Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Not to be confused with Shadows of Mordor.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Developer(s)	Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Director(s)	Michael de Plater
Producer(s)	Michael Forgey
Designer(s)	Bob Roberts Chris Hoge
Artist(s)	Phil Straub
Writer(s)	Christian Cantamessa
Composer(s)	Garry Schyman Nathan Grigg
Engine	LithTech
Platform(s)	Linux Microsoft Windows OS X PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One
Release	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One NA: September 30, 2014 EU: October 3, 2014 AU: October 8, 2014 JP: December 25, 2014 PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 NA: November 18, 2014 EU: November 21, 2014 AU: November 26, 2014 JP: March 5, 2015 OS X & Linux July 30, 2015
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world action-adventure video game set within Tolkien's legendarium, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Officially announced in November 2013, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in September 2014 and released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2014. A Game of the Year edition was released on May 5, 2015. It was released for OS X and Linux on July 30, 2015.

The story of the game takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The players control Talion, a ranger who was killed by the Black Hand of Sauron. Talion's spirit merged with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, and together they try to avenge the death of their loved ones. Players can engage in melee combat, and utilize some of the wraith abilities to fight against enemies. The game uses the Nemesis System, which allows the artificial intelligence of non-playable characters to remember the death of the game's protagonist and react accordingly.

The game's development began in 2011. In order to create an accurate environment and be consistent with the books written by Tolkien, the developer consulted several people from Warner Bros., and Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series. In addition, the team received assistance from Weta Workshop, who gave advice to the team in creating special effects. Monolith focused on the development of the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, while the development of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions was outsourced to Behavior Interactive, and the port to OS X and Linux was done by Feral Interactive.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received positive reviews upon release. Most praise directed at its solid combat, open-world design, the game's lore, and the Nemesis System, which most critics agreed was the best part of the game. Some criticism was aimed at the game's story and boss battles. The game marked the biggest launch for a game based upon Lords of the Rings universe, and would go on to win several awards from video gaming publications. Two post-release downloadable content, namely Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord, were released in December 2014 and February 2015 respectively.

Gameplay

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world video game, where the player controls a Ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, including his wife, are killed. Though Talion is mortally felled in the game's introduction, the wraith of the Elven Lord Celebrimbor is able to use his power to keep Talion alive, along with gifting him wraith-like abilities to exact his revenge. Missions in the game feature main story missions that follow Talion's quest for revenge, side missions that involve following Gollum as to find artifacts that are tied to Celebrimbor's past, missions to free the human slaves that have been captured by the Uruk armies and forced to work for Sauron, and additional quests to help forge new abilities for Talion's sword, bow, and dagger. The player also has the freedom to pursue side quests and roam around Mordor, with special activities to collect specific flora or to hunt certain creatures, or to find old artifacts or Elvish seals. Completing quests earns the player a number of rewards: experience points that are used to unlock new abilities for the player from both Talion's ranger and Celebrimbor's wraith skills, a Power value that allows the player to access more powerful abilities to unlock, and an in-game currency that the player can use to improve Talion's health, wraith skill capacity, or forge new slots on his weapons to add additional runes (as described in the Nemesis System below).

In completing missions, the player can have Talion engage in melee, ranged combat, and stealth approaches, with some missions rewarding the player more for completing the mission in a specific manner. Talion's ranger abilities are enhanced through Celebrimbor, allowing the player to mix combat with special focus-based attacks; these latter attacks can be used to slow time down while aiming with the bow, drain focus out of an enemy foe, or, later in the game, brand the foe to become an ally of Talion. The combat system uses an attack-chain system that enables the player to perform special moves after building the chain to a large enough value, such as instantly draining a foe of focus or performing an area focus attack. Stealth is a critical element in some missions; several areas are considered Strongholds and should Talion's presence be discovered, an alarm will sound and more Uruks will arrive to try to kill him.

