Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world action-adventure video game set within Tolkien's legendarium, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Officially announced in November 2013, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in September 2014 and released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2014. A Game of the Year edition was released on May 5, 2015. It was released for OS X and Linux on July 30, 2015.
The story of the game takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The players control Talion, a ranger who was killed by the Black Hand of Sauron. Talion's spirit merged with the wraith of the Elf LordCelebrimbor, and together they try to avenge the death of their loved ones. Players can engage in melee combat, and utilize some of the wraith abilities to fight against enemies. The game uses the Nemesis System, which allows theartificial intelligence of non-playable characters to remember the death of the game's protagonist and react accordingly.
The game's development began in 2011. In order to create an accurate environment and be consistent with the books written by Tolkien, the developer consulted several people from Warner Bros., and Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series. In addition, the team received assistance from Weta Workshop, who gave advice to the team in creating special effects. Monolith focused on the development of the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, while the development of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions was outsourced to Behavior Interactive, and the port to OS X and Linux was done by Feral Interactive.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received critical acclaim upon release. Most praise directed at its solid combat, open-world design, the game's lore, and the Nemesis System, which most critics agreed was the best part of the game. Some criticism was aimed at the game's story and boss battles. The game marked the biggest launch for a game based uponLords of the Rings universe, and would go on to win several awards from video gaming publications. Two post-release downloadable content, namely Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord, was released in December 2014 and February 2015 respectively.
Gameplay[edit]
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world video game, where the player controls a Ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, including his wife, are killed.[4] Though Talion is mortally felled in the game's introduction, the wraith of the Elven Lord Celebrimbor is able to use his power to keep Talion alive, along with gifting him wraith-like abilities to exact his revenge.[5] Missions in the game feature main story missions that follow Talion's quest for revenge, side missions that involve following Gollum as to find artifacts that are tied to Celebrimbor's past, missions to free the human slaves that have been captured by the Uruk armies and forced to work for Sauron,[6] and additional quests to help forge new abilities for Talion's sword, bow, and dagger.[7] The player also has the freedom to pursue side quests and roam around Mordor, with special activities to collect specific flora or to hunt certain creatures, or to find old artifacts or Elvish seals.[8] Completing quests earns the player a number of rewards: experience points that are used to unlock new abilities for the player from both Talion's ranger and Celebrimbor's wraith skills, a Power value that allows the player to access more powerful abilities to unlock, and an in-game currency that the player can use to improve Talion's health, wraith skill capacity, or forge new slots on his weapons to add additional runes (as described in the Nemesis System below).[8]
In completing missions, the player can have Talion engage in melee, ranged combat, and stealth approaches, with some missions rewarding the player more for completing the mission in a specific manner.[7] Talion's ranger abilities are enhanced through Celebrimbor, allowing the player to mix combat with special focus-based attacks; these latter attacks can be used to slow time down while aiming with the bow,[9] drain focus out of an enemy foe, or, later in the game, brand the foe to become an ally of Talion.[10] The combat system uses an attack-chain system that enables the player to perform special moves after building the chain to a large enough value, such as instantly draining a foe of focus or performing an area focus attack. Stealth is a critical element in some missions; several areas are considered Strongholds and should Talion's presence be discovered, an alarm will sound and more Uruks will arrive to try to kill him.[8]
A core feature of Shadows of Mordor is the Nemesis system. The game tracks a number of specially tagged Uruks as part of Sauron's armies, who will lead the other Uruks in battle. Defeating these leaders will help to weaken Sauron's army, and these leaders will drop a rune which the player can install on Talion's weapons to provide additional buffs in battle.[7]Alternative, being killed by a leader will cause the current mission to be cancelled and the player returned to a safe point to continue exploring, and the leader will gain additional power, making him more difficult to defeat in the next encounter.[11]Further, such deaths are tracked through online servers, and the player's friends on the various network services (such as via Steam friends for Windows players) will be notified of this death and be offered the chance to exact revenge on the Uruk, which if successful will give rewards to both the original player and the victorious friend.[12] The leader Uruk will have a range of strengths and weaknesses, the latter that can be exploited in combat to quickly weaken and defeat the leader.[13] The player can gain knowledge of these through finding intelligence, either by locating papers with the information, speaking to rescued slaves, or draining marked Uruks for this.[14] Being able to exploit such weaknesses in defeating the leader will gain a better quality rune and more experience points in this manner.[14] Once the player gains the ability to brand Uruks, they can brand these leaders and convert portions of Sauron's army to their side. At this point, the player can use the Nemesis system to trigger infighting within the Uruk forces which they can then directly participate in, helping to weaken the army further.[15] Uruks that survive their encounter with Talion will remember this when Talion combats them again; for example, an Uruk who was thrown into a fire by Talion might want revenge on him for being disfigured.[5][16][17][18]
Synopsis[edit]
Setting[edit]
The game takes place in the 60-year gap between the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.[5] The family of Talion (voiced and motion captured by Troy Baker), a ranger of Gondor responsible for guarding the Black Gate of Mordor, is killed by the armies of Sauron (Steven Blum), but Talion is revived with "wraith-like abilities" and heads into Mordor to exact his revenge.[19] Mordor is not yet a barren wasteland in this story.[20] The player will encounterGollum (voiced by Liam O'Brien).[8] Talion discovers that the wraith who revived him is Celebrimbor (voiced by Alastair Duncan), the greatest Elven smith master of the Second Age, who also seeks revenge against Sauron.
