A few months ago, Stan raved about this XBox downloadable title- Shadow Complex. Having heard of it before, my interest was piqued, but as I have so many times before, I put it off until the time was just right. The game was short- 5 hours maybe? But I managed to stretch it out over the course of a few weeks. It follows the style of Metroid games, but doesn't copy so much as pay homage to the long-standing Nintendo series. It's a 2-D shooter set in present-day California, where a man hiking with his girlfriend stumbles upon an underground terrorist base, and immediately takes action. And really, for the entirety of the game, that action never lets up. While Metroid games will have a lot of slow back-tracking and puzzle-solving to determine where to go next, Shadow Complex is a little lighter on these elements and tries to cram as much action as possible into every second of gameplay. That's not to say these puzzles don't exist- the ones I needed to do to get through the game were pretty simple but if I had more time to spend playing this I would have loved to run around throughout the base and find all of the hidden upgrades. I'd say by the time I finished, I explored less than half of the total area of the base. Maybe someday I'll return to it. I really had no complaints at all about the game- the voice acting, the story, the controls, the graphics; all were top-notch and especially surprising considering this wasn't a disc release. The game was impressive on all levels and has me interested in the more moderately-received Undertow, Chair Entertainment's first XBLA game. But not enough to put it on my wishlist, that thing's crowded enough.December 14, 2010
Shadow Complex
A few months ago, Stan raved about this XBox downloadable title- Shadow Complex. Having heard of it before, my interest was piqued, but as I have so many times before, I put it off until the time was just right. The game was short- 5 hours maybe? But I managed to stretch it out over the course of a few weeks. It follows the style of Metroid games, but doesn't copy so much as pay homage to the long-standing Nintendo series. It's a 2-D shooter set in present-day California, where a man hiking with his girlfriend stumbles upon an underground terrorist base, and immediately takes action. And really, for the entirety of the game, that action never lets up. While Metroid games will have a lot of slow back-tracking and puzzle-solving to determine where to go next, Shadow Complex is a little lighter on these elements and tries to cram as much action as possible into every second of gameplay. That's not to say these puzzles don't exist- the ones I needed to do to get through the game were pretty simple but if I had more time to spend playing this I would have loved to run around throughout the base and find all of the hidden upgrades. I'd say by the time I finished, I explored less than half of the total area of the base. Maybe someday I'll return to it. I really had no complaints at all about the game- the voice acting, the story, the controls, the graphics; all were top-notch and especially surprising considering this wasn't a disc release. The game was impressive on all levels and has me interested in the more moderately-received Undertow, Chair Entertainment's first XBLA game. But not enough to put it on my wishlist, that thing's crowded enough.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also looked into Undertow, but it turns out it was offered for free back in January of 2008 for like a week or so. And I can't pay for something they were giving out for free unless it gets at least an 80 on Metacritic. But yeah, Shadow Complex was so damn awesome. Even amid my craze to finish another 70 games, I really want to go back and 100% it someday.
ReplyDelete