Shadow of Mordor Losing Online Features Soon

Over the last decade, maybe even a couple of years prior, online gaming exploded with force on a gaming world that would never recover. As I said this morning, it sometimes amazes me the persistence some of these games have over time. Grand Theft Auto V was released in September of 2013, and still, in 2020, the online portion can make more profit than most games ever will. Now it seems a game released just over a year later is losing its multiplayer/online section altogether.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was the highly successful Lord of the Rings ’em up from 2014 that gained great favor with fans and critics for its Nemesis system. A system that would go on to be implemented in that big fat Greek assassination that one time. Additionally, it would spawn a rather quick sequel with questionable microtransactions, yet gained favor nonetheless. Now it seems the former of the two is set to have all its online features pulled from the game.

The reveal of pulled online features comes from the games’ own store pages, with Steam, Microsoft, and PlayStation all featuring the same message. The message now greeting players in the description of store pages reads: “Certain features for the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor videogame will no longer be available beginning Dec. 31, 2020.” The features affected by the changes are: The Nemesis Forge, Vendetta missions, leaderboards, and WBPlay.

The first of the features, the Nemesis Forge would allow players to transfer the details of the Nemesis system between Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. Meanwhile, the Vendetta missions would allow players to take revenge on behalf of their slain friends also playing the game. This system came with leaderboards, of course, tracking player rankings between each other. While WBPlay will no longer be available, the epic runes “Orc Hunter” and “Gravewalker” will still be awarded to players.