Anyone who reads My Dpad knows I’m a big fan of Game Pass. One of the games available on PC Game Pass is Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the sequel to Shadow of Mordor. Unfortunately, it takes up a whopping 98GB of space to install, and the first few minutes didn’t click with me when I first tried the game a few months ago. As a result, I deleted the game and didn’t think about it again until recently.
To be specific, I recently rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the millionth time and remembered that the game was still on Game Pass. Biting the install size bullet, I decided to give the game another try, and I sure am glad I did. It’s an excellent action-adventure game, and the Mordor setting is very well-realized. However, after playing for a bit, I realized something. I had already played this game in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Of course, Middle Earth: Shadow of War came out three years before AC Origins, so I’m not suggesting that the game was inspired by AC Origins. In fact, I’m suggesting the opposite. Assuming that Middle Earth: Shadow of War is pretty much the same as its sequel, I’m suggesting that Ubisoft was inspired by Shadow of War when they (essentially) rebooted Assassin’s Creed in Origins.
For one, the Phylakes (bounty hunters) in Assassin’s Creed Origins feel a lot like the captains in Shadow of Mordor/War. However, Ubisoft did not go all the way and incorporate the nemesis system. This is a shame, because it’s absolutely incredible.
Besides that, the gameplay loop feels very similar. Both games have “camps” of enemies that you can clear out, but you can always go back to kill those same enemies if you need to grind some XP. Both games have mainline quests, but they both let you wander around an open world, grinding XP for as long as you want. In addition, both games have towers/synchronization points which work as save/fast travel checkpoints that allow you to scout the surrounding area. Assassin’s Creed has these before the Origins reboot, so I guess this is a case of the Shadow of Mordor devs taking some inspiration from Ubisoft.
At the end of the day, I’m not saying that Ubisoft stole ideas from Shadow of Mordor or anything, because all game design is iterative, and no game is truly original. However, I do think that Ubisoft saw what the Shadow of Mordor devs did and implemented some of the best ideas into their reimagining of what Assassin’s Creed could be. Now if only they had implemented the nemesis system too…
