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| Photo courtesy technobuffalo.com |
Enemies.
When a game relies on violence as its main gameplay conceit,
enemies are a natural bi-product. Most of the time, those enemies are
faceless, nameless foot soldiers, void of personality. Sometimes the
player-character will face off against special foes that the story dictates to
be their antagonist. Most of the time, though, we have little personal connection
to these enemies and little reason to care whether they live or die.
Not so in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
In the latest game
from Monolith, Talion may be the main character, but the enemies are all our
own. In Mordor, anyone can become your arch-nemesis. No longer does death lead
to just another redo. This time, it strengthens that rivalry, it intensifies
your vendetta against that Orc that just killed you.
And the system works both
ways. Eventually, you’ll become a thorn in the side of your rival as well, and
you’ll begin to believe that they hate you just as much as you hate them.
What makes this system even more interesting, is that these
enemies are all random, and everyone who plays Shadow of Mordor has a different
experience and develops their own unique nemesis.
It’s the first true
innovation in the new generation of gaming, and I can’t wait to see how it
evolves over time. Bravo, Monolith, bravo.
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