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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Human ranger Talion and elf wraith Celebrimbor make a powerful duo against the evil Sauron, but they'll need the help of an unlikely ally to get the job done.
We saw a new area of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor focused on tracking down the strange, ring-loving Gollum. He wants the One Ring back from Bilbo Baggins and Celebrimbor needs a hand remembering what and who he was back when he was a living elf and not a weird ghost of vengeance.
The first task is to follow Gollum's trail, which can be seen as glowing blue tracks in the wraith world. Talion follows the trail up and down cliffs and notices that buildings that are ruins in the present day appear brand new in the wraith world. This will play into puzzles in the game somehow, but developer Monolith Productions isn't elaborating yet.
The trail leads to a monstrous Graug cave, which we're not equipped to deal with at this early point in the game. Talion looks around and shoots down some meat of some kind to draw the beast away and lure it into battle with other night predators. He dashes into the Graug lair while it's distracted to pick up Gollum's trail again.
They find some ancient blacksmith tongs and Talion sees a vision of Celebrimbor's past life. He was a fair, blonde elf who forged the rings of power alongside Sauron back when he was a normal guy as well. Those familiar with the source material already know that the deal goes south eventually and Sauron eventually tortures him to death. Hence the vengeance part.
Once the vision ends, the caves starts falling apart and enemies rush in. Here we see the first use of the Shadow Strike skill available in previous demos. Talion targets enemies in the wraith world and instead of shooting them with arrow teleports over and kills them up close. This allows him to move quickly out of the dangerous situation and helps complete the bonus objective of escaping the cave in under a minute.
Outside the cave, Gollum greets Celebrimbor as Bright Master recognizing him as the creator of his precious missing ring. Talion treats him rudely and Gollum responds in kind. Despite this, they agree to work together. Gollum suggests they find more ancient relics from Celebrimbor's time to jog his memory further and push the quest along.
The demo closes there, but Monolith promises that Celebrimbor and Sauron will meet up in the game and that it will be epic. The journey toward this goal begins September 30.
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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
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