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Shadow of Mordor Story Trailer

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Since I’ve been keeping a close eye on this game I’ve been very impressed by it every step of the way, and now there’s a new Shadow of Mordor story trailer showing what drives Talion. It’s all CGI and not gameplay but we see how his family was tied up in front of him, tortured and slaughtered by Orcs. Somehow he was “banished from death” and now has these Ranger/Wraith hybrid powers that are shown in an awesome display in this trailer. Yes I’m excited that this is a game set Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings world but I’ve been impressed with the depth of the character, story, and the game play mechanics shown. It’s set to be released October 7th and is now available for pre-order. In the meanwhile, enjoy the trailer.

8 comments

  1. fantasywind - April 9, 2014 11:59 AM

    Intriguing (though we really haven’t learnt anything new) and amazing cinematic, and it’s very emotional :0. I wonder who was that figure executing Talion’s family it didn’t look like an orc, more like a man, and I hope not Sauron himself that would be too much of a stretch and would be totally downplaying the terror and power which the physical form of Sauron poses (the mere presence of Sauron can twist the minds of weaker individuals and even corrupt them to evil in some way, not to mention that Sauron’s body is terrifying and he can burn to death people with his black hand, being taken alive before his throne is nearly considered a fate worse than death :), maybe some Black Numenorean or other man serving Dark Lord, though it’s rather unlikely it will be canon character like Mouth of Sauron (Lieutenant of Barad-dur itself) or Gothmog, Lieutenant of Minas Morgul (though his exact race in source material isn’t stated, Gothmog was mysterious second-in-command of Witch-king, who took part in Battle of Pelennor, he could have been a man or even an orc as the theories range between those options :). No worries though it really makes one excited for this :).

    Reply
    • Kareem Ali - April 11, 2014 3:58 AM

      Yeah I don’t think they would have Sauron in the house and the one who directly tied up and killed his family. This is set at a time when Sauron wasn’t believed to be back. But I am curious as to this entire sequence to see how he did acquire his wraith powers

      Reply
      • fantasywind - April 12, 2014 2:12 PM

        The spirit that bonds with him might be mostly responsible πŸ™‚ and trailer mentions some sort of curse (so we will be probably seeking the one responsible for it besides taking vengeance on murderers of family memebers) and this could lead us to deal with sorcerers or necromancers in service of Dark Lord out there (even Faramir in Lotr book mentions black arts), well I half jokingly had a thought that developper’s cooperation with Peter Jackson suggest more movie influences and we know that at one point PJ intended for Sauron to appear in flesh in battle of Morannon, hehe people like to play with Tolkien material and experiment with changes in lore πŸ™‚ but seriously I really hope for book material being a dominating factor here as movies didn’t elaborate on Mordor and it’s internal workings that much :). Also which is curious it appears that spirit that posesses Talion is sometimes err out of body and then returns again to his new vessel πŸ™‚ (also seen on previously released screens, a ghostly figure of tall warrior). Oh, do you think they could give us some sort of alchemy system? There are already confirmed weapon upgrades, so who knows, maybe it would be helpful it’s a free roam game after all, some potion making could make it more interesting, but so far nothing was said about that so chances for that are low.

        Reply
        • Kareem Ali - April 12, 2014 7:43 PM

          I don’t know if there will be some kind of alchemy system. I’m not sure what the purpose of that system would be in this game because even though it is open world I haven’t seen any hint that his abilities or healing will come from any external sources other than the wraith. There is a skill tree for the upgrades and it’s based on ranger and wraith skills so you can choose to focus on one side more than the other. And I think the game will have no choice but to use more materials from the books and appendices because the movie is focused on the fellowship and the main events. And the time period would require them to explain more about Mordor since he was living there with his family so it’s not even close to them believing Sauron was back. I’m even more excited for this game now

