Few games have had as lasting an impact on the overarching gaming space through one mechanic alone as the Nemesis system presented in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Shadow of War.

First released in 2014, it's hard to believe such innovation has been stuck locked away for over a decade since Monolith Productions, its original developers, closed their doors, leaving the Nemesis system locked behind them thanks to Warner Bros.' patent, but Aspyr, following their recent port for Lord of the Rings: War in the North, have brought back arguably one of the most celebrated Tolkien-esque games to Switch 2, either sold separately, or together with its sequel as part of the Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle.

Playing as the Ranger Talion after his death and subsequent resurrection between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the story of Shadow of Mordor is much more intrinsically linked to the legendary stories than one might realise if they hadn't seen it before, introducing the elven wraith Celebrimbor and his importance in relation to the rings of power.

Shadow of Mordor’s story revolves around Talion's desire for revenge for the death of his family (and himself), while also gradually revealing Celebrimbor's history and his connection to the forces Talion is fighting against. It's a relatively focused tale that fits neatly into Tolkien's wider universe without attempting to retell the stories we already know.

The game takes place across an open-world version of Mordor, and while the scale may feel relatively small compared to many modern open-world games, playing it in 2026 is somewhat refreshing thanks to a world where tasks are closer together and collectibles and upgrades take less time to find. There is enough to explore without the game feeling like it’s constantly trying to distract you in comparison to games with much larger (often emptier) maps.

Combat is free-flowing, allowing Talion to attack and defeat numerous enemies at once, building a combo meter to perform finishers in a system not dissimilar from the Batman Arkham games. While the combat itself isn't necessarily revolutionary, by today's standards it remains satisfying even after all these years. The real draw of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, however, remains the Nemesis system, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it still holds up incredibly well over a decade later.

The system allows you to track procedurally generated Orc and Uruk-hai enemies that have performed noteworthy tasks like killing Talion in combat, promoting them to Captains that have increased strength as well as weaknesses that you can exploit to exact revenge, gaining additional experience for the trouble. This system was (and still is) celebrated for making every playthrough of the game feel different, as Captains gain names, titles, different appearances, rivalries with other Uruk and all sorts of characteristics that make what were otherwise generic enemies truly unique.

More importantly, these enemies aren't simply obstacles that exist to be defeated. A Captain that kills you can return stronger, while one that flees from battle can become a recurring nuisance. These emergent stories create moments that feel personal despite being generated by the game's systems. If nothing else, Shadow of Mordor comes recommended to any newcomers purely to experience this system and pine for it in other games just like the rest of us still waiting for 2036 when the patent held by Warner Bros. finally expires!

While this Game of the Year version adds all of the previously available DLC, including the Bright Lord campaign that has you take control of Celebrimbor without Talion, ultimately this is still the same game it was in 2014, so the most defining factors for it on the console are how well it runs in both handheld and docked mode, and how well Aspyr has brought it forward.

Despite how much stronger the Switch 2 is than the PS4 and Xbox One, which Shadow of Mordor first released on, sadly the game is still locked to 30fps and a max resolution of 1080p just like its original forms, regardless of whether playing in handheld or docked mode, which some may find particularly disappointing given that the PC version was capable of more even 10 years ago (and the fact the Steam Deck can run it at 60fps as a result). What you're getting with the Switch 2 version definitely FEELS like the original, warts and all.

In handheld mode, aliasing felt particularly apparent and slightly jarring, as with better optimisation, this wouldn't have been nearly as big an issue. However, the experience of playing Shadow of Mordor in a handheld form at all came as a pleasant surprise, as it works incredibly well as a pick-up-and-put-down style of game. Spending a short while hunting down Uruk, completing a few missions or tracking a particular Captain and then coming back to it later just works. It's just a shame that Aspyr didn't maximise the Switch 2's hardware to iron out the performance issues when other handhelds are capable with less powerful parts.

Ultimately, though, it's difficult to deny just how well Shadow of Mordor's core design has aged. The Nemesis system gives the entire experience a sense of unpredictability that few games have managed to replicate. More than a decade later, it remains the reason to play Shadow of Mordor, and the reason it's so frustrating that we haven't seen another game truly build upon the same idea.