Have you seen Shadow of Mordor first hand? Did you reach out to Warner, Monolith, Ubisoft, or anyone else to clarify the false accusations that this article is based upon? Or does your own opinion of, “even the way he runs will more than remind you of a certain Florentine assassin,” suffice enough to tear down someone else’s work with absolutely no factual ground to stand on?

Personally, I think SOM is taking the best of established mechanics from great action games like AC and Batman and innovating on top of it with the Nemesis System and unique take on the events between the Hobbit and LOTR. I can’t wait to play this. Regardless of whether you’re into or not, articles like this that spread rumor as fact just leave a bad taste in my mouth. Be a journalist: do your research and report objectively. If you’re writing opinion, at least attempt to be informed on the subject.

“When Frodo is stabbed by the Witch-King of Angmar in the first book he is infected by the evil magic from a Morgul blade; if Glorfindel had not saved Frodo, he would have eventually become a Wraith himself.” – http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Wraith

Wraiths have more to do with evil magic and nothing to do with the Army of the Dead, who simply couldn’t die because of their unfulfilled oath. I may be iffy on some details but this sort of thing is not necessarily contradictory in the obviously complex Lord of the Rings universe.

Also, I think logic would suggest that a developer such as Monolith and a publisher such as Warner Bros., with the same writer that wrote Red Dead Redemption, working in conjunction with Peter Jackson to ensure consistency with the movies, wouldn’t risk a lawsuit by copying code. While I do admit that the “wraith-vision” looks very similar to eagle vision, I also think its noteworthy to mention that it is consistent with the Peter Jackson movie interpretation of the wraith world (the world Frodo enters when he wears the One Ring). The similarities to Assassins Creed 2 in the free roaming and climbing mechanics are understandable, as well as the similarities with the combat system in the Batman games, but it is not the same and I generally feel that Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor seems to offer so much more that it is a separate game entirely. Saying it is just a rip-off of other games is narrow-minded and nitpicky, and overlooks a potentially Game of the Year level game.

Yes I know I saw that like everyone else. The guy is insane. They didn’t take code. Why would you open yourself up to a massive lawsuit when you could EASILY just make the same animation yourself. It’s not difficult.