History YMMV / MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor

* DisappointingLastLevel: The finale of the game is seen as a letdown by some. The entire game is building up (post-branding) to creating an army to challenge Sauron out of Uruks that you've branded. When you go off to the final battles, you only have the five war chiefs you branded and ''maybe'' a handful of other orcs.

* MoralEventHorizon: Even with his limited screen time, Sauron shows he's still a monster when he took Celebrimbor prisoner [[spoiler: after getting the One Ring back from him]]. Rather than killing him right away, he killed his family right in front of him, before beating him to death and turning him into a Wraith, forced to stay in the world and never move on.

* PortingDisaster: The [=PS3=] and 360 versions have a much simplified nemesis system and, especially on the [=PS3=], serious frame rate problems. The last-gen versions are also plagued by long load times. The [=PS3=] version even has a serious bug where sounds will just start skipping non-stop until the system is restarted. [[https://youtu.be/QLFRQNaoguY?t=25m9s It cannot be overstated how bad the sound and visuals are compared to their later-gen equivalents.]]

** The best example of "ThatOneBoss" is an Uruk that somehow ends up immune to melee, ranged, and stealth. Not resistant to, ''immune''. By this limitation they're weak to only one thing for sure: Fire. This is a problem because fire is the one thing the player does not have access to at any time, and is limited to shooting exploding targets such as campfires.

** People generally seem to consider [[spoiler:Celebrimbor]] a good guy, but is he really? Let's see... [[spoiler:He wants to use Sauron's own strength against him, like Boromir tried and Galadriel warned against and build an army of orcs, like Saruman. He calls himself the Silver hand, echoing the White Hand. Even the branding of the orcs with the hand print on the face like the film. He enslaves them with mind control, much like Sauron himself. He even echoes Galadriel with "all shall fear me and rejoice". Not only that, he lies to Talion about his true goals and his amnesia. The Ithildin wall is Celebrimbor's declaration of himself as the Bright Lord of Mordor, one of the lines Celebrimbor says at the beginning of the game. Meaning he may know who he is right from the start. Makes you wonder about making that new magic ring. Celebrimbor keeps Talion away from others to the point Talion can't remember his family. By the end, Talion and Celibrimor have one goal. The most visual sign of Celibrimor's mind control is that eyes turn light blue.]] Bottom line? [[spoiler:Celebrimbor]] is a WellIntentionedExtremist at best and an outright VillainProtagonist at worst, and this game is ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' in fantasy land. You think you're playing a hero.... The ''Bright Lord'' DLC effectively confirms this, when it shows the opening cinematics of the game (When Talion is being executed), the Wraith's lasts words as he watches Talion's face are [[spoiler:''"All shall fear me and rejoice."'']]

* CompleteMonster: Here and in [[VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar the sequel]], [[EvilOverlord The Dark Lord Sauron]] leads campaigns of terror and brutality that kill countless innocent beings, beginning in the Second Age when he personally murdered Celebrimbor after murdering the Elf Lord's wife and daughter. Ingratiating himself to great kings of men, Sauron also presented them with [[RingOfPower rings of power]] that slowly [[TheCorrupter corrupted and destroyed them]], making them his undead slaves, the Nazgul. In present, Sauron, in the guise of the Black Hand, murders the ranger [[PlayerCharacter Talion]] and his family to enslave the soul of Celebrimbor, which backfires when the wraith [[FusionDance fuses with Talion]]. Sauron sends his forces to slaughter the population of Gondor, conquering the city of Minas Ithil before intending to move on to all of Middle-earth until everything that lives is destroyed or kneels before him as his slave.

** Using Lithariel as a skin for Talion becomes ridiculous as the skin has ''no dialogue changes''. It becomes impossible to take the Uruks seriously when they use "Ranger" or the male pronoun after spotting Lithariel, since Lithariel is neither. Taken UpToEleven in the main quest where [[spoiler: Talion has to escort her. Yes, the player can have Lithariel escorting herself, and the dialogue played is still between Talion and Lithariel.]]

*** The frustration goes UpToEleven if you encountered such Uruks ''before'' Talion learns Branding.[[note]]As Uruks ''never'' gain immunity to attacks from other Uruks, it is relatively easy to brand Uruks during fights against tough Captains and set them against the Captains. For Warchiefs, sending several Branded Captains as his bodyguards is an easy way of killing them. Usually, the only question is how many Branded Captains said Warchief can kill before dying.[[/note]]

** Bonus objectives for ''Test of Defiance'' (required for the Elite Leaderboard). Unlike the Bonus objectives for other Elite Leaderboards, Lithariel cannot Brand/Dominate enemies ''at all'' and can ''only'' pick up Elf-Shots (and not obtain them from Brands or Drains). Also, she must finish the Test with ''no'' Warchiefs left in power (bonus objective) and she must kill ''six'' Warchiefs (mandatory). [[note]]The maximum number of Warchiefs at any one time is five.[[/note]]

* UncannyValley: If you get used to Talion's character model from the sequel, his model in this game can look pretty weird. While the two models look similar, they aren't an exact match, resulting in some degree of this trope.

* FoeYay: Some of the Uruk Captains get a bit...flirty with Talion.
-->"Stay close, my sweet. Let me feel your breath on me."

