What they should do is make you play as an Orc thats invading the shire and you have to fight\inslave Hobbits.

That sounds pretty good. After thinking about it more, my idea would be an atmospheric first person horror game where you play as a Ranger of the North who is investigating the disappearance of some of his brethren in the wilderness. It would have a combat system with weight and consequence where you could suffer serious injury from a few bad moves. There would also be a detective element where you're examining clues in the environment and an inner monologue where the player character comments on his current situation. I would also want the developers to think of a way of representing the psychological effect that evil has on people in the world of Middle-earth that Tolkien writes about.

I don't know what location or time it would be set in though. Maybe Mirkwood? Or the Misty Mountains? I also don't know what the plot device would be that would have several rangers disappearing in the same place. Maybe it could be about scouts from Gondor instead, or elves from Mirkwood. Just something much smaller scale and intimate so that the retconning that's happening isn't as noticeable.

Will they.. actually let you fight the big bad this time?

I never figured out why the original was so widely regarded! It did kooky well though, makes sense we'd see a sequel. Good for Monolith!

About goddamn time!

Wardoor is probably gon be good.

@viking_funeral: No,it's Shadow of MordWar.

Ya'll ever heard of War in the North? It's puurdy good.

That game definitely had the feel of something miraculously salvaged from a bunch of different assets.

Hopefully a sequel will let them zero-in on the atmosphere and such.

Seems like they're done giving a fuuuuuuuuuuck about trying to fit it into the bigger trilogy, and I'm a-OK with that. I kept holding off buying Mordor for PS4 this year (played it on PC but never beat it) because I figured a sequel had to be right around the corner.

Yep! I played through it several times, so it would be a lie for me to say I didn't enjoy it. But I thought it suffered from the same problem that all other Lord of the Rings games have suffered from, namely that traditional video game ideas and mechanics don't mesh very well with the setting.

I only played Shadow of Mordor and watched the extended trilogy years ago. I didn't buy Shadow of Mordor because it was a Lord of the Rings game, I bought it because it looked like a good action game. I've no big attachment to the series. I couldn't even make it through the first Hobbit movie. I kind of wanna watch the extended Lord of the Rings again, but they're expensive and not on Netflix DVD.

I think Dragon's Dogma-ish would be interesting. I think it captures the fights with beasts you want and it has that "journey" like feel when you go out in to the world in that game. It could be done better, but yeah. Plus your party dynamic.

That's an open world game but I think that would be a good choice I think.

I'd prefer a new Condemned or F.E.A.R. from Monolith. No interest in LOTR

The name isn't great, but I love when a sequel doesn't just slap a 2 on the end.

I can't think of anything more overrated than the nemesis system. Maybe I just got unlucky, but none of the orcs ever become memorable in my game. It was just a bunch of randomly generated orcs that I murdered that were then replaced by more randomly generated orcs.

The game was fun enough to play, but I'd much rather they added the orcs to the actual story of the game and gave me a reason to care about any of them. Procedurally generated content is never as good as carefully constructed content.

I hope the open world feels a bit more like a world than just a neat game level, so we'll see. Oh and that post capitalizing expansion in "Story Expansions" is so weird to me too.

shoulda named it something like "orc slayer" or something cooler.

The obvious answer is a Cooking Mama game starring a hobbit.

I'm in.

But yes, the name sucks.

Shadow was easy as hell, but it was surprisingly fun. Hopefully this one's a bit more challenging to really emphasize the Nemesis feature.

@ripelivejam: I'd play that hahahaha

I have added the official trailer. Maybe this leak prompted them to put it out but who knows.

Also just spotted this image on the pre-order page for the game at GAME.

Shadow of Mordor was also a terrible name, I think that's the key to these games being good.

The teaser trailer is out.

I don't like that it's this guy again. He was bland in Shadow of Mordor. I'm disappointed that the alternate characters are part of the expansion. Probably mute skins again, who are referred to by the orcs as men regardless of their gender.

