It is unlikely that the future commander of the British Empire, professor at Oxford University and the “father” of high fantasy, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, sitting down to write the good fairy tale “The Hobbit” and just beginning to develop the world of the Ea universe, could imagine that his works would someday be adequately embodied on cinema screens (we are talking about the film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings). And at that moment he could not even think that it would be possible to be transported to the world he had invented and explore it through video games. Maybe.
However, what developers and large publishers in the field of interactive entertainment did with his works for a good thirty years would not have been to the taste of Grandfather John. Instead of complementing the vast universe and inventing new stories in it, developers often desperately milked the Lord of the Rings trilogy, both film and book, and the rights to game adaptations at different times belonged to a variety of publishers, ranging from Interplay, Vivendi and Sierra to EA and Warner Brothers. Even the domestic publishing house 1C, in its best years, could not help but agree to the development of video games parodying the electronic slashers The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Game genres also varied. Starting with a text quest based on the fairy tale “The Hobbit”, released by the Melbourne House studio back in 1987, attempts have been made to convey Middle-earth in RTS, RPG, MMO, and all sorts of good and not so good third-person games. My personal favorite among them was the game adaptation of the book “The Hobbit”, developed by Amaze Entertainment and released by Sierra on November 11, 2003.But, as they say, if you stagnate in one place for a long time, you can dig a hole for yourself. This is probably what the bosses of Warner Brothers thought when they regained the rights to game adaptations based on Jackson’s cinematic universe in 2009 and often did nothing but throw grains into the unplowed fields of the lands of Arda, vigilantly watching where their fruits would sprout faster. So in 2011, the cooperative The Lord of the Rings: War in the North saw the light, after it, and exactly a year later, the collection of Lego games was supplemented by Lego Lord of The Rings, and Lord of The Rings: Online, released in 2007 by EA, was kept afloat by WB for many years.
And even though these games were plagued by failures, the publisher took the riskiest step for itself by giving money to the studio Monolith. A studio that decided to fill the world of Tolkien’s high fantasy with dark colors and give a different look at the history of Middle-earth. A game called
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR.
Best of luck, inhabitants of the blogs of the Stopgame site! I see that you didn’t get my episodes before the final blog, because, in fact, this final blog, to which the format will come Game Diaries, over time. And in this material you will find three times more text than usual, about everything that is in one way or another connected with the game being reviewed, a short and optional story, parts of which will be under the headings of the chapters of the review, and, most likely, many typos and errors that were not initially noticed in the text by me. So feel free to write your comments in the comments to make this blog a little better.
Chapter 1: Preconception.
Jonathan Lynn: English writer
The story below is a purely personal opinion of the author, practically unsupported by anything documented. All events described in it are fictitious, although there will be coincidences with real people who worked on the game being reviewed.
From the electronic diary of John Gonzalez.
Entry from 14.07.2013.
Returned from New York. I’m really starting to miss the Obsidian guys. No, maybe I’m rushing to conclusions, but Diana Ahlers made an extremely negative impression on me. Sitting, wearing a strict black suit, in a completely geeky office, the shelves of which are filled with the most successful comics and the most prestigious awards, and the walls are hung with posters and the coolest art from the entire existence of the publishing house – very strange.
“In this office there is a history of victories for DC-comics. Each director supplements it with his own". – After these words of hers, I could barely restrain myself from asking how many “victories” it was necessary to take out of this hall of fame in order to hang a poster of a new film about supsa on the entire right wall?
In general, all I did today was hold back, while my new colleague, a middle-aged Italian, of small stature and the owner of the bright surname Cantamessa, was wagging his tongue with all his might and fawning over the headmistress of DC-comics: they say, the film is their new masterpiece, and he has a positive attitude towards the restart of the comic book universe, because it’s long overdue, and Ahlers drowned in compliments – in general, I mentally nicknamed him Christian “after my tongue, you won’t be able to shit" Cantamessa. I sat, remained silent and smiled, counting the seconds until the moment when this would all be over and I would most likely go home, and the cunning Italian would be confirmed as the screenwriter of the new DC film (or at least an episode of one of the TV series).