Plot[edit]
Celebrimbor, the Elf ruler of Eregion escapes the clutches of Sauron, The Necromancer who tricked Celebrimbor into forging the One Ring, disguising himself as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. With his kingdom in ruin, and his wife and daughter in chains, Celebrimbor uses the one ring to re-forge his fate and defeat Sauron. Taking Sauron's army, Celebrimbor and Sauron battle until the ring returns back to his master. Sauron kills Celebrimbor's family in front of him, then murders Celebrimbor with his own smithing hammer. Celebrimbor is banished from death and becomes a wraith, awaiting to merge to have his revenge.
Talion, a ranger captain, serves within a Gondorian garrison stationed at the Black Gate of Mordor. The garrison is attacked by Sauron's Orc forces led by threeBlack Númenórean captains; the Hammer of Sauron (John DiMaggio), the Tower of Sauron (J. B. Blanc), and their leader, the Black Hand of Sauron (Nolan North). Talion, his wife Ioreth (Laura Bailey), and his adult son, Dirhael, are captured and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. However, Celebrimbor (who suffers from amnesia due to his centuries as a wraith) instead merges with Talion, preventing him from dying alongside his family. Talion and Celebrimbor then depart to both uncover Celebrimbor's identity - increasing his/their power - and avenge the death of Talion's family.
Over the course of their travels, Talion and Celebrimbor encounter Gollum multiple times, who is wandering Mordor in search of his "Precious". Gollum possesses the ability to see and speak with Celebrimbor due to his prior contact with the One Ring, and pledges to serve the "Bright Master". Hoping that Celebrimbor might lead him to the One Ring, Gollum leads Celebrimbor to relics of his past, each of which restore parts of his lost memories. Celebrimbor gradually recalls how Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, deceived him into forging the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor ultimately assisted Sauron in forging the One Ring, but was able to steal it from him. Celebrimbor proclaimed himself the Bright Lord of Mordor and raised an army of Orcs against Sauron. However, the Ring ultimately betrayed Celebrimbor and returned to Sauron. Sauron then punished Celebrimbor by executing his wife and daughter and, finally, by killing him with his own smithing hammer.
In his search for the Black Hand, Talion allies himself with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads a community of Gondorian outcasts choosing to settle in Mordor, and Ratbag the Coward, an Orc who offers to bring Talion closer to the Black Hand in exchange for his assistance in military hierarchy. Talion helps Ratbag ascend the ranks to the level of warchief by killing each of his immediate superiors, finally becoming Warchief himself. Talion then goes after the other Warchiefs in Udun, weakening Sauron's forces in that area. Soon enough, Hirgon has a plan to draw out the black captains. Using acquired grog and blasting powder, Talion helps the Outcasts destroy a statue dedicated to Sauron. Instead of the Black Hand answering the "message", the Hammer of Sauron is sent, promptly executing Ratbag for not answering his duties to kill the ranger. Talion and The Hammer then face off, with a pack of Uruk joining the fight, but The Hammer is ultimately defeated.
Talion is then sought out by the warrior Lithariel, the daughter of Queen Marwen, who claims to be able to assist Celebrimbor with his mission. Marwen is the ruler of Núrn, a kingdom of sea raiders located in the south of Mordor. She uses prophetic powers to guide Talion and Celebrimbor to another of Celebrimbor's relics. Talion also gets help from a Dwarf hunter named Torvin, teaching Talion the ways of the hunt to dominate Caragors and Graugs (beasts native to Mordor), eventually fighting a massive Graug from Torvin's past who killed Torvin's hunting partner, later revealed to be his brother. Later, Marwen advises them to use Celebrimbor's powers to take control of an army of orcs and other beasts, using them to lead an assault against Sauron. Talion eventually realizes that the wizardSaruman is possessing Marwen, and assists Lithariel in freeing her from his control. Talion, however, still carries out Saruman's plan, leading an army of mind-controlled orcs in an assault against the Black Hand's stronghold at Ered Glamhoth. However, rather than the Black Hand, Talion finds the Tower of Sauron waiting for him. The two battle and Talion emerges victorious after viciously stabbing the Tower to death with his son's sword.
