Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor - 8 Reasons To Be Excited

Slapping round minions looks like it's going to be a blast.

By Brian Chapman /

With the likes of Assassin€™s Creed, Batman and Tomb Raider proving that the third person open-world stealth genre is big business, it comes as no surprise that there is a new instalment courtesy of Monolith Productions and their second Middle-earth tie-in game. While there have been a number of such tie-ins over the last few years since Peter Jackson€™s original trilogy was released at the box office, so far only The Lord of the Rings: War In The North has been set outside of the events seen in the books. Shadow of Mordor looks set to continue that idea, with the plot placing the player between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The developers are using a little creative licence with the franchise as purists will argue that the Mordor seen in the game doesn€™t match the description of the barren land during the Third Age. However for those fans who are willing to let such deviations go, the chance to explore this unknown world will prove enticing. While the game will obviously hark back to the previously successful releases in the genre with elements included such as a wraith vision mode (which comes across as somewhat similar to the detective mode in the Arkham series), and of course Shadow of Mordor will have to include stealth elements and the like. But the developers have come up with some new and interesting advancements for their new release, especially the nemesis system. So here are eight reasons why you should look forward to the release, due to come your way on 7 October 2014...