Things have been pretty quiet since we last heard about Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, but an exclusive interview from Examiner's Game On blog is about to change that.
Although the full interview isn't slated to debut until Friday, Game On divulged some information from director Monolith's director of design Michael de Plater about Shadow of Mordor's setting.
"What was exciting for us about exploring Mordor as a setting is that it is simultaneously so iconic and central to Middle-earth at the same as being something of a mystery, especially at the time when our story begins when Sauron has been absent for millennia," de Plater said of the game's post-LOTR setting.
De Plater also says that Mordor looks a heck of a lot different 1,000 years after Sauron was vanquished by Frodo, Aragorn and friends:
"Iconic sites like the Black Gates, Barad-Dur and Mount Doom look very different to the blasted hell-scape seen by Sam and Frodo."
And lastly, we'll get a look at some areas that have never been seen before in Middle-earth:
"Additionally we get to travel deeper into Mordor to locations that have never been seen before in games," de Plater said. "This lets us explore Mordor as a real ecosystem and living world, answering questions such as how Sauron could feed his massive armies in a land where we have previously only seen arid plains of ash."
I'm still wondering just how they're going to pull off a Middle-earth game set so far after the events of the LOTR books and movies, but I'm slowly being sold. It definitely seems that Monolith has a good plan and a good game on the way.