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When we get further into the fall months and the leaves has reached its color changing peak, days get shorter and nights grow colder. I find myself wanting to stay in more and snuggling up with my blankets. Selecting a video game to play on those days when I’m free and indoors leads me to pick games with an exploration element to it, especially when combat involves lots of sword fights and stabbing. On that note, November’s video game challenge pick is a no-brainer for me.

Being in a decidedly adventurous mood for my next game playing experience shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. Last year around the same month saw me playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is massive in exploration and jam packed with story and characters to get to know. As it is November once again, the game I think will be a bit of a huge undertaking but no less boring for my challenge is Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

I’ve been playing Shadow of Mordor for the Xbox One on and off in the last few months. Received as a birthday present back in April, I decided to play a few minutes of the game sometime over the summer just to get a taste of it. Few minutes eventually turned into an hour as I was immediately hooked when I played.

Set in the Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings, you play as a ranger named Talion who witnesses the brutal slaughter of his wife and son at the beginning of the game. Prepared to die and ready to join his dead family in the afterlife, Talion finds out his death isn’t the eternal sleep he expects it to be. He wakes up and discovers he has been cursed and merged with a spirit of a wraith, an elf lord named Celebrimbor, both stuck roaming the earth without ever actually being laid to rest and moving on to join their loved ones who have been slain. With the two joining forces, they’re on a mission of blood and revenge against the Dark Lord Sauron.

The game is big with plenty of missions to play. I mentioned earlier that this game might be a huge undertaking to take on this month for two reasons: the missions themselves and NaNoWriMo. Although I’ll be largely focusing on finishing the main story missions for Shadow of Mordor, each mission can be a bit tricky to complete. The missions offer huge challenges when you’re up against high ranking Uruks and other creatures in the game. Depending on how difficult each Uruk is, taking down one is easier said than done when you’re up against huge waves of lower or stronger ranked Uruks who swoop in to defend their captain or warchief. The waves can be downright annoying and stressful when you’re trying to complete a mission. Then there’s also my push to pursue my goal of finishing a novel outside of this blog. I thought it might be a good idea to take the NaNoWriMo challenge this month and see how far I get with my novel. While the point is to finish your novel within a month, I know it’s looking less likely I’ll meet that goal. Still, you never know unless you try and it’s an opportunity to keep a consistent writing schedule this month to at least keep putting words onscreen. That’s really the gist of how this month is looking for me personally.

I may have overloaded my plate for this month, but we’ll see how well I progress. Depending on how close or difficult it gets to finish Shadow of Mordor, I may extend my challenge into the next month. I’ll make that decision when I reach the final week of the month. Until then, wish me the best of luck on this double whammy of challenges!