I  snuck out of work early yesterday so I could zip home and get started on Chair/Epic Games (of Gears of War) recent release, Shadow Complex.  1200 Microsoft Points later, I was off and running.

If you listen to any other gaming podcasts or read any of the previews/reviews at any of the major networks, you’ll know the game is being hailed as the Second Coming of Christ, so let’s start off by taking things down a notch.  The game is far from perfect, and there are few teeth jarring things about the game that have made my first four hours through it a bit painful.

The game is a side scroller in the vein of both Metroid and Castlevania, hence other sites quickly calling it a “Metroidvania”-esque game.  Make no mistake, the graphics are gorgeous and cleverly designed.  But the mix of 2D/3D leads to some pretty big depth perception problems, as the game feels like it takes a cotton swab and then pushes it into your brain.

While you only run in a straight line across the screen, the depth of the background leads to cases of brain melting quite regularly.  Is that crate in the distance something I can interact with?  Can I jump here and catch this ledge, or is that in the background?  I’m going to try a jump oh no I’m falling, crap I’ve just been ground into hamburger by a giant rotary fan.

That background/foreground issue causes big problems in the gunplay mechanics.  You move using the left thumbstick, while the right thumbstick is your aiming.  You move your right thumbstick to aim both in front of you, as well as into the background, where guards regularly show up.  There’s no “push-this-button” (is there?) to aim into the background, so there are several instances when I would toss a grenade with the intention of throwing it towards the guys in the background, and it would get tossed in front of me while the guys in the background lay into me.

Perfect example of foreground/background problems. The guy in the background isn't being targeted here, despite being closer to you.

Story line.  A lot of people are saying that this story is based around the world of Orson Scott Card’s book Empire, but the plot seems rather lean.  You play as Jason Fleming, as voiced by Uncharted’s Nathan Drake himself, Nolan North, who stumbles unwittingly into an underground base full of high tech militia members while up rock climbing with his girlfriend.  Girlfriend Claire gets captured, and Jason infiltrates into the base to rescue her and happens to uncover a plot to start a civil war within the United States.  Whoopsie!

You’ve got a legendary science fiction writer telling the story, and you’ve got the guy voicing Nathan Drake doing voiceovers, but you have a game that can be speed run in under an hour.  Guess what gets cut to hell?  The story line!  You get just enough to care about Jason and his girlfriend, and oh, by the way, singlehandedly stop a revolution, but its very bare bones.

It sounds like I’m beating the game to hell, but I’m just trying to warn you ahead of time.   Outside of the foreground/background issues, the shooting mechanics, and the stripped down storyline, for 1200 Microsoft Points, you have got a ridiculously good game here.   Seeing as they released Turtles in Time for 1200 points, this totally throws off how Microsoft should be able to price games.  I’ve played full release titles worth much less than what you’re getting with your money here.

The action is just fun, and it always feels like you’re moving forwards very quickly, with checkpoints and objectives in very manageable chunks, with the next section just ahead of you.  Boss fights feel epic despite the simple side-scrolling game mechanics.  The map is done well, showing you not only where you need to go next, but teasing you with where every power up and secret is of the game…but are you smart enough to figure out how to get them all?  There are achievements that lead to multiple playthroughs, such as beating it without getting any powerups or within a certain time limit.  There’s no multiplayer, but it has the Geometry Wars leaderboard functionality which updates while you’re playing, which pushes you to keep playing to beat your friends’ scores.

This feels like a next-gen version of Metroid and Castlevania done right. I personally want them to make a full release game out of it, with more storyline and character development, but they wouldn’t have to do anything with the gameplay.  Just MOAR PLZ!  You are going to enjoy yourselves with the game.  Despite my quips with it, I have a feeling that this game is going to be the new standard for not only Xbox Live Arcade titles, but quite a few release titles as well.

For fifteen dollars?  No brainer.  Buy it.

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