With anticipation building toward updates regarding Monolith Productions' Wonder Woman, there remains an excellent template for developers to work from. As both Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War stood as huge successes for Monolith, fans expect their upcoming IP to follow suit.
While there has been no information on the title since its reveal trailer in 2021, there appear to be many things for fans to be excited about. Considering the previous two titles' nemesis system, which introduced unique and exciting dialogue paths between players and AI, it has been enough to leave fans excited at how this will translate within the DC Universe, playing as Diana of Themysceria.
5 Combat System
Very similar to the Arkham trilogy just like many of the other combat-central games in the modern day, Shadow of War as well as its predecessor utilizes countering, stuns, and combos as its core focus for combat. With a plethora of skills to unlock and abilities to use throughout the journey, it manages to keep players engaged despite its repetitive siege missions and siege defenses.
As the focus has now turned to Wonder Woman, maintaining this same combat style and movement would be essential to its success and would adhere to the hack-and-slash template that has already been developed. While the abilities and options would most certainly vary between Diana and Talion, doubling down on this would suffice.
4 Numerous Outfits
While Shadow of War's combat and nemesis system was at the forefront of its promotion and praise, the variety of armor sets, weapons, and outfits was crucial to its success. After defeating each captain, war chief, or overlord, players would always receive a loot drop which all have different quality levels. The inclusion of challenges for each of these gear sets allows players to level them up to scale up to their character level, and with Wonder Woman, there is a potential to have a greater variety of options in this aspect.
Considering the vast amount of outfits fans have seen the character use throughout the multiple adaptations of Wonder Woman in both comics and movies, Monolith Productions' developers have the opportunity to give players a greater variety. Not only is there already a great variety of existing costumes, but there are also the chances of creating new and unique ones too, just as Insomniac Games did with its Marvel's Spider-Man titles. While there is a chance that some of these could be integrated into a potential store including in-game purchases, it should still follow in the same footsteps of Shadow of War at the very least.
3 Leveling System/Nemesis System
As aforementioned, the advancement of the nemesis system in Shadow of War outdoes most other RPG titles and was the focal point of its massive popularity and success. Each and every encounter with enemies feels unique and tailored toward previous interactions. Whether it is a betrayal by an orc previously dominated, an enemy who got the better of the player in battle, or an orc that cheated death, every line of dialogue seems to contain variety and a level of genuine polish that keeps the experience feeling fresh for a long period of time.
Depending on the player's choices from sending death threats, to killing an ally's blood brother, or shaming an enemy, it could all very well end up in a jump in their level leading to a tougher task for players. While the nemesis system is confirmed to be returning for Wonder Woman, it is not yet confirmed how this will function or operate this time around, but if Monolith Productions wish to push their new IP up to the standards of their previous beloved games, it would be great for them to maintain this in the same manner players are accustomed to.
2 Large Map
Along with all the successful implementations within Shadow of War, the expanded map and the ability to access multiple regions, find different enemies, and take over multiple fortresses, led to a lengthy and engaging playing experience for fans. While the latter stages of the game stood as the most controversial, with the game's final cutscenes locked behind a barrage of siege defenses in 'The Shadow Wars', for those who wished to continue their journey with Talion despite the story circumstances, it was suitable.
Not only was there a plethora of quests and areas to explore, but players would encounter new orcs and enemies within each region. Given the scale and size of the DC Universe that Wonder Woman plays a huge part of, it would not be a surprise to see the upcoming title expand the map to a far greater size compared to Shadow of War.
1 Domination/Lasso Of Truth
An integral part of the nemesis system that most fans will be familiar with, is Talion and Celebrimbor's ability to dominate foes to either recruit them or shame them. While this did not work every time, given the balance within the nemesis system, which keeps players from recruiting every orc in the game, this could be replicated with Wonder Woman.
With Diana wielding the 'Lasso of Truth,' this would be the equivalent of Celebrimbor's wraith abilities in forcing enemies to give up intel or to join forces with players. Whether this will be like-for-like in this case is unknown, but the groundwork has already been laid for developers to work upon.
Wonder Woman is currently in development.