Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

• 1. Introduction

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  In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, an Uruk whom the hero throws into a fire may later return, disfigured and hungry for revenge. No writer scripted that grudge. The game remembered the encounter and built a rival out of it. Released in 2014, the game was developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Its original story takes place between the events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings film trilogies. A Gondorian Ranger named Talion bonds with the wraith of an Elf Lord, and together they set out to avenge the loved ones Talion lost. Behind that premise sits a stranger set of puzzles. Why would a studio build villains that remember their victories and defeats? How do you invent a new story in a world that Tolkien and Peter Jackson had already filled? And how did a game that borrowed so openly from Batman become the biggest launch ever for a game set in Tolkien's universe?

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• 2. The Nemesis System

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  Most Uruk in the game are cannon fodder, fighting in masses as part of Sauron's armies. The Uruk are a nastier kind of Orc and serve as the main antagonists. The game watches for any that show a notable talent, such as killing the player or surviving a fight with him. Those Uruk are promoted to captains.

  A captain's defeat has real consequences for the war. Beating one weakens Sauron's army and yields a rune that Talion can fit to his weapons for extra buffs. Losing to one is worse. The current mission is cancelled, the player returns to a safe point, and the captain grows more powerful for the next meeting. Even a procedurally generated Orc gets promoted if it merely survives an encounter with Talion.

  Online servers carried these deaths beyond a single console. When a player died, friends on the various network services were notified. They could accept a Vendetta mission to take revenge on the Uruk. If it succeeded, both the original player and the victorious friend received rewards.

  Every captain has strengths and weaknesses, and the weaknesses are the key to a quick kill. Players learn them mostly by collecting intelligence, often by draining and interrogating specially marked Uruks. Exploiting a weakness earns more experience points and better runes. Later, once Talion can brand Uruks, he can turn captains into allies and convert parts of Sauron's army. The player can even trigger infighting within the Uruk forces and join the brawl directly.

  The reasons Monolith wanted Orcs with memories had less to do with fantasy than with a problem in how single-player games were sold.

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• 3. Why Orcs Remember

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  In the early 2010s, managers at WB Games noticed that single-player titles such as Batman: Arkham Asylum sold well at first but earned nothing from second-hand sales. The company tried experiments across its studios. One was downloadable content in Batman: Arkham City that could be activated only once. For Monolith, the goal was a gameplay element that would make players keep the game disc in their library instead of trading it away.

  The framework for the idea arrived three months after development began. The team wanted non-playable characters to respond to what the player did. That would create a personal story for each player and make otherwise nameless Orcs memorable. An early version grew complex, with personal relationships among the Orcs, and was later pared down as too complicated. Some Orcs were given distinctive behavior patterns, and Dan Abnett wrote their dialogue.

  Pen-and-paper role-playing games shaped the design, and so did sports games. In a sports game, the narrative continues even when the player loses a match. The team wanted the same quality, so that a death would not break immersion or the story. They also hoped for the tension and competition of a multiplayer game. Players would attach to Talion through dramatic moments while creating their own villain, which led to a more organic story.

  In 2019, it was revealed that Monolith had worked on a standalone Batman game based on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. The project, codenamed Apollo, was cancelled after one and a half years of development. Elements of it, including the nemesis system, were reused in Shadow of Mordor.

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• 4. A Ranger and a Wraith

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  Talion guards the Black Gate of Mordor as a captain of Gondor, and his wife Ioreth and son Dirhael live under that threat. Troy Baker voiced Talion and performed his motion capture. The story takes place in the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so Mordor is not yet a barren wasteland. Sauron's Uruk forces attack the garrison under three Black Númenórean captains. They are the Hammer of Sauron, voiced by John DiMaggio, the Tower of Sauron, voiced by JB Blanc, and their leader, the Black Hand of Sauron, voiced by Nolan North.

  The Black Hand captures Talion and his family and sacrifices them in a ritual meant to summon the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. The ritual goes wrong. Celebrimbor, who has lost his memory as a wraith, merges with Talion and keeps him from dying beside his family. The two leave to learn who Celebrimbor was and to avenge the dead.

