This weekend I downloaded “Shadow Complex” from the XBox Live online store. I had heard that it was cool, and I hadn’t done much gaming lately, and it was only 1200 Microsoft points, which seems like 12 dollars, but is actually 15 (I hate stored value systems that don’t run at an easy, even-to-the-dollar ratio, but that’s a gripe for another time). So, away I went!
Firstly, Shadow Complex was *fun*. I had difficulties with certain elements of the game, but overall the play experience was plain enjoyable. It’s a sidescrolling platformer, to use the nerd-words. In english, that means it plays like an old style adventure game from the era of Nintendo/Sega primacy. Think Mega Man, Metroid, or the original Duke Nukem on the PC. However, Shadow Complex is modernized very well (similarly to the Bionic Commando sidescrolling reboot that came out earlier this year). It’s in 3D, but you never move along the Z axis. Sometime there are villains closer to, or farther away from the camera, and you can aim at them semi-automatically. The game lets you pick the area you want to shoot in, and decides for itself which enemy in that area to target. As long as you are okay with that, you’ll be fine. Aiming is the one gameplay mechanic that comes close to annoyance, but it never became an actual problem. The graphics are pretty nice, and it clocked in at about 13 hours for me, so there was no overcommitment. You can complete the game much more quickly, or much more slowly, but I felt comfortable with my run; I opened the whole map and found all the items., which satisfied the completionist in me.
The game provides you with a limited area to run around in, and opens up new portions of the map by gradually extending your mobility through addons and powerups. You jump, run, and shoot the whole way through, discovering ammo, health and armor upgrades, and new devices that make you distinctly superhuman. While not breaking any new ground Shadow Complex is a solid game, and well worth the money paid. There’s even a fair amount of replay value, if you are in to that sort of thing. My short attention span makes replay rare for me… I get bored too quickly. But Shadow Complex, has “Challenge Packs” in the Proving Gounds that are fun, and being so simple, and having so many achievements to chase, it should supprt replay.
Where Shadow Complex stumbles is everywhere that isn’t the game itself. ChAIR (the developers) seem to be trying to market this game to an adult audience. There is some awkward sexual inneundo and some PG13 swearing that makes the game feel like a tween trying to fit in with the big kids. The plot tries to tie in to currnt conspiracy vogue with a line about some fascistic, “Restore America’s Glory” type high tech militia assassinating a politician and trying to take over the USA. Stock lines compare the USA to Rome in it’s imperial gory. It all feels tacked on. If it had been more like Mega Man with it’s simple, iconic characters and generic plot of Good vs. Evil it would’ve been completely awesome. But they had to dress it up in fancy clothes, with an annoyingly bro-ish protagonist in a mall-hip t-shirt, the powerless female to be saved… the villain was the only character I enjoyed… Metal mask, gravelly Kurtwood Smith-esque voice… and he was barely in the game! The hero, Jason Fleming (Fleming… and eventually he has golden guns… an on-the-sleeve nod to James Bond) has to go up against a “radical, left-wing militia” when he stumbles on their plot to conquer America… Craptacular. (Left wing militia? Come on. Liberals can’t shoot guns!)
Overall, the delicious fun of Shoadow Complex was marred by this pervasive, Mom-and-Apple-Pie tone of the narrative. I would get into the game while playing, only to be dragged out at the cut scenes (which are mercifully skippable) by the story elements. But I liked it. Once I learned to ignore anything being said in the game, I could relax and enjoy it… It even took me to the realm of the classic console trance, where you’re like Tommy the Pinball Wizard, or Fred Savage from Nintendo’s “The Wizard”… eyes glazed, body hopping as you turn and jump. It can be like a high, or medetation… the world fades from your perception, there is nothing but the game. And really, all a game like Shadow Complex needs *is* it’s core… the game.
No related posts.
Zog says:
I forgot to mention, the graphic design in Shadow Complex looks like it came from an internet t-shirt store. Bleargh.
Aug 30, 2009, 1:13 amL0g05 says:
If you are *at all* into sports, try downloading 3 on 3 NHL Arcade! They have the formula dialed-in, all the way down to the sound effects that are literally some guy making sound effects (doink! shoop!). Great fun vs. computer or vs. humann.
Aug 30, 2009, 3:28 pm