VIDEO Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014)

It wouldn't just be a jump though. It would have to be a triple backflipping ninja-elf jump. I wonder if I could also shoot an arrow in the air and stand where it's to land?

 

For the love of all that is holy, Ender, must you always waltz in here with these ridiculous exaggerations about things? You're just completely wrong here about this.

He'd surf on a shield.

 

What? No, he'd do that to get into the battle and between stages. If he was surfing, he'd hardly be primed to drown. He'd hit the water surface and move in a decidedly non-watery-gravey direction.

Which would disappoint me.

 

Gameplay footage

 

Looks good

Also looks like it has Assassin's Creed style of gameplay too

 

So I'm not sure why this is a game based on Tolkien's stuff, it looks fun, but they could've easily done an original setting.

 

I agree, though it definitely looks interesting.

 

Wow that's pretty much Assassin's Creed except in LOTR.

 

Yeah. Like real eras of history, but seen through the family tree of someone in the present to solve a big mystery. That would be a cool setting for this game...

 

Quite curious on the Nemesis mode they implemented into the game.

That will make or break the game.

 

Looks like more then a few people think this looks like Assassin's Creed. That could be a lawsuit if they did copy the code, which is a shame because that gameplay looks great.

 

Uh oh, well the game can get delayed cause of that.

 

I get what he says, the climbing and even the jump up to climb is almost identical.

 

It's not the same engine, so the dev who's accusing it above needs to do five minutes of research. While we're at it, let's notify Rocksteady, Crytek, and Microsoft Studios that this game is cribbing their combat systems, why don't we? Seriously, until there's some sort of official statement from anyone, I wouldn't worry about it. Games take ideas and inspiration from each other all the time; there are plenty of games that flat-out copy ideas, concepts, and mechanics from each other, and nothing really comes of it.

What's more worrying to me is the grimdark fanfic nature of the story. He comes back with "Wraith-like" abilities - what does that mean? Is he going to be a Nazgul by the end of the story? There are some weird things going on here that make me wish this was an original IP, because then they wouldn't be bound to the rules of Tolkien's world.

 

If I wanted accurate Tolkien lore, I'd go read the books. All I want out of this is a fun game that takes place in middle earth where I get to kill some orcs and it looks like I've got it.

 

What's the point of using a license then? The game looks interesting if extremely derivative but their use of the license seems lazy and rather pointless.

 

Whats the point of any game? All you do is stare at a screen and move your thumbs around. Seems rather lazy and pointless. Why wouldn't they use the license? They have the rights to make a LOTR game so thats what they did. You guys are looking for reasons to dislike it. "Could have, should have, would have" just stop thinking about what if scenarios, this is what we're getting.

 

I want good stories in my entertainment, nothing wrong with wanting that and saying so. The game has my attention, even if I think the story is going to be wonky. The gameplay looked fun (if derivative), and I like this "nemesis" mechanic they're introducing. It sounds like a lot of industry PR hype when they talk about it, but as far as mechanics go, that's a pretty cool one. I don't think it'll influence the narrative half as much as they're saying, but it'll at least make each play fresh and unique.

 

A license should enhance the game not act as an obstacle to the developers to do what they want. Seeing how this game kind of contradicts and ignores Tolkein it strikes me as the latter. This game feels to me like it would be improved by having an original world where they could write their own lore and they're only using the Lord of the Rings license because it'll sell more copies that way.

 

I don't think its bad that they want to sell as many copies as possible, as long as it doesn't get in the way of gameplay and how fun it is. I'm not expecting a 100% original or accurate to the lore concept, as long as its fun and it seems like it could take place in the movies universe, I can overlook some things.

 

The movies play very fast and loose with the lore, too. Again, my issue is that inserting these narrative elements to justify the gameplay kind of makes it goofy. The mechanics and gameplay look pretty interesting to me, but it's how that is made to work within the context of their story that has me doubting them.

And as far as licenses go - of course they're using it to sell more copies That's how it's done. Nothing wrong with that.

 

The one thing I hated about that trailer/gameplay is how stupid the Eye of Sauron looks.

 

It just strikes me as particularly cynical and joyless in this case.

 

Apparently according to the plot summary on Wikipedia, we may encounter Gollum.

If that's true, hope Andy Serkis is voicing him.

 

I am definitely going to keep an eye on this, though after I was interested in Stronghold 3 and Aliens: Colonial Marines before they were released, only for them to apparently end up being lackluster upon release, I ended up steering clear and am not getting my hopes up. How Stronghold 3 ended up turning out was especially frustrating since I am a fan of the series. Of course, I have scarcely seen a Middle-earth game that has really been true to Tolkien's universe, to the point mods for the BFME games ended up being more true to Tolkien than the original games themselves, and most of the other Middle-earth games, especially The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, have apparently been lackluster.