GamesActionMiddle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor10 years on, leaks have given us a long look at the canned Batman game that became Middle-earth: Shadow of MordorWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesActionMiddle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor10 years on, leaks have given us a long look at the canned Batman game that became Middle-earth: Shadow of MordorWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Monolith / Dageekydude on Twitter)
Middle-earth was always a bit of an odd setting forMonolith’s Shadow of Mordor, the 2014 game that introduced the absolutely brilliant (and criminally under-imitated) nemesis system. Subjecting the game’s orcs to harrowing physical and psychological warfare as a one-man guerilla army was great fun, but it didn’t exactly fit with the high-minded, mythical tone of either Tolkien’s original books or the Peter Jackson films.
Thread of videos and images related to Monolith Productions cancelled Batman video game codenamed “Project Apollo” pic.twitter.com/BMv8P79SESApril 3, 2024
Thread of videos and images related to Monolith Productions cancelled Batman video game codenamed “Project Apollo” pic.twitter.com/BMv8P79SESApril 3, 2024
There’s also Arkham-style stealth and detective work that would presumably have punctuated your perp-pounding. In fact, based on the stuff we see in the tweets (which, admittedly, is far short of a full game) it’s probably for the best that Project Apollo got retooled into a Middle-earth game. I wonder if the similarities to Arkham in so many other aspects of the game would have obscured the genius of its true innovation: the nemesis system.
Early stealth sequence and combat mechanics (Latter would’ve been based on the Arkham system) pic.twitter.com/18uTxPzKm6April 3, 2024
Early stealth sequence and combat mechanics (Latter would’ve been based on the Arkham system) pic.twitter.com/18uTxPzKm6April 3, 2024
Because, let’s be honest, none of us would remember Shadow of Mordor as fondly as we do if it weren’t for its handcrafted orc-traumatising simulation system (OTSS). It’s to my enduring chagrin that so few games have ever tried to rip the game off. Sure, sure, there’s the fact thatWarner Bros filed for a patenton it, but game devs are clever people. I bet there’s some way to get a procgen allegiance-and-rivalry system into your game that doesn’t run the risk of alerting a swarm of lawyers.
And if not, well, I guess we’ll just have to wait in anticipation forMonolith’s upcoming Wonder Woman game.
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