Review: Shadow Complex

 

For the most part, XBOX Live Arcade games are quick-hit, scoreboard competitions. Very rarely was there a game released with depth and story and significant length - but Shadow Complex was one of the rare exceptions. Within the five to six hour adventure, players will find a huge underground, explorable base, tons of upgrades, a well written story and a sackful of white-knuckle action. 

But at $15, is this worth your precious Marketplace Points?

Story

You play Jason Flemming, a dude who is hiking in the mountains with his babe, Claire. The game starts with an innocent round of "hide and seek" where Claire runs off and - uh oh - she's captured by scary paramilitary  dudes. This sets up the initial goal of rescuing your girlfriend - pretty standard plot device. But as you explore these mountains, and discover the high-tech, weaponized base housed within, your second goal becomes clear: uncover the plot of these nasty dudes and eventually prevent them from achieving their ultimate goal. 

Your first objective: rescue your girlfriend

The story has definite tones of Metal Gear and Tom Clancy stories but without all the heavy exposition and triple crossing. There is a group of bad guys, they stay bad throughout the whole thing, and barring one slight surprise at the end, the roles are pretty much what you see.

All in all, the story is serviceable. It provides enough reason to finish the experience - and while I'm not gonna run out and buy the book, Hidden Empire which is said to be a companion to the game, it worked well within the experience.

Design & Gameplay

Shadow Complex's design is flat out based on Super Metroid. The design team spent the first few months of development playing the SNES classic and identifying what worked and what should up changed or updated for a modern market. And for the most part, they nailed it. 

Similar to Super Metroid, Shadow Complex is a 2D, side scrolling game based within a large, explorable map. Added to this though is the fact that you're interacting with a 3D environment - so enemies will appear in the background and foreground from time to time. This creates challenges, however, as you'll need to use the right analog stick to point your gun into the background and this can often be imprecise and lead to frustrating deaths.

The real treat of the design, however is the explorable environments and hundreds of treasures hidden in the game world and upgrades that not only feel significant, but look significant. You start out as a guy in a T-Shirt and jeans and end up in a super suit with a gun that rivals that dude's from No Country for Old Men. At the end of the game, you will feel like you are a hundred times more powerful than you were at the start.

Bosses are frequent, yet don't pose much of a challenge. Most have a weak point that is given away by a pop up "hint" and can be destroyed without your character even taking a hit. I am in no way a competitive game player, but there was only one boss I had to try multiple times to beat, and once I figured out how to do so, he went down within seconds. It's far too easy to spam your high powered weapons and just "spray and pray" to get through the bosses.

The game's first of many mechanized bosses.

The common enemies pose the same problem. While there are a few that pose a challenge until you upgrade a little more, most can be taken out with the one-hit-kill melee button. I often ran from one end of the screen to another, with three or four enemies firing on me, and got right up next to each one and punched them out. It just seems a little unbalanced. I mean, imagine being able to just walk up and punch a Metroid to death. Ain't gonna happen. This feature should have come with a gamble - like it only works 50% of the time and the other 50% they counter your ass.

Enemy Artificial Intelligence (AI) was also on the short bus. Metal Gear guards these are not. And its a shame too, because the game encourages a bit of sneaking, and when you can bump into a guard from behind, or fall 300 feet and land in front of a guard without them even noticing you, it gives you more license to be sloppy.

Stupid guards.

I am being fairly critical, and while these flaws are valid, the overall experience is much stronger than its faults. It is a fun game with tons of boom and fun.

Presentation

I kept having to remind myself that this was an XBOX Live Arcade game.  The graphics, special effects, and voice work are top notch. Uncharted star, Nolan North, voices your character and the other roles are done with appropriate subtlety and craziness where appropriate. 

As you begin to uprgade your weapons and defenses, the presentation really sells the fact that you are becoming a war machine. New weapons pack the appropriate bang, special weapons like rockets and grenades wow with their explosion effects, and most notably the foam gun really impresses with its hindering capability. 

Again, an unprecedented effort on the XBLA - but one that was well worth the investment in time and money into the overall game.

Stuff I Loved: 

• You're basically getting Super Metroid 2 - well worth the $15 price tag
• Awesome upgrades with an unexpected level of feeling more and more powerful
• Fabulous voice acting and graphical presentation

Stuff I Hated:

• Low enemy AI 
• Pushover bosses
• 3D/background shooting issues.

All in all, I loved the game. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with a 360 and certainly to any Metroid fan. It is  solidly built game with tons to discover and plenty of incentive to play through again. Do yourself a favor and buy Shadow Complex [Online Game Code].

REVIEW IN TEN WORDS OR LESS:
Honors Metroid heritage but falters on a few flaws.