Shadow of Loot Box

Shadow of Loot Box is based on an interesting premise that intends to satirize some questionable elements of the contemporary games industry. The problem is this idea does not quite come to fruition and after a promising opening stage, the experience quickly comes down to a dull, over-simplistic, underperforming gameplay and in the end, this FPS with RPG elements turns out to be a rather lacklustre effort with few attractive points.

Ironically, by trying to bring to light all the issues plaguing video games in recent times, Shadow of Loot Box is not an overall enjoyable game to play because, as the novelty wears off quickly. Luckily, this is a two-hour experience, so at least it ends quite quickly. The loot box enemies are funny at first; but they are bullet sponges that get quite annoying, especially as weapon-upgrades do little to destroy them quicker. While platform elements and open-world stages creep in, the control mechanics are still clunky enough to detract from the larger issues that Shadow of Loot Box tries to commentate on.

Shadow of Loot Box is meant to be a parody of everything that's annoying about gaming tropes. Unfortunately, the humor is little more than sprinkling every single undesirable gaming element into one game, missing the mark and creating something less than fun.

If coy jokes and classic game mechanics – and some easy achievements – are up your alley, you might consider giving this one a spin.

Shadow of Loot Box is a serviceable homage to everything that is/can go wrong with a video game in the year 2018… and beyond.

Shadow of Loot Box is quite an interesting game. It focuses on showing how games are made nowadays. You won't play for long, but you will stumble upon everythink marketing and devs are throwing at you, including loot boxes themselves.

Shadow of Loot Box never outstays its welcome, and the different themed levels add enough variety that you don’t get bored. Costing just a few bucks, you’ll find a short but rather fun experience that is worth spending an afternoon playing

I believe that the intent is to make a satirical point and goof on that state of the industry but there’s nothing clever or insightful here, only bland and generic levels with very little to do and next to zero entertainment value of any kind. Satire and higher-order humor typically works to mock the subject of ridicule by running circles around it in some way by showing wit or subverting expectations (where are you The Stanley Parable?). In this case the game simply seems to wallow in mediocrity and then half-heartedly attempt to justify that by claiming that’s meant to be clever comedy.