Gaming
Games
Return to Mordor in Middle-earth: Shadow of War
We find out why the follow-up to 2014’s breakout hit is bigger and bolder in every way.
Make no mistake about it, 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was a risky venture for developers Monolith Productions.
Not only were the studio taking on their first big open-world adventure, they were doing so with one of the most venerated and beloved media properties of all time: JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Between the epic technical challenge and a potential backlash from Tolkien purists there was much that could – and possibly should – have gone awry, but that mercifully wasn't the case; Shadow of Mordor was lavished with praise and sold by the cartload, paving the way for a new gaming franchise based on the vibrant (and often violent) world of Middle-earth.
Fast forward to the present, and Monolith is now hard at work on a sequel, dubbed Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Following on from the events witnessed in Shadow of Mordor, the game places you in the well-worn boots of ranger Talion (voiced by Troy Baker), who at the point of death was bonded with the wraith Celebrimbor, a key character who is referenced heavily in Tolkien's original books.
While the duo were successful in thwarting his plans in the previous outing, the Dark Lord Sauron continues to grow in strength, forcing Talion and Celebrimbor to take more drastic measures to check his advance.
One tactic is to forge a new Ring of Power – an act which Tolkien purists may well consider to be sacrilegious, given how important these rings are to the entire fabric of the Lord of the Rings universe. "We don’t take the forging of the new Ring of Power lightly," asserts Michael de Plater, vice president for creative at Monolith. "Celebrimbor was the greatest smith of the Second Age, and he worked with Sauron to forge the Rings of Power. If anyone in Middle-earth is able to challenge the Dark Lord and forge a new Ring, it’s him. He is also aware that Sauron is weaker without the One Ring and believes that he has a strong chance of defeating him."
While the existence of a new Ring of Power may send literary fans dashing back to their books in disgust, taking liberties with the source material is not something that Monolith are keen on doing, as was clear with Shadow of Mordor and its thoughtfully executed storyline. By picking a relatively uncharted section of the wider narrative, de Plater thinks he and his team have plenty of room to manoeuvre and create a riveting plot without impacting or contradicting anything that occurs in Tolkien's hallowed novels.
"There’s over half a century between the end of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," he says. "That gives us a great opportunity to not only stay accurate to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but also to fill in some really interesting details. Mordor is an ideal environment for us to tell an epic story that has enormous consequences for the fate of Middle-earth. We’re also able to create a story that segues directly into The Lord of the Rings and adds some cool perspective to other aspects like the history of the Nazgul and the flaming eye of Sauron."
Fans of the Lord of the Rings universe will be pleased to learn that the Dark Lord and his henchmen will play a much larger role this time around, augmenting the ranks of the (admittedly samey) Uruk-hai captains who stood in your way in the previous title. "Sauron and the Nazgul play a more significant role this time, and you will be facing them through the course of the story," explains de Plater. Fans of this universe should be salivating at the prospect; it's tempting to ponder what kind of end-game Shadow of War can deliver. "We’re really trying to pay off the epic confrontation between Talion, Celebrimbor, Sauron and the Witch-king," de Plater reveals.
We’re really trying to pay off the epic confrontation between Talion, Celebrimbor, Sauron and the Witch-king.
Thankfully, our heroes will be packing some new tricks in order to effectively deal with this renewed threat on the battlefield, such as fresh abilities which combine the ranger's strength and speed with the wraith's otherworldly magic. "They have new abilities in every area of the gameplay," continues de Plater. "Including new combat moves using a heavy spear for sweeping attacks, new stealth abilities such as Celebrimbor’s new Wraith attacks, new ranged abilities where players can take down enemies by throwing the hammer, new mounted abilities allowing players to ride the Drake and many new abilities around commanding and controlling Followers and bodyguards – just to name a few."
That's not all; Shadow of Mordor's superb Nemesis System – which saw enemies hold grudges against you and their fellow orcs and come back stronger in a never-ending contest for power and territory – has been totally upgraded and will be much larger in scope this time around.
"The Nemesis System has been expanded in every way," says de Plater. "We have much more variety and detail in all of our enemies, including the addition of massive Olog-hai, as well as the Orcs we had last time. There are now much deeper relationships and stories, with characters remembering and reacting to your encounters and interactions.
"Perhaps most importantly, we’ve extended the Nemesis System to cover new types of stories with your Followers, so you have stories of loyalty, betrayal and friendship. The personalization of the Nemesis System has also been expanded to include the world itself now, with Nemesis Fortresses and the environment dynamically updating depending on the Orc Overlord and Tribe that is commanding them."
The addition of armies has also expanded the scope of the missions in Shadow of War. In the previous outing, your objectives remained pretty static – basically take down as many of Sauron's orc captains as possible, on your own – but this time around, de Plater reveals that you'll be given much more freedom to experiment and find your own solution.
"Our goal is always to let players approach the game with as much freedom as possible. You can be strategic and plan your approach along with your Followers, or you can run right in there and take on the missions single-handed. Within the missions, you also have a lot of freedom of choice about how to tackle it, whether through combat, stealth, ranged, taking advantage of the environment or using your Followers and the beasts you can command. There’s a lot of freedom to approach objectives in your own way."
All this talk of Followers and strategic freedom might lead you to assume that Shadow of War is becoming less of a third-person action adventure and more akin to a brain-busting real-time strategy title, but de Plater assures us that this simply isn't the case; this new content will be built on the solid platform offered by Shadow of Mordor. "We are still very much a third person action adventure game, even though we have added the epic scale battles and the ability to build your army. We’ve built on the foundation of the gameplay from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, so you can use your solo skills to prepare for the assault by defeating Warchiefs or building your own army."
If there were ever going to be any complaints levelled at Shadow of Mordor, the general saminess of the environment would certainly be one major sticking point. Mordor is a grim and foreboding wasteland, even in the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and running around in similar-looking patches of sludge slaying orcs did become a little old after a while. Thankfully, Monolith are aware of this shortcoming and are aiming to fix it in the sequel.
"It’s much larger than Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor," says de Plater. "We have many more regions and each region is considerably larger than the previous game. They are also significantly more varied and detailed. And on top of that they change dynamically depending on the Orc Tribe that is in command of the Nemesis Fortress." As for how the game will exploit the additional processing power of the PlayStation 4 Pro and the forthcoming Xbox Scorpio, de Plater wouldn't say; hopefully we'll see some meaningful enhancements which make Mordor even more believable and immersive on those particular systems. Sadly for Nintendo fans, de Plater also remained tight-lipped on whether or not we'll see this – or indeed the original Shadow of Mordor – on the recently-released Nintendo Switch.
Given that Monolith are dealing with a small window between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it's fair to wonder how far Talion and Celebrimbor's tale can go before it reaches a logical conclusion. After all, we know from Lord of the Rings that Sauron still exists so the pair clearly don't succeed in completely slaying him, but how much mischief can they cause before they themselves cease to exist? Given that in Lord of the Rings Sauron is a disembodied flaming eye yet he's shown in Shadow of War's trailer in human form, it's fair to assume that Talion and Celebrimbor manage to inflict some damage on the Dark Lord, even if it isn't permanent.
Sadly de Plater won't be drawn on the longevity of the pair, but we'd like to think that so long as players find favour in Monolith's bold representation of Middle-earth and its vast and bloody conflicts, Talion and Celebrimbor should hopefully be able to stick around for a while longer yet.