.But, as it turned out, Ahlers called us both to work not on a film, or even on a TV series. It turns out that any day now she will take the chair of the director of WB-interactive with her right half-ass and is currently very closely following the progress of the development of one of the projects in the Tolkien universe. And she needed both of us yesterday, since their brainchild was almost ready, but no one sat down to write the script for it.
Seeing how the Italian’s face twisted at that moment was quite funny, and although he quickly pulled himself together, his former eloquence left him. I, on the contrary, became more active and asked questions, the answers to which Ahlers, of course, did not know. The only information that was able to be extracted from it was only general words that it would be a game in the open world, and the main protagonist had otherworldly powers and would slaughter orcs in Mordor. And it was she who, as they say, monitored the progress of development. Eh..
She also gave us a stack of https://bet9sgcasino.co.uk/games/ concept art, but they didn’t make things clear either.
She also gave us a stack of concept art, but they didn’t make things clear either.
She also gave us a stack of concept art, but they didn’t make things clear either.
She also gave us a stack of concept art, but they didn’t make things clear either.
She also gave us a stack of concept art, but they didn’t make things clear either.
Although, I have to admit, the idea hooked me, and I had long wanted to work with the guys from the Monolit studio. So in two days I’m flying to Washington to watch the finished gameplay and listen to what the developers really want to do.
But working in tandem with this Christian, who, when I asked if he really liked Snyder’s masterpiece, answered: “It’s bullshit, but she doesn’t think so,” – it will be difficult for me. Very difficult. Maybe he will show his best side as a screenwriter, but as a person I don’t like him at all.
But now I know that I will spend the next two days again plunging into the twists and turns of the history of one of the largest fantasy universes. And damn, that’s what makes me happy the most.
Before proceeding directly to the review of the game, it’s worth briefly going back in time, namely to 2014, which was no less controversial than the project itself. After all, which began with an unprecedented boom of patriotism caused by the Olympics in Sochi, during which, during the break between the Olympic and Paralympic games, the Crimean peninsula, quite unexpectedly for many, became part of the Russian Federation, the year ended with almost a collapse of the national currency, a real war not far from the borders of Russia and an increase in prices for food and household appliances.
First days of January 2015. Looking at the bank’s electronic display was scarier than any thriller. But, looking at these photos from 2022, it is, of course, difficult to understand why. Therefore, let me explain – until 2015, the dollar was around 30-40 rubles.
The consequences of these events directly affected the gaming community of our country, because prices for both video games and consoles gradually but significantly began to rise. In addition, it was already experiencing great changes in the gaming industry, in connection with the release for many of the long-awaited new generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft, between which there was still, as it now seems, healthy competition. It was in connection with this change of generations that the market was literally overwhelmed by a wave of re-releases of games from previous years, new titles designed to show the real Next Gen were more disappointing to the demanding public, due to the desires of publishers to release them on literally all platforms, and only exclusives for new consoles, delivering a qualitatively new level of graphics, attracted the attention of FPS accountants, who were sincerely bombed by the fact that in other games it was not so high. Although…
…it’s worth making a reservation here. Not all players were chasing a fundamentally new level of graphics, preferring to see the game and the new mechanics in it first and foremost behind a beautiful wrapper, and the gaming media, seeing how their audience literally trampled good projects of large studios into the mud at the beginning of the year, suddenly began to cover the excellent creations of independent developers, reminding players that we love games not for the frame rate and high frame rate, but for the emotions and ideas that they carry. And they need to be assessed first of all as games, and thirdly and fourthly by how they look.
It was for all these reasons that I described above that I personally passed by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and the point here is not even that it was released on all platforms at a time when a huge shadow hung over the country’s economy (and I was in the camp of graphic wankers), no, just from the many reviews that I looked at, I got a strange feeling that apart from orcs flying in endless slow-mo heads across the open world, there was nothing interesting there, and To be honest, I’m a little tired of Middle-earth and attempts to implement it in game projects.
