Here's Why Everyone's Talking About the Latest Lord of the Rings Game

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

If you've been hearing some chatter about newly-released Lord of The Rings RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it seems like it's not just because its the flavor of the week in gaming circles. With movement inspired by Assassin's Creed, combat inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum, and a story rooted in one of the most successful fantasy franchises of all time, there's certainly a lot of meat on this title's bones.

But none of that is what's got me interested in the game. All of those things are just gravy on top of the real draw to Shadow of Mordor: The Nemesis System, a mechanic that's already behind some tantalizingly unique player stories. All you have to do is look at some of the game's early reviews to see what I mean...

Over on Polygon, Phil Kollar writes: 

As you encounter these enemies and defeat them or die to them, a relationship is formed. I began to recognize certain foes and was amazed at how well they remembered our previous encounters. At one point, I defeated a smaller Orc captain named Norsko of the Welts with a single arrow shot through his eye. The next time Norsko showed up, he had a metal plate over that same eye and promised revenge for the injury.

Meanwhile on Kotaku, Yannick LeJacq tells the tale of his rivalry with a particularly elusive orc in detail, along with its bitter resolution.

I do have mixed feelings about a game that seems to go so far to "humanize" an oft-villainized race while simultaneously doing little to subvert any of those tropes... But then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it does address my concerns completely. On a more technical note, it's worth mentioning that the Nemesis System is not in the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of the game. Either way, I'll write more about Shadow of Mordor once I've had a chance to play for myself.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

And that's the reason why reports of the death of the MMORPG genre are greatly exaggerated! It's this sort of innovation which is exactly...

Oh wait. It's not an MMO?

How embarrassing. I mean, not for me... for the massive multiplayer industry.

[iisingh]

Sea water tastes salty.