Monolith's Wonder Woman

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Superheroes need a long break.

 

[Zombra]

I'd think [Monolith would] make another [Middle Earth game], although that doesn't mean it'd necessarily be directly related to what they were doing in the LotR setting. Also wouldn't really be all that surprised if their new Wonder Woman game was doing a lot of stuff they do in their Lord of the Rings games...only with Wonder Woman.

From a PC Gamer article from February:

The Nemesis System was famously used by Monolith in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, introducing a procedurally generated hierarchy between enemy orcs. Uniquely, that gave them individual strengths, weaknesses, and relationships with fellow NPCs. You could kill a captain, only for a grunt to take their place. Or, if a grunt killed you, they could be promoted to Captain, taunting you when they’ve come back stronger.

Elaborating in a press release, David Hewitt, Vice President and Studio Head at Monolith, confirmed:

"At Monolith Productions, we believe in the power of player-driven storytelling to unite people. The stories our players share inspire us every day, and we are honored to take players on a unique personal journey, driven by the values embodied in Wonder Woman. The Nemesis System raised the bar for player-driven storytelling and we’re excited to push the open-world genre forward, combining cutting-edge action with inventive narratives to create a Wonder Woman game everyone will want to play."

So, that's a lot of corpspeak ... but I still like what he said about player-driven storytelling and it's clear Monolith want to push the boundaries further with what I love in their previous work. In both Shadow of games, I absolutely found my army's emergent orc drama more fascinating and compelling than anything in any prescripted cutscenes. Change it to quibbling Amazon factions and add new dimensions in rivalries, alliances etc. and it will really be something worth seeing.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

It wouldn't even nesscarily need to be other Amazon factions. The Nemesis system seems like a good fit for Wonder Woman because Wonder Woman doesn't really have villains anyone really knows, there's like Cheetah and Giganta that people might know from Super Friends, and that's about it. You make a Batman game and there's a ton of named bad guys people are going to want to see; you do a Superman game and there's going to be less, but you're also in a similar boat as with Batman. But with Wonder Woman you could have her go up against a bunch of original for the video game Bond type villains and I don't think anyone would give a shit. It could be something like Wonder Woman Crackdown with the Nemesis System in there. You've got a bunch of super villain, criminal masterminds, and mad scientist in cool evil lairs you've got to storm, and they have henchman that can become more important characters and grow as you play the game.

Wouldn't be to too surprised if it was like a WW2 setting, (it sounds like the game could be set from when she leaves Themyscira) or maybe Vietnam like in the New Frontier comic, but WW2 seems more likely...hopefully crazy DC World War 2 where you can have stuff like dinosaurs and those giant War Wheels. Like a Wonder Woman Mercenaries MGSV type thing where you don't use guns, and you're fighting like Wonder Woman from the 2017 movie.

 

[Zombra]

Honestly I hope it's both. It's a no-brainer that the "unite the factions" plot should include different Amazons who need to be coordinated to work together, and some who'll fight like hell to stay independent. Same time, whoever the enemies are will have a hierarchy too as you say, with all kinds of opportunities for great procedural base raids etc. I also hope that territory control will become much more strategic and dynamic. Shadow of's "there's one guy you have to beat in this county", even if that guy is surrounded by x number of captains and a million grunts, is horribly shallow compared to a proper strategy game. Not saying they should go full Crusader Kings but lots of room for improvement there!

 

[catfood]

The best Monolith games are Gruntz and Captain Claw.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Honestly I hope it's both. It's a no-brainer that the "unite the factions" plot should include different Amazons who need to be coordinated to work together, and some who'll fight like hell to stay independent. Same time, whoever the enemies are will have a hierarchy too as you say, with all kinds of opportunities for great procedural base raids etc. I also hope that territory control will become much more strategic and dynamic. Shadow of's "there's one guy you have to beat in this county", even if that guy is surrounded by x number of captains and a million grunts, is horribly shallow compared to a proper strategy game. Not saying they should go full Crusader Kings but lots of room for improvement there!

