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.
