Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor trailer shows off weapons and the violence that they cause

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After a familiar looking first trailer , WBGames have cleverly made the focus of Assassin's Creed: Fellowship's Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor's second trailer something completely removed from Ubisoft's most stabby series. Not weapons, blood and cinematic kill moves—they're all present and correct. Instead, it's a loot system that let's you upgrade those weapons with specific runes.

I quite like the sound of deliberately calling out an enemy in order to make them tool up with special gear, if just for the power fantasy of knowing you've got these heavily tooled-up orcs running scared.

It'll be interesting to see the effect these runes have on your combat ability. One of the reasons the game seems so heavily reminiscent of Assassin's Creed is its combat system. In the Ubisoft series, combat is more of a reflex mini-game, where correct presses are rewarded with lavish kills. Get the timing right, and even the most basic starter weapons can do terrible things to a skull. Hopefully, the presence of an upgrade system means Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor's combat is a different beast in practice.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is due out October 7th.

Phil Savage
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.