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Shadow of Mordor Updates

 

I’m glad there have been more Shadow of Mordor updates and the latest gameplay trailer shows a really interesting weapons upgrade system. This video focuses on acquiring and using runes to upgrade Talion’s 3 weapons, the sword Urfael, off-hand dagger Acharn, and the Wraith-based bow Azkhar, and give them unique qualities. The type of runes you acquire as loot from killing an enemy captain is based on the manner in which you kill the captain, and it’s not an easy task as the video shows the steps you must complete. However the effects from these upgrades, especially epic runes, are really impressive and the combat system looks amazing, even though it appears to be very similar to the Arkham series. And the menu screens shown briefly appear to have numerous runes listed giving you a large variety of customization options based on your preferred method of killing enemy captains. And taking into consideration the Nemesis System and how your choices change your enemies, the weapon systems maintains the theme of your experience being shaped by your choices and your actual game play results.

The voice actors have also been revealed and the names are equally impressive and WB is truly striving to make this an epic experience.

  • Troy Baker – Talion (The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Origins, Arkham City BioShock Infinite)
  •  Alastair Duncan – Wraith (Mass Effect series, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception)
  •  Nolan North -­ Black Hand (Uncharted series, Batman: Arkham Origins)
  •  Laura Bailey- ­ Ioreth (Halo 4, Batman: Arkham Origins, The Last of Us)
  •  Liam O’Brien -­ Gollum (Infamous: Second Son, Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us)

 

6 comments

  1. fantasywind - May 28, 2014 11:32 AM

    This bow look strange but awesome (and coincidentaly it appears to be a bit like the numenorean steel bows of great range and power from Unfinished Tales, though of course the game designers wouldn’t know that fact nor have rights to use material from UT). Also for the orc captain dropping this loot is rather strange gameplay idea, I hoped a bit that weapon upgrades would require exploration finding it around area (though maybe in terms of lore it could have some basis 🙂 🙂 :), after all orcs could read and write in runes:

    ,,The Cirth (runic alphabet) in their older and simpler form spread eastward in the Second Age, and became known to many peoples, to Men and Dwarves, and even to Orcs, all of whom altered them to suit their purposes and according to their skill or lack of it.”

    Also there is possibility the orcs could do some magic or at least had it in use given from their masters (besides the typical orc craftsman skills and affinity for technology and machinery, and a bit of their own alchemy with ,,magic elixirs” for boosting strength and endurance). The great 100ft long battering ram Grond in shape of ravenous wolf head ,,on it spells of ruins lay” which was long wrought of black steel in smithies of Mordor (presumably orcs were part of making process though Sauron himself could enchant it).

    And Gandalf tells that he ,,once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men OR ORCS…” so possibly some orcs would know a thing or two, maybe thaught sorcery by Sauron? 🙂 hehe. But in serious tone it is interesting that the weapons can be given unique abilities.

    Reply
    • Kareem Ali - May 29, 2014 10:52 AM

      Yeah it is very interesting. Seems like they preferred to go the route of making even the runes have a connection to the story and Tolkien lore instead of just random items scattered around the world. It fits with the game play since it’s not such a massive open-world game

      Reply
      • fantasywind - May 30, 2014 6:15 AM

        So the game environment will have several hubs (inside which one can explore to unlock the other). Is that it supposed to look like?

        Reply
        • Kareem Ali - June 1, 2014 4:34 PM

          At which point in the video?

          Reply
          • fantasywind - June 10, 2014 10:34 AM

            Well I was thinking about whole game, maybe you have some info on the matter?

            Reply
            • Kareem Ali - June 11, 2014 7:41 PM

              Showed some good stuff at E3. Gonna have a post for it soon

              Reply

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