Game Review: Shadow Complex

Before getting into this review, it should be known that I tend to get a little damp in the nether regions when it comes to games like this. Metroid II and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are among my favorite games ever created.

That being said, I’m not gonna’ suck Shadow Complex’s nuts undeservingly, because the game’s not without its fair share of minor flaws. That’s not to say it isn’t a good game, it’s fucking awesome. Go buy it. Right now. Seriously.

Shadow Complex is a sidescrolling 2D action/adventure game for Xbox LIVE Arcade based on the novel Empire, written by the gay-bashing Orson Scott Card. The game transtions into the upcoming sequel to the book, Hidden Empire. You’ll probably never, ever read it, or want to.

But enough about this being part of a franchise for a homophobic auteur, you wanna’ hear about the game! If you didn’t know already, Shadow Complex is an updated take on the whole Metroidvania (ugh, I tried so hard not to use that word in the review…) style of games, blending 2D gameplay in a 3D (or I guess maybe it’s 2.5D?) landscape. Your main character can only move back and forth, but enemies can move into the background and foreground. There’s plenty of hidden items and secret rooms, and you can probably beat it in about a day, or three, depending on how active your social life is.

Awesome

• Huge amount of gameplay variety. One moment you’ll be running around, shooting guys and pulling off sweet melee kills before you fire up a turret and take out baddies in the background, the next you’ll be creeping through air ducts looking for weak spots to blow up so you can find weapon upgrades for the giant robot boss in the next room. Every time you think this game’s about to get boring, the pace picks up perfectly.
• Big-ass map. There’s so many nooks and crannies in this game to explore. Even after you get to the end credits, you’ll wanna’ go back for all those rooms on your map that you haven’t seen  yet.
• Proving Grounds. The challenge mode on this is fun as hell when it’s not kicking the living shit out your face. It can get pretty hard. Like, border-line Bionic Commando: Re-armed hard. Masochistic gamers will love it.
• Fun-ass weapons that make you feel like a badass by the end of the game. With the exception of the hookshot (did anybody even ever really use that thing?) the weapons made the game loads more fun. You only start out with a crappy gun at first, but soon you get grenades, missiles, and this weird sticky stuff that freezes bad guys and makes things explode. After you get enough upgrades toward the end of the game, you killing dudes in one shot, running though everything that stands in your way (literally, plowing through EVERYTHING with the amazing speed boost upgrade), and basically just causing all sorts of general havoc. It almost feels like Crackdown, but in 2D

Not Awesome

• Not-so-tight controls. It’s already kind of a bummer that enemies can move freely between the foreground and background, but you can’t. It’s even more of a bummer when it can be impossibly at times to target enemies that are off to the foreground and background. Try as you might to shot that asshole up on the balcony in the background, but you’ll only wind up shooting empty air in front of you. This issue easily could have been avoided with some sort of lock-on feature. I also had problems with the wall jump. Sometimes if I was right up against a wall and tried to wall jump, I was unsuccessful. Whenever this happened, I would have to back up, and then jump in towards the wall to wall jump. Seems like a weird collision detection error or glitch or something.
• The story and dialogue are kinda’ terrible. Honestly, I barely remember much of the story. I think there’s only like two paragraphs of spoken dialogue in this whole game. All that my brain will let me remember is that some bad guys killed the vice president, you stumble into their underground headquarters, steal their kick-ass suit, and bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks. Oh, and this is the worst line of dialogue in the whole game: Cobra Commander-looking Bad Guy: “Who are you?” Douchey main character: “I’m no one… and everyone.” Seriously!? Did he just say that shit!?
• Character design was lacking. The “main bad guy” (if you can even call him that, because you never get to fight him and he shows up randomly from left field near the end of the game) looks soooo much like Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe. Not the shitty movie version, but the real deal Cobra Commander. And the main character, Jason Flemming, looks way too much like Nathan Drake from Uncharted. Sure, they’re both voiced by the same guy, but even their names sound alike: Nathan, Jason. C’mon. And another thing, we’re sick of seeing douchey “bro-dudes” with ornate graphic tees and belt buckles in our video games.
• As a huge music snob, this game’s ending theme song highly offended me.

This not only one of the best games to come out all year, but one of the best games that Xbox LIVE Arcade has to offer. Although the story might be quick to play through, it alone is worth the $15, but if you try to unlock 100% of the map, get all items, and complete all the Proving Grounds challenges, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.