Shadow Complex
Here’s the first review that I’m posting! This one is pretty momentous, as this was the game that pushed me over the edge to start writing reviews in the first place. I found myself trying to convey to friends how awesome Shadow Complex was, and how that it’s way more than just your average XBLM download of the week. So, let’s get into it.
Right off the start, you realize that Shadow Complex is a return to the 2D map crawlers of yore. Metroid, Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and even a tad of the classic Bionic Commando from the NES. All huge favorites of mine, and Shadown Complex pays them all homage, and steps the game up a notch. Just as in Metroid, the main 2d platformer and exploration mechanic puts your in a vast map, full of blockades, enemies and challenges. The main story is told as you progress through the entire map, unlocking new abilities, gaining new insights, and ultimately transforming from a dude with a flashlight, into a cybernetic war machine. As with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night however, Shadow Complex does have a story to tell, and the characters express themselves at any time throughout the game. While there are a handful of cut-scenes that serve to transition your “main objective” from one target to another, or introduce a big scary boss, most of the dialog and character development happens right in engine, while you’re climbing, swimming, running, falling and shooting your way through the map.
There is an interesting tech ladder woven into Shadow Complex, and this is where the depth of the game really comes from. In the first play through you’ll level up quite quickly, and probably unlock the weapons in the “normal” order. This makes the game have a very good pace, and you’ll finish it all in 5 hours or so, and feel very satisfying. Then the deeper meta game kicks in. Everytime you melee an enemy, you get a count of how many you’ve hit AND the count of your next highest friend. This personally drives me nuts, and makes me wanna melee every enemy I see, just to top off above my other friends. Genius.
The other achievement challenges are equally as tempting. They mostly ask you to run through the game with varying restrictions or goal. Get to the end with only 10% of the map discovered, or 100% of all items gathered, etc. This has led me to think up some very crazy strategies for how I might end up doing that. This helped me realize very early on just how versatile the Foam gun is, as it actually will let you climb almost anywhere once you get good with it, even before you get the double jump. Interesting stuff.
A quick note on the 3D engine. I know Shadow Complex has gotten a lot of hype becuase it’s a 2D game that uses the Unreal engine to handle some 3D space. Overall, I feel like it works wonderfully. The mechanic that allows you to fire into the background works almost every time, and only twice did I wish I had finer control over my aim (but ultimately it was gone a moment later after I finished gunning everyone down). The occasional transitions to 3rd person gunning (mostly used for turrets) is a nice pace change, and wasn’t beat to death by the end of the game.
I found the voice acting to be solid, if not a bit campy (which seemed deliberate), and overal reminded me more of Uncharted, which is an excellent thing in my opinion.
The final topic to cover is one that’s been getting a lot of attenton as well. Only after reading further did I discover that Shadow Complex was based on a story/world created by Orson Scott Card. This is a bit unfortunate, since Mr. Card is a very outspoken opponent to gay marriage. I generally will try to avoid things that could profit him directly, as many of my closest friends and family have been struggling to gain the equal rights to marriage all across this country, and people like Mr. Card are opposing their happiness at every turn. Unfortunate as it may be, I can’t find a single note of “This is Orson Scott Card’s game” or even a hit that anything besides the highest level of his concept was translated into this game. So, overall I’m still a huge supported of Chair, and Epic Games. This is just something that an informed gamer should know before they shell out the cash.
One Liner: A superb return of the 2d map crawler, excellent production values, and a huge step up for XBLM.
Final Grade: A
Agree 100%. It was this years Braid for me. I often find myself saying “is it going to be over soon” for the last 15% of most games and almost never play a game twice and I’ve run through SC over 4 times now, even in the face of new games in my collection. The exploration was very appealing, the story decent, the progression of your character was spot on. I felt like a superman by the end.
I’ll be replaying this one for some time to come and it will likely cause me to revisit Super Metroid.