More Nemeses and More Gameplay in Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
Today is proving a good day for Shadow of Mordor fans. The anticipated gameplay trailer arrived earlier today to showcase some of the major improvements to the orc hunting franchise. While we saw a substantial amount of new content and features, there were some additional tidbits provided by Monolith. In an interview with HardcoreGamer, Art Director Philip Straub talked about additional highlights pertaining to Shadow of War’s gameplay and story.
Straub confirmed that Shadow of War takes place immediately after Shadow of Mordor and that Sauron is the main antagonist; however, in staying true to lore, he does not have the One Ring and is therefore nerfed, so to speak. Hence, the Ring Wraiths appear in the game to help him. They will likely show up as part of the new Overlord entourage, bosses bigger and stronger than those fought in the previous Nemesis system. Moreover, new types of characters will show up for boss battles. When asked what types of new bosses we’ll see, Straub answered, “There are some other cool types of characters you engage with that I can’t talk about at the moment, but there’s some cool stuff. Let’s just say we did show off a Balrog in the reveal trailer.”
As shown the gameplay footage, Overlords will bring their unique touch to fortresses. That said, every player will find a different Overlord for the same fortress, hence, a different-looking fortress. Then there’s the landscape in Shadow of War. On top of remaining open-world, Straub talked about the diversity:
“The game is larger is so many ways. We have more regions, more diverse biomes, and more verticality. When I saw verticality it’s much more than just taller towers. The layouts of the regions are just so much more diverse. Some of them have high cliffs, others are on top of snowy mountains, like Seregost. One of the most exciting things for us was to do a city. Shadow of Mordor’s regions had more natural geology and flora, but this time we got to build a massive city you get to go and play in. It is under siege when you first encounter it, but it’s pretty cool. It really is just a much bigger world.”
Lastly, Straub was asked about possible enhancements for the PS4 Pro and Scorpio. After talking about marked improvements to graphics, AI, and rendering, he confirmed, “There will be [enhancements], but we can’t discuss those yet.”
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War releases on August 22nd, 2017 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. For more info as it comes, stay tuned. Happy gaming,