A new game was long overdue last weekend, so I went and downloaded the much touted Shadow Complex. This was rated as the best XBLA game of ALL TIME by IGN It's a relatively small download of 800 odd MB, but it will absolutely blow you away with what it packs in those bytes.
Let me start by stating unequivocally, that i really enjoyed this game. Played through in a couple of days, and given that these days i tend to chuck anything sub-par, that's a huge plus for this game.
I'm usually far too excited with a new game to pay attention to the opening credits, but i did notice that this was powered by the Unreal Engine. Which is a good thing, because the unreal engine has its focus solidly on movement and accuracy as opposed to realistic backdrops (remember how quick Unreal tournament was ? )
The game is a 2.5 D side scroller, which means that your character moves only in 2 dimensions but the world is rendered in 3D. One weird aspect of this is that you can shoot in 3D, but the controls do not allow for aiming in 3D leading to thumb crunching guess work in such situations. At one point, instead of lobbing my precious grenades and rockets at the massive 60 foot monster machine, i ended up blowing away foot soldiers because of the auto-aim in 3D
But mostly, it works well, and adds depth in the massacre when working with the unlimited ammo gun. Yep - the gun is unlimited ammo. I'm kind of ambivalent about this - one one hand, it enables a very satisfying romp through the scenes with the trigger pressed down, but on the other it takes away from the challenge.
Speaking of which, I set the difficulty to my usual (Max - 1), which proved to be far too easy once the upgrades started kicking in. So - if that's your usual setting, crank it up to max difficulty. You'll soon get used to it.
The game has 2 options for play - "Campaign" and "Proving Grounds". DO NOT start the tutorial. Read that again - DO NOT start the tutorial. Jump straight into the campaign mode. The campaign mode has an excellent staged, contextual learning system built in. Going through the tutorials reveals all the upgrades and takes away from the satisfaction of mastering the abilities on the fly. You can come back to the "Proving Grounds" to complete the challenges and try to beat your own score.
The campaign mode follows the story of Jason Fleming, and his girlfriend who go hiking and discover the ... well.. "Shadow Complex". The plot line is acceptable if a little cliched, but the acting and cut scenes are hilariously overacted and scripted. They would have been "camp" funny if the characters didn't take themselves so seriously. There's an inexplicable Jason's Dad angle which i don't quite get. Maybe it's a setup for the sequel. Simply put - find bad guy, which is everyone except yourself, and kill them. Some classics don't need to be improved upon.
I've come around to the firm belief that everything is more fun with a projectable grappling hook. It worked for Just Cause, and it worked wickedly well for Earthworm Jim. Shadow Complex is no exception. It's particularly satisfying to pull away the shield from an enemy using the hook.
The game manages to balance the main story line and the scavenging aspect fairly well. I cannot be usually bothered to scrounge around for every little bob-end for an infinitesimal upgrade to my already formidable powers. Shadow complex excels at this by
a) Making the discovery of upgrades particularly satisfying as they are hidden away well, and its not a matter of a marathon trek across deserted scapes. You actually have to think a little bit. It all becomes easier with the hook.
and
b) Making the upgrades worthwhile. It's not another doohickey to make my gun shine with a ruby attachment. Most of the upgrades simply but usefully increase the amount of ammo i can carry, hence increase the number of people i can kill without re-loading. That's EXACTLY what i want from an upgrade.
Something that completely baffles me, though, is why in the world did they not stick to the usual control mechanism for shooters - left joystick for aim, right trigger for shooting. It's know to work. Why muck around. Now we end up with my already overloaded right hand to do aim + shoot with RT , and shoot deadlier stuff with the RB. All while I'm standing still and my left hand hanging limp on that side, while the right hand is in advanced stages of carpal tunnel syndrome.
My absolute favourite part is the gameplay. It's incredible how many big name titles get this wrong. It's even in the name G A M E - P L A Y, for f**k's sake. All the visual imagery and pimple detail in high res is useless if the game isn't playable. Shadow complex is a great example of gameplay done right. The movement is quick, without any loading screens. Most situations have multiple solutions - each of them equally satisfying. At one point I even managed to beat the game bypassing a crucial step simply through ingenuity. This isn't about my massively reticulated brain, but the fact that the game allows you to do stuff that even the designers had not anticipated. Its speaks volumes of the game engine more than anything else.
