Download Shadows of Mordor, The

I generally dislike text based games so I was not looking forward to writing this review, but once I played the game again (after so many years) I actually liked it.

When I played it the first time, Lord of the Rings was just some piece of fiction to me (haven't read it back then), but after reading the whole book (also The Hobbit and the Silmarillion), I had a whole new perspective.

There is no better way to stay true to the book then to make a text based adventure. All other games that have come out of the Lord of the Rings series recently are based on the movie, which is a poor attempt of putting a classic on to the silver screen.

Now first off I must warn you, YOU MUST SLOW DOWN YOUR COMPUTER to be able to play this game. I ran it in DosBox between 90 and 190 cycles and it worked just fine (go too fast and you'll have serious problems). If you encounter a blank screen at the beginning you should just press space. It helps if you put some music on (the game has none).

OK, now you're ready to play so here's the story:

You can be either Frodo or Sam. The game takes you into the latter part of the book where the fellowship has already split up and only Sam and Frodo are still going to Mordor to destroy the ring. They meet Smeagol on the way and use him as a guide. You will not actually get to destroy the ring, but you must get to the Dark Tower of Sauron. To do so you'll have to pass the dreaded Shelob, the spider who ate the light back in the days before people came to the middle Earth.

There are many ways to finish the game, one is described in the walkthrough, but be careful – it's an old one and needs some corrections (also don't get lost on the way).

For all Tolkien fans or simply fans of great sagas this game is a must have. You'll get the experience of actually being a part of the book. I give this game a 4.