Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game I was in no way anticipating, until I rolled out of bed one day and realized that it looks awesome. Lead character Talion’s vengeful Mordorian ascent looks to be an interesting plot idea, and its placement between film trilogies lends it an air of authenticity that mere mimicry of existing tales would hardly generate. The only thing that could further energize such a journey would be experiencing it with a friend, but don’t get your hopes up – apparently, the multiplayer card is nowhere to be found in Monolith’s LotR development deck.
The news comes via Twitter, where a lad named Tobias ventured to ask about the inclusion of co-op in the game. The official Shadow of Mordor Twitter page replied swiftly and honestly, as can be seen below.
@TobiasKarlsson_ Alas, no co-op. Shadow of Mordor is being crafted wholly as a single-player experience.
— Shadow of Mordor (@middleearthgame) January 23, 2014
Though a lack of multiplayer is unfortunate, I’d only just considered it upon reading Mr. Karlsson’s tweet. As a result, I don’t expect the extermination of my 23-second Shadow of Mordor co-op fantasies will cause me much sleep loss in the coming weeks. Even so, co-op certainly would have been an interesting inclusion if Monolith had chosen to go down that path. Hiking up a fiery hell-mountain is always better with a friend, as my great granddaddy used to say.
Ultimately, I just want Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor to be a thrilling, authentic LotR experience, and if that means foregoing multiplayer, then I applaud Monolith for doing what’s necessary to make the best game possible. Will they actually make the best game possible? They seem pretty determined – let’s just hope everything is still going according to plan.
