Shadow of Mordor not following movie-game formula, says designer

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor doesn't follow the typical movie-game formula and instead tries to bring something new to the table, according to lead designer Bob Roberts.

Many games based off movie licenses can struggle for success as they look to imitate what we see in film as closely as possible.

Shadow of Mordor will have no such problem, says Roberts, as it's telling a completely new story.

"What we're trying to do with Shadow of Mordor is make the best possible game we can make and not follow the typical movie-game formula," he told ArabicGamers.

"We don't want to rehash the events of the books or the movies exactly, but tell a new story that's authentic to the lore.

"We're all huge fans of it and we want everything to be as accurate as possible but we want to bring something new to the table for fans of it as well."

Shadow of Mordor takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, giving us an insight into Sauron's return.

"We're filling in that gap between the events of The Hobbit and events of The Lord of the Rings entirely within Morder," he added.

"So it's about what happened when Sauron returned before he built his forces up and the LOTR trilogy ensued afterwards."

We'll be bringing you a preview of Shadow of Mordor and a video interview with Roberts in the coming weeks.