          Reply
          • fantasywind - April 14, 2014 9:59 AM

            The question about alchemy was inspired by concept used in War in the North where choosing a character labeled as loremaster allowed to make potions for healing, or temporary working ones for benefits in battle, mixing things like picked herbs or substances (sort of semi-crafting). It would be interesting here, but probably again it would turn out as mere curiosity than really gameplay altering feature (like in previously mentioned game) so most likely it won’t appear, maybe the witcher experiences got me excited on possible uses of alchemy hahaha. Oh anyway, in canon we have watch over Mordor (as you probably remember I wrote it in one comment earlier) performed by gondorians, I wonder whether we will have some small interaction with them and how they explain the presence of rangers in Black Gate in this specific time after The Hobbit (and 77 years before the quest of Frodo begins), or maybe they’ll connect Talion with Rangers of the North rather than Rangers of Ithilien or if the events of The Hobbit will have some echo on the plot (maybe one of the orcs we meet will be survivor of Battle of Five Armies, maybe even son of Bolg or Great Goblin, if enemies will be really so detailed maybe we’ll glimpse the family relations, big happy dysfunctional family of hereditary orc chieftains, the orc king’s bloodline? Ahaha, or creatures from Mirkwood appearing in Mordor after being driven away after Smaug’s death, as we were told that death of the greatest of dragons in entire Age had such an impact that for many long years the Wilderland was safe, many monsters were driven away from Mirkwood, only to reappear decades later as reported by Legolas at the meeting of council of Elrond πŸ™‚ ), so many interesting things, and so many question waiting for answer (not only about gameplay mechanics hehe πŸ™‚ ), you’re right this makes one really excited for the game πŸ™‚

            Reply
            • Kareem Ali - April 15, 2014 8:29 AM

              Yeah, so many questions that will be answered when it’s released. I really hope it’s great and at the very least opens the door for more Tolkien based games and story lines set during different time periods like this. Have you tried Elder Scrolls Online?

              Reply
              • fantasywind - April 15, 2014 3:38 PM

                So far no, but maybe in the future (I have no great experiences with MMO’s but maybe it’s time to fix this πŸ™‚ ). By the way have you heard about mmo called Nosgoth (as is the name of world from Legacy of Kain series but I don’t know any details)? Also one itneresting thing about Shadow of Mordor as I searched randomly in web, there’s suppose to be some interaction with Gollum in the course of story and that’s something really curious according to the developpers the assassination of Talion’s family will be ,,the very night of Sauron’s return to Mordor” if I remember that correct, then some time passes I think, anyway in lore we have given exact chronology of events, the year 2941 Third Age: quest of Erebor begins, next year Bilbo returns home and it is the date of Sauron’s secret return after his faked ,,escape” after White Council attack on Dol Guldur, in year 2944 Dale is rebuild and Bard Bowman is crowned king, in the same year Gollum leaves Misty Mountains and starts searching fo the the One Ring and it’s ,,thief” Bilbo, then passes several years (year 2951) and Sauron declares himself openly and starts rebuilding Barad-dur, his power and forces grow but Mordor was already being prepared for his coming and managed by Nazgul from Minas Morgul in secret long time before around this time Gollum is being drawn to Mordor (I presume the magical call of Sauron who gathers all dark and twisted creatures to him: ,,Dark Power bends all it’s will to gather them there”), year 2954 the Mount Doom bursts in flames, last gondorian inhabitants escape from Ithilien, 2 years later Aragorn meets Gandalf and their friendship starts and even another year later Aragorn assumes the name of Thorongil and starts his adventures, long years of travels into far countries of Rhun and Harad ,,where stars are strange” and his ,,mercenary days” serving king Thengel of Rohan and Steward Ecthelion of Gondor, making a great surprise attack on Umbar destroying fleet of Corsairs in the process and killing Captain of the Havens in the battle on the quays with minimum losses in his fleet he commanded, after which he goes to the previously mentioned foreign lands ,,exploring the hearts of men good and evil” and learning of ,,plots and devices” of the servants of Dark Lord at about the year 2980 he returns and arrives in Lothlorien and in the same Gollum is preying on the confines of Mordor, meeting Shelob (who having some sort of mental powers exerts her influence on him, he starts worshipping her and promises to bring her food, ,,the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light and from regret”) so concluding I wonder whether the developpers of the game contracted and altered a bit the timeline or the time lapses in-between the Talion’s ,,death” adn rebirth makes effect (as we are told that each time he’ll die in game time moves forward and things might change around like previously low ranking orc gaining new status πŸ™‚ well actually going by the strict course of events we shouldn’t have rangers at the Black Gate in this specific time but still it makes exciting theme to speculate about) πŸ™‚ and I still hope for other free roaming open world lotr games this White Council project though scrapped could have beeen such a thing (I even read somewhere it was suppose to have sim-like npc’s maybe they’ll return to it).

                Reply
                • Kareem Ali - April 17, 2014 2:32 AM

                  Yeah I’ve really been enjoying Elder Scrolls Online and my complete review is still ongoing but I”ve posted and will be posting more articles and guides until then. I’ve heard of Nosgoth but only to the extent that I knew there was a new Legacy of Kain game coming out but I’m not familiar with its gameplay at all yet

                  Reply

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