History VideoGame / MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor

** Played straight in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 versions of the game, which feature lengthy (around 10 to 15 seconds) blank loading screens every time the player closes the map or the pause menu, when they go into the Nemesis system, etc. This is probably due to the game taking longer to load the environments than it would in a more powerful hardware.

* AintTooProudToBeg: Sometimes, when you're about to finish off a Captain, he may beg for his dear life before Talion tries to deliver the coup de grâce. On the other hand, other captains will simply [[DefiantToTheEnd verbally flip Talion off]].

** Virtually every Uruk in Mordor, judging by how many of their conversations center around grog.

** No matter how many Orcs and Captains are attacking, starting a mission will make them vanish. This cuts both ways, though. Want to bring that Graug you tamed into a mission? Tough luck.
** Dominating a captain will make them vanish into thin air and reappear elsewhere on the map. Which is helpful when you are surrounded by hostile orcs so your freshly acquired Captain does not end up getting lynched immediately.

* AscendedExtra: Ratbag originally started out as simply one of the possible generated orcs in the initial demo of the game for the purposes of highlighting the Nemesis system. In the game proper, he's been promoted to an actual story character.

--> Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!

* BodyguardingABadass: The Warchief's bodyguards.

** Some of the orcs are ''really'' ugly. Some are so lumpy, their bodies look entirely cancerous.
** Orcs that aren't beheaded may return again - with increasingly gruesome wounds.
** Burned orcs will be covered in bandages. And if they're seriously wounded, they'll actually appear with bags over their heads. The descriptions may even mention that their face is scarred, making it painful to eat.
** The ones that survive a headshot will sport a metal plate which has been grafted into their skull.
** For a non-orc example, the Tower's armor appears to be fused to his body, the straps and buckles going under his skin in spots. The skin and lips around his mouth have also been removed, so his teeth and gums are always showing.

* BowAndSwordInAccord: In addition to a dagger consisting of the broken sword hilt of his son's sword.

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: The wraith is capable of brainwashing Uruks, graugs and caragors into his service.

** Any Captain who survives a fatal blow from Talion will come back stronger than before. If he exploited one of their weaknesses, like a vulnerability to ranged or stealth attacks, they'll have become immune to it.

* TheChessmaster: One way for Talion to handle the Warchiefs and encouraged by gameplay.

** Every Uruk in the game has the potential to be this. If a random foot-soldier manages to kill you, he'll get a promotion to Captain and his name will be revealed. It's possible for him to eventually become a Warchief.

** Ratbag will tell [[spoiler:the Hammer of Sauron that he's the only warchief left alive. In reality, Talion only has to kill four of the five warchiefs, including the one needed for Ratbag to ascend in rank; the last one is, in gameplay terms, a BonusBoss.]]

-->'''The Wraith:''' "Nan iChir Gelair Mordor."
-->'''Translation:''' [[spoiler: I am the Bright Lord of Mordor.]]

* HopelessBossFight: similarly to the above, [[spoiler: the final battle with Sauron in the ''Bright Lord'' DLC is truthfully this. You can fight as hard as you want and "can" defeat the Dark Lord to complete the game, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation but Celebrimbor will still lose in the end]]]].

* RatedMForManly: Especially in comparison to other adaptations of Tolkien's work.

** Talion's efforts don't do anything to halt Sauron's overall plans; just slow them down. Being an AlternateTimeline doesn't change the fact that The One Ring is still in the hands of Bilbo Baggins, and Sauron's alliance with Saruman continues unhindered.
** In addition, the Wraith's idea of using the enemy's weapons against him is also doomed to failure, since Tolkien made it explicit that [[spoiler:any attempts to wield Sauron's power would just result in another Sauron, literally.]] This forms one of the main themes of the sequel, showing that [[spoiler:the wraith isn't so different from Sauron himself.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: After finally becoming a Warchief, [[spoiler:Ratbag gets his face bashed in by the Hammer's mace]].

* EarlyGameHell: The game, after the tutorial cutscenes, quickly drops you in the middle of Mordor and you will likely start encountering captains, who can kill you quickly, very soon. Even a mob of enemies can be troublesome. Once you start unlocking more powers, though, the game gets much more manageable.

