Shadow Complex (XBLA) Review

Posted by Adam Larck on 08.18.2009

One of the most hyped Xbox Live Arcade games releases Wednesday, but how does it play? 411’s Adam Larck tells you all about it inside.



Title: Shadow Complex
Publisher: Epic Games
Developer: Chair Entertainment
Genre: Action
Players: 1
Rated: T

One of the most anticipated Arcade games to release this year for the Xbox 360, Shadow Complex comes from Chair Entertainment, who previously made Undertow and Advent Rising, among others. The game is based off the Orson Scott Card novel “Empire,” and clocks in at a big 835 MB to download. The question is, is the game worth all of that space?

First off, I want to start my review by addressing some of the comparisons that have been made between this game, Metroid, Contra and Castlevania. The game does borrow some from each game, but it really works being combined. Like Metroid, you can pick up various items to power yourself up with, download map sections from computers, replenish health and item ammo from Save rooms (marked by a Star on the door and on the map) and use a lot of similar moves, like wall jumping, hyper-run and missiles, among other things. From Contra, the 2D side-scrolling shooter feel is very familiar. From Castlevania, you uncover map sections the same way, giving you an overall map progression percentage. All these different similarities work great in the game, though.

Back to the game, Shadow Complex features two modes, the Main Adventure and Proving Grounds, which I’m going to focus on first.

The Proving Grounds lets you work on Tutorials and also gives three Challenge Packs to complete. The Tutorials let you get a grip on all the different items in the game and how to effectively use them, while the challenge packs put your effectiveness with the items to the test. Each pack has seven different challenges to beat. The quicker you beat it and the more points you have the higher medal ranking you get. There are four different medals to earn (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum). The challenges range from trying your jump skills to combining using different items during the same section to killing enemies. There is quite a bit to do there, and it really helps to hone your skills.

The meat of the game comes in the form of the Main Adventure. Let me start off by saying that this can be as short or as long as you want to make it. Out of the four Master Challenges that the developers have thrown in there for players to try and get, there is one where you try and beat the game at 100% in under two hours called Jason Bailey (a parody of the Metroid code, obviously), but if a person wants to explore everywhere, this game can easily take up to 10 hours. It all depends on a person’s playing style and how they want to progress in the game.

The game starts you off in Washington D.C. controlling Colonel Dallas, a member of the Pentagon. While controlling him you have a brief fight against a few soldiers and a helicopter to get you used to the controls. The controls were easy to pick up and sue. While the right stick was a bit touchy at first when aiming, you get used to it pretty quick. After controlling him, gameplay finally shifts over to your main character, Jason Fleming.

The main plot line is that Fleming and his girlfriend, Claire, are out hiking when she gets kidnapped by the Progressive Restoration, who thinks she is a spy. Fleming tries to rescue her, but while doing so figures out that the group is trying to invade San Francisco, so tries to stop that at the same time.

The game starts you off in the woods with a flashlight. The flashlight is used during the game to light up corridors, and the battery of the flashlight slowly decreases over time, but quickly recharges when turned off. Besides lighting up areas, the flashlight can be used to see various areas that can be broken into using different items. There are five types of destructible objects: Orange (gunfire), Green (grenade), Red (missile), Blue (hyper-run) and Purple (foam). You will run into these various items during your gameplay.

While I am on the subject of items, I want to talk about what all you can get. You can upgrade your gun throughout the game, from pistol to inertial element . As you progress, you pick up the weapons mentioned above, along with equipment you wear that can help you breath underwater, take more damage, run faster, boost your jump and more.

Also, as you advance through the game, you can find various canisters that give you more ammo, health, armor, gold bars or passkeys. While the first three things in that sentence are understandable, the last two help to unlock areas that give you special items. At the time of this writing, I still have not been able to find all of these, but this is due to the game being so big that I am trying to backtrack and find these items. A good thing with all of these items is that even if you do not have the right weapon to get to their location, they appear with a question mark on your map until you go back and get them, where they then change to a dot.

Another thing that Complex comes with is a level system. There are 50 levels to progress through, and levels carry over from a completed game to a new game. You gain experience not only by defeating enemies, but also by solving puzzles and finding which way to go. Whenever you level, either Stamina, Precision or Accuracy goes up. It always rotates between the three. However, every 10 levels something extra will happen, such as increasing your health or showing all the hidden items on the map. While you cannot run and gun early on, as you will get mowed down, after a few plays enemies will die with ease.

Enemies in this game come in three forms: regular, heavy and Bomba. Regular enemies normally just carry basic guns, and some (normally outfitted all in black) can latch to the roof to shoot and throw grenades at you from above. Heavy enemies take more damage and can carry items ranging from miniguns and missile launchers with a shield. Bomba’s are robotic enemies that blow up when defeated, but you can kick them away and towards other enemies.

Actually, an interesting perspective from the game comes from fighting enemies. The game is a 2D side-scroller, except when manning a mounted turret, which it then switches to a third person over the shoulder view. However, enemies can appear in the foreground and background. Depending on what enemy you aim at, your character will face wherever the enemy is and shoot, including the background. While you cannot walk back there, it does give a depth feeling to the game that is really nice.

The boss fights are also fun in the game, but sometimes feel like the weakest points of the game as well. Normally, each boss has a certain weak spot to aim for where you use the terrain to get to it and damage it. However, I found it just as easy to often sit there and unload missiles and grenades into it to kill it quicker. Some bosses even just stood there and let me shoot them, as they could not aim at the area I was at. The battles were good, but it often just came down to shooting them quicker instead of figuring out a way to hurt their weakness.

Probably the best thing I found in the game was just the freedom to move about the levels finding different ways to progress. If killing everything in sight is your way of doing things, you can go through the level like it. However, I normally tried to find the covert way of going about an area. Sneaking above or below them hearing the enemies talk amongst them was interesting, as the chat normally added a bit more to the back-story of the group.

The 411:

Shadow Complex is one of the best downloadable titles this year. The graphics and sounds are both great, and the gameplay is easy for new players of this particular genre to pick up, but reminds veteran players of great games like Super Metroid as they play. Microsoft certainly saved the best for last in this year’s Summer of Arcade. Easily a must have title for 360 owners.

Graphics	10.0	Chair Entertainment took the graphic style from Undertow and improved on it. The environments look great and have a lot of depth, characters are detailed and the cut scenes in the game look better than some retail games.
Gameplay	9.5	There is a reason why this game has been compared to so many other great games. Chair really nailed down the 2D side-scrolling action. The weak boss battles are one of the few things keeping this from being a 10.
Sound	9.5	The music at the intro screen is haunting but still great. The voice actors do an amazing job in the game for the characters. The music in game and the background noise is also great. The ending song is also good to listen to and really fits the mood of t
Lasting Appeal	9.5	Even after spending multiple hours trying to beat the game and find all the canisters, there are four different modes to play on and 50 levels to gain. If this was not enough, there are four Master Challenges the developers threw in there for perfectionis
Fun Factor	9.5	Whether it was trying to progress the story or searching for upgrades, I had a great time with this game. It brought back a lot of memories from my Super NES days of playing Super Metroid. There is a lot of fun to be had here as you explore through the ga
Overall	9.6   [  Amazing ]

Screenshots
All 8 Shadow Complex Screenshots