Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™
Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ screenshot 1Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ screenshot 2
Open WorldActionFantasyAdventureThird Person

658 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 808

Peak in the last 7 days: 987

Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ Steam store

Game description

Fight through Mordor and uncover the truth of the spirit that compels you, discover the origins of the Rings of Power, build your legend and ultimately confront the evil of Sauron in this new chronicle of Middle-earth.

Basic info

DeveloperMonolith Productions
PublisherWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Games
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateSep 30, 2014
Price

Minimum specs

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
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 | AMD Radeon HD 5850
Storage44 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 449 reviews from the past 1 year

85.6/ 100
Top 30%

Steam rating: Very Positive (93%)

Metacritic: 84 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 22, 2026)

Hunting orc captains who remember every fight, this open world action game scores 85.6 from 449 analyzed reviews.

👍 Strengths

Gameplay ranks 96th of 1396. 91 reviews say the combat is tight, responsive and satisfying, with fluid stealth and action. 90 find it fun, and some enjoy the simple pleasure of taking down orcs in brutal ways. 87 praise the strategic depth of the nemesis system, where captains have weaknesses to exploit and missions can be approached in several ways. Visuals & Sound ranks 605th of 1249, and Tech & Support ranks 252nd of 1399.

👎 Where it falls short

78 reviews find the missions repetitive, with the same loop of running to a place and killing orcs, and some call collecting tedious. 46 feel the story falls short, simple and without much depth, and a few dislike the final boss fight. 19 have issues with difficulty, some finding it too easy and others hit by sudden spikes when several captains ambush at once. Story & World ranks 832nd of 1096, and Content Volume ranks 994th of 1351.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“very fun game with enjoyable combat and good ending” · 90 reviews
“frenetic gameplay with strategy, exploit Uruk weaknesses, dynamic nemesis system” · 87 reviews
“looks great, sounds great, exceptionally optimized, no bugs” · 46 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 73% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Strategy +3.58 · Depth of builds, tactics, and meaningful choices
Positive “frenetic gameplay with strategy, exploit Uruk weaknesses, dynamic nemesis system” · 87 reviews
Negative “derivative gameplay with little innovation beyond nemesis system” · 2 reviews

Progression 16% · Difficulty 18% · Onboarding 6% · Freedom 18% · Controls & feel 47%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 63% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

World +2.90 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “the scenery is gorgeous and immersive with two amazing worlds to explore” · 26 reviews
Negative “small world size limits immersion despite dense design” · 5 reviews

Story 51% · Characters 13%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 44% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

Variety -2.05 · Fresh content and situations versus repetition
Negative “some missions feel unnecessary due to repetitivity and battles anticlimactic” · 78 reviews
Positive “sequel vastly improves variety, systems, maps, and skill trees” · 2 reviews

Volume 22% · Replayability 6%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 34% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +3.00 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “looks great, sounds great, exceptionally optimized, no bugs” · 46 reviews
Negative “human character designs are unrealistic” · 3 reviews

Audio 14%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 2% of reviews mention this.

Playing together +3.18 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals

Community 0% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 13% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Balance -0.10 · Whether classes, weapons, and builds are evenly matched
Negative “multiple bosses gang up unfairly, breaking balance” · 6 reviews
Positive “Nemesis System introduces dynamic enemy interactions and memorable encounters” · 4 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Pricing 8% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 13% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Performance +0.19 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Positive “Steam Deck runs smooth on high settings 75-90 FPS” · 1 review
Negative “jogando a 20 fps e qualidade de micro-ondas” · 3 reviews

Stability 6% · Developer support 2%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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