Summary: Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor is a 3rd person action RPG game which has a great action packed combat system and entertaining gameplay however due to the small amount of content and low replay value, I would only recommend this purchase if you buy the game on sale.

Pros:

• Solid hack and slash combat system which allows you to use your Sword, Dagger & Bow to dismember your Orc enemies in a wide variety of entertaining and satisfying methods.
• The story and side quests provide a lot of interesting information which relates to the Lord of the Rings universe, including the backstory of an important elf in Middle Earth lore.
• The “Weapon Legends” side quests are exciting combat challenges which allow you to experience first hand how it would feel to be an iconic hero like Legolas or Aragorn, simultaneously fighting dozens of enemies in cinematic like scenarios.

Cons:

• There isn’t much content. I finished the main story line in around 2 days and I was able to achieve 100% completion of all story & side quests in a little over a week. In 2 weeks I’ve been able to collect most of the epic runes in the game.
• The side quests are quite boring and repetitive. The Survival, Hunting, Ithilden & Artifact challenges are all essentially open world hide & seek challenges. You look for plants, animals, drawings & objects around the open world area of Middle Earth. If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption they are nearly identical to the hunting and botany challenges there. I would have much rather had some puzzle quests or Parkour challenges to fill out the side quests instead.
• There is little to no replay value. Once you complete the main missions, there is little incentive to upgrade your character as the difficulty of the game remains the same. There is no way of increasing the difficulty of the game and even worse is the fact that you can’t replay the weapon legend quests which were my favorite part of the game.
• There is going to be DLC released for the game but honestly the game feels thin as it is so I feel like it should have been included at release.

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed the combat system in Shadow of Mordor, and overall I do feel like I got my money’s worth on my purchase. However, I think you can get the same experience from the game if you wait for it to go on sale in the future, so if you have a limited budget on games for the year and are looking for a game with a lot of replay value and longevity, I would recommend that you look somewhere else.