10 Awesome Video Games That Fail In The 3rd Act

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a mostly excellent game built around its ground-breaking Nemesis System, whereby the Uruk hierarchy will react to its encounters with you.

Uruks who defeat you will be promoted through the ranks, while those who survive fighting you will remember the prior clash.

But Shadow of Mordor's finale regrettably saw Monolith Productions deliver what they seemingly thought they had to: a duo of nothingburger "boss fights" few players had much interest in.

You defeat the first of Sauron's two remaining Black Númenórean captains by stealth-draining his health and then stabbing him to death in a cutscene QTE. As for the other captain, The Black Hand, he cuts his own throat as part of a ritual, allowing Sauron to possess him.

Yet just as fans get their hopes up for an awesome final duel with Sauron's physical form, it turns out to be nothing more than a series of QTEs which wrap the fight up in all of a hot minute.