Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (for PC)

What's it All About?
Set about 80 years before The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Shadow of Mordor follows Talion and his quest for revenge after he and his family are killed by Sauron's dark forces. After a wraith's spirit resurrects and possesses him, the superpowered Talion wreaks havoc among the Sauron's orc army across the dreary plains of Mordor.
Tolkien buffs may delight in (or recoil from) this original yarn, depending on their predilection for references and cameos. It's no spoiler that Gollum is in the game. He shows up immediately to remind you that, yes, this is the world of Middle-Earth. Voice actor Liam O'Brien does a superb Andy Serkis impression, but his inclusion feels superfluous. The whole story does, in fact. It's well acted, and the dialogue is written in the parlance of Peter Jackson's movies, but the plot never becomes interesting, beyond its nods to The Silmarillion. I suppose that's the price for strict adherence to canon.

What Does It Do Well?
The animation is terrific. Talion beautifully runs, sneaks, and slices apart orc goons. Each orc and Uruk rival is rendered with visual details and personalities that set them apart. Some are scarred, some have hair, some are cowardly, some are brave. You can tell developer Monolith had a blast designing these nasty guys.
That enthusiasm extends to the Nemesis System, the game's best and most interesting feature. Under the Nemesis system, you build, well, nemeses as you off orc captains and warchiefs. Little emergent scenarios play out in which an orc you've previously defeated returns with a new injury or deformity, then comments on the last battle you had together.
For example, if you burned the poor sucker, he will show up with scars the next time and whine about your talent for resurrection. You also cause other orcs to ascend through the ranks of the dark hierarchy and gain power. Orcs also become stronger when they defeat you in battle. When you respawn and reunite with your killer, it remembers you. It's a neat detail that offers some variety in what might be otherwise run-of-the-mill orc interactions.
Then There's Everything Else
The problem is that, in a weird way, the Nemesis System encourages you to play poorly. You rarely get to see it action unless you die in battle. And it becomes tiresome. Every time orcs show up, an unskippable bit of dialogue plays to signal their entrance. If three or four orcs show up, that's a lot of interrupting and waiting as they each say their piece. Battles start to take on a ridiculous WWE quality, full of taunting and posturing before finally getting down to business. A simple skip button would help things a lot here.
Then there's the combat. You punch berserkers and leap over orc shields to set up slashing attacks. Once that happens, every battle can be won the same way by mashing the attack, dodge, and punch buttons until everyone's dead. Battle isn't difficult, it's just time consuming. You can rack up the hit counter to trigger execution attacks to speed things up slightly, but otherwise there's a lot of rinse and repeat combat with little-to-no timing or strategy involved. Just mash away.