The unite the factions thing is about uniting the world of the Amazons and Men. Now that's kind of Wonder Woman's general mission statement, but it can also specifically be about the time where she leaves Themyscira and fights in the war. Traditionally that'd be WW2, although the movie did WW1, (likely to differentiate it from Captain America) but I'd guess this Wonder Woman game is an open world WW2 game. You're probably not going to get Amazon factions fighting, although maybe you'll have missions the Amazons want you to do. They could always have the Blackhawks, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, the Losers, and the original Suicide Squad if they're wanting to use other WW2 era characters but keep Wonder Woman the only super hero one.

 

[deuxhero]

And Haunted Tank, since anyone the outside would think it's just a tank commanded by a crazy but successful commander, but publishers are too cucked nowdays to include the flag. Since DC bought a lot of defunct WW2 era comic makers, they've got a lot of villains they could include: Baron Blitzkrieg (brick), Brunhilde (renegade valkyrie, overlap with classic Wonder Woman rogue Gudra the Valkyrie), Count Berlin (brick), Captain Nazi (brick), Doctor Blizzard (reinvented as cold powered guy), Grösshorn Eule and Fledermaus (nazi Batman and Robin), Baron Bedlam (gravity manipulation), Killer Shark (just a strongman, could make him an aquatic threat and nobody would dislike it), The Headsman (axe wielder), Atoman (radiation manipulation) and more. Would be great to have a variety of bosses wandering the land and holding strongholds to go with the nemesis system.

 

[Zombra]

Warner Bros makes Gotham Knights, games-as-service hot popamole garbage

Warner Bros publishes Suicide Squad, by a developer I liked (Rocksteady) but force the title to be turned into games-as-service hot popamole garbage

Warner Bros to publish Wonder Woman, by a developer I like (Monolith) and it will be ... ?

 

[Tyranicon]

Warner Bros makes Gotham Knights, games-as-service hot popamole garbage

Warner Bros publishes Suicide Squad, by a developer I liked (Rocksteady) but force the title to be turned into games-as-service hot popamole garbage

Warner Bros to publish Wonder Woman, by a developer I like (Monolith) and it will be ... ?

If you throw enough turds at a wall, some of them will stick.

And make people money, presumably.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

 

[Elttharion]

I was very cautiously optimistic this could turn out to be good but well...

Here is your 'senior writter':

Spoiler

Spoiler

Tranny shit

Spoiler

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I think Shadow of War was one of the best action games of that console generation, but I doubt this is gonna be worth anything. It'll probably use similar combat, because Arkham combat is obligatory for superhero games apparently, but without all the dismemberment and decapitation it's not gonna have the same impact. And I really doubt there's gonna be a Nemesis system; if there is, it'll be really stripped down because you can't justify Wonder Woman brainwashing a bunch of goons to start an army. The fact that it's being written by a black furry queer seals the deal that it's gonna be woke as hell (even though that was already a bygone conclusion considering it is a female protagonist in current year).

 

[J1M]

Let's guess marketing features.

Open-world
Cinematic narrative
Burqa armor
Black amazons
"First God of War game starring a female protagonist"
Nemesis System v2

 

[Ezekiel]

I think Shadow of War was one of the best action games of that console generation, but I doubt this is gonna be worth anything. It'll probably use similar combat, because Arkham combat is obligatory for superhero games apparently, but without all the dismemberment and decapitation it's not gonna have the same impact. And I really doubt there's gonna be a Nemesis system; if there is, it'll be really stripped down because you can't justify Wonder Woman brainwashing a bunch of goons to start an army. The fact that it's being written by a black furry queer seals the deal that it's gonna be woke as hell (even though that was already a bygone conclusion considering it is a female protagonist in current year).