But now, having spent more than thirty-six hours in the vicinity of Mordor and finally decided to write a review, I was sincerely surprised at how much the studio and publisher did to promote their new game. Judge for yourself:
Firstly, two eminent screenwriters were involved in the project: Christian Castamessa and John Ganzalez. And if the name of the screenwriter of Red Dead Redemption was heard quite often, the gaming media practically did not cover the involvement of the author of Fallout: New Vegas and subsequently Horizon Zero Dawn in the project, although his handwriting in filling the world is visible to the naked eye.
Secondly, the star acting tandem among the gaming community in the person of Troy Baker and Nolan North, who were cast in the main roles of Talion and General Blackhand, respectively, also played into the hands of the marketing department.
Thirdly, when creating the project, the developers from Monolith consulted with Peter Jackson and the Weta Workshops studio, responsible for special effects and costumes in each of the films in the universe filmed by the director. It was the creator of two film trilogies who dissuaded the developers from basing the plot of their new game within the framework of his films, strongly recommending adding new characters to the story.
Fourthly, the new Nemesis system, developed specifically for this game, also played an important role in the promotion of the project. It’s a pity, the reviewers couldn’t really explain how it worked, and in general I have one big question for her, which I will voice a little later.
And fifthly, the excellent ratings of absolutely all Western journalists and opinion leaders (bloggers) had a good impact on the sales of the game in the West, and a small scandal associated with the “suitcases” of money brought to bloggers for a long time contributed to the appearance of the name of the game in various media.
As you can see, the publisher and developers did their best to ensure the project a warm welcome from as wide a circle of gamers as possible, created a buzz in the media, and even the scandal associated with Pew Die Pie and bloggers only played into its hands. But is this game as good as it was presented to us then?? Let’s figure it out.
CHAPTER 2. blind rage.
From the electronic diary of John Gonzalez.
Entry dated 04.09.2013.
Well, I take my words back. Christian can be called a genius! A genius among unintelligent individuals! Otherwise it was impossible to come up with such a stupid motivation for the character. And it’s not even that the story of revenge will be realized not even for the hundredth time, no, it’s just that when game designer Bob Roberts asked how the otherworldly powers of the main protagonist would be explained, he didn’t know what to answer. I haven’t even heard about the legion of spirits. God, he didn’t open the original source on Wiki! A real pro..!
“The simpler the story, the better, I think so.”. We have an action movie here, not a philosophical drama with deep implications. They killed the children, the woman, almost killed Talion, and he, returning from the other world, kills the orcs! And otherworldly forces come from there too.”.
Where the protagonist’s otherworldly powers came from was extremely unclear, as was why the three generals took this castle. But then he said absolutely banal things: about some rebels, an obligatory meeting with Gollum, some land of the elves not far from Mordor, where a crazy queen with a clouded mind rules, “like in the second film the king, well, this one, you know, Gandalf talked some sense into him,” and so on, and so on.
Michael De Pleter and Bob Roberts listened to him attentively, nodded their heads in agreement, and then turned to me, saving the Italian from ranting, which by that time seemed like a stream of consciousness that he did not want to stop (the conversation took place on Skype).
In my version, the captain of the rangers guarded the borders of Mordor with his son, and at the very beginning of the game, the trio of Sauron’s minions, along with the remnants of the orcish army, defeated in the Battle of the Five Armies, attacked the garrison from the rear and won, captured Talion and the soldiers under his command. But this is not the worst thing, because because of his cowardice, his son tried to escape, was caught by the enemy, and having learned that the main character is his father, General Blackhand forces the captain to kill his son with his own hands, dooming his spirit to eternal wanderings among the Oathbreakers in the White Mountains gorge. After which he conducts a bloody ritual in which he executes the surviving defenders of the Gondorian garrison, in an attempt to summon the ancient spirit of the creator of the rings of power, Kelembrimbor.
