Shadow of Mordor: Are you in it for the long haul?

How many games in the Shadow of Mordor series do you think you will play?

Personally, my natural inclination is to assume four, but it is totally possible that with AC and Batman fatigue upping my early jaded level that it'll only be three games.

If I had to put money on it I'd say I'll enjoy the first two games, enjoy the third but not as much as I want to, and then play the fourth and fifth with less and less enthusiasm, then give up on a spin off between the full fifth and sixth game. It'll probably have an interesting gameplay hook, let's say playing as a Corsair of Umbar who is becomes a double agent of Gondor. So you'll pillage up and down the coast while secretly nudging things in the direction that Minas Tirth favors, and it'd be a different side of the world than you'd seen before and it would have unique ship based combat, but I think my interest would just peter out before I end up beating the game. After that I probably won't play anymore until it is rebooted in the next console generation.

So what about you, how long will you stick with this series?

They announced five sequels to Shadow of Mordor already?

Maybe it's just me but this sounds like a really boring and really cynical way to look at games...

I'll play any game that looks interesting to play.

That being said I'm not sure this game has a sequel announced.

It's kind of strange to assume it will be a "series" although I can see why you would. WB certainly wants a LOTR franchise to take off in games, and Monolith is no stranger to sequels. So, we'll see.

I will play them if they continue to look interesting to me. It's not really about what other franchises are similar, to me, as that presumes they're all doing exactly the same thing- which I don't really feel they do.

That's just my thoughts on it.

I think I'm going to wait and play the first game before I start making conjectures about possible sequels.

This is weird.

I'll be too busy messing around suiciding and buffing up dudes in the first game.

I assume this is supposed to be a long winded reference to how alike the game is in certain respects to Assassin's Creed.

I'm not fatigued by AC and Batman; as long as they're good games, I'm perfectly happy with it. Many would say Origins was lame out of the three, but for me personally, I enjoyed it more than City, as City was actually disappointing to me, and AC3 was also disappointing, but four came out and I really liked it. As for this series, if that's what we can call it already, I have no clue. I'm not sure I'll get it when it comes out, though I may. If it takes aspects from those games and does right by it, then I don't see why that's a bad thing, even if it may seem unoriginal. I hear they take a lot of those aspects and do them just as well or better in some cases. I have no idea about the future of it...

Sure, but the fact that you've had a lot of immersion with some of those systems simply means that some of the bloom is off the rose, and whereas if you made it happily through four games of AC or Rocksteady's Batman games you might have a bit of a built in tolerance that would make you less susceptible to the charms of the follow ups to Shadow of Mordor's follow ups as time goes buy. This is why I estimated the third game would be my peak experience. Even if it does them better you've still seen them far more than when you first picked up Arkham Asylum.

@mb: It's Lord of the Rings related, so you've gotta imagine they're going to kick that horse well after it's dead.

@darknessmyoldfriend: I understand that. Like I said, I don't know how I'll feel about sequels to it. That hasn't even come to my mind honestly. Whether I am interested in them or not right now isn't something I know, especially a third entry.

I bet Gamestop would still take your preorder money for unannounced games. Maybe not, but damn that would be funny.

Can we at least wait until the game is out before we start with nonsense like this?

This is weird and seems silly. Why not maybe enjoy the first game and wait and see if there's even ONE sequel? Good grief. Take a deep breath.

Oh that it were I had the money to approach gaming with this mindset. I can only afford to play games I know in my heart of hearts are something I'll love -- then it gets added to the ever-growing pile of games I know I'll love but haven't pulled the trigger on and purchased yet.

I'm content with just playing the one available to me now.

If it even becomes a series, I'll play the games that seem the most interesting to me at the time they release.

It's not rocket science.

That OP is just satire of the AC franchise, right?

(please?)

If you don't think this is an exact roadmap of the next 7 years of this certain-to-be-a-franchise then you are fooling yourself.

I hope this is the start of a 'Middle-earth' -series of games, rather than a 'Shadow of Mordor' -series of games. There isn't enough diversity to Mordor to be interesting for more than one game.

Make a game that looks interesting and that I enjoy playing and I will play it. I don't care if it's something new or if it's Assassin's Creed 50.

@darknessmyoldfriend:

I'm not so sure this will be a franchise because I think its financial success is still very much up in the air.

