Last-gen Revisited: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

If this analyis from Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry is to be believed, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor’s PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are a disaster the likes of which we have rarely seen in the age of multiplatform game development. We knew the game had to pared back to accommodate weaker hardware, but it doesn’t look like this was enough, and especially the PlayStation 3 seem to have suffered terribly:

Patched to version 1.01, the results on PS3 are particularly shocking, and the worst we’ve seen on the console in recent memory. The crux of it is that entire passages of play unfold at 10-20fps, even while exploring Mordor’s wastelands without a marauding Uruk in sight. Frame-rates are better on Xbox 360 by a regular 5fps margin, but both suffer from horrendous screen-tear, operating at a Vita-esque resolution of 960×540 to boot.

Each suffers from newly added bugs too, to an extent unseen on other cross-gen projects. Texture and shadow maps pop in (and out) while stood perfectly still, banding artefacts manifest across strong lighting, and Uruk generals even glitch to mid-air positions during battle (notably after Talion performs a vaulting move over an enemy’s shoulders). Titles like Far Cry 4 understandably dial down textures, geometry and effects for last-gen editions – as is the case here – but it’s clear that the last-gen versions could have benefited from a much more intensive QA parse.

I can’t possibly imagine playing a title at a consistent 10-20 fps for longer than a couple of minutes. My condolences to anyone who bought either the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 version of the game.