I never finished Shadow of War. Interest fizzled out by thirteen hours, none of them ever exciting. If I had played it seven years earlier, maybe I would have gone through it mildly interested and obsessive about getting a high completion like with the first game. But in all this time I learned to dislike the Arkham combat and its copycats more. (Never found it that good to begin with.) The open world structure as well. It's far too hard to build open world games well, even if the devs have all the right intentions and aren't just checking off boxes like everybody else. Nothing of true value would be lost with Monolith's demise.

 

[Modron]

I never finished Shadow of Mordor. Interest fizzled out by 30 minutes. Would have requested my 4 dollars back but I bought it a month earlier.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Mordor was much better than War. It was better written and striked a good balance between structure and free-form. SoW was just chaos and noise.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I haven’t played War (sitting in my Steam library backlog), but I am very dubious at the assertion that it has worse writing than Mordor because Mordor’s writing was utter trash.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I haven’t played War (sitting in my Steam library backlog), but I am very dubious at the assertion that it has worse writing than Mordor because Mordor’s writing was utter trash.

War's writing is more interesting because of all the interactions the protagonists have with their orc slaves, and their squabbling is a little more interesting. I like that the protagonists' abilities are all weird and sinister, gives it a kinda cool vibe for a fantasy game. As long as you go in knowing that it's retarded LotR fanfiction not to be taken seriously, then it's okay. I'm not the first to say this, but it probably would've been more accepted without the Tolkien licensing raising the standards way above Monolith's paygrade.

Speaking of that, I hadn't actually read any of the books, besides the Hobbit, when I first played these games. I should probably go back to see if my newfound knowledge of the universe makes it any worse. I don't really care about it fucking stuff from the Silmarilion up because I think the Silmarillion is kind of retarded in the first place.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Calling The Silmarillion “kind of retarded” is a hot take of the highest order (“kind of autistic”? sure. “Retarded”? Absolutely not).

Re: the Shadow games being crap fanfic: That’s really not my impression. Again I haven’t played War, and it’s been close to a decade since I played Mordor, but the writing struck me as being primarily franchise exploitation, not fanfic. The portrayal of the few Tolkien established characters (Celebrimbor, Witch-King) was so ludicrously off that it made me suspect the writers had, at best, just skimmed a Wikipedia summary prior to adapting them.

To be clear: I liked Shadow of Mordor as a game, but it was a total cock-up when it comes to lore fidelity.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

They are always trying to push women and people of color on people. What ever happened to Wonder Man? Fuck these slack jaw faggot retards ruining my games.

 

[Ezekiel]

Watching JLU episode To Another Shore and Wonder Woman just changed from a formal suit into her costume by spinning really fast. Is this ability part of the comics? Because it was silly.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Calling The Silmarillion “kind of retarded” is a hot take of the highest order (“kind of autistic”? sure. “Retarded”? Absolutely not).

I dunno man, what I read of it was just a really fucking boring retelling of Genesis and Revelation. Don't really care for all the background lore. Guess I went into it expecting another story like the first two novels and left disappointed that it was a bunch of autistic lore for nerds. I skimmed through some of the later pages because I had heard that it was sort of an anthology collection and hoped it got better, but all of it' just like the description of a story rather than the story itself. I feel like there was a good reason it never got published during Tolkien's lifetime.

Again I haven’t played War, and it’s been close to a decade since I played Mordor, but the writing struck me as being primarily franchise exploitation, not fanfic. The portrayal of the few Tolkien established characters (Celebrimbor, Witch-King) was so ludicrously off that it made me suspect the writers had, at best, just skimmed a Wikipedia summary prior to adapting them.

They probably only watched the movies.

