Design director Michael de Plater, of developer Monolith, has revealed the Nemesis sytem, featured in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, will be scaled back for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. While speaking to IGN, de Plater said their primary focus is on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. They intend to “get as much as possible” on the PS3 and Xbox 360, however. He said:
We’re very focused on the PS4 and Xbox One. We’re focusing on the next-gen platforms, and then going to do whatever we can to get as much as possible on current-gen.
To break it down, some of the stuff we’re pretty confident will still be very similar on current gen: the core mechanics, like combat, stealth, ranged and movements; the basic control and gameplay, that should all be really solid. What it won’t have is the same level of depth and variety and simulation within the Nemesis system.
The story will be the same and the core gameplay will be the same, but the Nemesis system is just so huge in terms of content, calculations and AI we’ll just have to try and get as much of it in as we can.
While it is nice to see developers putting some attention and focus on the next-gen systems (current-gen now?), it would be great for all those who remained on the older consoles to receive the same treatment.
I don’t know about you, but I intend to make use of the Nemesis System quite often. I’ll let as many bad guys go as the game allows me, simply to see how much stronger they get or how it influences the world. Hopefully this isn’t some kind of one-off thing the developers did where you rarely see anything really change or have many AI make use of the system.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is set to release this year, 2014, for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