* EmergentNarrative: The Nemesis system dynamically populates and shuffles the orcish social hierarchy based on Talion's actions. Each orc is procedurally generated with random personality and appearance traits, remembers and references previous encounters with Talion, and gains further abilities and individuation (like [[RedBaron nicknames]]) as he climbs the ladder, ''especially'' if he manages to kill [[ResurrectiveImmortality Talion]]. Later in the game, Talion learns to brainwash orcs and then subtly orchestrate their rise to power from the shadows, producing highly memorable FromNobodyToNightmare narratives.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: One warchief sentenced Ratbag to death for killing one of his bodyguards... who happened to be his twin brother.
* EvilIsNotAToy: The Wraith tried to use the [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] against Sauron. [[spoiler: This ends with the ring returning to its master.]]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: It's not immediately obvious, but the game takes place over the course of three days, at most. This becomes more obvious compared to the sequel, especially since it's revealed over time an Uruk ''can'' shrug off Talion's Branding.

* FacePalmOfDoom: The wraith's Branding involves placing his hand on the side of his target's face.
* FamedInStory: Talion becomes this as his legend spreads throughout Mordor.

* FightingAShadow: Talion is the incarnation of this trope.

* FlashStep: Can be learned and used as a combat technique to teleport to and knock down an opponent. It can later be upgraded to a lethal version. Yet another upgrade allows Talion to chain these together indefinitely (or at least until the energy meter runs out).

** Some orc captains and warchiefs are so foul that they're constantly surrounded by a swarm of flies.
** The Morgai Flies that inhabit Mordor are a ubiquitous example, as they breed voraciously in the unburied carrion that litters the landscape. Each one has an orange patch on its fuzzy abdomen that resembles the Eye of Sauron, and they are said to be extensions of his dark spirit.

* AllForNothing: ''[[VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar Shadow of War]]'' retroactively makes the ''Lord Of The Hunt'' DLC into this. Torvin has Talion kill all the Beastmaster Warchiefs to stop the Uruks from taming Caragaths, because their stealthiness and mobility (increased speed and climbing ability compared to Caragors) would make them powerful tools for Sauron's armies. But in the sequel, not only are Beastmaster Captains common, but the Caragors in that game have the stealth abilities of the Caragaths in this one, implying that the Orcs were able to integrate the Caragaths into their forces, rendering everything Talion did to prevent it moot.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Graugs (full name Olog Graugs, with Olog being the BlackSpeech word for troll) are massive, lumbering beasts found in Mordor's wilderness who have a terrible temper and are prone to eating people, including other trolls and especially Uruks. They have variants of their own (including one who can projectile vomit as a form of combat in the DownloadableContent), and are cross-bred with Hill Trolls by Sauron to create sun-resistant Olog-hai. You learn to ride them late in the game, and they [[TakenForGranite turn into stone]] before [[LiterallyShatteredLives crumbling into dust]] when they die.
* AnnoyingArrows: Averted for both Talion and the orcs -- archers and spear-throwers will be the bane of early-game Talion's existence, due to interrupting the combat multiplier and doing a fair amount of damage. Played straight, however, for orc bosses that are Immune to Projectiles, where shooting them directly won't damage them at all.

** Dominating a captain will make them vanish into thin air and reapper elsewhere on the map. Which is helpful when you are surrounded by hostile orcs so your freshly acquired Captain does not end up getting lynched immediately.

* TheAlcoholic: Virtually every Uruk in Mordor, judging by how many of their conversations center around grog.

* ArtificialStupidity: The Orcs can be ''completely'' inattentive to the fact that the guy not 3 feet away is getting stabbed to death by Talion.
** Or having their throat ripped out by a giant cat-monster in the ''Lord of the Hunt'' DLC.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Orcs can advance through Mordor society by killing Talion or even their fellow orcs.

* BackFromTheDead[=/=]ResurrectiveImmortality: Talion's bond with the Wraith prevents him from permanently dying. Not only is this the reason for Talion's survival, but it also means that DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist.
** Talion doesn't take it too well, since he is a DeathSeeker who wants to join his dead wife and son.
** There's a chance Captains may survive a fatal injury like a headshot, or being set on fire. If they do, they come back with some new scars.

* BladeLock: This is one of the ways captains can greet you.
** Can double as an OhCrap moment, as this happens most often when you're cutting through a random pack of orcs when, suddenly, one blocks you, introduces himself, and tells you to SayYourPrayers.
** If you have certain abilities and are able to perform multiple executions in a row as long as your meter is full, it can be fairly irritating to find a captain, activate your meter, and start merrily hacking away, only to have him lock blades with you, deliver his quote, and then move away from you... all while the meter drains.

