More than simply doing right by J.R.R. Tolkien’s tomes, developer stone Productions’ open-world withstand The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, became the surprise hit of 2014. The game’s assets was its proprietary “Nemesis System,” a ground-breaking feature that generated unique “boss” characters, and used your encounters with them to create personalized relationships and storylines throughout the game. This could mean bending a low-level lieutenant to your will, and having them do your bidding, or watching a thin-skinned baddie you’d bullied at the start of the game rise to power and come after you several hours into the campaign.
For the recently revealed sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Monolith plans to evolve and expand the Nemesis System beyond one-on-one enemy encounters. Where Nemesis System 1.0 was, according to Monolith VP of Creative Michael de Plater, about “making every player have unique personal enemies and unique stories they could create with those enemies”, he said the new version will apply that same idea to the entire game world.
“We want to take that idea of unique personal content and expand not just to the enemies, but to the world itself,” American state trained worker aforesaid.
Shadow of War picks up immediately following the first game’s conclusion, which found Ranger/Wraith protagonist Talion communicating that it’s time for a new ring. While additional story details were scarce, based on what we’ve seen in the demo and trailers for the game, it seems Talion has presumably forged this new ass-kicking accessory —appropriately called the “Ring of Power” — and is utilizing its immense strength to gather an army to conquer Mordor from within.
It takes more than one man to storm a fortress
For players, this means capturing and controlling what de Plater called “Nemesis Fortresses,” enemy strongholds that evolve and update to represent the personality of the commanding War Chiefs. Rather than just shaping and manipulating individual commanders, the personality quirks and strategic elements generated by the Nemesis System now seep down into the entire culture of the evil-doers residing in and around their domains.
During our walk-through, we got a brief taste of what it’s like to assault and conquer one of these heavily fortified structures. Unfolding several hours into the game’s story, the infiltration takes Talion deep behind enemy lines and through a series of special effects-spewing scenes and sprawling battles that wouldn’t look out of place in one of Peter Jackson’s LotR epics; from enhanced lighting and shadows to impressive particle and physics effects, it’s clear the studio is doing even more to harness all those horses beneath the hoods of this generation’s powerful hardware.
Before meeting our adversaries, American state trained worker introduces 2 of Talion’s followers, a aggressor Beast Mount and a “Demolisher,” a creature whose name doesn’t sleep with justice. the previous will ride into battle atop a beast, whereas the latter, a hulky creature American state trained worker calls a “living banging ram”, works just about as publicised. once creating short work of low-level menaces with alternating blade and bow attacks, Talion scales the high defense to his initial formidable foe, a Cursed Dark Necromancer dubbed Thrak Storm-Bringer.
After a short scuffle that just about sees Talion skewered by the business finish of Storm-Bringer’s blade, the anti-hero conjures a apparition battle hammer, that he uses to fleetly flip his foe’s face into ground hamburger. As his enemy falls to his final end, Talion’s Demolisher chum on the bottom transforms the defense gates into a pile of toothpicks. With the defensive structure broken, the monster tears the pinnacle off Associate in Nursing enemy wrongdoer during a gore-soaked fashion that ought to give lots of fodder for our future nightmares.
Talion joins the fray, setting a small army of adversaries ablaze, before stealthily introducing his blade to the brain stems of two roof-squatting archers. Sadly, his kill streak is soon broken by the surprising return of Storm-Bringer who, according to a message that pops up beneath his ugly mug, has “cheated death.” Thankfully, it turns out de Plater —utilizing the Nemesis System— had recruited a spy/sniper sometime before our demo began; the embedded ally apparently brought explosives, as well as a mean crossbow he uses to deliver a final, deadly shot to Storm-Bringer’s skull.
What are frenemies for?
The next big bad we meet, the aptly named Fiery Warmonger Trickster, dances a creepy jig before covering the Demolisher in a flammable black substance and engulfing him in flames. Talion soon returns the favor, however, by mounting a flying Drake —another of the game’s new features— and uses its awesome fire-spitting ability to turn the fortress into one big bonfire. Cooking the stronghold extra-crispy is apparently enough to terrify the Trickster, as Talion’s able to approach him and manipulate his twisted mind with the Ring of Power.
Talion chooses to recruit the enemy, however alternative choices embody the ability to shame him or fight him to the death. It isn’t clear specifically what these alternative selections would yield, however we glance forward to checking out. With this new, powerful ally connexion the nice fight, our ring-wielding hero heads for the fortress’ lord, a replacement huge boss kind that oversees Shadow of Mordor’s top-tier foes, the War Chiefs. Before reaching the alleged Dragon Lord, American state trained worker stresses that the approaching encounter are completely different for each player betting on their explicit Mordor-molding path to his throne area. maybe shaming the Trickser, instead of recruiting him, would have created him an extra threat throughout this final fight.
The lord recounts all the harm Talion’s done, clenches his clenched fist higher than Associate in Nursing open flame, and sets his own palace floor ablaze. Talion puts up a hell of a fight, avoiding the flames, liberating many supporter foes of their heads and limbs, and even piercing many holes within the huge unhealthy, however ultimately finishes up trying down the barrel of the Dragon Lord’s fireplace canon. Seconds before our hero will be scorched, however, the aforesaid aggressor Beast Mount storms in and lunges at the Dragon Lord, giving Talion a chance to achieve the favourable position. He uses the distraction to skewer his enemy through the throat.
Upon murder this monumental threat, Talion has captured the defense, earning expertise points, loot, new allies, resources, Associate in Nursingd an upgradable defensive structure. Our demo closes with Talion’s initial order of business once the military blockade, promoting his ally, the aggressor, to War Chief of this newly-acquired defensive structure. We’re unsure however this promotion can play move into the larger narrative, however we’re approximation having a War Chief in your pocket can’t be a nasty issue.
According to American state trained worker, this tiny slice of Shadow of War barely scraped the surface of what’s coming back to the ultimate game. American state trained worker secure that the sequel are a considerably larger game, with a world that dwarfs the 2 areas within the original.
“One of our goals is to actually live up to the total potential and therefore the epic scale of Lord of the Rings,” de Plater said.