The consistency of the world-building is what makes Middle-Earth so appealing, it *is* a setting ripe for compelling media *if done right.* Lord of The Rings is the direct opposite of a power fantasy and this is exactly that. Why can't Talion use his ranger wits and smarts to outsmart and defeat the enemy? Because teleporting wraith powers! I get it, it's fine, it's just conceptionally and thematically completely messed up in relation to Tolkien. But perhaps that is more a Video Games problem in general and not a Shadow of Mordor thing. Killing and violence is something that features in most games, Lord of The Rings hated it.

Day one purchase.

I wonder if the first game sold well enough to get a sequel or if WB thinks the LOTR name and the good reviews are worthy of a second chance? Either way, cool!

So I'm slightly confused by the trailer. Did they just say that Talion and Celebrimbor built another ring of power? Did I miss something by not playing the DLC?

@zirilius: I guess you missed something by not finishing the first game? That was the whole setup for the sequel at the end.

I'm gonna have to watch the ending again because I don't remember that at all. I guess the story was that memorable to me even though I got a platinum trophy for that game. I remember the final boss battle being one of the most anti-climatic fights I have ever done.

Official now. I'm totally ready for another one of these.

Shadow of Wardor, damn someone beat me to it.
While i like all of the combat and the systems in place in the first game, overall i didn't enjoy it, running around an empty lifeless space endlessly killing orc generals who have specific annoying invincibilities which command how i play, it could be looked at as challenges to give the combat variety but it always felt like annoying brick walls, especially in some of the silly methods you'd have to use to kill someone. The times when multiple generals joined the fight with their random invincibilities were the worst.

Shadow of Lightning Storm War Rising Dawn: The Reckoning of Conquest Battleforged Warrior Heroes 3.

My biggest concern with this sequel is if they are going to fix the major issues I had with the game in regards to its difficulty. The game was just so unbelievably easy after the first 3 hours, and the Nemesis System might as well have not existed if you didn't actually die. I didn't die once in that game. Not even once. I didn't find out that time actually moves forward when you die and makes the orcs tougher until after I'd finished the game. I understand if people liked the power fantasy aspect of it, so for gods sake, put some difficulty options in the game. Hopefully this doesn't just translate to "Orcs do X more damage and take Y less damage".

One does not simply make a sequel to Shadow of Mordor.

Dumb name but I'm excited to play this.

The story was the only problem I had with the last game, and I still wish this had nothing to do with the Lord of the Rings. I just had difficulty believing, that this one man army would wreck shit in Mordor. I'm not even that big of a Tolkien fan.

Well I am looking forward to seeing what this is about but BOY is that cover hilarious.

2 things I hope for

1. The game is harder, and the upgrade system doesn't trivialize the entire game. It was too easy to remove the entire point of the nemesis system if you never died. Maybe also give orcs some agency outside of player controlled criteria.
2. They don't bungle the boss fights again. The Tower in the first game was such a cool design, but such a bad boss fight.

Also, it seems like maybe there are trolls, so hopefully they don't have their weird nottrolls and notwargs back if they can just have the real thing.

oh god it's the musou game i never knew i wanted...

I am down for whatever they do next, but I still think this being a LoTR game is a huge mistake.

Looks great!

@zirilius: The ending of Shadow of Mordor made me quite angry. Especially when the end-shot was basically 'Join me in the sequel'!

Also, i didn't expect Kerrigan to moonlight as the LOTR narrator lady :)

Oh wow. I saw this thread pop up yesterday but didn't look at it because I thought it was about a potential sequel that wasn't happening. Logged onto Steam today and there it is for pre-order on the front page!

I absolutely loved the first game. I don't know if the Mordor or Middle-Earth setting is interesting enough for another game, though. And I have been getting my orc-killing fix elsewhere lately. But I can say this looks potentially promising at least.

@onemanarmyy: @brad Kerrigan is basically God now and creates life via boning Ascended Jimmy; she can do what she wants.

Haha, such a low hype for a game this caliber.

So I rewatched the ending of Shadow of Mordor and man the whole concept of creating a new ring is literally the last line of dialog and not said in any memorable fashion. No wonder I forgot all about it and was completely confused.

I never really made the comparison to Kerrigan and now I can't unsee it.