Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Here's the E3 footage for those who missed it.

He's so ...eloquent. I'm not sure how to feels about this.

It would not surprise me at all if Bruz the Chopper was originally a random orc meant to highlight the branding system only for the developers to turn him a story character due to the positive reception he's getting from this trailer.

But he seems already like a story character. The way he tells about fortresses tips me that he's not random.

So, total opposite.

edited 11th Jun '17 7:23:27 PM by kaalban

He's Ratbag.

Except Boisterous Bruiser instead of Dirty Coward, with Crazy Awesome and Comedic Sociopath tossed in.

Damn he's great.

Any yes, that seemed like far too long of an exposition scene for him not to be a story character. Hard to say for certain though.

edited 11th Jun '17 7:30:46 PM by StateOfBedlam

I gotta say, while I like this new guy with the Aussie accent, he doesn't quite match Az-Laar in raw, honest emotion. He's a little more sardonic. Not bad, but not quite the same.

It does seem like he's a specific tutorial character.

However, if they are living to promises of a completely unique experience, they have made these tutorial voice clips for various orcs and will let RNG to have its way with them.

Although he may be set to always be an Olog-hai for siege role purposes.

I swear if I can get a team with him and Az-Laar, it will be the greatest thing ever.

I will also reset if either of them die.

That whole spiel about optimism was pitch perfect.

Ok, new GOTY this year, for Party Banter alone.

"My black speech is a little rusty... well, can't speak a word in fact".

Also, the open worlds look amazing, plus the whole setting up of your army, setting commanders. See, THIS is how you should be doing wartable stuff - not in conversation menus...

Heh. One thing how they could follow on all the trailer-hyped orcs but without ironclad rails is to have the events still random, but have a small chance that whenever a captain is created it will be picked for exact template as was seen in the trailers. Low odds, and only one per save, but as you play you will have your chance to encounter your favourite previewguy.

Did... did one of those Olog-hai have an AHNULD accent? That would be the greatest thing ever.

Oh yeah, another amazing Olog-Hai aside, how about that fucking cyborg orc?

We already kinda had the beginnings of that with the amputated nemeses with prosthetics you could sometimes encounter in Shadow of Mordor, but full-on robo-body, complete with what seemed like a friggin rocket punch? Sign me up for one of those!

That looked like a "get over here" type thing, plus a WRIST BLADE or what looked like one.

Yes, I would like the incredible hulk, Cyborg and Darth Vader-expies in my orc army. Thank you! SOLD TO THE WANNABE SAURON AT THE BACK!

Already seeing the lore fanatics losing their minds in some of the video comment sections. And part of me understands (And even gets why they're saying "Why not use a whole new IP? Why LOTR?") but the other part of me just goes "Yep. Now plz."

Isn't Shadow of Mordor set in an alternate timeline anyway?

edited 12th Jun '17 10:08:29 AM by DrunkenNordmann

I might remind people rampant technology was a major theme of the books.

Rampant industrialisation in particular.

What the purist lore fans don't seem to get is that if they want any sort of decent game set in the world of Middle Earth, there's going to be some deviation from canon. Shadow of Mordor was the best game to come out of the franchise and that was because it decided to do its own thing rather than chain itself to the events/characters of the books/movies. The creators pay their respects to the lore in all the right ways without letting themselves be limited by it.

Part of me can't help but wonder what Tolkien himself would say if he could see this.

Plus, just because Tolkien didn't specify that Mordor was inhabited by fire drakes or had more regional characteristics than "barren black wasteland", doesn't mean that these things weren't the case. He never wrote or said anything to the contrary, and never went into much detail about Mordor and what goes on in there anyway. Plus, having things like fire drakes and balrogs is exactly what Sauron would have there. Smaug may have been the last great dragon, but that doesn't mean Sauron hasn't been stashing some younger drakes for his future invasion plans. He'd want to preserve dragons. And Durin's Bane (the Moria balrog) is never noted to be the only remaining balrog in existence, just that they're very rare and forgotten by the world. But they were basically Morgoth's Elite Mooks and Sauron was once one of Morgoth's lieutenants, so it makes perfect sense that Sauron would have some remaining under his control.

edited 12th Jun '17 10:24:30 AM by ArilouLaLeeLay

I think that there's a letter Tolkien wrote or something where he said that he hoped future generations would see Middle Earth as this big sandbox for people to play in, a world where he's already laid out the groundwork and history, now people can do their own thing with it. Heavily paraphrased, of course, but the gist is that he welcomed new writers and new takes on his world. It's his son and estate that took issue with it, probably for monetary reasons.

I believe the biggest reason the purists had for hating the balrog (aside from some inane "balrogs with wings" argument) is that they are hierarchically the same tier as Sauron, so he shouldn't have any working under him. Of course, for some reason they don't seem to entertain the possibility of him working out a deal with some as a sort of partner or mercenary, or the fact that they are all Morgoth's followers and Morgoth sort of left Sauron in charge.

edited 12th Jun '17 10:48:01 AM by danime91

Other "evil" creatures joining up with Sauron because he offered them anything isn't that unlikely - if I recall correctly, one of the reasons for the journey to Erebor was because Gandalf wanted to eliminate Smaug as a potential ally for Sauron.

I think it was in supplementary material?

edited 12th Jun '17 11:17:38 AM by DrunkenNordmann

Confirmed Blade of Galadriel DLC.

The one criticism is heard in terms of lore was that, while a good game, Shadow of Mordor pretty much ignores the Good vs. Evil narrative Tolkien had in mind and is essentially a fantasy version of the War on Terror. Moles, sleeper cells, infiltration tactics, Talion being a ranger...

edited 12th Jun '17 11:51:38 AM by TerminusEst