that the Ring's tendency for betrayal did not come from Sauron. It came from Celebrimbor, and while Sauron overcame it, it was still a deliberate feature of the Ring.

I always viewed shadow of Mordor as "Assassins creed but better" at least compared to the most recent games. Although shadow of war is my favorite game out of the two, shadow of Mordor is the very first xbox game i ever played on my own xbox, so it holds an extra special place in my heart. Combat is fun but difficult, you can't run in without a plan and expect everything to work out. Even though you're this legend that scares uruks, you're not infallible. Even though you are unbeatable, you still struggle to win sometimes, which makes victory worth it every time. 10/10

I loved your first Dishonored video! Please do “Everything Great About Dishonored 2”.

They just straight up said, nah it’s not canon but you better believe we’re gonna do our best to make it as close to lore accurate as we can. And they did. And I respect that. Lore holds sanctity and the aesthetics of a universe, but following it only until you need to make creative choices (while saying it’s not canonical) is the way to make said creative choices.

“Assassinating your wife with love” is without a doubt the strangest thing I’ve ever heard lmao

This is definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played! Love the dark atmosphere!

Played this game a long time ago, so watching this recap was nice since I have yet to play the sequel. I do remember though I had one nemesis in the game that somehow ended up with like every strength, and just one super niche weakness. So it was such a relief when I finally killed him lol.

I agree with your opinion about the Black Hand boss fight taking place as a QTE. Besides, Talion's bleeding to death at that point in the game. He doesn't have time for a longer fight.

Ooooh, a personal favorite of mine. But as I have stuck to this bit for a while now: Obligatory request for The Outer Wilds

Saying I’m a guy who has played not only the classic shadow of Mordor which came out for PS3 and also the new shadow of Mordor I can agree that shadow of Mordor is a great game and also one of the first I’ve ever played and so is shadow of war I can not stress enough how Much I love all 3 shadow games and how important the are to me because of the first video games I’ve ever played and I would play them over and over and over, and enjoy every last bit of detail put into them.

While it is true that you can replace the dagger in SoW, in the Wraith Set at the end, you get a fell version of it. Talion kept his son with him… even into his final death.

I got this game on deep discount after it's initial release I just remember hearing that some people liked it. I really like it, in many ways I like it better than Shadow of War. It was already out so no cliff hanger for me. It was also about twenty bucks because it had failed to sell a lot of copies initially due to the loot box thing which they immediately removed after I started playing. I wish there were more or other games with similar style and good stories. I usually do not love cut scenes and QTE but I make an exception in this case.

Personally I feel you with the lack of a nemesis. my uruk was some random resurrected uruk cause he survived 3 encounters with me by running away everytime, yes I've died before but it took a lot to kill me at all, which I think was Shadow of Mordor's biggest fault: you can just counter pretty much everything and if they are a defender and immune to everything just get one of your uruks to beat them up and either kill them or brand them to your side. its sad but still a very fun game to enjoy from time to time.

YEEEEESSSSSS!!!! My boy Liam O’Brien getting some well deserved attention for an amazing role.

This is so crazy I was literally watching the Assassin creed video yesterday & I was man he should do shadow of Mordor

One of my favourite games. Thank you.

In game your son is the only character that can mimick your fighting style which is a great detail

I loved this game a lot. I played it on Xbox as part of the game pass and I had only a month to experience it... finished in like, three days, but was an amazing experience. I was turned off by the fact that Shadow of War would have microtransactions but I heard that if you ignore those the game is amazing, so I want to check it out as soon as I can!

Thanks for the water reminder! I haven't drank anything today lol.

It's nice to know someone knows their Middle Earth lore than just from the films

But for what it's worth finding that *one* nemesis Orc whose sheer audacity to just keep besting you, who you thought you had put down at long last, no resurrections, showing up in one last display of defiance to challenge you, is a treat. I still remember mine, even though I haven't played SoM in years. Pash The Wall. Big ugly shieldbearer, with vaulting immunity and immunity to stealth, no fears, and the only thing to be able to do him in with was arrows, but he wasn't "soft-headed" so it took a metric ton of excruciatingly precise shots to finally bring him down after dozens of defeats because I kept running out of ammunition. And then he came back for the sequel.

I liked that inside reference

Literally my two most favorite games of all time in this series. Can't wait to see what you say!

“A surprise to be sure, but a welcoming one.”

I don't remember why I picked it up. Maybe it was the nemesis system, maybe it was the LotR hook. I'm not sure. This was soon off the heels of Batman Arkham so when I did play it I literally told people that it feels like Batman. Thats ok. I loved Arkhams combat and with the brutality that comes with the executions, that never get old even after being done hundreds of times. It sits on my list of favorite games with Shadow of War also making an appearance. It also put Monolith on the map for me so everytime a game gets announced and Monolith is behind it, Im going to be excited the same way I get excited when Sony Santa Monica announces a game.

Ah...the Nutcracker, A marche, its just so nostalgia-invoking.

Anyone notice how in the end talions eyes flash orange. Something tells me that there where original plans for a sequel.

The title card was an epic win. That s*** got me pumped to play this!

i adored this game and would still play it if i had it on pc, playing this got me so hyped for shadow of war,

I absolutely love the nemesis system and I still do to this day!

hope you're gonna do another one about Middle-earth: Shadow of War

I didn’t realize that his video came out today so I went looking for the Shadow of War video.

Fun fact: The writer of this game also wrote New Vegas. Clearly has a thing about coming from the dead.