I find it funny that studios are more and more taking the names of games that they feel are going to be a hit and then releasing a cell phone game to ride that wave of popularity. Shadow of War by IUGO Mobile Entertainment is trying to cash in on the popularity of the console game by the same name. What they have done is recreated a standard mobile hero collecter with a Lord of the Rings IP.
The Game:
Shadow of War The Mobile game is a hero collection game with a system set in the Lord of the Rings universe. Following the same canon as the console game, you will play in a world where more rings of powers were created by Celebrimbor to fight against Sauron and the one ring. These rings are scattered all around and you must collect them.
You will adventure through maps with nodes, each node will be a castle populated by enemy orcs generals. The orcs are in order of rank and you will have to fight them in order to get to the top. There are several sub-levels to each orc general that you will have to beat to get to them. You will use up to four heroes to move on a map where you will meet hordes of the enemy orc armies. Each of your heroes will auto attack and once they do enough attacks you can unleash their special abilities. These are anything from large amounts of damage to one enemy to healing your allies. Once you defeat all the sub level you are then able to fight the orc general and if you kill them you can execute them or take them over to serve you.
Each hero can be leveled with experience and finding a set of artifacts to enhance them. They have star ratings as well so if you find more character shard you can raise their level. In this one, you will not fill up a star at a time but one of the five points of the stars. The orcs can be leveled as well by fighting them against one another. In the pits, you will set two against each other and the victor will gain while the loser dies. There is a place where you can revive them so you don't lose them.
There are your standard events, shop with in-game and premium currency, and raid you can do with your guild. There are quests and daily achievement that give you both standard and premium currency. You will get a free run at their version of there loot crate every four hours but you will have to spend your premium income in order to get a better chance at premium loot crates. It has all the basic nodes that you expect in a hero collection game at this point.
My Thoughts:
I feel like have played this game before a dozen times because I basically have with different skins and a combat system that scrolled 2-D rather than 3-D. The only thing they added that is somewhat distinguishable is taking over Orcs that you can use in battle but with the same respect you they are just another collectible in a game of mass collecting.The game currency starves you pretty fast with the mass amounts of upgrading you will be doing and how much they cost. I guess it's a nice to not be inundated with achievements but at the same time, you kind of want them in order to at least get a decent start.
This is so much of a cut and paste of everything I have seen before that it was really hard to continue to log in to gain levels. I was looking for anything at all to hang on to compel me to play but I really just didn't find it. There wasn't anything unique about the combat, characters, or story to make me feel like I had to keep going. I have played this game before with other skins and within a few hours I already felt burnt out.
The game isn't bad but its all been done before. The only reason I can see this game being something to get into is if you are really into the IP or you are just looking for a new hero collecting game. It is just really an unremarkable game.
TL;DR:
Shadow of War The Mobile Game is just a recreation of what we have seen over and over again in the mobile market. The only difference here is they try to bring in the Nemesis system, which does not have anywhere near the depth of the console game. There is really nothing stand out about it but as far as these games go its one of the better ones.
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