Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Shadow Complex

1. Official Site
2. Platform: 360
3. Publisher: Epic
4. Developer: Chair Entertainment
5. Release Date: 08/19/09
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Tim Wilson

In Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire, the United States has become fractured into right-wing and left-wing factions. After a radical leftist group takes over New York City, a second Civil War breaks out. It is up to two special-ops officers to topple the rogue faction and restore peace to a broken nation. Shadow Complex takes place in the world of Empire, and serves as a companion to the book’s sequel, Hidden Empire, due in December. However, gamers need not be familiar with Card’s literary works to enjoy this riveting 2D side-scrolling adventure.
 
Shadow Complex starts out with a bang, thrusting you into the middle of a street battle as you attempt to thwart an attack on the Vice President. This mini-prologue serves as an appetizer to the main course, introducing you to some of the weapons and power-ups you’ll have available as you progress through the story. Shortly thereafter the real adventure begins. You take on the role of Jason Fleming, a dashing young man who is exploring some old caves with his girlfriend, Claire. When Claire mysteriously disappears, it is up to you to find out what happened.

Shadow Complex is an old-school title dressed in modern clothing. Hearkening back to classics such as Metroid and Castlevania, the action takes place in a two-dimensional side-scrolling style. The map consists of a few outside areas and one large underground fortress, all a series of rooms connected by doorways and air ducts. Jason can jump, grab onto ledges, and use weapons and power-ups to explore the facility and save the girl.

Jason starts out with nothing but a flashlight, but it’s one of the most important pieces of equipment in your inventory. Shining the flashlight on certain objects reveals properties about them that are crucial as you obtain power-ups. For instance, objects that glow orange can be destroyed with a gun, objects that glow green can be blown up with grenades, and objects that glow red can be destroyed with missiles. Fortunately you won’t have to memorize all this early on; an easily accessible information database tells you all you need to know, and serves as an encyclopedia on every weapon and power up you acquire.

This information database also serves as your map and a statistics tracker. For instance, you can easily tell what percentage of the map you've explored as well as how many hidden items you've acquired. For completists, it's an absolute necessity. The map is depicted in a flat two-dimensional layout reminiscent of the maps in the old Castlevania series. You can zoom and scroll the map, and the game will mark where you've been. At certain points in the adventure you'll be given a blue line on the map which shows you the general path to your objective - information you'll need in order to successfully navigate the map's dozens upon dozens of rooms.

Shadow Complex could accurately be described as a 2D shooter/RPG/puzzle/platformer. As you explore the facility, you’ll encounter numerous enemies that can be dispatched with a gun or stealthily with a melee attack. Melee attacks are particularly fun, as getting close to an enemy and hitting B will launch a quick cutscene showing Jason fighting and dispatching the foe. You will also encounter bosses, typically robotic creations with enormous amounts of firepower. Shooting takes place mostly on the two-dimensional plane, but the game allows you to occasionally dip into the third dimension. Though Jason is locked into a 2D axis, he can shoot enemies that are in the “background.” The game utilizes an intelligent aim-assist feature to target the closest enemies, which means your gun sight will automatically move into the third plane if there are enemies there to attack. It can be a little confusing at first, but it becomes second nature as you get more experience with it. There are also a few occasions where Jason can access mounted guns. During these sequences, the game does truly turn 3D, allowing you to participate in a shooting gallery of sorts as you mow down waves of enemies. It is also important to note that all guns have unlimited ammo, though they do have limited clip capacity. Reload often so that you don’t get caught with an empty clip in the middle of a big firefight.

The game also contains numerous RPG elements. For starters, you have an experience point (XP) bar that fills as you dispatch enemies, explore rooms, and find power-ups. Leveling gives you a predetermined boost to one of your abilities, such as precision or stamina. In addition, the power-ups themselves act as enhancements to your character over the course of the game. You will start the game as a street-clothed dude holding a flashlight, and will end your adventure as a futuristic battle-suit wearing bad ass. This means that there is a constant feeling of growing more and more powerful, particularly when getting a major suit upgrade that unlocks a new ability.

