And since then? It hasn't been used.
Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor is perhaps best-known for its Nemesis system, a unique gameplay mechanic that provided personalities and desires for vengeance from lowly cannon fodder. As former WB Games executive Laura Fryer has recently revealed, the entire system — one that Warner Bros patented so other devs and publishers couldn’t use the mechanic — was created in response to the number of second-hand sales of Batman Arkham Asylum that WB was tracking.
According to Fryer in a new video, Arkham Asylum was “selling great” before the second-hand market took over. WB concluded that “more people were playing than paying” through these second-hand sales.
With the Middle-earth franchise, Fryer says that WB asked itself, “How do we create a single-player game that is so compelling that people keep the disc in their library forever?”
We weren’t as sold on the Nemesis system.
“When the game was being PR’d, I remember talk of a ‘complex Orc culture’. It is not complex. There are Orcs, and then there are Orcs with names who will spit a line of dialogue every now and then and have abilities and strengths and weaknesses that other Orcs and Uruks don’t have. These are champions. Champions may have bodyguards, or nemeses who want to see them dead,” Mark wrote in our Shadow of Mordor review.
“This sense of wasted time permeates through Shadow of War, and a glitchy Nemesis System is the biggest culprit,” I said of Shadow of War. “As in Shadow of Mordor, so many systems depending on one another can mean that things often go wrong, and quickly. In the midst of a stealth mission, an Orc Captain with expert detection skills managed to spot me – quite literally – from halfway across a gigantic castle. As he was a high-ranking member of Sauron’s army, the camera zoomed into him so he could deliver a 30-second soliloquy. As my mission threw up a fail state – I was spotted after all – I sighed and decided to make the best of the situation, moving in and fighting the baddie.”
Middle-earth‘s Monolith was closed last month, alongside the cancellation of Wonder Woman and shuttering of MultiVersus.
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.
