Yeah so I just finished Shadow of Mordor as we speak. Credits rolling before me and all. And I gotta say, that was a weird ending. The two last boss fights were extremely weak. I mean, I had built this super insane strong character, literally having all possible skill, ability and weapon upgrades, and I couldn't even use any of that on the two best villains of the game.
To me, the Tower of Sauron was criminally underused. That character was actually cool and menacing, and if you read his lore page in the codex thingy, that was pretty nasty actually. I'd love to see a insane boss fight with that character. The Hand of Sauron being a easy boss fight is understandable, given that I'm pretty sure he was meant to be a hella weak form of Sauron.
Anyway, the ending is not what I thought. I was certain Talion would die, because how the hell do they keep him alive? Sequels are the obvious answer, and I guess at some point they will have to kill him off. Or maybe not, actually. Remember how we literally hear nothing about the goings on way out east during the LOTR books and films? Yeah, they could just toss him in there. And they still have like 60 years before the events of LOTR to do what they want basically.
Finally, I was super excited to see the two blue Istari get mentioned several times. Considering they're AWOL during the events of both the books and the movies, I hope they somehow manage to incorporate them into the next game. The appendices (or Unfinished Tales? Can't remember) say that they were never seen or heard from after being sent to the distant east, so again that makes the distant east a strong contender for the next game. Let's hope they do that.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on a possible sequel?
EDIT:
As I'm reading about the Blue Wizards, I stumbled across this interesting piece of writing from JRR Tolkien himself.
"I think that they went as emissaries to distant regions, east and south, .... Missionaries to enemy occupied lands as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and "magic" traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron."
Wikipedia further states:
However, some of these changed in a text written in the last year or two of Tolkien's life (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth of 1996). They are said to have arrived not in the Third Age, but in the Second, around the year 1600, the time of the forging of the One Ring. Their mission was to travel to the east and weaken the forces ofSauron. And it is here said that the Wizards far from failed; rather, they had a pivotal role in the victories of the West at the end of both the Second and the Third Ages. At the same time, Tolkien considered the possibility that Glorfindel arrived back in Middle-earth along with the Blue Wizards. On this later, more positive interpretation, the Blue Wizards may have been as successful as Gandalf, just located in a different theatre beyond the borders of the map in The Lord of the Rings.[6]
Then there's this quote by Tolken:
Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion ... and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [?dissension and disarray] among the dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.
I'd say that fits just about fucking perfectly into this new series. Monolith, please use this opportunity.
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