As a J.R.R Tolkein fan I’ve always wanted a game where I can commande orcs, battle all sorts of monsters, or even merge with a spirit. Shadow of War is that game. Before I bought it, I thought it was just going to be a bad rip off game of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I decided to do some research into it though, to see if I was interested. A little while after the game came out I thought I would watch some videos on it to see how it looked. After I got done watching a couple I decided to buy it and give it a try. The graphics looked respectable, the fighting mechanics looked amazing, the story looked really good, and the NPC’s(non-player character) seemed like a really good idea. The one thing I was worried about was how there wasn’t any multiplayer and just overall how long the game takes. Now it is one of my favorite games ever and would recommend it to anyone who is in to video games. 

The graphics in the game could be improved a little bit I think. It doesn’t have the worst graphics but I feel like they could make it a lot better. One slight problem I’ve noticed with it is that sometimes the lip sync of the characters are a little off. I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing but I just wished that they would have tried to make that better before they released the game. Another thing that I have noticed about the game is how some things in it look sort of pixely. I notice it especially with some of the characters. They do a really good job on most of them to make them look almost real but then there are a few that just don’t look as good as the others and that really bothers me. 

Time commitment is something that I think the buyer needs to consider before getting this game. I didn’t realize this until after I bought it but the game actually takes a very long time to beat. Just the main story isn’t to bad. It only takes around twenty hours. But if the player wants to complete all the side quests along with the main story, the game can take up to thirty-five hours to beat. It’s even more if the player wants to get all the collectibles in the game. Overall the game lasts around fifty-five hours. I actually think that this makes the game really fun because there are always things do do and it never gets boring.

Something I really enjoy about this game are the fighting mechanics. I think Monolith  (developer) did a very good job with this. There are a lot of fighting games out there where the players have to memorize all sorts of button patterns and that can get pretty frustrating at some points. But in this game, all the button patterns that the player is able to do come up on the screen when they are able to be done. I think that saves a lot of time and it means that anyone can be good at fighting in Shadow of War. Fighting also takes up most of the game. Most everything the player does in it involves fighting something. The only thing I think that they could improve on the fighting is the targeting system. I know there have been plenty of times when I have tried to attack a character, it has locked onto a character that I hadn’t meant to attack and it would attack that one instead.

I think that the NPC’s in this game are actually really good. They have good path finding skills and stay on track pretty well. One thing I really like is how the player can summon their ally NPC’s to fight for them. I also really like how all the NPC’s, not even the really important ones, impact the game so much. The player has to go around and turn orcs, which are the main bad guys, into their side. It makes the game a lot more interesting and more strategic based than other games like this.

I wouldn’t say that the main story in this game is the best, but it is pretty good. I wish it went more in depth and explained things a little bit better because there are some things that are sort of confusing. I also think that it could use some more plot twists to make it a little more exciting. There are also lots of side quests to do which I think is pretty cool. There is always something to do.

One thing I wish this game had was a multiplayer option. The game lets the player battle with other people’s orks but they don’t actually get to play with anyone else. I think they could implement something like a PVP(player vs player) gamemode or maybe even have the main story multiplayer if players wanted it to. I feel like if they did this it would add a lot more onto the game and it would get a lot more people interested in it.

Even though it does have some problems and I think that there are some ways that they could make it better, I think that Shadow of War is a really good game. The graphics are good, the fighting is amazing. The NPC’s make it fun and the storyline is also really good. It takes a while to beat but it is well worth the time. Now it just need a multiplayer option. I would rate this game a 8 out of 10 and would recommend it to people who are interested in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies or if the buyer likes free roam games like this. It is well worth the $60.