Video games based on The Lord of the Rings book and film franchise have had a middling critical reputation at best, with most releases leaning more toward awful than decent. So I went into the recent first ever, hands-on press demonstration of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor with my expectations set appropriately low for a quick, uninspired licensed cash-in. Imagine my surprise, then, to find a game that instantly drew me in with a well-realized open world, engaging combat, and an innovative system for handling the internecine politics of the enemy hordes.

Taking place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Shadow of Mordor focuses on Talion, a resurrected ranger with wraith-like abilities he uses to fight against the rise of Sauron. In practice, that means fighting singlehandedly against entire armies of evil non-humans (misty orcs, in the demo) as a one-man killing machine. But sometimes, this means making those orcs fight against each other in battles for power that end up working to your advantage.

This is all managed with what the developers at Warner Bros. Interactive are calling the Nemesis system. Among the hordes of nameless, forgettable grunt orcs that one faces in Shadow of Mordor, there are a handful that have worked their way up to become fearsome leaders in the great orc army. During a demo, the developers took pains to point out that these orcs will bear their battle scars throughout the game, holding on to their missing arms or backs full of arrows into your next encounter with them, and remembering grudges based on the way your particular game unfolds.

The most fearsome of these high-level orcs are War Chiefs that command whole battalions of orcs below them. That includes a number of powerful lieutenants that are eager to serve, but also to move up the food chain. The shifting loyalties and grudges between these high-level orcs are laid out via red and yellow lines in a highly animated menu screen, and exploiting those relationships can be one of the best ways to throw the balance of power in the area to your advantage.

For example, during our demo Talion came across a blood feud playing out between Zathra, a lieutenant, and Barfa, a War Chief. After watching from afar as the pair and their dozens of dueling minions fought for a little bit, Talion dashed in and removed Zathra's head relatively quickly. With his primary orcish competition down, Barfa leveled up and gained more power and influence over the nearby hordes. Far from thanks for the assistance, though, he and those hordes then turned their attention on Talion.

After weakening Barfa in battle and dominating him with his wraith powers, Talion must decide what to do with the powerful orc that's now under his control: order him to kill another rival, initiate him as a loyal subordinate to undermine another War Chief, or simply install him as a new War Chief, with minions that are all loyal to Talion through him. Only after taking total control of all five War Chiefs in the region is Talion able to move on to the next quest.

It's a surprisingly complex political and quest system for a genre that's often about simply killing everything that moves and one that seems to offer a number of options for the open-world gameplay. Traversing the large, lush world of Shadow of Mordor mixes the climbing and quick rooftop traversal of the Assassin's Creed games, the stealthy sneaking and takedowns of Dishonored, and combat that's very reminiscent of Warner Bros.' own Batman: Arkham series.

Combat is especially intense for a game of this type, with dozens of surrounding enemies that don't really take turns in engaging you in attacks. Like Arkham, the key to combat is timing the taps of the attack key in a rhythm as each blow lands and watching for telegraphed opportunities to counter incoming attacks, dodge out of the way, or break the armor of the heartier enemies. After building up a suitable attack combo, Talion can unleash his Wraith powers to stun enemies in the surrounding area, execute particularly annoying enemies in one fell swoop, or even take over weaker enemies and recruit them to fight alongside you. There's also a handy ranged arrow attack that conveniently slows down time as you aim, and a wraith power that lets Talion immediately dash in on an enemy from many meters away. Even with these powers, the battles can get overwhelming pretty quickly; I'm not above admitting I had to run off in the middle of a number of battles to regain my health and composure.

For the most part, fighting these grunts is a means to an end, designed to draw out the reclusive orcish leaders from their hiding spots. This often requires taking out certain key subordinates in a particular way; killing five specific orcs with executions, killing five others with ranged attacks, and so on. When those leaders come out, it's not like the random grunts just step aside either... the powerful boss is now an especially dangerous part of the massive melee battle you're already in the middle of. Of course, you might also run into an opposing orcish leader as you seek out or fight another, leading to some truly overwhelming battles.

Taking out one of these high-powered orcs efficiently requires knowing his particular strengths and weakness, which are revealed on the Nemesis menu for the orcish powers that you know about (in fact, gathering intelligence on previously unknown leaders is one of the key benefits of taking over subordinates). I was able to take out one leader after weakening him with arrows from afar, then sneaking up on him and performing a stealth takedown (one of his main weaknesses) as he was distracted by a nearby wolf-like beast. I tried to sneakily take down another by pulling him down while hanging on a ledge below him, only to find he was "invulnerable to stealth," meaning he kicked away my attempt and engaged me in battle immediately. Another orc was invulnerable to my preferred ranged attacks, meaning I had to run in and put a sword through his neck in the end.

For those that don't want to dive right in to going after the orcish leaders directly, there are plenty of side quests dotting Shadow of Mordor's map, allowing Talion to level up his abilities and equipment. I had a lot of fun just wandering the countryside and taking over the many beasts of burden with my wraith powers, riding the once-fearsome enemies and using them to bite into tender orcish flesh.

For a game that could have tried to skate by on the strength of its license alone, my demo sessions with Shadow of Mordor offered a surprisingly robust and challenging open-world combat experience that combines the best parts of a number of other titles. The early demo I saw was still rough around the edges at parts, but this is now a game that's high on my radar for its coming release, targeted for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 7.