Game:

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014)

Duration: 9:04

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We caught up with director of design Michael de Plater at a first look event for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor in London. We talk about the main character, his wraith side and of the Nemesis system.

We asked de Plater to explain to us more about how the world would react to us thanks to the new Nemesis mechanic: "As you grow in power and as we learn more of who the Wraith is you really you do actually gain the ability to take your enemies and bend them to your will."

"So basically you start building your own force, your own army to challenge your enemies with," de Plater continued. "So as we get later into the game not only can you take those enemies, bend them to your will because of the way that the open world works and the sandbox works, you can actually send them out to perform missions as well. So you can send them on assassination missions if you like, or you can send them on other missions in the sandbox so they can level up, or send them out to gather more followers and so on. So it really opens up more possibilities within the world, giving you more freedom in how you go after your targets and manipulate the world."

The director of design went on to explain what happened when enemies ranked up thanks to the new system: "Any enemy in the world, any grunt, through either killing the player perhaps or killing another orc, has the ability to get promoted. When they get promoted one the main things that'll happen is they'll grow in power and they'll continue to level up.... They can gain more strengths, so they can get very tough indeed. Plus they get assigned different jobs within Sauron's army, and that'll affect where you can find them in the world."

Most interestingly, de Plater revealed how the story and procedural Nemesis system would work together: "At certain points we really bring the story and procedural gameplay of the Nemesis system together. At some points, to advance the story, you have to eliminate/assassinate the war chiefs in this area. So we're sort of handing you from the story into the sandbox, and then playing in the sandbox and that advances the story and then we come back."

That even goes as far as the player's "arch enemy", who'll be created in reaction to how the player progresses: "We try to not make the two things totally separate [story and sandbox], but make them integrated and make them support each other. Ultimately out of the Nemesis system we really want you to make your ultimate arch enemy and take this guy who's actually procedurally created but put him back into the story in a way that's meaningful."


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