Pushing a old genre foward
Shadow Complex is a 2d exploration action adventure developed by Chair Entertainment with the Unreal 3 engine. Its a homage to the Metroid and castlevania series but it keeps the genre fresh and alive for people who have not played this type of games (like me).
Shadow Complex follows Jason Flemming who met a girl at a bar and go out hiking. When they are playing hide and seek they reach a underground complex run by "terrorist" who have caught the girl you met. Its up to you to save her and find out more about what the hell this place is about. The game is about 8 hours long and is pretty engaging. The story is apparently a parallel story with the events of Empire by Orson Scott Card. But the game doesn't rely on the story to drive the game but the concept of exploring the complex and finding upgrades to the arsenal you are building up.
The gameplay is all about exploring and shooting. Shooting is simple with a certain amount of auto aim although using the right trigger will allow the player to target with more accuracy. When targets are in the background the game will aim in the direction. Most of the gameplay is in exploring this huge base finding upgrades to your weapons and armor and solving puzzles usually with weapons you have acquired. (which leads to you reaching areas you weren't able to before). You could play through the game without exploring but the game will end up being very short. Exploring is part of the game and if you aren't the person that is into that, this game may not interest you.
The graphics look great taking the 2d type game and putting it in 3d without making the gameplay 3d. Its a cool concept and its something other 2d games should look into. The Unreal engine looks great and i'm sure Epic games is happy to have a game that is able to show that it looks good even if its not a third person game.
Audio is good and top notch. The music is dark and omnious and gives cues as to when you are done killing everyone in a certain area (a stinger according to Epic). The voice acting is top notch with none other than Nolan North handling the voice of Jason Fleming. Shooting sounds fine and all the effects sound good.
Overall Shadow Complex is a great downloadable game that ranks among the triple A titles. If you have an xbox 360 and 15 bucks to spare (and like to explore games as oppose to following a path) definitly get this game.
