Q. How many names are there for the Orcs?
We have scores of names and titles within the game and when you combine those, we have thousands and thousands of names within the game for players to experience.
Q. Is the main character a new face to LotR or are you using a pre-existing character?
He's actually both. We have Talion who's a Ranger of the Black Gate who is unique to our story but we also have Celebrimbor who is a character that is existent in the lore. He's actually the guy that created the Rings of Power.
Q. If there is an ecosystem in Mordor, will there be herbivores for predators to hunt that you can also mount?
Who needs herbivores when you have amazing predators that are running around in Mordor that you can actually mount and kick some serious Uruk butt?
Q. I know you can control enemies with your wraith powers, but what about bosses and chieftans?
Well absolutely. You can definitely control warchiefs and captains and that's actually key to building your army to ultimately take on Sauron.
Q. How long will the game be?
With the Nemesis System being a big component of our game, playtime can vary greatly between player and player but our campaign has play-tested at around 30 hours.
Q. There are many ways to handle the Nemesis System, though is it possible to dominate every single Orc we come across?
Well yes, it's actually possible to dominate every single Orc that you come across but that would be super, super difficult. I've tried it, and it's not easy.
Q. Will there be a large weapon/armor variety?
There's definitely a good weapon and armor variety. Basically what we offer is we have three weapons: We have Talion's dagger, we have his sword, and we have Celebrimbor's bow and then even within those weapons there's a fairly deep progression that allows for good growth for the player.
Q. Are Orcs the only enemies in the game or will Humans and Elves make an appearance?
We've got lots of cool characters that are going to make an appearance. We have Elves, we have Humans, we have a blustery Dwarf, we have Gollum. Lots and lots and lots of cool touch points to the lore and lots of interesting deliveries of their characters to the narrative.
Q. How far do you have to be in the game ti you can start branding enemies?
That power is unlocked somewhere around the half-way point in the game when you meet Queen Marwen.
Q. Will there be any kind of multiplayer/co-op mode?
No, but we do have a really cool thing called "Vendettas" where you can avenge your friend's death in your game.
Q. How did you guys go about designing the world of Shadow of Mordor?
Well obviously we're super big fans of the lore. We certainly looked at the films and Peter Jackson's visions. We also went back and looked at all of the illustrations and conceptual designs that have been done within the lore. But for there, what we really wanted to do, was we wanted to do was we wanted to show Mordor during a time of transition because obviously our story takes place between 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' and one of the few big words or "tag-words" that we used were (A) Authenticity, we also really tried to approach it as if it was a true historical piece. So what does that mean? Well with the new-generation hardware and what that's all capable of, the ability to get this level of highly-realistic presentation is now possible. So with the world we looked at influences from Yellowstone National Park, we looked at influences from Iceland, we looked at influences from New Zealand, but even more interestingly we actually went and did some on-location shoots in Eastern Washington. I don't know if a lot of people know this, but Eastern Washington is a very, very volcanic area. There's an area called the "Colombia River Plateau" which was very volcanic. Many, many thousands of years ago there were some great floods so obviously this area was fertile ground as far as how we developed some of the visuals that you see in the different worlds in the game. The other component to our development was utilizing Weta so very early on we worked with them to try to understand their development process and really wanted to leverage them to help bring that authenticity to the presentation of the world. But going down even to the microscopic level, when we were looking at these locations, and volcanic locations, and the type of sediment and Geography, we were very, very conscious of trying to ensure that the rock types that we used were consistent with that type of Geology; the foliage that was used was very consistent with that type of Geology; the architecture that was presented in the world was very consistent. So we definitely wanted to present the world that people know and love and in many cases, a lot of the locations that we show, people have never really seen or absolutely have never had the chance to run around in and really was excited about the opportunity of delivering that immersive experience in a place that people are familiar with. Or maybe not familiar with, either way. But the goal was immersion; the goal was authenticity, a heightened sense of realism, and making it feel as if it was a historical piece.
