Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - PlayStation 3

I can't speak for those who've written earlier reviews and complained about the graphics or bugs. I got this for Christmas and I'm loving it.The graphics certainly seem fine to me. Is it PS4 quality? No (Seriously, is it reasonable to expect PS4 quality on a PS3?). But I can easily distinguish different types of Orcs, especially the 'Captains' and Chiefs and such. Terrain looks convincingly like Mordor to me.Gameplay. The different Orc Captains and Chiefs all definitely have different personalities and different fighting styles. As Chiefs and Captains increase in level they seem to also increase in the number of followers. You don't have to know their weaknesses to defeat them - but it certainly helps. The open world is really fantastic and the options for improving weapons & skills are quite varied. Its a fairly challenging game, to be sure, but there is enough to see and do to keep it interesting. And the missions/quests are quite varied. I love the "Nemesis" system - perhaps it is dumbed down compared to next-gen consoles but its hard to tell and still provides a really interesting dynamic. The "Artifacts" and the "Ithildin" took a little time to figure out (hint - you have to be in "Wraith" mode). The Caragors were a real pain in the behind initially but once I learned to ride them, things got better (two hints here - initially you cannot ride them so you're better running away; riding is a skill you must acquire).At least with the current patch, I'm not seeing much in the way of bugs. Only one slightly silly one - in a mission I killed a particular Captain. Only to see him not only back but promoted 10 minutes later! But in searching on Google, it seems that's a problem across all the consoles. Yes, there are some long load times - you almost dread going to the map or any menus because you'll spend 20 seconds or so waiting to go back to the game when you exit the map. But I can live with that (and I'm learning to get by without the map).

1. Graphic: No it is not impressive on PS3. Don't know what it's like on PS4, I haven't even had a look at it from Youtube. But PS3 version, not very impressive. It's just okay.2. Frame: Not good. Normal occassions, it is fine. But when you try to fight against bunch of Uruks (like more than 10,15 of them?), it becomes disturbing. Not pleasant.3. Cinametic Scene: Movie (ie: CG) for main story is awesome. It's pretty and it sucks my attention. BUT, scenes for side missions (which are not CGs) are very annoying. It doesn't show properly. It shows the scenes and black screen intermittently.4. Loading: Disturbing. There is always a loading when I'm opening a main menu and when I'm closing a main menu. (ie: main menu as in pressing start button to open skill window or weapon window when playing the game) And graphics in main menu are usually delayed. Although graphic loading delay in main menu doesn't really impede the actual game playing, it's still annoying.Then why did I give 5 stars to this? THE GAME PLAY ITSELF IS SO AWESOME. And I only payed $20 for this. It is very worth it.The very basic backbone of the game comes from that of Batman Arkham series, while it has very well added all the good spices of fantasy world.

Okay game. Inconsistencies between game and real canon, which I will go into in the spoiler section.The bad:- Terrible music. And it plays in the background behind other music and dialogue during cutscenes and NEVER EFFING STOPS. THE SAME REPETITIVE TRACK OF HORNS AND DRUMS PLAYED THROUGHOUT EVERY SECOND OF THE ENTIRE GAME I WANTED TO VOMIT.- The unnecessary loading screens between mission objectives being shown (i.e. when it shows a captain that is the object of a side mission) were horribly frustrating. And horribly frequent. The game is half loading screens and drums in the background, I swear to christ.- The horrible understanding of Tolkien's canon, misconceptions with themes in the Silmarillion and other books, including the main series (Which I've said I will get into later, due to spoiling)- The ending. Anti-climactic. All I'm going to say.The Good:- Good gameplay, the Nemesis system is interesting. The story is meh for Lord of the Rings, you will not like it if you are actually a buff of lord of the rings. Note, that you should not try to eliminate all Captains. Can't be done. Lots of replay value though, and collectibles, with bits of canon scattered in them, including some of the more egregious inconsistencies, but still nice.- Satisfying Combat Executions.- A certain dwarf you meet in the game. Has a very sad backstory you can get into via collectibles. He's also hilarious.- The 'wraith' is a character many will not know about, but others will be excited to see. I do hope that his character is redeveloped in another work where it does not break so far away from canon. Also, the thing is, if you know of his character in another certain work of Tolkien, you will probably know it's him within half a minute. Not exactly subtle.The Bad: Spoilers Edition*SPOILERS*For examples of inconsistencies, wraiths are not the spirits of those who died in Tolkien-verse. They are no more undead than the actual ring-wraiths.Wraiths are beings of mortal races whose lives have been 'stretched', unnaturally long, by some force, in most cases, the One Ring. Secondly, elves don't go anywhere when they die, which Celebrimbor acknowledges when you find the Iron Shackle, so where in the ever loving hell are they pulling his spirit from? He's gone. Eternally sleeping. Done. Caput. He died several ages ago. That little a-hole has been long forgotten except in legend. "All races face death. Man alone faces the mystery of what comes after." - Iron Shackle dialogue from CelebrimborAlso, the Medallion halves dialogues reference the White Trees (which are indeed meant to symbolize the Trees of Valinor) as being one and the same with the real Trees of Valinor. That is not the case. There are several White Trees across the history of Middle Earth, specifically four that were not in fact the Trees of Valinor, descended, more figuratively than literally from the original Trees of Valinor. Not too important a distinction, but still.Secondly, not only can no one but Sauron use the One Ring, but Sauron did not enlist or force Celebrimbor's help. The only interaction Celebrimbor had with the creation of the One Ring/the Greater Rings of Power, was that Celebrimbor "perceived Sauron's design" (Silmarillion v.2). THIS IS ESTABLISHED CANON. I don't know what your interpretation of 'perceived' is, but in this case it in all likelihood it means more something like 'noticed', 'recognized', 'understood', 'became aware of', hell, maybe he even came across frigging blue-prints for it, who knows.Ring-lore was practiced by Celebrimbor, Sauron, and many lesser smiths who created a great many rings that were lost to the ages. Celebrimbor was a master of the art, but he by no means aided and abetted Sauron.In short, you took far too much liberty with Tolkien's design, broke away from canon heavily, and should have drawn out fighting with the Tower. I was expecting a difficult boss fight. Three hits to the Tower and he's done.Also, on the PS3 version, whenever it flashes to mission objectives it does so briefly, then cuts to a loading screen, then cuts to another objective for a half second, then another loading screen, then to Talion. It got extremely frustrating.