5 Inventive Gameplay Features Painfully Ignored by Other Developers
The Nemesis System (Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor)
Of the games that made waves early on this console generation, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor stood out thanks to its inventive and entertaining Nemesis System.
The Nemesis System turned ordinary enemies into distinct personalities that returned to haunt you throughout your experience, remembering aspects of your encounter and adapting their tactics to make each battle more challenging. It was totally unique.
A grunt, for example, who luckily escaped a fight earlier in the game might later rise-up to become a well-armed general in need of toppling; other times, it meant being hunted by the friend of a general you killed, out to avenge their fallen comrade.
While the inventive gameplay feature did return for the sequel, Shadow of War, other developers haven’t applied it to their games despite its widespread popularity, which is quite honestly a crying shame. Perhaps the closest we’ve seen recently is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s bounty system.