Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Interview
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The dedicated hub for Monolith's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on GameInformer continues to expand, with the latest addition being an article-style interview with art director Phil Straub and director of design Michael dePlatter about the influences they have tapped into when creating the game's artwork and environments. Apparently the state of Washington is very similar to Mordor:
(We live in the blast radius of a huge apocalyptic volcano,) says Michael dePlatter, director of design for Shadow of Mordor. Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and the volcanic landscape around them have become invaluable research material for Monolith.
(There is an area in eastern Washington that was flooded a number of million years ago relative to the volcanic activity,) Straub says. (It's actually really interesting, because everything down to the types of rock that are in the game, those are accurate to the geology that likely would have been in Mordor because of the volcanic activity and the evolution of those geological elements over time.
(It was a great opportunity, because we have so much of that right at our back door that we can actually go and do location shoots. Speaking with the art team responsible for creating the world, I specifically defined, '˜OK, this is the geological evolution that we're focused on. These are the type of rocks that you would see. So this is a basalt-type rock.' Even down to the shrubs, even down to the grass. These are the types of shrubbery and grass that would grow in this type of geology and which maps to Mordor.)
Some may find it difficult to imagine anything green growing on the hellish terrain of Mordor or the exterior of Mount Doom. But don't expect Monolith to go so far as to populate the land with dense jungle.
(Sauron hasn't been around for a long, long time,) Straub says. (If you think of an area that's been burned out over and over and over again, if you think about all the fires that happen here on the West coast, that has an impact on the geology over and over and over again. It changes the evolution of the creatures there. It is an area that has gone through a lot of war and a lot of geological activity, but it has come back. We are seeing some foliage, but we didn't want to go full on lush because I personally felt like that was going too far.)
