Shadow of Mordor Photo Mode is Brutal and Brilliant

Stay alive in Middle-earth a bit longer with Prima’s Shadow of Mordor Beginner and Advanced tips.

WB Games’ Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is one of the best video games of 2014, partly because of its extreme violence. Within minutes, players will slit Uruk throats, decapitate the creatures, snap their necks and repeatedly stab them in their guts, with globs of dark blood flying all over the place. It was extremely satisfying when the game debuted a month ago, and now it’s even better with the new photo mode.

At almost any point in the game, simply click in L3 to pause the game and access Photo Mode; you will need to toggle this feature on or off in the Options menu. From there, you’re free to zoom, add filters and make other tweaks to improve your snapshots. 

Naturally, we prefer to press L3 just as hero Talion is in the middle of a nasty execution, and while we’re nowhere near as talented as other players, here are a few pictures we took in this delightfully vicious adventure. 

Warning: Cheesy one-liners ahead.

Postcards from Mordor…

Don’t worry. Talion just wants to kiss you! On second thought…

You don’t need your blood, right?

Emergency heart surgery.

You have something in your eye!

So nice of you to donate blood. Ah yes, Type B!

Killing in front of a captive audience.

A real pain in the neck!

Behind you!

Allow us to free you from your blood.

He didn’t have the stomach for it.

A perfect decapitation we captured during the worst time of day. You can see the head on the right.