Shadow of Mordor servers have been taken offline

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor servers have shut down with immediate effect, publisher Warner Bros. announced yesterday on January 14.

In fact, servers for the game actually shut down two days prior to the announcement, on January 12. Over on the game's official support website, Warner Bros. cites "changes in our network" as the reason that servers for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions of Shadow of Mordor have been shuttered.

This means certain aspects of the game no longer function. The Nemesis Forge feature has been entirely disabled, for example, as have the Vendetta missions to avenge fallen players (the post notes that the Repaid in Blood achievement can still be unlocked, however). Additionally, leaderboards are no longer connected to other players, and the WBPlay platform is no longer available.

It's a damn shame that servers for Shadow of Mordor have been shut down so unceremoniously. I remember being a huge fan of the game back in 2014, particularly how it weaved its way into the lore of J.R.R. Tolkein's world while carving out its own existence for new characters and storylines.

I'll always have some really fond memories of Shadow of Mordor, in particular the genius Nemesis system, which I don't truly think we've seen anything like in games since. Speaking of, you'll now be unable to port your most hated Nemesis into the sequel, Shadow of War, since the Nemesis Forge feature has now been disabled with servers shutting down for good.

To see if Shadow of Mordor made it into our pick of some of the best games to play alone, head over to our best single player games guide for more.