Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rings-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-announced

Developed by Monolith Production with the help of Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop.

It's probably gonna be a suckfest, but heck, I'm an oldtime Monolith fan so perhaps they still manage to pull something decent off.

 

[Toffeli]

"...In collaboration with Middle-earth Enterprises, Peter Jackson and the artists at Weta Workshop "to ensure that the settings, characters and story align authentically within canon".

 

[Markman]

Lol, gonna be "cinematic" fosho.
And I bet its gonna have a AWESUM button.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

So first material about the game and no gameplay of any description. 10/10 Citizen Kane

 

[Infinitron]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

 

[J_C]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

This fits perfectly to the low magic setting of LOTR. Oh wait....

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

At least they're trying to do something a bit fresh in the action genre alright. Or at least, the marketing is doing a better job at selling it than EA's Awesome-Button morons.

 

[Baron]

It always seems when you take a beloved IP like LOTR or Star Wars and yank a hero out of nowhere, that you create a generic good looking anti-hero brimming with butthurt and magical powers. Pity it wasn't a hobbit who was resurrected as the spirit of vengeance. The combination of pudgy stomach, hairy feet, tiny hand clenched into a tiny fist and glowing wraith eyes of otherworldly wrath would work well on box art. He could force choke goblins and orcs then take a nap in a pleasant field.

Part of me just finds it more epic for my character to be a relatively normal fellow (whether elf, dwarf or man) who is caught up in an epic war involving all manner of magical beast and foe. As opposed to starting out the game as more badass than a balrog with a baseball bat.

 

[yes plz]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

So I wonder if Talion will look more like this:

or this:

 

[Rahdulan]

Wait wait wait. Wraith ranger? We going Raziel style for this one?

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

From Blood to this AAA licensed title.

That's what happening when the movie guys (Warner Bros. Interactive) are making investments.

 

[abnaxus]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

I want to be a Nazgûl.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=89555971&postcount=1

-Every enemy has a name, rank and memory. If you don't kill them in an encounter for whatever reason they will remember you later on and change their tactics, not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities. Enemy dialogue changes because of your previous encounters as well.

-Enemies have their own jobs to do and their AI allows them to do certain things on their own. For example an Orc you have to kill may be dueling another at one point or he may be doing whatever his higher ranking officer assigned him to do. It all progresses in real time with or without your interference.

-If an enemy kills you in battle you don't "die" in the traditional sense. You do eventually respawn but time in the world passed (they didn't say how long). During this time the enemy that killed you was likely promoted because of him killing you or he could have been killed somehow (like losing one of the duels I mentioned above).

-If your objective is to kill a high ranking warlord you can do it in several ways. One way would be chipping away at everyone under his rank and either killing them or making them become "agents" for you which will enable you to launch ambushes on their base or possibly even assassinate the warlord by making his 2nd in command your agent. However it's not guaranteed, the 2nd in command can fail and be killed but he may have partial success as well which takes a chunk of the warlord's health away to make your battle easier.

-The combat seems like it takes cues from the Batman games. They mentioned there was a rhythm to it and you get to keep a combo multiplier going.

-It's fully open world so it has all of the stuff you'd expect. XP, skills, sidequests, random events (hell the whole game is basically a random event with that nemesis system and the AI working on their own even when enemies aren't on screen).

-You get to use normal melee combat, stealth with a dagger or ranged with a bow. How you level those up depends on what you took the target out with. A stealth kill will get you a special rune to use on stealth skills, direct combat will get you a melee rune and so on.

 

[Azazel]

This game is actually the best thing that could have happened, for the Tolkien Estate. They've been embroiled in a lawsuit for over two years regarding the increasingly illicit video game licensing of LOTR and how it has detrimentally impacted the property.

Now we have Warner Brothers, a defendent in this lawsuit, releasing a video game which just straight up violates the licensing terms with no shame (works can only be based on the events, characters and such contained within The Hobbit or LOTR). The Tolkien Estate was only looking for $80m in damages but I wouldn't be surprised if old Christopher goes for the throat and attempts to have the license revoked when he catches wind of this atrocity.

 

[octavius]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

Again Action-Jackson demonstrates his deep knowledge of Middle-Earth...

 

[sexbad?]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=89555971&postcount=1

-Every enemy has a name, rank and memory. If you don't kill them in an encounter for whatever reason they will remember you later on and change their tactics, not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities. Enemy dialogue changes because of your previous encounters as well.

-Enemies have their own jobs to do and their AI allows them to do certain things on their own. For example an Orc you have to kill may be dueling another at one point or he may be doing whatever his higher ranking officer assigned him to do. It all progresses in real time with or without your interference.

