What an absolutely brilliant game!

WARNING: Long post. Skip to last paragraph if you just want to read about my overall experience with the game

I read a thread that recommended this game based off of someone asking for other good open world games lkke Red Dead Online. I have thoroughly enjoyed RDO and played many hours, but I was getting a little bored of it lately. So I added a few games from that thread to my Steam wishlist. We'll, Black Friday rolled around and there were insane sales on a lot of those games. I chose a few to actually purchase (I think I got this game for like $10 or some really low price). I also purchased Cyberpunk 2077 thinking that would be the game most similar to RDO that would hook me.

I played Shadow of War first because I am a LOTR fan and have fond memories of Battle for Middle Earth. I was not impressed at all. First, the story felt so linear to me and not at all the free roam experience that RDO is. Second, I found the map tiny and extremely limiting. Then after meticulous stealth kills and much time wasted, I discovered thst enemies continuously respawn making it impossible to clear a map. This was the last straw from me and I quit playing feeling very disappointed.

I then began playing Cyberpunk 2077 as I had heard many people talking about how good of a game it was and the big open world map. I was immediately impressed by the map but it wasn't quite grabbing me like RDO did. Too much crafting and complicated upgrade systems were not my cup of tea. I'm also not a big sci-fi setting fan in games. But the game was good enough to keep me playing for a bit. The map was indeed big and had enough free roam side quests to keep me interested. But even after putting in a bit of time in the game, it still wasn't drawing me into its world.

Finally, I decided to give Shadow of War another shot. The fighting mechanics were at least very satisfying, and the game seemed to be focused more on acfion/adventure then on complicated crafting (my gaming preference). And then after putting in a bit of time into the game... I finally realized how big the world actually is! I didn't know the maps changed into a larger world view. I also eventually got further in the game to realize there was a fortress component with an online world. I had preferred to play this game solo, so I avoided vendetta missions and fortress attacks. But after a while, I santed to test out my commanders.

The game balances a bit of online world just enough to keep things interesting and add that extra layer of complexity to the game without it being full on pvp. I was also throughly impressed with the design of the maps I have seen so far. The voice acting is very well done and the facial animations are more detailed than I'm used to seeing in games (devs get so sloppy with this sometimes). I have found thst the game holds an element of RTS thrown in that is thoroughly enjoyable for me (I am an RTS fan). I don't know how these devs manages to make such a smoothly put together game. The menu system is designed so well. The weapon upgrades make sense and are easy to understand. The fighting dynamics are satisfying and complicated enough to keep me interested with the upgrades, but not so overly complex that it loses me. I'm just very impressed with this game. And I will say the game hooked me. I'm fully in for the long haul as I take my sweet time going through the game. Hats off to the creators. We'll done.