Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's "Nemesis system" was great—so great that we wondered why it hasn't been more exhaustively ripped off by other games. Monolith revealed earlier this year that the system, which personalizes the game's procedurally-generated enemies to give it a greater sense of connection and continuity, is being expanded for the upcoming sequel, Shadow of War.
Today it announced that it's also going to let players take the worst of their enemies (and the most stalwart of their allies) with them from the old game to the new one, thanks to a Shadow of Mordor update called Nemesis Forge.
To use it, just fire up up Shadow of Mordor and select the Nemesis Forge game mode. Assuming you've played it enough to have some bad blood, the game will automatically sort through and select your highest-ranked Nemesis, and also your most loyal Orc follower, and make them available for import into Shadow of War when it comes out.
The Steam listing states that Nemesis Forge is "available only with purchase of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War on PC," but that appears to be a poor bit of phrasing rather than actual exclusivity, since the Nemesis Forge is in fact available to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players as well.
To mark the release of the update, and maybe convince a few newbies to give it a shot, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is free to play until July 9. The Game of the Year edition, which includes The Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord missions, the Trials of War challenge series, and additional Warband Missions, Runes and Skins, is also on sale for $4/£3/€4 until July 10.
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