To wrap it up - great game play, stock plot line, hacky dialogue, fantastic upgrade system and some innovative weapons (The creative possibilities of the foam gun are practically limitless), and no loading screens!
I finished the main story line in a couple of evenings amounting to about 14 hours of serious gameplay. This included about 60% of item discovery. About five minutes into the game I had forgotten that this is a 800 Meg download and not a DVD.
I'm usually far too excited with a new game to pay attention to the opening credits, but i did notice that this was powered by the Unreal Engine. Which is a good thing, because the unreal engine has its focus solidly on movement and accuracy as opposed to realistic backdrops (remember how quick Unreal tournament was ? )
The game is a 2.5 D side scroller, which means that your character moves only in 2 dimensions but the world is rendered in 3D. One weird aspect of this is that you can shoot in 3D, but the controls do not allow for aiming in 3D leading to thumb crunching guess work in such situations. At one point, instead of lobbing my precious grenades and rockets at the massive 60 foot monster machine, i ended up blowing away foot soldiers because of the auto-aim in 3D
But mostly, it works well, and adds depth in the massacre when working with the unlimited ammo gun. Yep - the gun is unlimited ammo. I'm kind of ambivalent about this - one one hand, it enables a very satisfying romp through the scenes with the trigger pressed down, but on the other it takes away from the challenge.
Speaking of which, I set the difficulty to my usual (Max - 1), which proved to be far too easy once the upgrades started kicking in. So - if that's your usual setting, crank it up to max difficulty. You'll soon get used to it.
The game has 2 options for play - "Campaign" and "Proving Grounds". DO NOT start the tutorial. Read that again - DO NOT start the tutorial. Jump straight into the campaign mode. The campaign mode has an excellent staged, contextual learning system built in. Going through the tutorials reveals all the upgrades and takes away from the satisfaction of mastering the abilities on the fly. You can come back to the "Proving Grounds" to complete the challenges and try to beat your own score.
I've come around to the firm belief that everything is more fun with a projectable grappling hook. It worked for Just Cause, and it worked wickedly well for Earthworm Jim. Shadow Complex is no exception. It's particularly satisfying to pull away the shield from an enemy using the hook.
The game manages to balance the main story line and the scavenging aspect fairly well. I cannot be usually bothered to scrounge around for every little bob-end for an infinitesimal upgrade to my already formidable powers. Shadow complex excels at this by
a) Making the discovery of upgrades particularly satisfying as they are hidden away well, and its not a matter of a marathon trek across deserted scapes. You actually have to think a little bit. It all becomes easier with the hook.
and
b) Making the upgrades worthwhile. It's not another doohickey to make my gun shine with a ruby attachment. Most of the upgrades simply but usefully increase the amount of ammo i can carry, hence increase the number of people i can kill without re-loading. That's EXACTLY what i want from an upgrade.
Something that completely baffles me, though, is why in the world did they not stick to the usual control mechanism for shooters - left joystick for aim, right trigger for shooting. It's know to work. Why muck around. Now we end up with my already overloaded right hand to do aim + shoot with RT , and shoot deadlier stuff with the RB. All while I'm standing still and my left hand hanging limp on that side, while the right hand is in advanced stages of carpal tunnel syndrome.
My absolute favourite part is the gameplay. It's incredible how many big name titles get this wrong. It's even in the name G A M E - P L A Y, for f**k's sake. All the visual imagery and pimple detail in high res is useless if the game isn't playable. Shadow complex is a great example of gameplay done right. The movement is quick, without any loading screens. Most situations have multiple solutions - each of them equally satisfying. At one point I even managed to beat the game bypassing a crucial step simply through ingenuity. This isn't about my massively reticulated brain, but the fact that the game allows you to do stuff that even the designers had not anticipated. Its speaks volumes of the game engine more than anything else.
To wrap it up - great game play, stock plot line, hacky dialogue, fantastic upgrade system and some innovative weapons (The creative possibilities of the foam gun are practically limitless), and no loading screens!
I finished the main story line in a couple of evenings amounting to about 14 hours of serious gameplay. This included about 60% of item discovery. About five minutes into the game I had forgotten that this is a 800 Meg download and not a DVD.
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