The next Lord of the Rings game is called Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and it’s an open-world action game set between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Yep, this is an original, brand new prequel that doesn’t seem to be based on any of JRR Tolkien’s works.
Shadow of Mordor, developed by the folks at Monolith (Guardians of Middle-Earth), will be out for PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4. Warner Bros. announced the game in a Game Informer cover reveal today, and the January edition of the magazine will have more details about the game.
Via press release, here’s WB describing the game:
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, a next-gen, third-person action game set in the legendary Tolkien universe of Middle-earth. In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, players explore an original story of vengeance and redemption as they take control of Talion, a ranger whose family is murdered at the hands of Sauron and his army the night they return to Mordor.
Developed for next-gen consoles, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor introduces the Nemesis System, a powerful and dynamic gameplay mechanic that allows players’ actions to shape enemy relationships and characteristics to create personal and unique story and gameplay arcs that are persistent even after death. Players experience a unique game every time as the dynamic world reacts and adapts to their choices.
Huh. This is certainly unexpected. I wonder how JRR Tolkien would feel about this one?
Comments
19 responses to “The Next Lord Of The Rings Game Is A Brand New Prequel”
Hopefully it can rise above the mediocrity that has plagued the LOTR games. An open world Middle Earth game sounds great. Fingers crossed.
Why I am sure he would be delighted, he was not at all protective over his work, nor is his son.
At first I was going to criticise you; then I realised sarcasm. Well played.
Yeah, haha. It couldn’t be more opposite could it?
It is kinda weird though isn’t it, that Tolkien’s world is now a franchise, in which a company can write whatever they want? No different to The Elder Scrolls or Halo. There’s no end to the amount of stuff they can add to the fiction of Middle Earth. And while it’s exciting, it is at the same time a little sad, as if the universe becomes a little diluted and less pure as a result.
It is true, but i think that the Fans of the middle earth world are better off for it. Without this diluting, we would have a fraction of a fraction of the games, movies and other such media that we currently have.
I love the movies as much as i love the books. I love the Battle for Middle Earth games over most games i have ever played. Ive got posters, maps and music from the Lord of the Rings films and books.
Sure, the universe isnt the same as it always was, but i wouldnt have all these things without it.
If it’s not by Tolkein, it’s not real as far as I’m concerned.
And by Tolkein, I of course include Christopher Tolkein due to his work in compiling and completing various unfinished works.
Considering Tolkien himself didn’t really like Lord of the Rings, nor understand why it became so popular, I don’t think it’s a huge loss.
To me the best LotR game was Battle for middle earth, gotta love those RTS
I quite liked the return of the king tie in I believe it was, it played remarkably well considering the track record of game/movie toilet stains that plague consoles.
I’m trying to imagine what exactly all that Nemesis business actually means.
There was already a paper RPG which did the open world thing, and considering LOTR lawyers are +10 Litigation, I am sure its fine to make them money, but family members will whinge about how nobody understands JRR etc (while counting their copyright loot)
Based soley on the picture, I thought this was a game about the witch king after he got a ring but before before he succumbed to Sauron’s influence.
But Sauron had already lost the one ring when the Hobbit began so it couldn’t be that.
Hopefully there’ll be a Lord of the Elder Scrolls-esque game one day
His family were murdered the night they returned to Mordor… so, his family were living in there?
Eh, I guess the story needed the “this time it’s personal!” motivation since Sauron’s only out to murder everyone, everywhere.
Yeah, I did a double-take at that line, but I’m pretty sure they mean Sauron and his army were returning to Mordor, not the Ranger’s family.
If it’s the same night, still means they were in or on the border.
I take your point.
There’s also the possibility that they were meaning the night they began their return to Mordor, but that’s almost clutching at straws.
Looks like a plot contrivance from the beginning! Yay!
Also, the Dunedain shouldn’t need personal reasons for duking it out with the Necromancer 😛
Interesting to see how they weave this not the plots Tolkien outlined in the rather extensive Appendixes and back stories. Still an open world Middle Earth game done well would be a must have for me.
While I’m cautiously optimistic for an exciting open-world game set in Middle Earth, I’m also kind of against messing around with Tolkein’s works.
Particularly the fact that the world is dynamic and responds according to player input – sounds like an awesome feature, but it’s going to be really hard to pull that off in an established universe with some very well defined lore. And as someone mentioned above, it feels like it might somehow dilute the potency of Tolkein’s vision, which in turn means I’m unlikely to take the story seriously.
Oh well, we’ll see how it turns out.
Get the Dragon Age team on it – they could do a great job, I reckon.