That makes me wonder about the sources they're gonna be referencing for this Wonder Woman game. Honestly, old American comic books are way more fucking cryptic and esoteric than the Silmarillion just on account of the sheer volume of all of them. You can grab a PDF of the Silmarillion anywhere and it's only like 300 pages long, but even finding a copy of an old comic book is a pain in the ass from my experience, and it'd take you ages to read all of them. That's probably doubly so for a B-tier comic book like Wonder Woman that nobody really cares about or is going to bother to write up a beginner's guide. I can't even name a single villain from that series. And then there are all the fucking crossovers, and the "better check out Captain Faggot issue #458 for the thrilling conclusion to this story!" shit they pull. If Monolith devs couldn't read a 300-400 page book to get the characters right in their Tolkien adaptation, then it doesn't bode too well for the authenticity of their Wonder Woman adaptation (not that anybody will notice).

 

[Beastro]

Calling The Silmarillion “kind of retarded” is a hot take of the highest order (“kind of autistic”? sure. “Retarded”? Absolutely not).

I skimmed through some of the later pages because I had heard that it was sort of an anthology collection and hoped it got better, but all of it' just like the description of a story rather than the story itself. I feel like there was a good reason it never got published during Tolkien's lifetime.

It wasn't because it wasn't finished when he died. Even later, his son had to piece together later stuff and balanced between connecting the dots and adding the least of himself to the writing. That is why the book drops off and speeds along after, IIRC, Turin's story as there was only the bare bones of a story left to connect everything and bring it to the end.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Calling The Silmarillion “kind of retarded” is a hot take of the highest order (“kind of autistic”? sure. “Retarded”? Absolutely not).

I dunno man, what I read of it was just a really fucking boring retelling of Genesis and Revelation. Don't really care for all the background lore. Guess I went into it expecting another story like the first two novels and left disappointed that it was a bunch of autistic lore for nerds. I skimmed through some of the later pages because I had heard that it was sort of an anthology collection and hoped it got better, but all of it' just like the description of a story rather than the story itself. I feel like there was a good reason it never got published during Tolkien's lifetime.

Again I haven’t played War, and it’s been close to a decade since I played Mordor, but the writing struck me as being primarily franchise exploitation, not fanfic. The portrayal of the few

d characters (Celebrimbor, Witch-King) was so ludicrously off that it made me suspect the writers had, at best, just skimmed a Wikipedia summary prior to adapting them.

They probably only watched the movies.

That makes me wonder about the sources they're gonna be referencing for this Wonder Woman game. Honestly, old American comic books are way more fucking cryptic and esoteric than the Silmarillion just on account of the sheer volume of all of them. You can grab a PDF of the Silmarillion anywhere and it's only like 300 pages long, but even finding a copy of an old comic book is a pain in the ass from my experience, and it'd take you ages to read all of them. That's probably doubly so for a B-tier comic book like Wonder Woman that nobody really cares about or is going to bother to write up a beginner's guide. I can't even name a single villain from that series. And then there are all the fucking crossovers, and the "better check out Captain Faggot issue #458 for the thrilling conclusion to this story!" shit they pull. If Monolith devs couldn't read a 300-400 page book to get the characters right in their Tolkien adaptation, then it doesn't bode too well for the authenticity of their Wonder Woman adaptation (not that anybody will notice).

In the case of WW, the go-to run would be anything done by George Perez. He's the stand out writer and artist if you want something relatively modern and enjoyable. There's no way in hell they are doing the BDSM themed stories from the golden age. A very second place would be the stuff made by Phil Jimenez. That's even more modern, but definitely not as iconic as anything done by Perez (to be fair, George Perez is one of the best capeshit artist of all time).
Her rogues gallery can be pretty weak because she mostly takes on "real" characters. If you've played Injustice, you know Ares:

There's also Cheetah.

But WW's rogues' gallery sucks otherwise. Actually, Superman's does as well, because most of the truly cool shit is all stolen from Jack Kirby's 4th World mythos.Darkseid, Big Barda, Apokolips, etc. All of that is Kirby's.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Just learned that the inspiration for Wonder Woman was the author and his wife's "polyamorous life partner"... who was also the niece of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.