  Gollum, voiced by Liam O'Brien, keeps crossing their path. Because of his past contact with the One Ring, Gollum can see and speak with Celebrimbor. He hopes the wraith will lead him to the Ring, so he guides Celebrimbor to relics of his past. Each relic restores part of his memory. Celebrimbor, voiced by Alastair Duncan, was the greatest Elven smith master of the Second Age. He recalls how Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, tricked him into forging the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor helped Sauron forge the One Ring, then stole it and called himself the Bright Lord of Mordor. He raised an army of Orcs against Sauron, but the Ring betrayed him and returned to its maker. Sauron executed Celebrimbor's wife and daughter, and then Celebrimbor himself.

  In his hunt for the Black Hand, Talion allies with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads Gondorian outcasts living in Mordor. He also bargains with Ratbag the Coward, an Orc who wants to climb the ranks. Talion helps Ratbag reach warchief by killing his superiors, and these deeds draw out the Hammer of Sauron, whom Talion kills. Next comes Lithariel, daughter of Queen Marwen, who rules the sea raiders of Núrn in southern Mordor. Talion realizes that the wizard Saruman is possessing Marwen, and he helps Lithariel free her. He still carries out Saruman's plan, leading mind-controlled Orcs against the stronghold at Ered Glamhoth. There he finds the Tower of Sauron instead and kills him with his son's sword.

  At the Black Gate, the Black Hand disables Talion with a spell that restores Celebrimbor's last memories. Then the Black Hand kills himself in a ritual that forces Celebrimbor out of Talion, which lets Sauron take the Black Hand's body. Celebrimbor briefly paralyzes Sauron from within, and Talion destroys the physical form. Celebrimbor wants to leave for Valinor, but Talion persuades him to stay. Gazing at Mount Doom, Talion declares that he will forge a new Ring of Power.

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• 5. Honoring Tolkien

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  Early in development, Peter Jackson advised the team against making a film tie-in. The game therefore got a standalone plot. To avoid errors, Monolith consulted Tolkien scholars from Warner Bros. and worked with Wētā Workshop, Jackson's design company, on special effects and scenery. For the familiar characters, it partnered with Middle-earth Enterprises, the holder of the franchise rights, so the game would not contradict Tolkien.

  Christian Cantamessa, lead writer and lead designer of Red Dead Redemption, wrote the story. The team wanted it to work for players who knew little about the franchise. Talion, a half-human, half-wraith figure, was inspired by Boromir. Torvin was first proposed as a playable character, but the idea was scrapped. The team chose Celebrimbor as the wraith because his backstory was interesting enough to expand the canon, and it let them build a story around power, a major theme of the game. David Salo, a linguist who had worked on Tolkien's languages for the Lord of the Rings films, developed the Black Speech of the Orcs. Design director Michael de Plater also credited BioShock for showing how systemic stories can work with player choices.

  The designers had to annotate Tolkien's notes and appendices to be sure their plot would not alter the franchise timeline. Places such as Udûn and the Sea of Nurnen were still reimagined. Art director Phil Straub said that consistency with the lore and something visually new and realistic mattered most. To capture volcanic activity, the studio sent a team to Eastern Washington and the Columbia River plateau to photograph a volcano. Artists also studied photos of Iceland and New Zealand, along with yellow stone found worldwide. Because the story precedes The Lord of the Rings, the land is less post-apocalyptic, and its weather, lighting and atmosphere vary.

  Garry Schyman and Nathan Grigg composed the music. Their tools synchronized the score with player actions and enemy movements. For combat, they added waterphones and spring drums to the mix.

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• 6. Open World Lessons

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  Development began in late 2011 and took about three years. Monolith already knew Middle-earth from Guardians of Middle-earth, a multiplayer online battle arena game released in 2012. Michael de Plater said Shadow of Mordor was built in parallel by a separate team. He had earlier worked with Creative Assembly on Rome: Total War and with Ubisoft on Tom Clancy's EndWar and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

  Shadow of Mordor was Monolith's first third-person open-world game, and de Plater called the work an education for the studio. Many core mechanics were built from scratch. The Batman: Arkham series from Rocksteady Studios inspired the stealth and free-flow combat. Monolith saw those games as good examples of how to handle a licensed title.

  In play, Talion crosses Mordor through parkour, by riding monsters, or by using Forge Towers as fast-travel points. Main missions follow his revenge. Side missions send him after Gollum to find artifacts tied to Celebrimbor's past, free human slaves forced to work for Sauron, and forge new abilities for his sword, bow and dagger. Players can also gather certain flora, hunt specific creatures, and search for old artifacts or Elvish seals.