Talion returns to Torvin and learns how to ride Caragaths and defeat Beastmaster Warchief's, Torvin after finishing returns back to the mountain. Talion after travels to the Black Gate for a final confrontation with the Black Hand. The Black Hand quickly incapacitates him with a spell that also restores the last of Celebrimbor's memories. He then kills himself as part of a ritual that forces Celebrimbor to depart from Talion and merge with himself. This allows Sauron to possess the Black Hand's body and incarnate in physical form. However, Celebrimbor is able to briefly paralyze Sauron from within, allowing Talion to destroy Sauron's physical form. With the Black Hand dead, Celebrimbor wishes to depart for Valinor. Talion instead convinces him to stay and attempt to overthrow Sauron. Gazing at Mount Doom, Talion declares his intention to forge a new Ring of Power.
Development and release[edit]
The development of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor took approximately three years and began in late 2011.[21] The game's lead developer is Monolith Productions, who had experiences working on a Middle-earth game with Guardians of Middle-earth, a multiplayer online battle arena game that was released in 2012. According to the game's design director, Michael de Plater, the game was in parallel development with Guardians of the Middle-earth, and the development ofShadow of Mordor is handled by a completely separate team. Shadow of Mordor was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, who had previously published several popular and critical-acclaimed licensed titles such as the Batman: Arkham series of games.[19][22] The game is designed by Michael de Plater, who had previously worked with The Creative Assembly on Rome: Total War and Ubisoft on Tom Clancy's EndWar and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.[23]
Shadow of Mordor is the company's first third-person open world video games for the eighth generation consoles: PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Therefore, the game's designer, Michael de Plater, considered the game's development a very educational experience for the studio.[24] As the company's first attempt on the genre, many core mechanics were built from scratch. In addition, the company took inspirations from other successful and well-received video games. The team noted the Batman video games created by Rocksteady Studios as one of their biggest inspirations. For instance, these games inspired Shadow of Mordor's basic stealth and the free-flow combat mechanics.[25] The pick those titles as they considered those titles an example for them on how to handle a license title in a correct way.[23]
[Sports games] are designed that if there's a failure through the mid-season you don't rewind to the last save and start playing again from that point, as much as you potentially wish you could.
—Michael de Plater, Creative Director of Monolith Productions
The signature feature of the game is the Nemesis system. The team at Monolith considered themselves experts at artificial intelligence and would like to continue to push its boundaries. Wanting to allow players to choose and decide their story, as the considered it one of the major pillars in building a sandbox game,[23] and to "leverage the new generation hardware through innovation", the team wanted to create a system that allows non-playable characters to respond to players' action. The idea later became the Nemesis system.[24] The idea of the system was frame-worked three months after the start of the game's development, and in order to give the system a good presentation, everyone in the studio was involved in it. They hoped that through the system, orcs can be made memorable for players. The system was made further complex in the early phrase of the game's development, such as including the personal relationship between orcs. The feature was later pared down as the studio considered it over-complicated. The nemesis system is inspired by some pen-and-paper role-playing game as well. While most orcs are more of the same, some of the orcs are designed to have weird behaviors and patterns. These orcs also have their own dialogue, written by Dan Abnett. The team hoped that these special orcs can surprise players.[26] The team also hoped that the system can deliver an experience similar to that of a multiplayer game: tension and competition. As a result, the studio drew inspirations from sports game, in which narrative continues even though players fail at a match.[27] This method can prevent immersion and narrative from being broken when players die in the game.[23] According to Rob Roberts, the system is designed so that players can emotionally attached to the protagonist through gameplay drama.[28]
The game bridges the gap between the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy, as the team wanted to show the iconic elements of the universe, without being unoriginal.[22] The game's environment is inspired by both the books and the films. Despite that, several areas, like Udûn and the Sea of Nurnen were re-imagined. Phil Straub, the game's art director, considered the most important part of creating the game's world to be maintaining consistency with the lore and to present "something visually new" that is realistic and corresponds with real-world environments. As a result, the team intentionally did not put too many fantasy elements in the game's world.[29] When depicting volcanic activities, the studio sent a team to Eastern Washington and the Columbia River plateau to take pictures of a real volcano.[30] When creating other parts of the game's world, they inspected photos of Iceland and New Zealand, as well as the yellow stone found across the world.[31] As the game is set prior to the events of The Lord of the Rings series, the game's landscape is not as post-apocalyptic as the aforementioned series. Environments also varied in terms of weather, lighting, and atmosphere.[30]
