The Xbox Live Arcade is renowned for having cheap, short indie games that are produced and played by people to tide them over until the next major gaming release. It is also known for containing innovative and creative concepts. When something like Shadow Complex comes around, boasting that it's taken the ' metroidvania' style of gameplay and reworked it to suit today's gaming industry, it might raise a few eyebrows. This isn't the most original game on the Xbox Live Arcade but it certainly goes about it by pretending it is.

In Shadow Complex you play as Jason, an average twenty-something guy who is dragged along to go explore some cave with Claire, a girl who he just met in a bar. Jason soon discovers that the cave is actually home to the 'Restoration', a fairly large and technologically advanced terrorist group who are planning an attack on San Francisco in a matter of hours. When Claire is kidnapped by them, Jason must ultimately save her and prevent these guys from attacking the country. To do this he will need to use every bit of technology he passes by, even though I'm a bit perplexed as to why he doesn't just pick up the assault rifles dropped by early enemies, against the Restoration including grenades, missiles and a battlesuit.

If there is one aspect of the game that it wants to boast the most about then it would be exploration. Everything you do in the game is about exploration. Hidden items, secret doors, power-ups, it's all to do with exploring every part of the game world. This may sound like a hassle at first but the possible frustration is quickly eased by the flashlight, an item you get right from the start that lights up secret doors where hidden items may be and which item has to be used to open it. Since this game boasts so much about exploration and secrets it comes across as a bit strange to have an item that you can use almost all the time that tells you exactly where all the secrets are.

Another thing the game wants to boast about is replayability. The short single-player adventure helps this by not making it tedious to play the entire game again the moment after finishing it once. A leveling system is also used here to help make the game feel less repetitive. Every level brings a slight upgrade to your character, usually through increased firing precision and every ten levels bring a major upgrade like infinite foam or the entire map being unlocked. If you do eventually get bored of the main game then there is a challenge mode, called Proving Grounds, where you are pulled into a series of challenges where you are only permitted certain items and weapons from the game.

Combat in the game isn't something to get excited about. Shooting is performed by aiming with the right stick and firing with the right trigger. A laser pointer is used as your aiming guide but it feels as though it makes the game far too simple. With this laser you can easily pop headshots with almost every enemy in the game making combat quick, easy and boring. These encounters are broken off with the occasional boss fight where it has a specific weakpoint but if you're not really in the mood to carefully observe the boss and it's surroundings then you can just unload all your items onto it and defeat it without much trouble.

This game is most reminiscent of Super Metroid which boasted exploration and replayability but Shadow Complex lacks the functionality of Super Metroid. The jumping feels awkward, some items are overpowered or difficult to use, such as the hyperspeed, and, overall, the game just doesn't have the same charm and atmosphere that Super Metroid had.

Shadow Complex is a nice attempt to bring the 'metroidvania' genre to the current generation but it lacks the depth that most of those games had. Maybe if Shadow Complex was larger, more complicated and challenging then it might have stood up as a spiritual successor to Super Metroid. Get it if you liked those games but don't get your hopes up too high.

 


This is the view from outside my house right now. This orange haze is blanketing most of NSW in Australia. I thought it was just sunrise at first but then I saw the haze. What are your thoughts? I think it's quite cool! Before you reply, I did think of Persona 4 first. :P

I live in Australia and we use Bigpond for our internet but there's something it's doing right now that's annoying me. We exceeded our bandwidth in the previous month and our speed was slowed to 64 kbps but that month ended on the 20th and we should be onto a new month which it says it is but our speed is still slowed.
 
You read through this and you think 'you can probably last a few more days with slow internet, at least you have internet' but there's something GiantBomb did just after it slowed that's making it hard for me to just forget about the slow internet. Because of the slow internet I have yet to watch the final two episodes of the Endurance Run, something I have been following for some time now.
 
What do you think I should do? If you suggest that I load the videos on the slow internet then I'll tell you that's a bad idea. It takes roughly 18 hours to load 1 hour of video on it.

This is the first in a series of short reviews I want to make that are 300 words or less. By the way, I have gotten the true ending on Persona 4 but there are no spoilers in the following review.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the Playstation 2 is a stylish Japanese turn-based roleplaying game. The game follows a group of high school students as the discover the truth behind a string of serial murder cases that are occuring around the once peaceful country town of Inaba and the truth behind the mysterious Midnight Channel that appears at midnight on a rainy day.

The style of the game is very unique and interesting. Sharp graphics and colourful displays makes the game play like nothing you've played before. The fast-paced battle system works with a trial and error approach as you find the enemies weakness and exploit it. The absense of random encounters gives this game an automatic thumbs up.

The characters are rememorable and well established. During your 60 hour stay at Inaba, you will become attached to most of the main characters and will be saddened when the game eventually ends.

The soundtrack involves catchy J-pop with English lyrics. The insertion of a free soundtrack cd was a good move on behalf of Atlus as you will want to listen to the music when you want to.

Every day in Inaba you will have to decide what you will do for the day. Will you hang out with friends and get stronger or rescue people who are in danger? Even though there is a time limit almost constantly above your head, it will never feel like you are wasting your time as you seem to be always getting stronger in the game no matter what you do.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is an interesting and enjoyable experience and it proves that the Playstation 2 can still pack a punch. My recommendation is that you should definitely seek this game out.

Before you comment I need to point out that I have NOT finished Persona 4 and am up to Adachi's dungeon. This post is mostly to sum up my current feelings about the game at this point in the game.

I noticed that from the day that Nanako is kidnapped onwards, the plot became something that I could describe accurately with the phrase "Shit just got real". This is a common trend to most types of entertainment, such as movies, games and tv shows, and is called a climax, but this game's entire atmosphere has completely changed from what I had felt at the beginning of the game.

The feelings of the NPCs are annoying me right now as a result of the fog because of a trope in some games I would like to call "End-Game Syndrome" where the NPCs will only talk about their inevitable demise and won't actually say anything useful. An example of this in another game could be Mega Man Star Force 2 but I don't expect that you've played it.

I confirmed that this game had changed when Adachi pointed out that this time I would not only be saving other people, but the ENTIRE WORLD... kinda. I had this same feeling during my playthrough of Dead Rising at the point with the bombs.

I don't know if I'm making much sense but this is a common to most JRPG's with the plot taking a rather dramatic twist to involve the end of the world or something of equal epicness. I don't actually expect you to understand this drabble that I wrote in a matter of minutes but... yeah... I don't have a finishing statement here. Damn.

UPDATE: I have now finished Persona 4, the true ending I mean.