Planet Notion - GAME REVIEW: Shadow Complex

01/10/2009

The ‘Metroidvania’ genre (named from standout examples Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night) is something of a gaming curio. Coming to fruition late in the life of mainstream 2D gaming, it represented something of a pinnacle for both game design and technology for the era. To date, it is rare to find a game as elegantly designed as Super Metroid, or as representative as it was of its platform’s technological prowess. It was to be short lived, however: with Sony’s Playstation sparking a 3D revolution only a few short years later, ‘Metroidvania’ was a genre quickly abandoned while developers pursued the future promised by high tech marvels like Wipeout.

Thanks then, to Chair entertainment and Epic Games for Shadow Complex. Taking Super Metroid as the blueprint, the concept remains the same: Your hero stumbles into a colossal maze (a secret badshit army HQ, this time.) and in order to escape and restore the world to rights, you must discover a series of high tech weapons and gadgets that both empower the player in the game’s explosive combat and open up new areas for exploration.

It’s a great formula, and it holds up well, although Chair have, wisely, made a few changes to accommodate for more modern gaming styles and tastes. Primarily amongst these is the inclusion of an optional guide line that points you towards the next major waypoint on the map when you get lost. Diehard ‘troid junkies may balk at the offer of a helping hand but for most players, an added sense of direction will be welcome.

However, features like this are symptomatic of perhaps Shadow Complex’s only serious failing as a fully fledged metroidvania game; it’s too easy. Super Metroid and Castlevania were exemplary in their day for being, amongst other things, hard as nails to the point of being Shit Scary. By comparison, Shadow Complex is so easy that you quickly become so powerful that enemies offer no resistance and huge stockpiles of ammo go unused and unneeded.

Really, to complain seems churlish- one of the best genres ever is back on home consoles, it’s great fun and will only set you back about a tenner in Microsoft space groats. On top of that, the game deserves praise for really raising the bar for XBLA both in terms of technical polish and value for money. What more could you want?

--Dan Phillips