The game's story is standalone and original instead of replicating the plot of the movies. Early in the game's development, the team approached and consulted film director Peter Jackson, who had handled the development of the Lord of the Rings films, was advised not to develop a movie tie-in. According to de Plater, the story aimed to create a character-driven story, so as to be "authentic" to the themes established by Tolkien.[22] The game was written by Christian Cantamessa, who was the lead-writer and lead-designer on Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption.[8] According to Roberts, the story is designed to be accessible for all players, regardless of whether they are familiar with the franchise or not. It is achieved by creating natural interactions and believable relationship between characters.[32]The game's protagonist is Talion, a half-human, half wraith being which is inspired by Boromir.[29][33] Torvin was original proposed to be the game's playable character but the idea was later scrapped.[34] The wraith is later revealed to be Celebrimbor, the creator of the Rings of Power.[35] According to the development team, the team picked Celebrimbor is that they think that the character's backstory is interesting enough to expand the cannon's authenticity, and that it could allow the team to write a story surrounding "power", which is one of the major themes of the game.[36] Another important component when creating the game's story is the tone of the game, which was described as "soul-crushing" by De Plater. A way for the team to create a dark atmosphere is to introduce dark humor to the game, which can be reflected by the characters' dialogue and voice-acting. The development of such feature is handled by Dan Abnett, who had previously worked on books related to the Warhammer universe that is set in a "dark and gritty" universe.[37] The team also hired David Salo, a linguist who worked on the languages of Tolkien for the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, to develop the language for Orcs called Black Speech.
In order to prevent adding inaccuracies to the game's world, Monolith consulted several Tolkien scholars from Warner Bros.. The company also collaborated withWeta Workshop, Jackson's design company, to work on the game's special effect and scenery items.[38] When depicting the game's other characters which is already well-established in the series, the company partnered with Middle-earth Enterprises, the franchise rights holder, to prevent them from being misused and to prevent contradictory between the game's story and the original story written by Tolkien.[32]
Monolith only focused on the development of the game's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.[39] As a result, the development duties for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were outsourced to Behavior Interactive.[40] While the game's core gameplay mechanics, story and narrative remain unchanged in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports, some of the features, like the Nemesis system, would be downsized and would not be as complex as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. According to the game's developer, the feature is too huge for the older consoles to handle.[41][42][43][44]
The music in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was composed by Garry Schyman and Nathan Grigg. A soundtrack album was released digitally by WaterTower Music on September 30, 2014.[45] When designing the game's music, the team used a variety of musical sound design tools, whose effects synchronize with other aspects of the game, such as players' actions and enemies movements. When composing for the game's combat, the team used waterphones and spring drum.[46]
In August 2013, an artist leaked that Monolith Productions was working on a new AAA title, separate from Guardians of Middle-earth.[47] On November 12, 2013, it was announced that the game was titled Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.[48]The title was already set to be released on October 7, 2014,[49] but was later pushed forward to be released on September 30, 2014 in North America and October 3, 2014 in the United Kingdoms due to "fans' excitement", according to Warner Bros.[50] Despite that, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game was delayed to November 18, 2014 in North America and November 21, 2014 in Europe.[51]
A Special Edition of the game, which contains multiple in-game items and a steelbook, was unveiled on August 1, 2015.[52] A Game of the Year edition was announced on April 29, 2015.[53] The edition bundled the full game as well as all the downloadable content released for the game. It was released on May 5, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[54]
Downloadable content[edit]
On December 16, 2014, the downloadable content (DLC) Lord of the Hunt was released. It follows an additional storyline revolving around Torvin, and includes new runes, skins, and bosses.[55] Lord of the Hunt received mixed reviews from critics upon launch.[56]
The final DLC of Shadow of Mordor, The Bright Lord is set 3000 years before the main campaign, allowing players to take control of Talion's companion Celebrimbor.[57] The DLC adds a new chapter to Shadow of Mordor, in which players can complete ten more missions and fight the enemy leader, Sauron.[58] The expansion was released on February 24, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[59]
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