Monolith’s Middle Earth Games (Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War) had a unique mechanic that the game was built around, this being dubbed The Nemesis System. This is such a unique system and makes the duology stand out from other open world action games.
The Nemesis System is a dynamic and adaptive gameplay mechanic that creates a hierarchy of enemy orcs with distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, and allows players to interact with and manipulate this hierarchy as they progress through the game.
Every enemy orc that the player encounters can potentially become a “Nemesis,” a powerful foe that remembers the player’s actions and can evolve over time. The Nemesis System generates a wide variety of unique orcs with their own names, appearances, abilities, and behaviors. Orcs can gain power and become more formidable by defeating the player or other NPCs, and they can also develop grudges or form alliances with other orcs based on their interactions with the player (which are 100% always bloody)
The Nemesis System allows players to forge personal rivalries or alliances with specific orcs, creating memorable and unique gameplay experiences. Players can encounter orcs who have previously defeated them, seek revenge on orcs who have killed their allies, or use orcs as pawns to achieve their own goals.
You are basically engaging in guerilla warfare all the time.
The games thrive off memorable moment-to-moment encounters with these Orcs that remember you and react to you. I love it when I burn an Orc to death and he comes back charred and even uglier than before as he seeks revenge. This makes for some interesting encounters which can leave players in a pickle when some Orcs get too overpowered and they need to be humbled or removed from the board completely.
It is a shame that they patented this mechanic as it would fit so well in other games but it is good to know that it will be baked into their upcoming Wonder Woman game which could make for an interesting play.
If you want a unique exprience, try these games out!
