Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is one of the more interesting uses of the Lord of the Rings license we’ve seen in a while, and we’ll find out more about the game, and specifically its much hyped villain-creating Nemesis system, at the San Diego Comic Con this July 25.
Monolith’s orc-stabbing hack ‘em up will have its own panel at the event, and to whet fans appetites the developer has released a new behind-the-scenes trailer with prolific voice artist Troy Baker and the game’s creative director.
Voice actor Troy Baker, who plays lead character Talion and quite possibly everybody else in the entire game, and cinematic director Christian Cantamessa discuss working together on what is an all-new story in Tolkein’s universe. There’s a lot spoken about wanting to stay faithful to the source material. They would say that, I guess.
”Shadow of Mordor is, I would say, a new chapter in the universe that Tolkein created, and it’s kind of bridging a gap between the story of The Hobbit and the story of The Lord of the Rings,” says Cantamessa in the video. ”For Shadow of Mordor the challenge was to create something new, but it was built on the foundation of Tolkein and to be respectful of his ideas while incorporating ours, to be respectful of the fans and the scholars that have studied the material, and at the same time allow us to apply the material to video-gaming.”
Which means lots and lots of stabbing. Both Cantamessa and Baker will be on the Shadow of Mordor panel in San Diego, talking further about the creative process. I’m still not sure that Shadow of Mordor looks like a good Lord of the Rings game - tonally it’s got a grim-dark feel and a predilection for comically over-the-top ultraviolence that still seems slightly out of whack with Tolkein’s world - but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a good game in its own right.
We’ll see when the game hits PC and consoles this October 7.