Shadow of Mordor: A visual tour of stabbing orcs in the face

And other horrible crimes

Mordor may not have the most picturesque landscapes in Middle-earth, but that hasn’t stopped Monolith from kitting out its new action game with a photo mode.

The addition allows you to take dramatic shots of Talion stabbing Uruk-Hai in the face. Also, the gut. And whatever other body parts folks may want to hack at or lop off. It’s not like there’s a lot else to do in Shadow of Mordor, you know. So, uh, get cracking. Some skulls, I mean.

I certainly did, as evinced by this gruesome gallery, cataloging some of the ultraviolent acts one can inflict upon the denizens of Mordor. The feature allows you to get pretty up close and personal, too. It really made me appreciate how detailed the game’s visuals are, as I panned around my victims’ soon-to-be corpses, admiring the fletchings on their arrows and recoiling at the horrified looks on some of these orcs’ faces in their final moments of existence. Harrowing stuff.

An attempt was made to lighten things up a bit by taking some cheerful stills of Talion picking flowers, but the danged things just vanish into thin air when you activate the photo mode. Seems like Monolith wants folks to focus on beheading dudes. Which is fine, I guess. A bit bleak, but fine.

Okay, I showed you mine. Now show me yours.