Middle Earth - Shadows of Mordor

[Akhenaton]

A new LOTR-Game was announced yesterday, its name is Middle Earth - Shadows of Mordor, developer monolith and publisher Warner Bros.
I believe.

Apparently it will be an open world set in Mordor, where you play a Ranger who seeks revenge. It plays between the Hobbit and LOTR.
It´s not like there is a whole Silmarillion to explore, no Sir, it has to be Orcs and Sauron as we know them in the movies or else people
won´t buy it. On the other Hand, perhaps it´s best if those works remain untouched.

Here´s a Video : http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...m_campaign=all

And here´s an Article : http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/...rdor-announced

Another one, but in German : http://www.getgaming.de/news/2013/11...open-world-hdr

Shame, MERP had to be shut down for games like this one

Feel free to tear this game to shreds in this thread

If this is the wrong forum to post this, please excuse me, since Tolkien and LOTR are so vividly discussed here, I thought it would be the best place to post.

[Flinn]

mha, seems they are tring to copy TES phisolophy here, though I'm not sure about the plot .. how can a resurrected ranger with "wraith powers" be adherent with the original lore it's obscure to me.

Shame, MERP had to be shut down for games like this one

does not WB owns the rights for Tolkien contents? anyway, if they are going to use them like this ...

[Akhenaton]

They own they rights to make the games, doesn´t mean they have to tyranise us all with it

[Hresvelgr]

mha, seems they are tring to copy TES phisolophy here, though I'm not sure about the plot .. how can a resurrected ranger with "wraith powers" be adherent with the original lore it's obscure to me.

Honestly, the LotR games have set such low standards that I'm not going to care much about the plot just so long as it's not too bad and the gameplay is fun. They seem to be hyping up the gameplay aspect a lot as they should, advertising some features that would take advantage of the main character's status as a Ranger. So yeah, maybe it'll be a little fun without being too stupid like Third Age was. That was probably the worst LotR game I've played. War in the North actually had an original storyline that wasn't too lore-unfriendly and it actually went out of its way to reference things in the book not brought up in the movies, though the dialogue generally kind of sucked. That said, just so long as Shadows of Mordor can achieve at least a War in the North level of fun it'd definitely be worth buying for me at least.

[Akhenaton]

I checked the developer, they also made guardians of middle-earth. Can anyone who has played it share their experiences with it ?
I also checked their other games, but none of them are well known to me.

Here a link for their released games : http://www.lith.com/Games/

[Feanaro Curufinwe]

Apparently it will be an open world set in Mordor, where you play a Ranger who seeks revenge. It plays between the Hobbit and LOTR.
It´s not like there is a whole Silmarillion to explore, no Sir, it has to be Orcs and Sauron as we know them in the movies or else people
won´t buy it. On the other Hand, perhaps it´s best if those works remain untouched.

Fortunately, Christopher Tolkien won't let anyone touch the Silmarillion. Can't say I blame him.

[Hresvelgr]

I checked the developer, they also made guardians of middle-earth. Can anyone who has played it share their experiences with it ?
I also checked their other games, but none of them are well known to me.

Here a link for their released games : http://www.lith.com/Games/

I started the tutorial for that game before quitting halfway through out of boredom. Yeah, I hope they put a bit more effort into this one regardless of how little sense the plot makes.

[Jmonstra]

Lorewise it looks like a steaming pile. Maybe the gameplay will be good? Mostly it looks like another cash in on the renewed popular interest in Tolkien's work since The Hobbit started coming out.

The people developing it already sound like they're full of crap though. How you can make a story line that farfetched align with Tolkien's work in anything other than the most general way (Like it being set in Middle Earth, for example) is beyond me. I already don't expect much from the guys who produced "Guardians of Middle-Earth" a game so painfully unoriginal that remixing it and rereleasing it as a 2 hour video of a plain white pillowcase would have been an improvement.

[Mhaedros]

Fortunately, Christopher Tolkien won't let anyone touch the Silmarillion. Can't say I blame him.

Thank Ilu for that, I can only imagine how Jackson and his minions would tear it apart and leave the rest for games like this to ruin.

[Akhenaton]

I wouldn´t get my hopes up then. This Game looks like it´s purely motivated by commercial interests. I really hate how LOTR and Star Wars are getting squeezed for every single penny. Granted, George Lucas already did A LOT of that , but with disney´s star wars land, we´re going to experience completely new dimensions. At least the Tolkien Family has a lot of Control over the Lord of the RIngs.

