Many people are in loving praise of this game, and with a very discounted price tag, it seems to be a AAA game that cannot be ignored. I am a huge fan of Middle earth, so I was rather excited to play this game and experience more of the world, and it started out decently entertaining, however it never pulled me in with a story, and the combat was not interesting whatsoever, so there really wasn't much point for me to continue. Ultimately, I only clocked in around 6 hours before I gave up. So lets get into the pros and cons of this game.
(Disclaimer: I received this game for free originally)
Pros:
Shadow of Mordor is a decent looking game. The graphics are not amazing by any means, but they are good enough to not be a distraction, and did not detract from the game in any way.
The upgrade system for weapons is rather well done, and encourages playing more to unlock stuff.
The biggest thing that this game is associated with: The Nemesis system. This game has received so much praise for it, and honestly it just feels like a little detail, but for a game with few details to begin with, this is certainly welcome, and gives a bit of depth to the enemies. Basically, the Orcs, if you die to them, get promoted/get stronger, etc, and remember you. At least, that is the obvious part of the system.
Cons:
The story is just so sub-par and un-engaging that I don't even remember what it was about. It seemed to shoehorn in the Book trilogies main characters, but in silly ways that didn't seem to make too much sense. It just had to little immersive content to it that it might as well not have been there at all.
The combat: this is IMO the biggest flaw with the game. The entire game is built around you swinging your sword at people, and it just isn't fun. There is not variety to it really, besides a few parry/dodge/finisher moves. The combat gets old, and then there is no reason to keep playing. That said, the stealth aspect is at least done decently, which is a nice change from most forced stealth mechanics in games.
Overall this game is so cheap that it is hard to not recommend it, however I just don't see any appeal to it. There is nothing in this game that you couldn't get (and better) from a different game. The only thing it had going for it was the world, and it never really used that to its advantage. Not worth the buy.
If you want a LOTR themed game, go play the MMO: LOTRO, or play the Minecraft mod, or play some random mod for some game.
If you want an open world where you have creative ways to kill people, try Just cause 3, or Metal Gear Solid: V.
If you want a more open ended game but with medieval like combat, try Dark souls or Bloodborne
If you want stealth, play Dishonored
If you want medieval fantasy open world with good sword combat and a light bow/crossbow mechanic in an established universe from a well known book series, play the Witcher 3.
Consider buying one of the above games instead.
Or, of course, if you want Shadow of Mordor, but with better graphics and crappy lootboxes, play the new sequel.