Classic Gameplay. Unreal Technology. Does Chair’s anticipated platformer live up to the hype?

Developer: Chair Entertainment

Demo/Buy: Xbox Live Marketplace

It’s here. It’s finally here. For five weeks, Summer of Arcade 2009 has brought us some fantastic exclusive titles, including the darkly hilarious ‘Splosion Man and the infuriatingly addictive Trials HD… yet the critics, pundits and press have been focused on one game. The main event: Shadow Complex. We’ve been bombarded by a constant stream of trailers, interviews, hype and controversy… and Chair’s Unreal powered side-scroller is finally here to reinvent the genre and change our lives forever. Apparently. It’s time to find out!

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If so, Chair have paid an enormous compliment to Yoshio Sakamoto, because Shadow Complex owes all of its game mechanics to Metroid, Castlevania, Zelda and other classic Nintendo franchises. True to form, the protagonist starts the game with nothing but a flashlight, a climbing harness and horrifyingly brutal unarmed combat techniques- forcing the player to make do with simple platforming and stealthy takedowns. However, dilligent exploration and backtracking gradually yields an impressive array of weapons, abilities and gadgets that improves the player’s combat skills and allows access to new parts of the enormous, sprawling map. So far, so Metroid. However, Shadow Complex not only perfectly emulates its forefathers, but manages to improve and elaborate upon almost every aspect of the genre.

Let’s get the basics out of the way. Shadow Complex is the one of the first true ‘2.5 D’ platformers: the platforming takes place on a single plane- but the scenery and enemies are rendered in full 3D. The major new innovation is that you can exchange fire with enemies in the background, allowing Chair to conjure up impressive set pieces and the illusion of fully three-dimensional combat. There are also a fair few platforming challenges to circumvent throughout the hefty campaign- and bar a couple of control foibles, the jumping and climbing feels as solid as you’d expect from a premium title.

Epic’s Unreal engine feels right at home: proudly rendering beautiful lighting effects, pleasingly high-res textures and lending an unprecedented amount of interactivity into the levels. Enemy animations are also surprisingly realistic- throw a grenade into a group of three guards and you’ll usually get three different reactions (most of which will probably end up demonstrating the excellent ragdoll physics). Shadow complex is easily the shiniest game available on Xbox Live Arcade, and has the platforming competence to match.

But this isn’t just another shiny side-scroller. Chair have clearly thought long and hard about the three main problems that’ve dogged run-and-gun platformers since the genre was born: repetition, linearity and limited replay value. And proceded to wipe them out.

To avoid gameplay repetition and eventual boredom, Shadow Complex is brilliantly paced. Jason (the stock character du jour) starts out relying on stealth and instant-kill melee attacks at the very start of the game, sneaking through vents and pipes much like the first half hour of Metal Gear Solid. However, his evolving arsenal and armour continually adds new gameplay options into the mix; and constant switching between platforming and combat ensures that the experience remains fresh and interesting. Frequent old-school boss battles and underwater diving sequences add a tense change of pace and the turret shooting segments are probably the most fun in recent memory.  Whether you’re running across the surface of a lake at supersonic speed… or duelling a mechanical spideresque horror with nothing but a pistol and a handful of grenades… or gunning down hordes of enemies, walkers and turrets with a missile turret… there simply isn’t enough time for any one situation to outstay its welcome.

Even more impressively: Shadow Complex is probably the most non-linear platormer released to date. On the large scale, the titular underground complex is enormous and actively encourages you to backtrack, explore and take a break from the storyline to upgrade your weapons and armour. Over 100 powerups and pickups are knocking around for a diligent adventurer to pick up- and it’s well worth it, since collecting them all transforms weak little Jason into an indestructible battle-armoured colossus.

The remarkable thing about Shadow Complex, however, is that even the small-scale choices are remarkably non-linear. After a few armour and equipment upgrades, any situation can be dealt with in myriad different ways. For example, imagine a lone guard stands in the way of your progress. You could sneak past him through some vents, or swing over his head with a grappling hook. You could brutalise him in melee combat or reduce him to atoms with a vaporising ground pound. You could knock him down at hypersonic speeds whilst running on the ceiling, knock down an explosive spider-bot, cook him with a grenade, eviscerate him with a missile… or, if you’re feeling really crazy, then you can just shoot him with the gun that you have.

On top of that, every part of your arsenal has more than one purpose. For example, the Riot Foam canister is typically used to immobilise your foes inside a cocoon of expanding cement and to open purple doors- but after a couple of playthroughs you’ll realise that it can create entirely new temporary platforms, adhere grenades to vertical surfaces, form bullet-proof shields and a whole mess of other combat applications. The bewildering amount of choice stops Shadow Complex from becoming stale even after several playthroughs.

And trust me, you will play it through several times. Poor replay value has always been an issue with side-scrollers- but Shadow Complex comes up with a number of good reasons to stick around after the credits roll. The enormous non-linear map and hundreds of upgrades are already worth another look, but Shadow Complex also features a persistent experience system. Killing enemies, defeating bosses, exploring map segments and discovering powerups allows Jason to gain levels that improve his accuracy, precision and occasionally confer a massive bonus upgrade. Your experience level persists between playthroughs and offers both increased combat power and some hefty gamerpoints to anyone willing to repeat the experience.

The icing on the cake, however, is that Shadow Complex features active leaderboards that notify you when (for example) you score more headshots or beat up more guards than someone on your friends list- as well as how many you’ll need to beat your next rival. Trust me, realising that a mate has beaten one of my records is enough to draw me back in straight away… just so I can drop him a message when I’m back in pole position. Throw in a selection of 30 timed ‘challenge rooms’ and you’ve got a powerful incentive to enjoy the campaign more than once.

No game is perfect, though- and Shadow Complex is no exception. Aiming at background targets or whilst airborne is frustratingly clunky and will result in a couple of cheap deaths, and the power of the Unreal engine doesn’t seem to prevent your girlfriend’s face looking like a plastic haloween mask. Bizarrely, though, the most glaring issue is the weak storyline. I’ve always argued that great gameplay should always eclipse and excuse poor storytelling, but Chair and Epic have been banging on about how Orson Scott Card’s Empire Trilogy provides the game’s background setting… and elite comic book writer Peter David penned the script… and I’m glad they told me, because I’d never have guessed otherwise. Seriously, the protagonist is an unwilling ex-soldier who didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps…but finally finds a reason to fight once his girlfriend’s been kidnapped?! Come on guys, this would sound lame in a straight-to-DVD Steven Seagal film.  The story is too thin and cliched to be satisfying, but too visible to be ignored- either Peter David should have crammed the game full of rich, juicy plot twists or just left it out altogether. But hey- you get to kill a helicopter in the first minute of the game. Never mind, eh?

So, should you buy Shadow Complex? YES. Chair’s magnum opus may not be perfect, but it’s the best downloadable game on Xbox Live to date. I’d go as far as calling it one of the greatest side-scrollers… ever. Quite frankly: if you own an Xbox hard drive, Shadow Complex really ought to be on it.

CGI Rating:

What does this mean?