* GuideDangIt: The game doesn't inform you on certain ways you can manipulate the Nemesis system.
** Firstly, it doesn't explicitly inform you that ''no'' Uruk is immune to damage from other Uruks. This makes killing any tough Uruk who may be immune to anything Talion throws at him a piece of cake once Talion has branded enough Uruks in said Uruk's vicinity. Warchiefs in particular become sitting ducks once Talion promotes enough Branded Captains to his side.
** Once the second half of the game is unlocked, Talion can manipulate Power Struggle missions by switching between regions (which resets all three missions in the region when he returns). If there are less than three Power Struggle missions in the region, he can also use Fast Travel to a Forge Tower to force missions to spawn.
** While the game reminds the player that issuing a Death Threat to a Warchief will significantly increase the chance of said Warchief dropping an Epic rune upon death, the game doesn't inform the player that the player ''must land the killing blow on said Warchief'' for said increase in chance to occur.

** One ability allows the player to instantly ride a beast with a shadow arrow attack. Even Horned Graugs. Do it multiple times, and you'll have a small army of beasts following you, ready to attack all enemies in sight.

** Tolkien had never been satisfied with his orcs being AlwaysChaoticEvil. He had intended to rectify this, but [[AuthorExistenceFailure died before he could make any major changes]]. Then ''Shadow of Mordor'' came along and revealed that, while orcs were certainly evil, their society was incredibly complex and nuanced.

* MagnificentBastard: The Wraith's true identity, [[spoiler: Celebrimbor, the Bright Lord, is the one who forged the lesser Rings of Power and helped Sauron finish the One Ring, before realizing Sauron's true nature. Briefly overcoming Sauron and losing only thanks to the wiles of the Ring itself, Celebrimbor returns as The Wraith in the present, manipulating the revived ranger Talion into slowly taking over parts of Mordor and establishing the kingdom of the Bright Lord, crushing the wills of the uruks to serve him to steadily supplant Sauron himself.]]

* MagnificentBastard: Celebrimbor, the Bright Lord, is the one who forged the One Ring for Sauron, before realizing Sauron's true nature. Briefly overcoming Sauron and losing thanks to the wiles of the Ring itself, Celebrimbor returns as The Wraith in the present, manipulating the revived ranger Talion into slowly taking over parts of Mordor and establishing the kingdom of the Bright Lord, crushing the wills of the uruks to serve him to steadily supplant Sauron himself. Finally raising an army to challenge Sauron, Celebrimbor promptly abandons Talion for a host he believes to be stronger and even shows himself capable of challenging Sauron in a duel.

* MemeticMutation: "MAN-FILTH!" or "MAN-SWINE!" outta nowhere. A reference to how Uruk captains generally announce themselves before attacking you.

** The UnfortunateNames of certain Nemesis Uruks make them impossible to take seriously.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
** Due to how the Nemesis system works as well as how Captains operate in the world, it's entirely possible for an inexperienced player to get into a rut where they simply cannot progress because the Captains are too hard to kill. Add into the fact that being killed by a Captain makes them stronger and getting into a fight in a really bad spot can lead to ''about 4 Captains turning up to the fight'', who all get extra Power simply for surviving the CurbStompBattle against you... If this happens before the early missions against the Warchiefs, the player can easily be stuck after the eighth or so mission. At this stage, Talion probably has not learnt Branding yet, and thus do not have access to one of his most powerful abilities.
** The ''Trial of Defiance'' can be this if the player messes up the kill order of Captains and Warchiefs so that they don't have enough Captain or Warchief kills to complete the trial. [[note]]For this trial, the player must kill ''six'' Warchiefs while the maximum number of Warchiefs at any one time is five. Also, one bonus objective is that the Test must be finished with ''no'' Warchiefs left in power.[[/note]]

* UnwinnableByMistake: Due to how the Nemesis system works as well as how Captains operate in the world, it's entirely possible for an inexperienced player to get into a rut where they simply cannot progress because the Captains are too hard to kill. Add into the fact that being killed by a Captain makes them stronger and getting into a fight in a really bad spot can lead to ''about 4 Captains turning up to the fight'', who all get extra Power simply for surviving the CurbStompBattle against you... If this happens before the early missions against the Warchiefs, the player can easily be stuck after the eighth or so mission. At this stage, Talion probably has not learnt Branding yet, and thus do not have access to one of his most powerful abilities.
** The ''Trial of Defiance'' can be this if the player messes up the kill order of Captains and Warchiefs so that they don't have enough Captain or Warchief kills to complete the trial. [[note]]For this trial, the player must kill ''six'' Warchiefs while the maximum number of Warchiefs at any one time is five. Also, one bonus objective is that the Test must be finished with ''no'' Warchiefs left in power.[[/note]]

* CompleteMonster: Here and in [[VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar the sequel]], [[Characters/TheLordOfTheRingsSauron The Dark Lord Sauron]] leads campaigns of terror and brutality that kill countless innocent beings, beginning in the Second Age when he personally murdered Celebrimbor after murdering the Elf Lord's wife and daughter. Ingratiating himself to great kings of men, Sauron also presented them with [[RingOfPower rings of power]] that slowly [[TheCorrupter corrupted and destroyed them]], making them his undead slaves, the Nazgul. In present, Sauron, in the guise of the Black Hand, murders the ranger [[PlayerCharacter Talion]] and his family to enslave the soul of Celebrimbor, which backfires when the wraith [[FusionDance fuses with Talion]]. Sauron sends his forces to slaughter the population of Gondor, conquering the city of Minas Ithil before intending to move on to all of Middle-earth until everything that lives is destroyed or kneels before him as his slave.