I'm actually really curious as to whether this is a satirical topic. Well done if it is, and if it's genuine I'd really like to hear more about your franchise fatigue predictions!

This is pretty clearly a jab at how similar Shadows of Mordor and AC seem, but from what I've seen of Mordor, there are a lot of awesome directions they could take the game, particularly if they continue exploring more emergent and open-ended features e.g., the nemesis system. I'd love to see more sequels; games like this are infinitely more appealing than shit like Destiny. It'd be pretty cool if they added some sort of overarching castle/town development (hopefully better implemented than AC3's homestead) which is tied to your progression. Taking over an old fortress and rebuilding it slowly would be pretty neat, I feel, and potentially having to defend against orc attacks or assassination attempts on your own life.

No need to be cynical yet, anyway. Shadows of Mordor looks like it's gonna bring a lot of interesting things to the table.

Well, I appreciate the effort you put into the post, anyway.

As a joke when I went to get Persona 4 on launch day I asked if I could preorder Persona 5 and they let me. Didn't take my money though just wrote my name down on a list.

I bet if you went in there to get the newest CoD or AC and wanted to preorder the next one they would take your money though.

I'd say the only one fooling themselves would be a person arbitrarily predicting the future and framing opinions around what doesn't exist. Especially if that person is comparing the life cycle of this (potential) series with the AC games that have nothing to do with it, and the Arkham franchise. which has had all good games all put out 2 years apart. Hardly overwhelming.

Judge a game based on itself. Nothing else matters.

Since the title of the game is Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor there's an excellent chance that's the road map, for sure.

Could annualize it as well, Middle Earth games and Shadow of Mordor games alternating every two years.

Unlikely. If the length of EA's license is any indication, WB still has four to five years left in their contract.

Which at most gives them two sequels.

And before people start pointing at Batman: WB owns DC Comics.

I'll probably skip the rushed third one, but find my interest reignited by the one where you get to captain an Oliphant voiced by Timothy Olyphant. Shut up. Eat yer lembas bread.

@gaff: They own LOTR as well. New Line is/was a subsidiary of Time Warner.

I cannot find anything about sequels being announced for this game let alone 5 sequels. I'm not the type of gamer who complains about sequels as long as they are good and worthy of my time. Assassins Creed 2 and Assassins Creed: Brotherhood came out really close to each other and those are two of my favorite games of the last generation. Either way, my copy gets delivered on Tuesday and I can't wait to play it. After the unimaginative and content lacking Destiny I need a good single player game with an actual story, even if it is just an OK story.

Well done OP. I laughed.

This is one of the worst threads ever.

Just reading the OP made me feel exhausted.

I'm in it to the end. I already got a tattoo.

I've made it this far, may as well see it to the end

I thought Assassin's Creed was boring after 2 games, I can't imagine this having more of a lifespan for me than that.

I don't think they're just going to let this nemesis system technology sit and rest, though. There will definitely be sequels (especially with the reviews they're getting).

This console launch has been disappointing, I need something good.

Well this seems silly

I don't look forward to more sequels, but I would love to see this game remind the whole industry that Game Mechanics >>> Call of Duty Scripted Set-Pieces. It'd be cool if there's a nemesis system in say, the next Sleeping Dogs.

I've decided to buy at least the first dozen entries into this series not including any iOS/Android or handheld tie-in releases.

That actually seems like it would be a pretty damn good fit, especially if it integrated the cultural face/honor stuff.

No.

Not having played the first game is this sudden long term franchise is a big reason why.

But also I wouldn't assume that an entire franchise would be good. I've been burned before even after a few good games in a series before the franchise suddenly fell off. There isn't a way to tell when the series will break bad so really, like with all games, you have to play it by ear. Read the reviews, watch the QLs, and find out if the next game out is something worth your money and time.

Dude. Dude??? Dude!? The first game isn't even out yet.

How the hell does anyone know how many of the next few games, if any, they will play. That's like asking a ten year old how many people they will have intercourse with over the next 10 years - damned if they know!

The number of people taking this thread seriously is pretty impressive.

@corruptedevil: I'm pretty sure the ownership of the Tolkien-verse lies with Middle-Earth Enterprises and the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien?

Well the film rights and related merchandise.

Do we even know if there is going to be a sequel? I mean... this strays so far from the middle earth lore that it seems more like a one shot than anything.

I think the 8th entry in the franchise will be the most dissapointing so far. Especially after they get their groove back with the seventh.