Shadow of Mordor's 'Nemesis' system scaling back for current-gen consoles

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is looking to debut a keen new Nemesis system to build your arch-enemy, but Monolith says that this feature likely won't make it into the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

Ozzie Mejia

February 20, 2014 4:00 PM

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The Lord of the Rings prequel Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor features some ambitious ideas, like its Nemesis system that essentially builds up an arch-enemy over the course of the game. But according to design director Michael de Plater, this feature likely won't make it into the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game fully intact.

The Nemesis system will have developer Monolith's vision of procedurally-generated nemeses fully realized on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. However, to fit the game onto current-gen consoles, the studio acknowledges that sacrifices need to be made.

"To break it down, some of the stuff we're pretty confident will still be very similar on current gen: the core mechanics, like combat, stealth, ranged and movements; the basic control and gameplay, that should all be really solid," de Plater told IGN. "What it won't have is the same level of depth and variety and simulation within the 'Nemesis system'. The story will be the same and the core gameplay will be the same, but [the 'Nemesis system' is] just so huge in terms of content, calculations and AI we'll just have to try and get as much of it in as we can."

While de Plater mentions focusing on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Shadow of Mordor, it's very likely that the Nemesis system will also make it to the PC version intact, as well. The game is set to hit PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later in 2014.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?