Developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games, Shadow Complex brings about some much hyped adventuring in the vein of the Castlevania and Metroid franchises.
The story takes place in the world of Orson Scott Card’s book Empire, and is a companion to the soon to be released sequel, Hidden Empire. You play as Jason Flemming, some guy out hiking in the mountains with a girl he met at the bar. She goes on ahead and gets captured by some members of the “Progressive Restoration” who assume she is a spy. This leaves Jason alone to save her, and eventually stop this secret militant group from plunging the United States into another civil war. Throughout, the story is told through overheard conversations between soldiers, as well as a few short cutscenes.
Starting with a measly, yet endlessly useful, flashlight you’ll collect many weapons, armor, and items along the way just like any game in this style. You’ll be heftily rewarded for exploration, with achievement points, experience to gain more accuracy, and other bonuses. The flashlight will aid in exploration by causing objects to glow a certain color to indicate what weapon will have an effect. Think x-ray scope in Super Metroid. Unfortunately the camera angle at a couple spots prohibits you from being able to see the object in question, but this is so seldom it’s inconsequential.
The controls are very good with some minor issues. First, aiming into the background takes a lot of getting used to, which is understandable since I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like than done before. While understandable, it’s quite annoying to be getting shot repeatedly by one guy while you can’t get a shot lined up. Fortunately, the increases in accuracy from level ups will help smooth this over. Secondly, I noticed there was a little bit of wonkiness with ledge grabs. Once you gain double and triple jump abilities, sometimes the additional jumps weren’t responsive.
Combat is solid aside from the aforementioned 3d aspect, although there’s only a few types of enemies, and very little to speak of when it comes to bosses which is a big let down to me. Some large mechanical enemies have life bars, but most are easily dealt with and since most appear in other areas I hesitate to give them the title, “boss”.
Shadow Complex is very sparse with music using it only to accent certain areas, but it always tends to fit just right. Nothing mind blowing, but very well fitting to the mood, and the graphics running on the Unreal Engine are top- notch.
In addition to the campaign, there are three challenge map packs. For the most part, I was unmoved by these, playing them only for the achievements. They weren’t bad by any means, but while playing them I just wish they were built into the map somehow. It would have been far more satisfying if the tougher challenge rooms had some item behind them, even if that item didn’t do anything. It just would have been nicer than running around in the white rooms with a mannequin.
While it may not be perfect, Shadow Complex certainly outshines some of the more recent games of its kind. Despite the controversy of recent 360 Live Arcade price increases, this is another one that can be put into the “Worth $15” category. 4.5/5
