Shadow of War becomes Kiss of the Spider Woman
The developers of Middle-earth: Shadow of War have been talking up the ability to build an Orc army and take over the great fortresses of Mordor. But Shelob, the female spider woman who is a key part of the story, might very well steal the show. Her job, it seems, is to make the story of the video game as interesting as the hack-and-slash combat.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros. and developer Monolith revealed more details of the story in a trailer. The game debuts on October 10 on the Xbox One, Xbox One X, Windows PC, Steam, and PlayStation 4.
Shelob is really a dastardly giant spider that plays a key role in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. But in this tale, which takes place in the 60 years between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, she takes a tempting human form in the story. She tries to convince Talion about the “truth” behind Sauron’s plans and his apparent designs on Minas Ithil, the last bastion of Gondor in Mordor. We all know that fortress becomes Sauron’s Minas Morgul.
Celebrimbor, the wraith who brought Talion back from the dead and the creator of the Rings of Power, doesn’t get along with Shelob, and he tells Talion, “She is not our ally.” But Talion stands in the middle, as he sees some truth in Shelob’s vision. Shelob holds a ring, which certainly looks like the One Ring.
“Return what you have stolen from me,” Celebrimbor demands of Shelob. “And I will bring Sauron to you.”
And Shelob replies, “Why would I do that, Ringmaker? You and Sauron, are one.”
Now that’s a potential problem for Talion, who has allied himself with Celebrimbor. But, after all, Sauron is known as the Great Deceiver. Talion figures out at some point that Shelob isn’t all that trustworthy, as he does combat with the huge spider in the trailer.
This trailer shows that Shadow of War could have both great gameplay and an awesome story. Fingers crossed that is true.
The PC Gaming channel is presented by Intel®'s Game Dev program.
