How Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor stays true to Tolkien’s fantasy universe

It’s not easy to follow in J.R.R. Tolkien’s footsteps. The legendary author is responsible for creating Middle-earth and the thousands of years of history behind it. It seems like the perfect backdrop for a video game, but wading through that wealth of knowledge is incredibly tricky. No one wants to be known for botching the legacy of The Lord of the Rings.

That’s the impression I had after talking to Bob Roberts, the lead designer of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, which comes out Sept. 30 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (Nov. 18 for PS3 and Xbox 360). The folks at developer Monolith Productions are huge fans of the books and films, so they obviously knew what they were getting into. But making sure that their ambitious third-person action game works and plays smoothly was just one part of their job.