Gameplay screenshot of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor showcasing the nemesis system

A core feature of Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis system. The game tracks a number of specially tagged Uruks as part of Sauron's armies, who will lead the other Uruks in battle. Defeating these leaders will help to weaken Sauron's army, and these leaders will drop a rune which the player can install on Talion's weapons to provide additional buffs in battle. Alternatively, being killed by a leader will cause the current mission to be cancelled and the player returned to a safe point to continue exploring, and the leader will gain additional power, making him more difficult to defeat in the next encounter. Further, such deaths are tracked through online servers, and the player's friends on the various network services (such as via Steam friends for Windows players) will be notified of this death and be offered the chance to exact revenge on the Uruk, which if successful will give rewards to both the original player and the victorious friend. The leader Uruk will have a range of strengths and weaknesses, the latter that can be exploited in combat to quickly weaken and defeat the leader. The player can gain knowledge of these through finding intelligence, either by locating papers with the information, speaking to rescued slaves, or draining marked Uruks for this. Being able to exploit such weaknesses in defeating the leader will gain a better quality rune and more experience points in this manner. Once the player gains the ability to brand Uruks, they can brand these leaders and convert portions of Sauron's army to their side. At this point, the player can use the Nemesis system to trigger infighting within the Uruk forces which they can then directly participate in, helping to weaken the army further. Uruks that survive their encounter with Talion will remember this when Talion combats them again; for example, an Uruk who was thrown into a fire by Talion might want revenge on him for being disfigured.

Synopsis

Setting

The game takes place in the 60-year gap between the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. The family of Talion (voiced and motion captured by Troy Baker), a ranger of Gondor responsible for guarding the Black Gate of Mordor, is killed by the armies of Sauron, but Talion is revived with "wraith-like abilities" and heads into Mordor to exact his revenge. Mordor is not yet a barren wasteland in this story. The player will encounter Gollum (voiced by Liam O'Brien). Talion discovers that the wraith who revived him is Celebrimbor (voiced by Alastair Duncan), the greatest Elven smith master of the Second Age, who also seeks revenge against Sauron.

Plot

Celebrimbor, the Elf ruler of Eregion escapes the clutches of Sauron, The Necromancer who tricked Celebrimbor into forging the One Ring, disguising himself as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. With his kingdom in ruin, and family in chains, Celebrimbor uses the one ring to re-forge his fate, defeat Sauron and claim Mordor. Taking Sauron's army, Celebrimbor and Sauron battle until the ring returns to his master. Sauron kills the former's family in front of him, then murders Celebrimbor with his own smithing hammer. Celebrimbor is banished from death and becomes a wraith, awaiting to merge to have revenge.

Talion, a ranger captain, serves within a Gondorian garrison stationed at the Black Gate of Mordor. The garrison is attacked by Sauron's Orc forces led by three Black Númenórean captains; the Hammer of Sauron (John DiMaggio), the Tower of Sauron (J. B. Blanc), and their leader, the Black Hand of Sauron (Nolan North). Talion, his wife Ioreth (Laura Bailey), and his adult son, Dirhael, are captured and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor. However, Celebrimbor (who suffers from amnesia due to his centuries as a wraith) instead merges with Talion, preventing him from dying alongside his family. Talion and Celebrimbor then depart to both uncover Celebrimbor's identity—increasing his/their power—and avenge the death of Talion's family.

Over the course of their travels, Talion and Celebrimbor encounter Gollum multiple times, who is wandering Mordor in search of his "Precious". Gollum possesses the ability to see and speak with Celebrimbor due to his prior contact with the One Ring, and pledges to serve the "Bright Master". Hoping that Celebrimbor might lead him to the One Ring, Gollum leads Celebrimbor to relics of his past, each of which restore parts of his lost memories. Celebrimbor gradually recalls how Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, deceived him into forging the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor ultimately assisted Sauron in forging the One Ring, but was able to steal it from him. Celebrimbor proclaimed himself the Bright Lord of Mordor and raised an army of Orcs against Sauron. However, the Ring ultimately betrayed Celebrimbor and returned to Sauron. Sauron then punished Celebrimbor by executing his wife and daughter and, finally, by killing him with his own smithing hammer.

