Rather than screw around introducing the game to you, I'll just jump straight into the review. It's hard to introduce downloadable, retro titles because they're generally so uncomplicated. Instead, I'll say I hate the term "metroidvania" with a passion and would love for it to be made into some manner of arcane homunculus that it might actually die in a fire.



The Good
There isn't much to SC in terms of story or thought; aside from an environment-based kill or secret passage it's pretty much just run and jump, so the mechanics that are there have to be tight. They are. In about 1.9 trips (I've stopped just before the end to go collect everything) through the game, I never felt hampered by the movement controls. They are responsive and, most importantly, consistent. Things always work, and always work the same way.

The bosses look cool and are well animated. They're totally video game bosses and I never believe they would be applicable for anything else, but when they show up, you know shit is going to go down.

Maybe my favorite thing about it is the frequency at which upgrades are acquired. In some other games, there's this mid-game drag where you have all the basic stuff and what's left is the game-progression keys that are handed out really sparingly to make a player run around and pad for length. When you need something in Shadow Complex, it's there instead of the other end of the map. You will find “locked” doors for lots of optional stuff, but it doesn't feel like there's a lot of (unnecessary) padding.

The game isn't graphically impressive, in fact, some textures are downright bad, but the distant camera hides it and the game is “shot” well. The camera pulls back at the right times to show off spaces and the environmental effects have enough variety that areas feel distinct.



The Bad
The method Shadow Complex uses to fire into the back- and foreground is unreliable. I feel the Destructoid review glossed over it a bit. There were a couple points in the game where I actually couldn't aim at enemies that could fire at me with expert accuracy. I angled the stick back and the auto aim locked onto a barrel instead of one of the three machine-gun wielding baddies. The barrel itself was actually obstructed by a computer or something so I was unable to do anything but pump bullets into a wall or charge through a hail of bullets hoping there was some cover off the left side of the screen. It happened on both playthroughs in exactly the same way, so it wasn't chance. It's one thing to wiggle the stick around to get the auto-aim to pick someone running around in the background and another entirely to be completely unable to shoot enemies.

There's no way I can talk about this one without giving something away, but that won't stop me because it's so unforgivably bad. Skip the rest of the paragraph if you don't want to trade spoilers for avoiding terrible frustration. The penultimate three objectives are acquiring the final parts to the armor. Waypoints lead you to the first and second pieces, sometimes by way of a nearby switch or whatever that unlocks the room. The point isn't always right on the item. The third objective, however, makes it impossible to get the final armor upgrade. It isn't required to finish the game, but what the fuck?! After providing reliable objectives for the entire game, you will be given one that will permanently bar you from 100% of the items. The game lies to you! This is, of course, just before the final boss, so I hope you're ready to play the entire game over again because you dared to believe the map. Spoilers over.

Speaking, now spoiler-free, of the end of the game: it is one of the most abrupt ends I've ever experienced. It didn't seem to build to it, nor was it especially satisfying for story reasons I won't spoil. It's like they all got bored and decided to slap the ending on and call it a day.



In Closing
Yeah yeah, I went on at greater length about the bad points; I always do. All that explanation fills up a post. If I had to give it a score, it would be pretty low considering the pure hate its flaws inspire. I won't give it one because the game is actually fun in spite of said flaws. If you have the points, pick it up.