Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Announced, Original Story in Tolkien Universe

[roseofbattle]

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Announced, Original Story in Tolkien Universe

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor takes place between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Warner Bros. Interactive announced a new PC and console game taking place in J.R.R.'s far-reaching universe of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an original third-person adventure in which players control Talion and will enact revenge on those who have wronged him.

"Players will explore the dark and very personal theme of vengeance in a world where decisions have consequences even after death," Samantha Ryan, Warner Bros' senior vice president for production and development, said.

Talion's family is killed in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor. Talion is killed as well, but a spirit of vengeance resurrects him and grants him Wraith abilities. Using the Nemesis System, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor "introduces new gameplay mechanics to the action genre, creating opportunities for emergent and customized gameplay that will be rewarding for players," Ryan said in a press release.

Enemy relationships are shaped by the player's actions and decisions. Enemies remember the player's previous actions and learn to adapt. They will be unique in every gameplay session. Through the system, players will have different archenemies.

Monolith Productions is developing the game and has also developed F.E.A.R. and Guardians of Middle-earth. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor will be released on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.

Source: Business Wire [http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20131112005633/en/]

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article misquoted Samantha Ryan. This has now been fixed.

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[FredTheUndead]

Talion's family is killed in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor. Talion is killed as well, but a spirit of vengeance resurrects him and grants him Wraith abilities.

That sounds kind of terrible though.

 

[Saviordd1]

Yeah, because last time they tried a dark action RPG set in Middle Earth it went oh so well.

 

[Legion]

It certainly sounds ambitious, but it's been a long time since they made a decent game set in The Lord of the Ring universe, so I cannot say I am particularly hyped for it.

Let's hope they put some effort into making it a solid game as opposed to simply relying on the brand name to make sales like they have in the past.

 

[jurnag12]

They could make it it's own game, but noooooooooooooo, let's grab the game mechanics and premise and drop them into a universe where they don't make the slightest bit of sense.

Seriously, the idea on it's own sounds somewhat interesting, but it being a Lord of the Rings game kills any sort of enthusiasm I might have had for it.

 

[Asclepion]

...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They could make it it's own game, but noooooooooooooo, let's grab the game mechanics and premise and drop them into a universe where they don't make the slightest bit of sense.

Seriously, the idea on it's own sounds somewhat interesting, but it being a Lord of the Rings game kills any sort of enthusiasm I might have had for it.

I kind of agree. And original IP would have been a better idea. Especially since they're aiming for next-gen release as well. They need new IP's and this could have been one.

 

[Remus]

So it's LOTR: The Crow? Is this gonna be canon? I hope this isn't going to be canon.

 

[JaceArveduin]

So it's LOTR: The Crow? Is this gonna be canon? I hope this isn't going to be canon.

Hell, it could be said that the Silmarillion technically isn't cannon, due to the fact that it was never finished, Chris just patched it up as best he could and published it.

This might be interesting, it might not, time will tell. Of course, precedence is not on this game's side.

 

[AntiChrist]

So it's LOTR: The Crow? Is this gonna be canon? I hope this isn't going to be canon.

J. R. R. Tolkien: Over my dead body!

Everybody else: But wait, aren't you already dead?

J. R. R. Tolkien: Whoops!

 

[gigastar]

Not to mention the PC version of War in the North is (going from the long list of complaints on the Steam forums) still a broken, unoptimised mess of a game.

Still, Middle-Earth is about as generic as you can get, since it defined the generic fantasy world.

However, as generic as the premise for this game sounds, nothing like it has ever been examined in detail by Tolkien.

 

[AldUK]

Call of Revenge: Middle-Earth. Featuring QTEs, zombies, a dog with a nifty jacket and shady stealth mechanics.

Whoever thought this would be a good idea needs to be taken outside and given a swift kick in the gonads.

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

What's this? An upcoming title that brands itself as a "Middle-earth" game instead of going for the obvious Lord of the Rings name recognition? My, my. Call me naive, but seemingly minor though the point may be, this suggests to me that this Shadow of Mordor game will actually strive to tell an interesting story that fits cohesively and respectfully within Tolkien's works-

Talion is killed as well, but a spirit of vengeance resurrects him and grants him Wraith abilities.

WELP, NEVERMIND THEN.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Talion is killed as well, but a spirit of vengeance resurrects him and grants him Wraith abilities.

WELP, NEVERMIND THEN.

They can still fix it! All they have to do is have him be stabbed by a Morgul Blade as he's dying. Of course, that would likely require him to be stabbed by one of the Nazgul, but I'm sure it could be worked into a much more lore-friendly starting.

 

[vladislak]

Say what you want about the buggy nature of War in the North, and it is buggy, it blended into Tolkien's world with impressive grace. The story is simple and practical, taking place in an area that is little addressed by the main storyline, but also takes place during the main storyline while working with it at a distance. It did this and still felt epic and the characters did the work of heroes. This new game, Shadow of Mordor, should be Shadow of Somewhere Else; it should have it's own setting.

 

[Frankster]

Enemy relationships are shaped by the player's actions and decisions. Enemies remember the player's previous actions and learn to adapt. They will be unique in every gameplay session. Through the system, players will have different archenemies.

I'm probably projecting and reading far more into this then intended but this idea thrills me.

Can I become the scourge of a certain type of enemy/a race? End up hated and despised by a certain faction enough they devote the game to exorcizing my character?

I can see an entire open world style rpg based on this premise that you are some threat whose actions end up antagonizing factions and affecting the plot through your gameplay.

Of course this being a cool idea, it's probably not what they meant and really its just fancy talk for "smart" ai.

 

[IrenIvy]

Talion is killed as well, but a spirit of vengeance resurrects him and grants him Wraith abilities.

At this point I stopped to see how this can be Middle-Earth story. Lore doesn't support that sort of existence: even if Talion would die by morgul blade to be resurrected as Wraith, he would be resurrected as a slave of the blade. And if Talion (judging by the name) is an elf, his afterlife would be quite different than running around as a Crow-wannabe. After the death elves could stay in the Arda and not go to Mandos but only as invisible spirits, which I suspect Talion isn't.
The idea with resurrection would fit better into Dragon Age.

 

[CriticalMiss]

So it's LOTR: The Crow? Is this gonna be canon? I hope this isn't going to be canon.

J. R. R. Tolkien: Over my dead body!

Everybody else: But wait, aren't you already dead?

J. R. R. Tolkien: Whoops!

Maybe Tolkien will be resurrected by a literary spirit of vengeance to right the wrongs done to his stories?

 

[Battenberg]

Not sure why Lord of the Rings is being levered in here, I suspect the story will play out much like the lacklustre story in War in the North which would be a shame as that game showed promise but I suspect the LoTR theme held it back hugely. That said this sounds interesting:

Enemy relationships are shaped by the player's actions and decisions. Enemies remember the player's previous actions and learn to adapt. They will be unique in every gameplay session. Through the system, players will have different archenemies.

Although these exaggerated claims of thrilling new gameplay mechanics are misused so often that I'm even wary of this.