These power-ups constitute the game’s puzzle element. There are a few major upgrades that add special attack powers or abilities, but most power-ups give you extra capacity to your special attack weapons, health, or armor. Most of these more generic power-ups are hidden on the map, designated by rooms with a question mark symbol. Uncovering these hidden power-ups usually require using a special attack weapon (grenade, missile, foam gun, friction reducer, etc.) However, not all power-ups can be accessed as you start the game, as you may not have the appropriate special weapon. In addition, many of these power-ups are truly hidden in out of the way areas, meaning you will have to do some independent exploration to find them. The interesting thing about this design is that you, as a player, are in control of how powerful you become. If you seek out every hidden power-up, you will find the going much easier than somebody who bypasses them to focus on storyline objectives.

Finally there is the game’s platforming element. Many rooms have multiple exits, or multiple vertical levels, and you will need to use your flashlight to uncover exits blocked with destructible barriers. You will also need to use suit powers such as mid-air jumps and wall climbs to discover alternate exits. In later stages of the game, you’ll be using every acrobatic feat in your arsenal to progress through the facility – fantastic double air jumps, grappling hook grabs, and even alternating wall taps to scale smooth vertical passages.

All this is made possible by an excellent control scheme. Anybody who has played a 2D side-scrolling adventure in the past will feel right at home. Most of the acrobatic feats you can do with the suit use just the A button – everything else is just a matter of timing your button presses properly. You can scroll through special weapons via the D-pad, and launch them with the right shoulder button. Left trigger crouches, right trigger fires your gun, Y reloads and X sprints. The game’s locked 2D perspective may feel a little restricting at first, but you quickly get used to it. There’s nothing I hate more than imprecise controls in a game that requires a lot of jumping, and I’m happy to say that Shadow Complex avoids those pitfalls. I can’t think of a single occasion where I felt the controls were the chief contributor to my demise, rather than my own inadequacy.

Shadow Complex looks absolutely terrific. Don’t let the “two-dimensional” phrase worry you – this isn’t a cartoon. The graphics and detail are stunning for a downloadable title. Despite your character being locked on the X/Y axis, each room has visual depth – enough so that you may occasionally get confused as to what is accessible and what isn’t. The game also utilizes a physics engine. Enemy corpses will fall realistically from ledges, and boxes and crates will blow up and topple convincingly. Animations are fluid and are really fun to watch. Try tossing a grenade at an enemy and watching him hesitate as he realizes what it is, then tries to desperately run for cover.

The sound is also fantastic. Voice acting is generally very good, bringing to life the terrific script by famed comic book writer Peter David. Sound effects are solid, with fierce gun battles and explosions raging through the surround speakers (enough to wake the baby and anger my wife – oops!) The game’s music is also extremely well done. It is sparse and subtle enough to stay tucked away in the background, but provides important musical cues when necessary. For instance, clearing a room of all enemies will trigger a short musical cue that lets you know the room is clear. In long rooms where enemies may be just off-screen, this is a very handy feature.  The music will also ramp up during boss battles, letting you know you’re in for a big fight.

Shadow Complex is not a long game, but considering it’s an Xbox Live Arcade title that’s to be expected. A straight run through on the default difficulty took me around six hours, but that’s with finding only 51% of the total power-ups and exploring only around 85% of the map. Those who are more thorough or play through on one of the two higher difficulty settings could easily top ten hours. In addition to the main campaign, there is also a “Proving Grounds” section which functions as a tutorial and a series of mini-challenges. These are short and simple for the most part, but do give you an opportunity to practice using special weapons and techniques, and offer some replay value in trying to beat your best score. Don’t let the length or lack of multiplayer fool you though. For 1200 Microsoft points you’re getting one heck of a fun time.

Shadow Complex is yet another example of how fun, creative gameplay does not have to be limited to the bigger budget AAA titles. The game is just saturated with high production values, from the gorgeous Unreal engine-powered visuals to the professional voice acting and polished level design. Fans of classic titles like Castlevania and Metroid will love the game’s mix of retro gameplay and modern graphics, while newcomers will delight in the game’s expert blending of various genres. Sure, I could nitpick a few minor issues – a boss that happened to get stuck, allowing me to kill him without taking damage. A frustrating escape sequence. A couple of dodgy jumps here and there. But honestly I was having too much fun to really care. Shadow Complex should be considered a minor classic, and rightfully takes its place among the best that the Xbox Live Arcade has to offer.

Gaming Trend Score

90

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 95
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:90