Developer Monolith has returned with its latest project, an open-world Wonder Woman game. The studio is perhaps best known for its work on the F.E.A.R. series as well as both Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. And the best part? Wonder Woman will be employing the Nemesis system, a dynamic gameplay mechanic first featured in those Tolkien-inspired games.
Announced at The Game Awards 2021, we know precious little about Monolith's Wonder Woman title outside of a brief teaser trailer and some small, yet significant details pertaining to what kind of game we can expect when it launches.
Firstly, we know that Wonder Woman is going to be an open-world action game. But more exciting is that Monolith is redeploying the excellent Nemesis system that made the Middle-earth games so fun to play.
If you're unaware, the Nemesis system in the Middle-earth games largely revolved around Sauron's army of Uruk-hai. The Nemesis menu would show you all active captains, commanders and generals of the army, with many being hidden until you'd killed a certain sect of Orcs or gathered enough information in the open world.
That wasn't the cool part, though. If you were lucky enough to slay one of Sauron's faithful – and luck was often required, as these games were hard – others on the Nemesis menu would react to their death. This could come in the form of another assuming their fallen brethren's position, or vying for revenge against you by actively seeking you out on the map.
All that meant you never knew who was going to turn up next, and the result could be both humorous and intimidating – re-facing foes you though you'd felled, or finding a ridiculous character has somehow climbed the ranks. So we're very happy to finally see the system make a return in Wonder Woman, as its potential could only grow in future Monolith games.
So who is Wonder Woman's Nemesis?
It goes without saying that the Nemesis system requires a set of powerful, erm, nemeses in order to work in the first place. And Wonder Woman is acquainted with a few. Perhaps chief among Diana's sworn enemies would be Ares, the God of War. But we have to imagine we'll get appearances from other iconic Wonder Woman villains like Cheetah and Circe, too.
In the Middle-earth games, the strongest Uruks awaited at the top of each rung, so we think it would be fantastic to see a roster of Wonder Woman (or DC in general, to be honest) villains pulling the strings from on-high. Not only could this lead to varied enemy types, but also climactic boss fights against a range of iconic baddies.
In any case, we're happy to finally see the Nemesis system make a return, as it genuinely transcended the games it was created for. We'd of course love to see similarly dynamic systems come to more open world games, as it's a great way to inject thrilling unpredictability into a subgenre that often comes across as barren and dull.
