We recently shared the exciting news that there is a Game of Thrones game in development that would offer gamers to explore further into Westeros through the medium of an original story at least a couple of steps back from that of the books.
Well, it seems that Middle Earth is set to get the same treatment. A new open world game, Shadows of Mordor, that is said to take more than a few cues from the Arkham Batman games is in development and set for release in 2014.
The story is set in between The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings and will feature a ranger character who is murdered, along with his family, by the returning forces of Sauron. However, Talion, the ranger, is brought back from the dead by a spirit of vengeance – and it becomes him.
Who the spirit is and why he has resurrected Talion is will be intrinsic to the plot and should signal to gamers (as will the art already released) that this game is going to be fairly dark (much like the Batman games in tone); it is also set primarily in the troubled Mordor.
The good news is that the game’s developer is a big Tolkien fan and plans to stay as close to Tolkien’s lore as possible. He explains that ‘in Tolkien’s lore, living creatures can become wraiths’. From what we’ve read, the wraith and Talion seem to be separate entities existing within the same body.
The possession of Talion by the Wraith gives our protagonist the power to not only continue to move in the world that he’s familiar with, the physical world, but now to see into the world that is normally unseen – into the wraith world.”
As for other characters, well, almost thankfully Frodo and Bilbo are not expected to appear. However, the story will involve the Rings of Power, but not in the same vain of The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps most excitingly of all, players will encounter a broken, ringless Gollum in the game and discover that Talion and Gollum have a lot in common…
We’ll keep you updated and provide more details as we have them. We at F-F are very excited to see that Middle Earth is going to get even darker…
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
Also:
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is due on PC, PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, in 2014.
Absolutely buzzing for this. An original Middle Earth game, after the mediocre Third age, this looks promising.