Shadow Complex
Verdict: Really Fun!
In a Nutshell: A rich and surprising 2D action side-scroller
“In Shadow Complex, gameplay is centered on exploration and fast-paced combat as you gather game-altering power-ups and an arsenal of futuristic weapons to overcome obstacles, thwart legions of enemies, and delve into a mysterious open game world. The original single-player adventure is set in a compelling universe based upon the best-selling novel, Empire, by Orson Scott Card.”
- Fun Rating: Really Fun
- ESRB: T
- Players/Mode: single-player/campaign or time challenge
- Game Duration: 8-10 hours for the campaign
- System: Xbox 360
- Developer: Chair Entertainment
- Website: http://xbox.com/en-US/games/s/shadowcomplexxbla/
- Cost: 1,200 MS Points ($15.00 US)
- Demo: Available on Xbox Live Marketplace
| Would I play this again? | Yes, already beat it twice and I plan to return to it. |
| Would I recommend this game? | Absolutely. |
| Was the story good? | Considering that this is an XBLA title, the story is pretty decent. |
| Was the music good? | Pretty good. |
| Were the graphics good? | Excellent use of the Unreal 3 engine, best looking side-scroller ever. |
| Was this game difficult? | Moderately. |
| Was this game frustrating? | Occasionally trying to find particular hidden power-ups was frustrating. |
| Was this game offensive? | Some language and violence might be offensive to some. |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | Absolutely. Excellent value. Best XBLA title I’ve played yet. |
Playing the game
[fixorater:] Shadow Complex is a 2D side-scrolling platformer in the style of Metroid, Out of this World and Flashback. The game is rendered in detailed 3D using the Unreal engine however you can only move from side to side through the game world. Unlike most side-scrollers, enemy characters can inhabit spaces behind your character in the 3D space (hallways, distant hilltops). In order to target you characters in the background use the left analog stick to point up and into the distance. The right analog stick controls the character’s movement through the map. The story is based on Orson Scott Card’s speculative fiction Hidden Empire book series.
The game begins as you, a fairly average guy, embark on a hiking trip with your new girlfriend Claire. Claire goes on the trail ahead and disappears. You explore a cave system looking for Claire and just as you find her she is being abducted by a group of paramilitary soldiers who take her inside a hidden underground complex. As you follow her abductors into the secret base you discover a massive conspiracy in progress with stockpiled high tech weaponry for the taking. You discover better guns, armor and other power-ups as you run, swim and climb through the base.
Save points are placed throughout the map in the form health and weapon magazines storage rooms delineated by red starred rooms on the in game map. You are able to openly explore the base but you are initially impeded from entering certain areas until you find power-ups that allow you to get through certain doors or to reach points initially out of reach. Certain doors are color coded on the map, and shine various colors when the flashlight is shown on them to show that a certain weapon is needed to open the door.
The deeper you go into the base the more you discover about the plans of this mysterious paramilitary force. In addition to the main campaign you can play challenge mode where you complete smaller objectives meant to test your ability to use specific techniques and abilities. In challenge mode pits you against other players by ranking your completion times against others on Xbox Live.
What the game gets right
[fixorater:] Playing this game immediately brought back fond memories of Super Metroid on the SNES, exploring interesting environments and finding new more powerful weapons and abilities. The makers of the game have admitted that they modeled the game strongly after Metroid and other similar titles. Given the graphical capabilities of the Unreal engine on the Xbox 360 this is the most intricately rendered and realistic looking side-scroll game I’ve seen to date.
The outdoor pristine wilderness is beautiful and the high tech underground base hearkens images of the Black Mesa Complex from Half-Life. The new weapons and abilities you require are genuinely exciting to grow from an unsuspecting hiker to a high tech one man army. The music does a good job of adding suspense to your exploration of the environment.
I found the difficulty to be very well balanced. While the game is certainly challenging, especially as you get yourself into sticky situations before you have necessary weapon upgrades. However the save points and health packs are are well placed and you don’t find yourself having to do lengthy do-overs too often. Boss battles well-balanced, varied and require some thinking to discover weak-points and techniques.
This game is an excellent value on XBLA at a price of $15. Not only did I enjoy the game consistently from beginning to end but I immediately wanted to start playing again from the beginning to find anything I’d missed the first run through. Such replay-ability in a relatively inexpensive title is one of the best endorsements one can give to a game.
[The Tim:] Shadow Complex completely sucked me in. I confess that I have never played Super Metroid or Castlevania, so I’m new to this genre, but the excellent level design in Shadow Complex just kept drawing me to play more and more (and more).
I played through the game on the hardest difficulty setting and it was challenging without being crazy impossible—a very rewarding mix. This was definitely helped by the liberal sprinkling of well-marked save points throughout the map. Also, I thought that the voice acting by Nolan North in the lead role was notably good.
What the game gets wrong
[fixorater:] There aren’t too many things I have to complain about in this game. Pointing your weapon at the intended target can prove difficult at first as the aim doesn’t always perform the way you expect. Especially at first you may get frustrated as you fair aimlessly into the distance or foreground unintentionally. Eventually you learn to trust the auto-aim to shoot into the distance when necessary. Learning which power-up abilities are necessary to reach a particular objective can sometimes be difficult as the map is quite complex and sometimes unconventional thinking is require to reach particular points.
Some players may become frustrated with figuring out the right route to an objective and with the frequent backtracking you need to do. However the in-game map usually does a good job of pointing where you need to go. While the story is very well told for an XBLA title—and frankly for a platformer at all—some of the voice acting and cut scenes can come across as cheesy and cliched. Your character can seem a bit cookie cutter and generic. As the game progresses it attempts to explain your peculiar facility with weaponry, however on closer inspection it does seem a tad implausible that this average Joe with a merit badge could single-handedly defeat a highly organized and equipped military force.
[The Tim:] The only complaint I really can think of is that there was a minor glitch in the game that allows you to shoot enemy soldiers after just barely entering a room without them ever firing back at you. Something about the programming shifts your view into a room before the enemy AI recognizes you as actually being in the room. Granted, I exploited this glitch more than once to clear a hard room, so it’s not all bad…
Oh, it was also somewhat annoying that there did not seem to be any real consistency to when a room you had previously cleared would be full of enemy soldiers again. Sometimes when you came back through a room where you had killed everyone they would all still be gone, but other times they would magically return. It’s anybody’s guess what determines this.
Sum it up
[fixorater:] This game reinvents the side-scroll platformer while leveraging the capabilities of next-gen graphics and sound. Playing this game was a joy, a welcome unexpectedly solid title standing out amongst much higher budget big profile games. While the backtracking and imperfect aiming scheme might detract some from enjoying this game, I found that the things the game did well dwarfed any imperfections.
The game world blends elements of Metroid, Half-Life, and Tom Clancy novel compelling you to explore and discover. The technology you discover is, for lack of a better word, cool. I couldn’t wait to grab the next gun or armor. The cut-scene narrative may be at times cheesy but the experience of playing through the world was superb and I felt immersed. Acquiring all of the possible weapons and devices was a difficult but rewarding task. This game is an excellent value and I can only hope this is just the first in a series of solid XBLA titles of this caliber.
[The Tim:] I picked up Shadow Complex on sale for just $10, but it is easily worth the full $15. Hours of gameplay to finish the main story, and then hours more to finish exploring the whole base and finding all the power-ups. Easily one of the top must-play games in XBLA.
Other games you might like to read about:
Schizoid (Demo)
The MawRate this Game
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...