The always-reliable Monolith Productions is about to unleash its latest gaming masterpiece in the form of the first game based on The Lord of the Rings that's actually worth playing. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor drops this week for next-gen consoles, and all indications are that it's one of the best games of the year, featuring an original story set after The Hobbit but before the legendary quest for the One Ring.
Because it's what all the cool kids are doing, every triple-A video game these days has to offer DLC, that is "downloadable content," or added missions, gear, outfits and more. A "season pass" will usually get you access to all of a game's DLC at one cost-effective price point. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is no different, and Monolith has just laid out its DLC plans for the game.
As you can see from the trailer, there are story missions, challenge modes, in-game collectible runes, character skins and all that jazz. But the Season Pass' most eye-catching item is "The Bright Lord," a story mission where you get to play as Celebrimbor, the legendary Elven King of the Second Age, as you lead the Elves in a fight against Sauron and his armies.
Wait, what? The really real one and only Sauron?
Okay, a couple of things.
First: How can a game that's set entirely in the land of Mordor not already include Sauron? Like, by default? Alright, so at this point in Tolkien's saga, he's without a body. And he's not defeated until The Return of the King. So we get it. Any encounter with him in Shadow of Mordor would be sorely lacking in closure. But still.
Second: Fighting Sauron — as Celebrimbor, no less — sounds wicked cool. Paying extra to do it? Not so much. But this is more a symptom of the overall problem with DLC than Shadow of Mordor specifically.
The sad truth is that developers and publishers continue to use the DLC model because it works. We gamers keep shelling out those extra dollars for more content because we reach the end of a game and we're having so much fun with it that we want more. It feeds a basic human desire on our part.
And greed on theirs.
Shadow of Mordor's Season Pass will run you $25, for which you'll get three new story missions, three "Trials of War" challenge modes, loads of runes and skins, and access to unannounced DLC from further down the road.