  Combat mixes melee, ranged attacks and stealth, and some missions pay extra for completing them in a particular style. Celebrimbor strengthens Talion's attacks with focus. Players can slow time while aiming the bow, drain focus from an enemy, or later brand a foe to fight on Talion's side. Landing a long chain of attacks unlocks special moves, and Strongholds raise an alarm and bring more Uruks if Talion is spotted. Experience points unlock abilities, and a Power value opens stronger ones. An in-game currency called Mirian improves Talion's health and wraith skill capacity or forges new weapon slots for runes.

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• 7. Launch and Controversy

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  In August 2013, an artist mentioned that Monolith was working on a AAA title separate from Guardians of Middle-earth. The game was officially unveiled on the 12th of November. Its release had been planned for the 7th of October 2014. Warner Bros. moved it up to the 30th of September in North America and the 3rd of October in the United Kingdom, citing the excitement of fans. The soundtrack album followed digitally from WaterTower Music on the 30th of September 2014.

  When the game was introduced, former Ubisoft employee Charles Randall accused Monolith of using assets from Assassin's Creed II, such as protagonist-animation code. Monolith answered that everything in its project was developed from scratch and that it was confident in the game's originality.

  A second dispute arrived in October 2014. The usual review outlets could not get early access, and John Bain, known as TotalBiscuit, said YouTube creators had been offered early access under a contract requiring positive descriptions. James Stephanie Sterling of The Escapist obtained one of the contracts and analyzed it in detail. The Federal Trade Commission investigated. In July 2016 it announced that Warner Brothers Home Entertainment had violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and must disclose sponsored advertising in future.

  Behaviour Interactive built the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions while Monolith focused on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions. They reached North America on the 18th of November and Europe on the 21st of November. Story and gameplay were unchanged, but the Nemesis system was less complex, because the developer said it was too large for older consoles. Reviews were mixed-to-negative. Thomas Morgan of Eurogamer called the frame rate substandard, and Yannick LeJacq of Kotaku cited many technical hiccups and glitches.

  Sales were strong. The game debuted at number two in the UK retail software chart in its first week, behind FIFA 15. It was the ninth-bestselling game in the United States in October 2014.

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• 8. Verdicts and Afterlife

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  Metacritic summed up the reviews as generally favorable. Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar said the Nemesis system lifted the game to excellence by giving villains memory and the protagonist some personality. Brad Shoemaker of Giant Bomb thought it created many distinctive characters, and Alexander Sliwinski of Joystiq said it made every playthrough unique. Chris Carter of Destructoid found it gimmicky, because new looks and weaknesses did not give the villains personality. Matt Miller of Game Informer said it fell flat in the final hours, and Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot found it unappealing until the second half.

  Most critics thought the combat excellent. Shoemaker and Sliwinski compared it to the rhythm-based fighting of the Batman: Arkham games. Shoemaker said combat and nemesis together produced "a specific kind of chaotic, emergent nonsense" that suits an open world. VanOrd called the combat an improvement on the Assassin's Creed formula. Miller found the focus on killing repetitive.

  The story divided reviewers. Shoemaker and Sliwinski liked its dark tone, though Shoemaker thought Gollum's introduction felt forced. Carter summed up the plot as "Go here, kill this, draw out this big bad, then kill him for your family" and preferred the side missions. Dan Stapleton of IGN said the characters were memorable but fans of the series might find the story senseless. Sliwinski was disappointed by some boss battles. BioShock creator Ken Levine called it the first open-world game with a non-linear story and said he would bring some of its elements to his science-fiction project, Judas.

  GameSpot, Joystiq and Giant Bomb each named it their Game of the Year for 2014. The game also appeared in many categories at The Game Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, the British Academy Games Awards and the D.I.C.E. Awards. Troy Baker's performance as Talion was among the entries.

  The downloadable content Lord of the Hunt arrived on the 16th of December 2014, centered on Torvin, and received mixed reviews. The Bright Lord followed on the 24th of February 2015. It is set 3,000 years before the main campaign and lets players control Celebrimbor through ten more missions and a fight with Sauron. A Game of the Year edition was announced on the 29th of April 2015 and released on the 5th of May. The sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, was announced in February 2017 and released worldwide on the 10th of October 2017.

  On the 12th of January 2021, the online servers shut down. A final update removed the Vendetta system and leaderboards, while the related achievements were changed or awarded automatically. A month later, in February 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Warner Bros. a patent on the Nemesis system.

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