In his search for the Black Hand, Talion allies himself with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads a community of Gondorian outcasts choosing to settle in Mordor, and Ratbag the Coward (Phil LaMarr), an Orc who offers to bring Talion closer to the Black Hand in exchange for his assistance in military hierarchy. Talion helps Ratbag ascend the ranks to the level of warchief by killing each of his immediate superiors, finally becoming Warchief himself. Talion then goes after the other Warchiefs in Udun, weakening Sauron's forces in that area. Soon enough, Hirgon has a plan to draw out the black captains. Using acquired grog and blasting powder, Talion helps the Outcasts destroy a statue dedicated to Sauron. Instead of the Black Hand answering the "message", the Hammer of Sauron is sent, promptly executing Ratbag for not answering his duties to kill the ranger. Talion and The Hammer then face off, with a pack of Uruk joining the fight, but The Hammer is ultimately defeated.

Talion is then sought out by the warrior Lithariel, the daughter of Queen Marwen, who claims to be able to assist Celebrimbor with his mission. Marwen is the ruler of Núrn, a kingdom of sea raiders located in the south of Mordor. She uses prophetic powers to guide Talion and Celebrimbor to another of Celebrimbor's relics. Talion also gets help from a Dwarf hunter named Torvin, teaching Talion the ways of the hunt to dominate Caragors and Graugs (beasts native to Mordor), eventually fighting a massive Graug from Torvin's past who killed Torvin's hunting partner, later revealed to be his brother. Later, Marwen advises them to use Celebrimbor's powers to take control of an army of orcs and other beasts, using them to lead an assault against Sauron. Talion eventually realizes that the wizard Saruman is possessing Marwen, and assists Lithariel in freeing her from his control. Talion, however, still carries out Saruman's plan, leading an army of mind-controlled orcs in an assault against the Black Hand's stronghold at Ered Glamhoth. However, rather than the Black Hand, Talion finds the Tower of Sauron waiting for him. The two battle and Talion emerges victorious after viciously stabbing the Tower to death with his son's sword.

Talion then travels to the Black Gate for a final confrontation with the Black Hand. The Black Hand quickly incapacitates him with a spell that also restores the last of Celebrimbor's memories. He then kills himself as part of a ritual that forces Celebrimbor to depart from Talion and merge with himself. This allows Sauron to possess the Black Hand's body and incarnate in physical form. However, Celebrimbor is able to briefly paralyze Sauron from within, allowing Talion to destroy Sauron's physical form. With the Black Hand dead, Celebrimbor wishes to depart for Valinor. Talion instead convinces him to stay and attempt to overthrow Sauron. Gazing at Mount Doom, Talion declares his intention to forge a new Ring of Power.

Development

The development of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor took approximately three years and began in late 2011. The game's lead developer is Monolith Productions, who had experiences working on a Middle-earth game with Guardians of Middle-earth, a multiplayer online battle arena game that was released in 2012. According to the game's design director, Michael de Plater, the game was in parallel development with Guardians of the Middle-earth, and the development of Shadow of Mordor is handled by a completely separate team. Shadow of Mordor was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, who had previously published several popular and critical-acclaimed licensed titles such as the Batman: Arkham series of games. The game is designed by Michael de Plater, who had previously worked with The Creative Assembly on Rome: Total War and Ubisoft on Tom Clancy's EndWar and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

Shadow of Mordor is the company's first third-person open world video games for the eighth generation consoles: PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Therefore, the game's designer, Michael de Plater, considered the game's development a very educational experience for the studio. As the company's first attempt on the genre, many core mechanics were built from scratch. In addition, the company took inspirations from other successful and well-received video games. The team noted the Batman video games created by Rocksteady Studios as one of their biggest inspirations. For instance, these games inspired Shadow of Mordor's basic stealth and the free-flow combat mechanics. They picked those titles as they considered them to be an example to follow for how to handle a licensed title correctly.

