 Reception of the game 's storyline was mixed . Although Shoemaker and Sliwinski praised its " dark " tone , Shoemaker found some story elements ( such as Gollum 's introduction ) forced and designed to appeal to a particular audience . According to Game Informer 's Matt Miller , Shadow of Mordor fails to successfully tie together all of its various plot threads in the game 's conclusion . Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot also found the storyline erratic , dragged down by anti @-@ climactic fights and scenes . Dan Stapleton of IGN wrote that the story introduced memorable characters but would not make sense to fans of the series , and his interest in the game waned towards its end . Destructoid 's Chris Carter was disappointed in a plot he considered generic ( " Go here , kill this , draw out this big bad , then kill him for your family " ) ; the game failed to add anything new to the universe , and its side missions were more interesting than the main campaign . 
