As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Story
- Ratbag's ascension to Warchief from no-name grunt. It is anything but an Awesome Moment of Crowning for him... but Talion, however, is another story, considering he managed to get a pathetic weakling to the top by slaughtering several captains and then personally killing four orc warchiefs IN THEIR OWN FORTS, sometimes while mowing down several troops to taunt them out of hiding, and other times taking down the warchiefs WHILE fighting off their hordes. He then follows this by killing the Hammer of Sauron right after.
- Destroying the statue of Sauron is this for the Outcasts. They may be driven out of their land and many of them enslaved, but their escape is accompanied by a symbolic strike which shows they are not helpless in the face of evil.
- Then, directly after The Hammer kills Ratbag-Hammer of Sauron: Now, bring me the head of this Gravewalker!
- Then, directly after The Hammer kills Ratbag-
- This exchange:The Tower of Sauron: Bow to me, and I will deliver you to the Dark Lord unspoilt.Celebrimbor: We bow to no one.Talion: (deadly serious) Stand up, and fight!
- Talion's victory over the Black Hand is this. Doubly so if it's actually Sauron in disguise. Talion may not be able to defeat Sauron himself but he's ground the Dark Lord's progress through Mordor to a halt. He's destroyed three of his high-level lieutenants and sewn massive chaos through the orcish ranks. While it may/may not stop Sauron's overall plans for the foreseeable future, it is enough for the ethnic inhabitants of Mordor to flee to safety. Note that he did this with only the Wraith and his mind control powers at his side.
- Discovering that the Wraith stole the newly-created One Ring from Sauron's tongs, right in front of him. The sheer mithril balls on that elf.
- The Bright Lord DLC, set before the main game, has several given that it involves the Wraith - armed with The One Ring itself - challenging the Big Bad:
- The final fight itself. First, Sauron doesn't seem particularly difficult, seeing as he doesn't do a lot of damage and you've got five warchiefs fighting with you. Then he cancels your brainwashing and you're left with five pissed off Warchiefs to fight at the same time. Then he comes back, THEN he resurrects the warchiefs you just killed and he might do it a few more times. He's not called The Necromancer for nothing.
- The Bright Lord bringing his branded Warchiefs to meet Sauron's challenge culminates in the Dark Lord himself emerging in his black knight form, tall as a tree and menacing as hell itself. And his Elven opponent feels no fear biting back at him.
Sauron: You will give me what is mine, Celebrimbor!Celebrimbor: You have no claim, Deceiver! I AM THE TRUE LORD OF THE RINGS!- The mere fact that this is a legitimate fight against Sauron, and not just a Cutscene Boss quickly brought down by a few Quick Time Events. Long before the sequel came along, this game is the first to allow you, the player, to give Sauron a legitimate ass-kicking (even if it's ultimately does end in the Wraith's death and becoming undead).
- The final cutscene definitely serves as one of these.Celebrimbor: Finally, all will fear me and rejoice.
Gameplay
- The Nemesis System itself can be considered one for Monolith Productions. The sheer amount of artistic design alone to make each Captain look somewhat unique and have a logical title was probably enormous. And yet not only did they pull that off...
- The nemesis system allows for plenty of moments of unbridled awesomeness, not just for yourself when finally taking down captains who've been giving you trouble (or even when it's too easy), but also those for the orcs themselves. note With the proper setup and planning, and perhaps a little random luck, you can kill three captains in as many minutes, then go and claim your runes when you're done. This game gives you the power to create your own awesomeness at will, if you know to use it.
- Related to the above: any moment you succeed in clearing the entire orcish chain of command in any given area, from warchiefs to the lowest captains. Sure, they can repopulate the hierarchy over time, but you've essentially proven that, no matter what happens, you can easily wipe them out again... and again... and again...
- Even better if you start with every spot on the board being occupied and empty it without time advancing. This essentially means that you can start at sunrise and hunt down every captain and warchief in an area before sunset, or doing the same in the span of a single night without being killed once. Once you pull this off, you prove that nothing the Orks can do will be able to stop Talion.
- Any time you go hunting for a particular leader, in fact. Once you get properly leveled and get the hang of the combat system, it's entirely possible to waltz into a fort, kill so many orcs that you'd be standing atop a pile of corpses (if they didn't fade away), kill or brainwash every captain in the area, and leave without getting taken down once, proving just why the orcs fear you. It gets even funnier if you're hunting for a captain with a weakness to archery and pull an Indiana Jones while he's charging at you.
- Freeing captured slaves from a band of orcs, especially if the orcs number into double-digits, without dying.
- Becomes a Heartwarming Moment and awesome if you manage to free them all.
- The final slave rescuing side-mission is one big trap, but Talion goes in to rescue the hostages anyway. This inspires the slaves to rebel, break their bonds, and fight back; it's part of the mission quest and you end up defeating an entire army with the help of the slaves.
- When you finally obtain the ability to ride a graug. Nothin' like rampaging through dozens of Uruks on the back of the Rancor's big brother!
- Brutalize kills. The fact that it sends even the bloodthirsty Uruks to flee in fear is enough to speak of Talion's badassery.
- Forging the complete weapon legends of Urfael, Azkar, and Acharn is nothing short of absolutely satisfying. These are the legendary weapons of the Gravewalker that accomplished incredible unnatural feats and struck fear into the hearts of Orcs/Uruks all over Mordor. Considering the ending, they might as well be on the level of Narsil itself.
- The orcs talk about Captains and grunts who killed the Gravewalker with a kind of reverent awe - to them, killing you makes them folk-heroes. Too bad you're probably going to hunt them down like a horror movie villain returning to kill the protagonist of the previous movie.
- If you happen to be in an area populated with several captains, practically any battle can turn into an Escalating Brawl. Talion attacks a small band of orcs? They die. A nearby Captain intervenes? He dies too. As the melee progresses, several more Captains join the battle? They die too.