[Sports games] are designed that if there's a failure through the mid-season you don't rewind to the last save and start playing again from that point, as much as you potentially wish you could.

—Michael de Plater, Creative Director of Monolith Productions

The signature feature of the game is the Nemesis system. The team at Monolith considered themselves experts at artificial intelligence and would like to continue to push its boundaries. Wanting to allow players to choose and decide their story, as the considered it one of the major pillars in building a sandbox game, and to "leverage the new generation hardware through innovation", the team wanted to create a system that allows non-playable characters to respond to players' action. The idea later became the Nemesis system. The idea of the system was frame-worked three months after the start of the game's development, and in order to give the system a good presentation, everyone in the studio was involved in it. They hoped that through the system, orcs can be made memorable for players. The system was made further complex in the early phrase of the game's development, such as including the personal relationship between orcs. The feature was later pared down as the studio considered it over-complicated. The nemesis system is inspired by some pen-and-paper role-playing game as well. While most orcs are more of the same, some of the orcs are designed to have weird behaviors and patterns. These orcs also have their own dialogue, written by Dan Abnett. The team hoped that these special orcs can surprise players. The team also hoped that the system can deliver an experience similar to that of a multiplayer game: tension and competition. As a result, the studio drew inspirations from sports game, in which narrative continues even though players fail at a match. This method can prevent immersion and narrative from being broken when players die in the game. According to Rob Roberts, the system is designed so that players can emotionally attached to the protagonist through gameplay drama.

The game bridges the gap between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as the team wanted to show the iconic elements of the universe without being unoriginal. The game's environment is inspired by both the books and the films. Despite that, several areas, like Udûn and the Sea of Nurnen were re-imagined. Phil Straub, the game's art director, considered the most important part of creating the game's world to be maintaining consistency with the lore and to present "something visually new" that is realistic and corresponds with real-world environments. As a result, the team intentionally did not put too many fantasy elements in the game's world. When depicting volcanic activities, the studio sent a team to Eastern Washington and the Columbia River plateau to take pictures of a real volcano. When creating other parts of the game's world, they inspected photos of Iceland and New Zealand, as well as the yellow stone found across the world. As the game is set prior to the events of The Lord of the Rings series, the game's landscape is not as post-apocalyptic as the aforementioned series. Environments also varied in terms of weather, lighting, and atmosphere.

The game's story is standalone and original instead of replicating the plot of the movies. Early in the game's development, the team approached and consulted Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, who advised them not to develop a movie tie-in. According to de Plater, the story aimed to create a character-driven story, so as to be "authentic" to the themes established by Tolkien. The game was written by Christian Cantamessa, who was the lead-writer and lead-designer on Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption. According to Roberts, the story is designed to be accessible for all players, regardless of whether they are familiar with the franchise or not. It is achieved by creating natural interactions and believable relationship between characters. The game's protagonist is Talion, a half-human, half-wraith being which is inspired by Boromir. Torvin was originally proposed to be the game's playable character, but the idea was later scrapped. The wraith is later revealed to be Celebrimbor, the creator of the Rings of Power. According to the development team, the team picked Celebrimbor because they thought that the character's backstory was interesting enough to expand the canon's authenticity and that it could allow the team to write a story surrounding "power", one of the major themes of the game. Another important component when creating the game's story is the tone of the game, which was described as "soul-crushing" by De Plater. A way for the team to create a dark atmosphere is to introduce dark humor to the game, which can be reflected by the characters' dialogue and voice-acting. The development of such feature is handled by Dan Abnett, who had previously worked on books related to the Warhammer universe that is set in a "dark and gritty" universe. The team also hired David Salo, a linguist who worked on the languages of Tolkien for the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, to develop the language for Orcs called Black Speech.