But the spirit was not foolish and instead of generals it inhabits the body of the captain of the Gondorian guard, bringing the latter back to life.
I won’t describe it further, because it will be too long, I’ll just say that in my version, it was Kelembrimbor who was the main character, who, with the help of Talion’s body, regained its former power throughout the game, thanks to artifacts scattered on the border of Mordor, with him the player would visit the Path of the Dead to save the son of the hapless commander, and at particularly turning points in the plot, the player himself could relive the memories of the elf king and all his pain from defeats.
However, I understand that in my story there were a number of contradictions to the canon, such as a fictitious bloody ritual, a successful summoning of the spirit of an elf, and saving the soul of Talion’s son from the Legion of the Dead in itself looks controversial, but, firstly, we are complementing the cinematic universe, secondly, it was necessary to explain the gameplay mechanics ALREADY invented in the game, and thirdly, in order to arouse the desire to familiarize the player with the original source, familiar only with the film trilogy and show him how much larger this world is.
But, unfortunately, the game designers didn’t like my version either, and although Bob praised my work a little, he noticed that I was a little too clever, and the studio only has the rights to the characters from the film trilogy. But he liked Cantamessa’s simple motivation, and, during a long dialogue with us, he summarized something like this:
“We will combine these two stories into one, where you, Christian, are responsible for interactions with characters and personal relationships, of course, with the creation of quests, and for you, John, everything about the available lore and the second character Kelembrimbor, his biography and the implementation of memories. Only this… When I talk about lore, it means that it would be advisable to think it through and change it. Otherwise, Uncle Christopher Tolkien, the professor’s grandson, will sue us for all the profits…”
However, every cloud has a silver lining, because the previously silent Michael De Pleter suddenly said:
— But I like the idea with John’s artifacts. In general, it would be necessary to scatter them across the map as many as possible, not only with the memories of the ghost, but also some individual fragments. Something like audio files. Fifty pieces. Well, besides, you need to work on the characters and phrases of the orcs. And above the names..
– I’ll register the orcs! – Cantamessa quickly spoke up.
– Great. – the game designer was delighted, – there will be five hundred of them in total, I think you can handle it quickly.
– No, of course, orcs. There will be a lot more phrases.
There is justice in the world, it still exists.
So they divided us. I started working with Bob, who, apparently, will make sure that I don’t “overdo it,” and Christian got the sensible Mike, who will mentor him in terms of orcs and quests. It’s just a pity that the Path of the Dead in the White Mountains and its army do not fit into the budget… Oh, what a pity.
The story of "Shadows" begins in one of the garrisons bordering the lands of Mordor, and the story is told from the perspective of the captain of the Gondorian guard Talion, one of the two main protagonists under your control. Thanks to the alternation of videos with the gameplay, the first 10-15 minutes of the game make a very strong impression, showing in this short period of time turning points in the character’s life, where peaceful episodes of relationships with his wife and son, as if imbued with warmth and tranquility, are mixed with difficult memories of the rainy night of an attack by an army of orcs on the Gondorian garrison under the command of the protagonist.
It is the tragedy that unfolded during this period that sets the mood for the first half of the game, since at the end of this scene that opens the game, the three main orc generals, having captured both Talion and his entire family, brutally deal with his loved ones and himself in front of the character’s eyes, thereby intending to summon the spirit of Kelembrimbor, the ancient king of Eridin, and try to subjugate him to their will.
And, although they succeeded in the first place, the spirit of the elf king turned out to be very willful, moved into the lifeless body of the captain and brought him back to life. Now our task is simple – to get to each of the three generals in order to rest in peace, simultaneously returning the newly-minted symbiont to its former power.
Thanks to such a strict beginning, you will be very motivated to simply crush any orc you meet in a small open world, and the abilities that you will discover during the game will only help you in this matter, allowing you to destroy your opponents with the most effective..