Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Previews

We’re just over a week away from the release of Monolith’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, so for some last-minute details leading up to the launch, I thought I’d round up some more previews around the web.

VentureBeat starts us off with more of a preview/interview:

Monolith collaborated with The Lord of the Rings license-holder Middle-earth Enterprises on its depiction of Celebrimbor and of Sauron and any other existing figures and locations. The story couldn’t contradict what Tolkien wrote about in his books. Middle-earth Enterprises vetted all of Monolith’s ideas and scripts before sending back any notes.

(But in terms of the big ideas, we basically [told the licensee], ‘˜Here’s what we want to do with Celebrimbor, and here’s why we think it fits within the canon. . It doesn’t conflict with anything,’) said Roberts. (‘˜It’s not trying to tell a different version than what’s out there. It’s filling in some gaps, and sort of illuminating a part of the past that people don’t know about, or wasn’t written about. .’ And they basically said, ‘˜Yeah, that looks good.’)

GotGame:

The demo shows off some of the features of the Nemesis System, which is the game’s big selling point and feature. The Nemesis System will supposedly allow for unique gameplay on every play through. Sauron’s Orc army has various tears of Orc leaders and Warchiefs. Players have multiple options and approaches to take down Sauron’s army. Using the Wraith powers of Celebrimbor, the spirit who resurrected Talion for his path of revenge, players can both dispatch or possess Orcs.

The land of Mordor is quite busy with activity. The game allows Talion to take part in smaller conflicts, such as Orcs fighting over status or Orcs abusing human slaves, who Talion can free from the whip. Based on the demo, the game will have a great deal of playable content to do and explore. This is one thing that encourages me about the game; there is a great deal of single-player campaign content.

IncGamers:

A pair of staff from the Monolith team working on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor were on Reddit today, answering a few questions from the general public. Some of those questions pertained to the PC version and many of them were dodged, but a couple were answered by director of design Mike de Planter.

Probably the most substantial response was regarding the Shadow of Mordor frame-rate. According to de Planter, this will be capped at 100 due to (internal engine settings.) That shouldn’t be too much of a problem unless you have some pretty mighty hardware and a 120hz monitor.

And Front Towards Gamer:

My (sneaky time) turning into (combat time) gave me a good opportunity to really get into a direct battle with a bunch of orcs. However, I didn’t expect to get so badly beaten up. Combat is part Batman: Arkham City and part Assassin’s Creed; while enemies tend to circle you, their strategy is less to take you on one at a time, and more to rush you at once. Thus, the simple (counter and attack) modus operandi that worked so well in the aforementioned titles is not applicable in Shadow of Mordor. Direct combat takes skill, and the stealthy approach is undoubtedly the ideal one.

After dispatching my attackers, I find myself right above my dominated Captain, and the War Chief. The attempt on the Uruk’s life is not immediately successful, but the newly inflicted wound in his back would prove to be mortal. The many orcs who witnessed this clash surround me as I drop down to face my target. The War Chief charges forward, and I draw my blade; cue locked swords, an exchange of a few choice words between Talion and the giant Uruk, and my demo comes to a close.