In order to prevent adding inaccuracies to the game's world, Monolith consulted several Tolkien scholars from Warner Bros.. The company also collaborated with Weta Workshop, Jackson's design company, to work on the game's special effect and scenery items. When depicting the game's other characters which is already well-established in the series, the company partnered with Middle-earth Enterprises, the franchise rights holder, to prevent them from being misused and to prevent contradictory between the game's story and the original story written by Tolkien.

Monolith only focused on the development of the game's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. As a result, the development duties for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were outsourced to Behavior Interactive. While the game's core gameplay mechanics, story and narrative remain unchanged in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports, some of the features, like the Nemesis system, would be downsized and would not be as complex as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. According to the game's developer, the feature is too huge for the older consoles to handle.

File:Waterphone bowing.jpg

Waterphones were used during the game's soundtrack development.

The music in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was composed by Garry Schyman and Nathan Grigg. A soundtrack album was released digitally by WaterTower Music on September 30, 2014. When designing the game's music, the team used a variety of musical sound design tools, whose effects synchronize with other aspects of the game, such as players' actions and enemies movements. When composing for the game's combat, the team used waterphones and spring drum.

Release

In August 2013, an artist leaked that Monolith Productions was working on a new AAA title, separate from Guardians of Middle-earth. On November 12, 2013, it was announced that the game was titled Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The title was already set to be released on October 7, 2014, but was later pushed forward to be released on September 30, 2014 in North America and October 3, 2014 in the United Kingdoms due to "fans' excitement", according to Warner Bros. Despite that, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game was delayed to November 18, 2014 in North America and November 21, 2014 in Europe.

A Special Edition of the game, which contains multiple in-game items and a steelbook, was unveiled on August 1, 2015. A Game of the Year edition was announced on April 29, 2015. The edition bundled the full game as well as all the downloadable content released for the game. It was released on May 5, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

On December 16, 2014, the downloadable content (DLC) Lord of the Hunt was released. It follows an additional storyline revolving around Torvin, and includes new runes, skins, and bosses. Lord of the Hunt received mixed reviews from critics upon launch.

The final DLC of Shadow of Mordor, The Bright Lord is set 3000 years before the main campaign, allowing players to take control of Talion's companion Celebrimbor. The DLC adds a new chapter to Shadow of Mordor, in which players can complete ten more missions and fight the enemy leader, Sauron. The expansion was released on February 24, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Reception

Critical reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	(PC) 86.67% (PS4) 86.55% (XONE) 85.82%
Metacritic	(XONE) 87/100 (PC) 84/100 (PS4) 84/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	6/10
Eurogamer	8/10
Game Informer	8.25/10
GameSpot	8/10
GamesRadar+
GameTrailers	8.7/10
Giant Bomb
IGN	9.3/10
Joystiq
PC Gamer (US)	85/100
Polygon	9.5/10

Awards

Publication	Award
Game Developers Choice Awards	Game of the Year
GameSpot	Game of the Year
Giant Bomb	Game of the Year
Joystiq	Game of the Year

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received positive reviews upon release. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 86.67% based on 9 reviews and 84/100 based on 17 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 86.55% based on 57 reviews and 84/100 based on 85 reviews and the Xbox One version 85.82% based on 11 reviews and 87/100 based on 12 reviews.

The game's core feature, the nemesis system, received critical acclaim. Lucas Sullivan from GamesRadar thought that the introduction of the system elevated the game to excellence, and that he thought such system makes every villain memorable and personal, while adding personality to the game's protagonist. Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb echoed similar statement, and he thought that the system created lots of distinctive characters. In addition, Shoemaker thought that the system constantly generated side-content for players, effectively extending the game's longevity. Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski thought that the existence of this system made the experience of every playthrough unique, and that it had helped the game to establish its own identity, and hence, made the game stand out among other action games. However, Chris Carter from Destructoid found the system gimmicky, as he thought that the system failed to create any unique villains. He thought that the system only added different appearances and weaknesses to different villains, but did not add any real personality to them.

