You might be sick of games based in Middle Earth at this point, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to keep making them. Shadow of Mordor is the next title inspired by JRR Tolkien's original books to hit our consoles and PC later this year and it features that impressive progressive enemy "nemesis system" we saw in the reveal trailer. Now though, the developer is showing off something else: runes that augment your power.
In it, Talion, our heavily Assassin's Creed inspired champion, improves the power of his legendary sword, dagger and bow by adding ancient runes to their hilts and blades. There's some simple ones that augment damage and speed, or add fancy effects like fire damage, but then there's epic runes.
Epic runes are only unlocked when Talion slays a high-level commander among the Orcs and only then, when he's made it as hard as possible on himself. Instead of having his captured minion Orcs assassinate their leader or spy on him, Talion instead has them deliver a death threat on his behalf. This puts the commander on edge, seeing him equip his heaviest armour and surround himself with a bunch of other similarly armed warriors.
Kill them and him and you have your epic rune, which offers huge boosts to your character's stats, as well as different super abilities like exploding fire arrows.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is hitting Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and Windows PC on October 7th, though you can pre-order it now at select outlets to get ahold of several unique runes that will offer impressive abilities right out the gate.
That said, while I understand the want for unique items, why would you ever pre-order a game just to make it easier for yourself?