Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is gonna let you play as a ghost, and we talked to the developer about it.
Monolith, the studio responsible for the open-world take on The Lord of the Rings lore, is preparing The Bright Lord downloadable content. This new add-on will enable players to experience the game as Celebrimbor, the shimmering forger of the Rings of Power who accompanied you through the main quest. Only in The Bright Lord, you won’t shimmer because Monolith is taking you back to Celebrimbor’s heyday of the Second Age. Unfortunately, that means a certain all-powerful force of darkness is also corporeal and aching for a fight.
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All of this comes with a new campaign that will span 10 story missions and culminate in a head-to-head fight with the Dark Lord Sauron himself.
Additionally, players will have new, higher-level Warchiefs to fight again, as well as the ability to play as Celebrimbor in the main campaign and in a challenge mode.
That’s a bunch of new stuff, and it made us want to ask Monolith a few questions. Here’s our quick chat with producer Michael de Plater about The Bright Lord:
GamesBeat: How do you keep DLC interesting to players who have already spent hours in the game?
Michael de Plater: It’s great for people who have spent hours in the game. The challenge level is increased, the enemies are tougher and more numerous, and the new skills around the One Ring change up the combat.
GamesBeat: What sorta hooks do you use to get people back into the game after maybe putting it down for a few weeks?
de Plater: Basically, this DLC is the result of getting to see fan feedback. It’s a balanced, optimized, and really fun version of our combat and our sandbox.
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GamesBeat: When you’re building something like DLC for a game like this, is your first concern making something that gamers will like or something that will be interesting for Tolkien superfans?
de Plater: For a game, the first concern is gamers — then we have to ensure that the love of the lore comes through in our attention to detail and [that] the authenticity of Middle-earth is respected. I think it’s something we’ve tried hard to balance. But the game comes first.
GamesBeat: What is the big feature in the DLC that you wish you could’ve put in the main game?
de Plater: The epic final boss fight. We learned so much during the course of development that it was great to be able to put that into practice.
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GamesBeat: What’s it like designing a boss fight with Sauron? Is there pressure to make him seem extremely strong and powerful to the point where it could frustrate players?
de Plater: Yes, we may have even gone a bit too far in terms of making him challenging. We did balance The Bright Lord for people who may have finished the main game and are looking for an extra challenge.