The combat of the game was considered excellent by most critics. Both Shoemaker and Sliwinski compared it to the rhythm-based combat system of the Batman: Arkham series of games, and both of them found it engaging and fluid. Shoemaker praised the game's combat variety, and that when the combat system mixed with the nemesis system, it would create "a specific kind of chaotic, emergent nonsense" that every player wanted to experience in an open world game. Both Sliwinski and Shoemaker thought that even without the nemesis system, the combat system alone would make the game a compelling experience. Despite that, Matt Miller from Game Informer found the game's excessive focus on "killing" led the system to become repetitive, and thought that the system failed to capture the charm of its inspirations like Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham. In contrast, Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot considered that the combat system of Shadow of Mordor a refinement and an improvement.

The game's story's reception is not as positive as other aspects. Shoemaker and Sliwinski praised it, and considered the tone of it "dark". Despite that, Shoemaker found some of the story elements, like the introduction of Gollum, forced, and added only to appeal to a certain audience. Miller thought that the game's plot was ended in a very loose way, as multiple threads failed to connect to each other in the game's later stages. Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot also found the game's story erratic, and that it was further dragged down by many anti-climatic fights and scenes. Dan Stapleton from IGN thought that the story introduced many creative and memorable characters, despite calling it a non-sense for fans of the series. He also added that his interest in exploring the game's story died down towards the end of the game. Carter was disappointed by the plot. He thought that it was too generic, which he summarized as "go here, kill this, draw out this big bad, then kill him for your family". Carter added that the game failed to add anything new to the universe, and that the stories of the game's side-missions are more interesting than that of the main campaign.

The game's other aspect received praise. Sullivan praised the Lord of the Rings' lore featured in the game, and thought that the amount of collectibles found in the game "staggering". Miller thought that Monolith's act of putting an extensive amount of lore to the game an admirable approach. The game's audio received acclaim. Miller thought that the game's soundtrack memorable, and that the game marked a high quality of voice-acting. Stapleton shared similar thoughts and applauded the game's voice acting.

Some elements of the game, however, received criticism. Sullivan found some side-missions repetitive, while Sliwinski considered that some of the game's boss battles disappointing. Miller thought that some features are too complex and inaccessible for new players or players who are unwilling to deploy any strategy. Critics also have varied opinions on the longevity of the nemesis system. Miller thought that the system fall flat in the game's final hours, while VanOrd thought that the system did not appeal until players finish the first half of the game. Carter found the unskippable cutscenes which played every time after the player dies annoying.

Unlike current-gen versions, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version received mostly mixed-to-negative reviews with many criticisms directed towards the technical issues featured. Thomas Morgan from Eurogamer cited that the game failed to achieve a reasonable standard in term of frame rate, while Yannick LeJacq from Kotaku noticed many "many technical hiccups and glitches". Morgan thought that the game's developer spent little effort on the port, while LeJacq questioned the need to release this game on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The game is also well-received among other members of the industry. Ken Levine, the creator of the BioShock series, thought that the game was the first open world game to feature a non-linear story and narrative. He also said that he would bring certain elements from this game to his upcoming sci-fi themed project.

Sales

The game's release marked the biggest launch for a Lord of the Rings-based game. The game debuted at No. 2 in the UK retail software sales chart in its first week of release, only behind FIFA 15. The game was the ninth best selling game in the United States in October 2014.

Controversy

Upon the announcement of the game, Monolith was accused by Charles Randall, a former Ubisoft employee, of using assets such as the codes for animation of the protagonist from Assassin's Creed II. Monolith later responded by saying that all the assets for the project were developed from scratch, and that they are very confident with their originality. They further added that the game is developed and based upon the Nemesis System.

In October 2014, whereas traditional video game review outlets were unable to obtain early access to the video game, John Bain (known as "TotalBiscuit") revealed that YouTube personalities had been offered early access to the game in exchange for agreeing to a restrictive contract which required them to be positive about it; Jim Sterling, then still at The Escapist, obtained a copy of one of the contracts and analysed it in detail. United States Federal Trade Commission rules require paid promotional deals on YouTube to be disclosed.

