Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War by Monolith Productions are two games from 2014 and 2017 respectively that are best remembered for their Nemesis system, which allows you to make each adventure unique by recording the actions performed by the player and shape future encounters with the titles' main enemies, the orcs.
The innovation of this procedural system has led many to wonder why other developers have not yet tried to emulate it. Well, it looks like Warner Bros. has applied for the patent and therefore exclusivity: this means that if approved, she will be the only one who can use it in her games, and in the meantime, possible lawsuits keep competition at bay.
Halfway between Assassin's Creed and the Batman: Arkham series, the Mordors tell of Talion, suspended between life and death, and his story of revenge against Sauron and his army. The Nemesis System, which Mark Brown tells very well in the video below, is the selling point of these games set in Middle-earth:
In short it works like this: the player does something, the game recognizes it and adapts. If the player opts to flee, for example, at the next encounter the same orc will call him a coward; if, on the other hand, you decide to infiltrate a spy in the enemy ranks, this could be discovered and reproached at the next meeting. The game catalogs the interactions and creates stories of revenge, canonizing the death of the character, who is reborn (like Hades).
In Shadow of War the system has evolved, but the microtransactions present in the title have not helped its popularity, so much so as to force Warner Bros. to withdraw them and release a statement that also shows how the Nemesis was central to the experience .
The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build s with your allies and enemies in a dynamic open world. While buying Orcs at the Market is more straightforward and gives players more options, we've realized that this possibility risks damaging the heart of our game, the Nemesis System.
Now the question is when will we review something like this applied to other Warner Bros. titles, such as Batman and Harry Potter. Both franchises have video games in development - Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy - but there is still no news on a possible use of this surprising patent, which we hope to review. For the moment, it's a mechanic only present in Mordor.
► Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor is an Action-RPG type game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Linux, the game was released on 30/09/2014 The version for PC came out on 08/10/2014 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 08/10/2014 The version for Xbox One came out on 25/12/2014