* BossInMooksClothing: Depending on how much power and support an Uruk has, a "mere" captain can prove a greater challenge than a warchief or a story boss.
** Some of the captains even look very much like ordinary Uruks if one isn't paying close attention or checking for them in the wraith world. Seeing "Combat Master" or "Invulnerable to Stealth" unexpectedly can be quite the OhCrap moment.

* CameBackStrong: Talion is killed at the start of the story, then revived after he becomes bound to the spirit of a dead elf lord, gaining wraith powers.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Ratbag invokes this by volunteering to help Talion get to the Black Hand. [[spoiler: It doesn't end well for him.]]

* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:One of the final bosses is your nemesis; the game tracks your victories and defeats, and chooses the one Uruk who either had the best chance of putting you down, or the one who hates you the most.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Talion gets in a few snarks every so often. Particularly pronounced with his interactions with Ratbag.

* DirtyCoward: Uruks with titles like "The Coward", "The Fearful", "Who Flees", etc. have numerous [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes fears]] and will retreat at the drop of a hat.

* FixFic[=/=]ExternalRetcon: An infamous alleged PlotHole in ''Lord of the Rings'' (more of an AdaptationInducedPlotHole for the movies due to certain changes and stuff being left out) is "why not just ride the eagles to Mt. Doom and air-drop the One Ring there?" The Appendix entry on Hell-Hawks says that the creatures attack eagles on sight; rather like crows instinctively attacking owls.

* HeroicSecondWind: When Talion's hit points fall to zero, if the blow that did so was not an explosion, he will fall to his knees and one of his enemies will have a chance to finish him off. If nobody takes the chance after a while, or if you succeed at a QuickTimeEvent, Talion will get back to his feet and recover some of his HP. Subverted in that Captains and Warchiefs also have the ability to do this: if you don't finish them off with an execution, you will have to succeed at a QuickTimeEvent after their HP falls to zero in order to kill them.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The whole game has this value. The methods the wraith uses, through Talion, would, under most circumstances, be considered excessively cruel and morally repugnant (e.g. brainwashing, torture, brutality, deceit) -- Talion starts out reluctant to wield these powers, but, over time, this aspect disappears and starts flying in the face of Tolkien's core values. Watching Talion's humanity deteriorate as he embraces his enemies' character can help illustrate Tolkien's main points... but also, the one ''truly' embracing the powers and nudging Talion to use them is [[spoiler:the wraith, as he formerly tried to use the One Ring against Sauron and failed, resulting in his death]].

-->'''Uruk Captain''': If I kill the monster, do I become the monster? Oh, I do hope so!

* KlingonPromotion: If an orc that kills Talion is not part of the current hierarchy, he will (attempt to) kill one of the captains to claim their place.

* KungFuProofMook: Any of the randomly generated Captains or Warchiefs may be immune to one of Talion's usual attack types.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Talion's marriage to Ioreth made her father Hallas extremely unhappy due to the fact that he was not of Numenorean blood like she was, even though he saved her from assault by a Minas Tirith nobleman. He did save Talion's life by commuting his death sentence and giving him a position on the Black Gate, though.
** Hirgon and Eryn have the reverse situation, in which a "pure-blooded" Gondorian fell in love with an outcast woman.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: All the slaves seen in gameplay are men. While Uruks periodically talk about capturing and gutting "She-slaves" none are actually seen by the player. And the only "She-slave" that we see is a named character that gets rescued during an early story mission, so it's possible they were referring to her.
** In addition. Uruks are an all-male species and are treated this way by their Warchiefs, the Black Captains, [[spoiler: and eventually Talion himself]].

** When escaping from the Graug lair during one of Gollum's missions, the wraith says "Fly, you fool!" to tell Talion to escape.
*** One of the achievements is also named after the iconic quote, as it involves dropping Morgai Fly hives on Uruks to make them disperse.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Used in one of the Warchief death quotes.
-->'''Warchief''': You think you're different from us? You enjoy the kill no less! You're just another monster. A murderer!

* PuzzleBoss: [[spoiler: The Hammer is invulnerable to everything but a combat finishing move, meaning you have to attack his [[FlunkyBoss Uruk bodyguards]] til you get a multiplier high enough to do one on him.]]