Shadow Complex

[Vade]

Hell of a game. I highly recommend it!

Link to a review...

YouTube - Shadow Complex Review

[MisterBob]

Hmm, this looks decent. Is it really like Super Metroid? Any idea on the length?

[Vade]

Probably 5 or 6 hours the first run through on Normal...one of the achievements is 2 hours on Insane...but there's a lot of exploring to do. I don't recall the lengths of Super Metroid.

[MisterBob]

About the same (excluding the <55min speed runs, of course)

[Kaylia]

Metroid was a bit longer the first time, but it wasnt 15$.

Game does look interesting. I would be tempted to buy it if I had an x-box. It definitively sound like a better money investment than 99% of the downloadable content.

[Qalbert]

This game is amazing. Highly recommend you read Empire by Orson Scott Card to get a better feel for the universe. The game is written by Peter David, who has done some great comic arcs, star trek novels, and other such things.

[rezn0r]

i was searching for a thread earlier and didn't find one, but got pulled back to the game before making one. it's worth more than it costs, it's awesome. get it!

[Insanecyclone]

Played the trial and was looking at the Achievements and one is named Justin Bailey with a samus like visor heh.

Spoiler Warning: Shadow Complex secrets and strategies

Bonus Time
Throughout Shadow Complex players will gain experience by exploring the world, finding bonuses, and defeating enemies. Each level gives players additional stat bonuses that carry over throughout their Shadow Complex career, such as precision, accuracy and stamina. Some levels unlock special ammo upgrades, allowing players to have unlimited ammo -- as long as they have the ability available to them.

* Level 20 -- Full Map Unlock: The entire game map is revealed, including all secrets.
* Level 30 -- Unlimited Foam Ammo: Gives players unlimited foam ammunition in their current (and all subsequent) runs of Shadow Complex. Ammo must be acquired for bonus to take effect.
* Level 40 -- Unlimited Grenades: Player gets unlimited grenades in their current (and all subsequent) runs of Shadow Complex. Grenades must be acquired for bonus to take effect.
* Level 50 -- Unlimited Missile Ammo: Player gets unlimited missile ammo in their current (and all subsequent) runs of Shadow Complex. Missiles must be acquired for bonus to take effect. Hitting level 50 also unlocks an achievement.

[Parshias]

God, I want this game so bad. Why is it that the only 360 games I'm interested in are downloadable games? Can't buy a whole system for $40~ worth of games.

[Doombear]

i was searching for a thread earlier and didn't find one, but got pulled back to the game before making one. it's worth more than it costs, it's awesome. get it!

This indeed. So much fun. I find it kind of funny that the two games I am enjoying the most at the moment are "Arcade" games. The other one being Trials HD which is a ton of fun... until it switches to UN-POSSSSSIBLE mode.

[Atreides]

dear lord this game is amazing

[Qalbert]

first playthrough
Level 23, 7:50, normal, 100% 100%

[Zosi]

Awesome game, have been playing it a lot this week and enjoying it immensely. It's obviously heavily influenced by Super Metroid, but it's very enjoyable as a game in its own right rather than a love letter to Samus. It's kinda weird to describe, because it's definitely "bigger" than most XBLA titles - it's original IP (albeit based in the Empire world), the production values are great, there's a ton of content and gameplay. If Metroidvania games were a viable genre for a full-length $60 game nowadays, they could've done it with Shadow Complex easily. As most of the reviews have said, it definitely raises the bar for XBLA games.

My few gripes, spoilered because they talk about the last parts.

Spoiler: show

1) The bosses underwhelmed me. A few were interesting, but most were just "throw grenades/shoot rockets until it's dead". The last boss could've been a lot harder, but I understand that they had to make it possible to do without health/armor/helmet for the 4% item run achievement.

2) It was really annoying getting back to the right side of the map after triggering the self-destruct in command&control. If they're going to close off the lake for the end boss, they should've opened up one of the one-way doors in the middle going east so you didn't have to go all the way to the railroad tunnel on the very bottom to get back to the barracks.

3) Related to the comment about the last boss, you don't really get to play much after getting all the toys. It's fun to run around as an invulnerable-unless-running, infinite-missile-spewing god, but there aren't really any challenges left. The normal enemies don't really scale up past the guys with shields or the black ops guys who hang from the ceiling. All you really get to do with the toys is blow up an infinite supply of helicopters and spider tanks during the final battle.

I'm working on my second playthrough now to get some more levels for the level 50 achievement, and maybe try a 4% run some time after level 30. My first playthrough was 100% maps/items, around 9 hours (I went slooooow) and level 19.

[Mayareira]

Looks pretty awesome. I totally enjoy platform games like this one.

Like the article says, its "too good" for live arcade but the last big-budget platform game I remember was...Heart of Darkness. At this time and age i'd reckon it'd be quite difficult to attract customers into buying full or half priced platform/action games that don't technically excel.

[Parshias]

A question for those with 100% completion:

Are there any crafty puzzles to get any of the upgrades? I'm watching some normal runs on youtube, and all the upgrades seem to be "use newest weapon/item, crawl in tunnel, get new expansion pack." One of my favorite thing about the Metroid series is the crazy shit they made you do to get a Missle Expansion. Like Speed Booster puzzles, or Morph Ball mazes, or items hidden in walls you can't see through.

[Qalbert]

some of them can be fairly tricky, notably the blue boxes, as figuring out how to build up enough speed can be a challenge

[Zosi]

There's some tricks, but not as many as Super Metroid. The flashlight generally makes it pretty easy to figure out what to do to open a passage, but they aren't all just sitting in plain sight. It's definitely easier to get 100% than Metroid thanks to the marks on the map and flashlight, but it's also a smaller game overall, so there's less places for things to hide. You don't have to run around shooting every brick or dashing at every wall to find stuff.

[Mizango]

Loving it.

[Norellicus]

It's so awesome <3

[The Blackrose]

A question for those with 100% completion:

Are there any crafty puzzles to get any of the upgrades? I'm watching some normal runs on youtube, and all the upgrades seem to be "use newest weapon/item, crawl in tunnel, get new expansion pack." One of my favorite thing about the Metroid series is the crazy shit they made you do to get a Missle Expansion. Like Speed Booster puzzles, or Morph Ball mazes, or items hidden in walls you can't see through.

There's one that comes to mind later on the game when you have Rockets and the hookshot. You have a pillar sitting in the center of a room, and on the floor are lasers that will instakill. Each side of the pillar is divided in half again by a wall that goes from the ceiling down quite a distance. Then, on the outer perimeter of the wall and along the center pillar are rocket targets that you have to shoot.

So you have to climb up one side of the divider, shoot out 5-6 targets, then jump down and Mario Jump around to the other side of the divider, shoot another couple of targets, cross over the pillar and then do the same thing on the other side. This shuts off the lasers and gives access to a missle expansion. Enjoy.