Awards

List of awards and nominations for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Award Category Receiver Result Ref. Game Critics Awards Best of E3 2014 Best of Show Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Nominated Best Console Game Nominated Best RPG Nominated Best of Gamescom 2014 Best Console Game Sony PlayStation Nominated Best PC Game Nominated 2014 The Game Awards Game of the Year Nominated Best Performance Troy Baker as Talion Nominated Best Action/Adventure Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Won GamesRadar's Game of the Year 2014 Game of the Year 4th Place Best Action-adventure Game Won Kotaku Awards 2014 Biggest Surprise Of The Year (Reader’s Choice) Won GameSpot's Game of the Year 2014 PlayStation 4 Game of the Year Won Xbox One Game of the Year Won PC Game of the Year Nominated Game of the Year Won Game of the Year (People's Choice) 2nd Place USA Today's 10 best video games of 2014 Best Game of 2014 3rd Place Game Revolution's Best of 2014 Awards Most Surprising Game Won Best Action-Adventure Game Nominated Best Publisher Warner Bros. Nominated Ars Technica's The 20 best games of 2014 Game of the Year Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor 10th Place Hardcore Gamer's Best of 2014 Awards 2014’s Dark Horse Nominated Best Action Game Won Best Multiplatform Game Nominated The Troy Baker Award Troy Baker as Talion Nominated Game of the Year Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Nominated Giant Bomb's 2014 Game of the Year Awards Best Debut Won Best Game Won GameTrailers's Best of 2014 Awards Best Action/Adventure Nominated Destructoid's Best of 2014 Best Game Mechanics of 2014 Won Game of the Year 2014 Community Choice Award 6th Place The Escapist Awards Best Action/Adventure of 2014 Won Game of the Year Nominated Polygon's Game of the Year Game of the Year 4th Place Electronic Gaming Monthly's Best of 2014 Game of the Year 3rd Place Joystiq's Top 10 of 2014 Game of the Year Won Eurogamer's Reader's top 50 games of 2014 Reader's top 50 games of 2014 4th Place Game Informer Best Of 2014 Awards Best Action Won Best Action (Reader's Choice) Won Game of the Year (Reader's Choice) 3rd Place IGN's Best of 2014 Best Overall Game Nominated Best PS4 Game Won Best Xbox One Game Nominated Best PC Game Nominated Best Action-Adventure Won Best Action-Adventure (Reader's Choice) Won Most Innovative Won Most Innovative (Reader's Choice) Won IGN AU's Black Beta Select Awards Best PC Game Nominated Best Console Game Won Game of the Year Nominated 17th Game Developers Choice Awards Game of the Year Won Innovation Award Nominated Best Design Nominated Best Narrative Nominated Best Technology Nominated 11th British Academy Video Games Awards Best Game Won Game Design Won Game Innovation Nominated Music Nominated 18th DICE Awards Best Game Nominated Outstanding Achievement in Animation Won Outstanding Achievement in Story Won Outstanding Technical Achievement Won Outstanding Innovation in Gaming Won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design Won Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction Won Outstanding Character Talion Won SXSW Gaming Awards Game of the Year Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Nominated Excellence in Technical Achievement Nominated Excellence in Gameplay Won Excellence in Animation Won Excellence in Design and Direction Won 2015 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards Game of the Year Nominated Animation, Technical Won Art Direction, Fantasy Nominated Control Design, 3D Won Direction In A Game Cinema Nominated Lighting/Texture Nominated Performance In A Drama, Supporting Phil LaMarr as Ratbag Won Sound Editing In A Game Cinema Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Won Sound Effects Nominated Game Franchise, Action Won Game Audio Network Guild Audio of The Year Nominated Music of The Year Nominated Sound Design of the Year Nominated Best Dialog Nominated Best Original Instrumental “Fort Morn” Nominated

External links

• Official website