@Jmonstra: I agree, they do not look as if they are going to do any serious job on this project. The Orcs even look kinda like they are out of warhammer....

[leo.civil.uefs]

the more they launch these games the more Im happy we have TATW.

[Ngugi]

Hahahaha!
This is just

[Påsan]

I think war in the north was fairly decent. Rather unimaginative as far as game mechanics go, but good fun regardless. Also it had a plausible what-ifs scenarios and did not breach the lore all that much except for the obligatory inclusion of non-istari female elf magics and being set in the movie universe. It also had tonnes of non-casual lore available for geeks like me.


So if it is anything like that, I might give it a shot.

Otherwise there its only one truly good LotR game.

[Hresvelgr]

I think war in the north was fairly decent. Rather unimaginative as far as game mechanics go, but good fun regardless. Also it had a plausible what-ifs scenarios and did not breach the lore all that much except for the obligatory inclusion of non-istari female elf magics and being set in the movie universe. It also had tonnes of non-casual lore available for geeks like me.


So if it is anything like that, I might give it a shot.

Otherwise there its only one truly good LotR game.

I just really wish that they improved the dialogue in War in the North. Not just the writing, but especially the delivery. Everyone just sounds so bored and serious and the only time anyone tries to so much as crack a joke is when one of their comrades is badly injured. And some of their lines just sound so hilariously cheesy.

[Påsan]

When the bird started talking it cracked me up.

But otherwise, spot on. No room for humor apart from that one grumpy grocery dwarf.

[Feanaro Curufinwe]

I think war in the north was fairly decent. Rather unimaginative as far as game mechanics go, but good fun regardless. Also it had a plausible what-ifs scenarios and did not breach the lore all that much except for the obligatory inclusion of non-istari female elf magics and being set in the movie universe. It also had tonnes of non-casual lore available for geeks like me.


So if it is anything like that, I might give it a shot.

Otherwise there its only one truly good LotR game.

Ahem.

[Hresvelgr]

When the bird started talking it cracked me up.

But otherwise, spot on. No room for humor apart from that one grumpy grocery dwarf.

Aww, I like Beleram, he's cool even though I didn't call him much since I loved chopping up orcs and trolls myself. He sounds about as dignified as I imagine you could make a talking bird sound. And for that matter I did find the few bits of humor to be, humorous. Always brings a smile to my face when Farin is begging for help and Eradan says something like "Just like a dwarf to be spending so much time on the ground." I also liked War in the North's depiction of Radagast more than the movie's. He's as eccentric as he has to be without going over the top and is exactly how I imagined he'd be. Hope Radagast in the next films shapes up. That said, there's still stuff that bothers me like some of the lines, particularly the one at the end with the really cheesy cheering of Andriel and Farin. The voices for some of the extra characters (Elrond in particular) also came across as rather dreadful. And you can never put a helmet on Eradan without making him look silly. Still though, I think it's the best LotR game besides Third Age Total War (and NOT the other Third Age game).

[Påsan]

Beleram was quite decently portrayed don't get me wrong. It was just funny when the giant eagle after murdering some goblins suddenly exclaimed "HELLO MY FRIENDS!" in eloquent English.


And yes they portrayed Radagast quite well in the small part he got.

[Hresvelgr]

Oh yeah, that part, that was kind of abrupt. Not as annoying as Elrond's sons though. Those guys really need a good axe to the head. Fight the toughest battle for my life in that level when the goblins trap me and attack in waves from all sides, and after all's said and done they show up out of nowhere shouting triumphantly as if they actually helped. Damn, but I should've sicced Beleram on them...

[LuckyPistol]

War in the North was good, except for cheesey lines and the dreadful bugs I thought it was well done visually and stayed as close to original material while being represented by the movie universe. Its funny because when it was first revealed, they were going to have a human male mage and a female elven warrior

The main thing I did in that game was enjoy the 300-esque kill moves and just look at the scenery that made me feel like I was really there, like the movies And the swords....oh god the SWORDS!!!

This new game looks like a huge cash grab with a boring storyline and is just being used to test this "nemesis" system. I'll admit I find the new system really interesting, but its probably going to be a very limited "open world" with that one gimmick. If the devil-spawned WB are trying to make a rip off Elder Scrolls game again I'm going to continue to play as my pretend Mordor Orc

I personally want to see more "Evil side" games like they did in Conquest. Maybe be a Uruk-Hai in an Isengard insurrection?