Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, and together they try to avenge the death of their loved ones. Players can engage in melee combat, and utilize some of the wraith abilities to fight against enemies. The game uses the Nemesis System, which allows the artificial intelligence of non-playable characters to remember the death of the game's protagonist and react accordingly.

The game's development began in 2011. In order to create an accurate environment and be consistent with the books written by Tolkien, the developer consulted several people from Warner Bros., and Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series. In addition, the team received assistance from Weta Workshop, who gave advice to the team in creating special effects. Monolith focused on the development of the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, while the development of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions was outsourced to Behaviour Interactive. The port to Linux and OS X was done by Feral Interactive.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received critical acclaim upon release. Most praise directed at its combat, open-world design, the game's lore, and the Nemesis System, which most critics agreed was the best part of the game. Some criticism was aimed at the game's story and boss battles. The game marked the biggest launch for a game based upon The Lord of the Rings universe, and would go on to win several awards from video gaming publications. Two post-release downloadable content, Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord, were released in December 2014 and February 2015 respectively.