This was announced a while back but I havn't seen a topic about it on the forums. From what I can tell it's a game that's most likely to be annoying rather than admired to most of us here.



It's due out later this year according to wikipedia.

Most likely annoying, but we can always hope it doesn't follow in the footsteps of almost every LotR video game and is actually half decent.

The only LotR game that's looked like it would be really good recently was a mod for Oblivion/Skyrim but that got shot down by WB.

I found the Battle for Middle Earth series was enjoyable for the most part.

I dunno.. Gandalf is the only character I know of that was resurrected, and even then it was because he was a Maiar and had a task. Also, I'm not that knowledgeable in the history of Middle Earth, but was Mordor ever not a barren wasteland ?

As long as the story is unique and believable within the lore I'll give it a go when it comes out. War in the North and The Third Age gave too much of a forced fellowship feel, the rest were just movie milking games. Although LOTRO seems to have a loyal following.

i just don't understand why they have such a hard time making a good game in a Middle Earth setting. Star Wars KOTOR was really good, why cant we get something as good as that

Looks terrible. A ranger revived with wraith-like abilities? Naaaah.

VG

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The Battle For Middle Earth series was pretty good, though as an RTS it was rather light on story.

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BFME is one of the best RTS of all time IMO. I also liked Third Age, corny dialogue at times but fun to play. I'm also a fan of War in the North, it's not a "great" game, but it's playable.

I had always thought Glorfindel died killing Gothmog but returned. Must have been mistaken

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Glorfindel died killing balrogs I think.

I mentioned this game on TLA back when Game Informer did a spread on it. As a game goes it looks cool, A ranger fighter with stealth and tactics and some minor spell powers takes on orcs as he gains access to Mordor. The orcs remember encounters, and there is a very rich character build in this system. That all said, I hate that they took an Aragorn, made him a wraith, then slapped in orcs by the hundreds to create a button mashing Batman game done in Middle Earth.
I think they should scratch the entire wraith return thing, make the character into a Young Aragorn fighting in Gondors army, then call it a great release. I know they chose against this because they wanted to dodge all rights issues while being able to be lazy and make stuff up to fill in story loop holes.

In the end, I would not buy it. When people who know zero about Middle earth talk about the game just ignore the need to correct them and tell them you get your middle earth fix elsewhere and are looking for something else in a video game.

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Better yet, they should scrap the Middle Earth setting altogether and come up with their own orignal IP akin to Dragon Age. That way, they'd have full creative control and the right to turn it into a series.

A ranger type character whose family is murdered, gets killed himself then is resurrected granting him magical evil spirit-like abilities that he can use in his quest for revenge at the risk of losing his humanity altogether...That sounds like a cool game I'd like to play.

However, a game featuring the above set in Tolkien's Middle Earth, contradicting the Lore, the tone, the history....

Nope.

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It could be a good game but it sounds like it butchers the lore so much.

Why can't they just take all the pre-existing lore and art direction they have and put it into an open world like Skyrim? 90% of the work is done already with lore and art direction so I don't get why they keep [word deleted] up so badly.

War in the North was okay though. Doesn't seem too bad with the lore.

Gameplay video is out on Shadow of Mordor. For those of you who like Assassins creed, its almost a duplicate except with magic abilities and orcs and foul creatures. Also looks like it completely destroys the lore but in all honesty, if you look at it like a fantasy game in its own right and try to look past its tie to middle earth, it actually seems pretty cool with an interesting system. I will definitely be playing it when it comes out.

hes the video link to the gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fB64APq ... verified=1

No sign of a lelease date?

EBgames website tells me that its scheduled for December 31st of this year. I could be wrong. Other places just say a 2014 release. I don't see why they would release it after Christmas and miss the sales though. hopefully it'll be given an earlier release date.

It looks like a great game. Lore wise, not so much. However, we do know of Gandalf, Glorfindel, Beren and Luthien all being resurrected, and I think that he's stabbed by a Morgul Blade or something, so his wraith abilities are somewhat believable. I guess it depends on how his abilities progress, ie if by the end of the game he's become a servant of Sauron. Maybe the entire game is just a setup for the Mouth of Sauron? Man gets stabbed, believes he's immune, thinks he's killing orcs for revenge but really just honing his skills before becoming one of Sauron's Lieutenants. That could be a cool storyline that doesn't absolutely butcher to lore.

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Not sure about the actual setting of this game but just coming from AC4 I quite like the sound of a game of that ilk in a fantasy setting. A 'wait and see' game me thinks as gameplay could be just a pants copy of AC4.

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I think if they can nail all the good aspects of AC and at the same time make the story seem like their own I think it will do well. They're appealing to the current popularity of the AC series and maybe that will work in their favour, as most gamers I know are falling out of love with AC because of its near Call of Duty like releases (every year a new game, yet its too similar to the last with minimal graphics tweaks and a little added to gameplay). But I have yet to play Black Flag.
The combat looks a lot like the Batman Arkham series, which, in my opinion, is the most fluid and enjoyable combat system I have ever played, which is where I think the AC series fell short. Ignoring the fact that they are deviating a lot from Tolkien's themes and messages, I think if they can successfully replicate the combat from Batman, it will do well. They're in the business of making money, not pleasing Tolkien fans sadly. But only time will tell. The trailers are all over youtube and are sponsored quite a bit, so the development team is definitely pushing hard for this game.

I'll be the Devils advocate to most people here. I absolutely hate when people discount anything Lotr because the lore is jot good enough. Yeah some people are trying to just make money off of it and such but also its nice that I have any extra piece of the Lotr world at my disposal for fun. Will it be an average game? Perhaps.....but I'm definitely going to try it out.

Personally I'm excited for this and I'm not going to have such a wedgie for the Lotr I can't discount games just because of purists and junk.

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I understand what you are saying, but Tolkien has given us SO MUCH to work with, it shouldn't be hard to come up with compelling story lines that don't disservice the source material. That said, I probably won't play this game because I gave up video games quite a while ago. They are far too addictive for not enough payoff for me.

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I'm cautiously optimistic on this one, but very excited. Someone said it above but if they focus a bit on how this great power is driving Talion? towards evil despite his good intentions it could work within the lore.

I think the gameplay looks phenomenal. If they can make the lore aspect even slightly believable it could be a 10