-If an enemy kills you in battle you don't "die" in the traditional sense. You do eventually respawn but time in the world passed (they didn't say how long). During this time the enemy that killed you was likely promoted because of him killing you or he could have been killed somehow (like losing one of the duels I mentioned above).

-If your objective is to kill a high ranking warlord you can do it in several ways. One way would be chipping away at everyone under his rank and either killing them or making them become "agents" for you which will enable you to launch ambushes on their base or possibly even assassinate the warlord by making his 2nd in command your agent. However it's not guaranteed, the 2nd in command can fail and be killed but he may have partial success as well which takes a chunk of the warlord's health away to make your battle easier.

-The combat seems like it takes cues from the Batman games. They mentioned there was a rhythm to it and you get to keep a combo multiplier going.

-It's fully open world so it has all of the stuff you'd expect. XP, skills, sidequests, random events (hell the whole game is basically a random event with that nemesis system and the AI working on their own even when enemies aren't on screen).

-You get to use normal melee combat, stealth with a dagger or ranged with a bow. How you level those up depends on what you took the target out with. A stealth kill will get you a special rune to use on stealth skills, direct combat will get you a melee rune and so on.

At least it sounds ambitious. Monolith hasn't done anything ambitious in a long time.

 

[felipepepe]

not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities.

Immunities, in Lord of the Rings? Da fuck? So you'll fight fire-immune orcs? O.o

 

[Rivmusique]

The wraith eyes and blue glow. Are they even trying?

 

[Morality Games]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rings-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-announced

Developed by Monolith Production with the help of Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop.

It's probably gonna be a suckfest, but heck, I'm an oldtime Monolith fan so perhaps they still manage to pull something decent off.

Generally I'm a beacon of calm when it comes to making adaptions, remakes, parodies because its all fiction anyway and I can always disregard its existence, but the ridiculousness of this premise in terms of Lord of the Rings got to me a little.

Is there really no way to adapt Lord of the Rings's quiet aesthetic virtues into a video game?

 

[Azazel]

Can we start a letter writing campaign to the Tolkien Estate to draw their attention to this immediately? 3 or 4 very coherent emails pointing out how flagrantly this violates the terms of their licensing agreement and flies in the face of everything Tolkien wrote would be well enough to have them try for a Cease and Desist at least until the settlement of the current lawsuit.

After the shit that's gone on with Eidos and the Thief IP, I really have no pity if developers start to lose their jobs as a result of "artistic license". If the fuckers can't respect beautiful things they don't deserve to be employed.

 

[octavius]

Bloody Aussies (or are they Kiwis?).
Hasn't come anything worthwhile from that part of the world since Crocodile Dundee.

 

[laclongquan]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rings-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-announced

Developed by Monolith Production with the help of Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop.

It's probably gonna be a suckfest, but heck, I'm an oldtime Monolith fan so perhaps they still manage to pull something decent off.

Generally I'm a beacon of calm when it comes to making adaptions, remakes, parodies because its all fiction anyway and I can always disregard its existence, but the ridiculousness of this premise in terms of Lord of the Rings got to me a little.

Is there really no way to adapt Lord of the Rings's quiet aesthetic virtues into a video game?

A good idea and I would totally remove such a game from inventory. unfortunately I can also see the reactions of Tolkienism idiots. Think biowarean idiots, but with pretension of lichurachure.

 

[Name]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rings-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-announced

Developed by Monolith Production with the help of Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop.

It's probably gonna be a suckfest, but heck, I'm an oldtime Monolith fan so perhaps they still manage to pull something decent off.

Generally I'm a beacon of calm when it comes to making adaptions, remakes, parodies because its all fiction anyway and I can always disregard its existence, but the ridiculousness of this premise in terms of Lord of the Rings got to me a little.

Is there really no way to adapt Lord of the Rings's quiet aesthetic virtues into a video game?

A good idea and I would totally remove such a game from inventory. unfortunately I can also see the reactions of Tolkienism idiots. Think biowarean idiots, but with pretension of lichurachure.

The Nemesis System is stolen from Alpha Protocol! Relationship with your enemies and bosses!
Hope it won't mean that you will be forced (by cutscene) to let your enemies escape again and again so they can show up later in game.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I quit regarding all the recent LotR games with any seriousness. I always have the books to enjoy the "genuine" LotR experience, and the games to me are just bad fan fiction slash popcorn entertainment

 

[octavius]

I quit regarding all the recent LotR games with any seriousness. I always have the books to enjoy the "genuine" LotR experience, and the games to me are just bad fan fiction slash popcorn entertainment

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?