Shadow Complex Remastered Review

<p>I can fondly remember playing <em>Shadow Complex<&sol;em> back in 2009 and how much of an impact it made on me&period; It was one of the games that pushed me into learning how to make them&period; I admired the vast complexity of the game world&comma; engaging scope of secrets&comma; and the intense action which kept me hooked and coming back for more&period; Then I moved onto other games and when I sold my Xbox 360&comma; I hoped it would return&period; Now my wish has come true and Chair and Epic Games have brought out a Remaster of this classic title&period; I’m never usually a big fan of Remasters&comma; but I was definitely interested in checking this out&period; I was also cautious at the same time&comma; as you know nostalgia can be a dangerous thing&period; So does my beloved 2&period;5D shooter still live up to those good memories or should have I left this in the past to admire&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1157px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;cbbcb4ae16f0be3a8664cc55604f8235&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1157" height&equals;"649" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">POW&excl; Crouch Shot&excl; &lpar;Shadow Complex Remastered&comma; ChAIR Entertainment&comma; Hardsuit Labs&comma; and Epic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Shadow Complex is a 2&period;5D cover based shooter which infuses various other elements into the design and experience&period; You’ll have a massive open world to explore&comma; loot to discover which plays a vital importance to your perks and attributes and different play styles from full on action to stealth&period; It’s very similar to games such as <em>Castlevania&colon; Symphony or the Night<&sol;em> and the <em>Strider<&sol;em> reboot&period; There are some tweaks that make Shadow Complex stand out among many&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story takes players into the role of Jason as young buff guy who’s voiced by the talented Nolan North&period; He and a young lady called Claire venture out into the woods to go hiking&period; Hiking&comma; as you might know&comma; includes many risks such as snake bites&comma; swarms of bees&comma; discovering a network of terrorists who plan to overrule the U&period;S and also demented beavers &lpar;hehehe&rpar;&period; So Claire is kidnapped and it’s up to brave Jason to save the day&period; He must traverse deeper into the complex and battle elite soldiers with silly names such as Mr Sweet and the Commander &lpar;not Cobra&rpar;&period; In a way it does reminds me of Cobra and how unbelievable the plot was or even how someone could make a base this huge and not be noticed&period; The plot was more funny than interesting&comma; and I’d advise you to just ignore it through a generic plot process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But it’s not the plot that’s the highlight or the reason to check out this game&comma; but more so less everything else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1066px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;bab5dab45e6ba8d1b9816e77ef64342a&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1066" height&equals;"599" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">You shall not pass&excl; &lpar;Shadow Complex Remastered&comma; ChAIR Entertainment&comma; Hardsuit Labs&comma; and Epic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The mechanics are solid ranging from its cover based shooting to its vast and complex exploration&period; Jason will obtain weapons and special items over the course of the game&comma; starting with a hand gun and a back pack of grenades but by the end Jason will become a one man army&period; It’s the items you collect that will help Jason progress as certain obstacles may be destroyed by using certain items&period; Your standard fire arm will take over vent covers and weak structures but to open a vault door&quest; You’re gonna need a booming missile for that&excl; This structure allows players to back track naturally and discover things they might have missed before&period; It’s massively satisfying when you first discover something you can’t open or destroy and then come back&comma; remove that obstacle and claim the goodies you’ve waited for&period; It adds a massive boost to replay value as newcomers will surely not get everything the first go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The shooting is solid&comma; and the action is pretty intense even on moderate difficulties&period; I never knew the importance of the cover based system in the game until you play on the extreme difficulties&period; It’s fantastic that this game actually implements a cover base system that works well in a 2D environment where players can shoot in 360 orientation and also the backdrops&period; I will admit that the aiming is slightly tricky and will take some time to adjust too&period; Even now I still find it difficult to adjust the aim and shoot any NPCs in the back drop&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1065px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;76373a14d9a82fbfb751f9cb738b2eb9&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1065" height&equals;"600" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">He just wanted to tank me for a lovely birthday gift &lpar;Shadow Complex Remastered&comma; ChAIR Entertainment&comma; Hardsuit Labs&comma; and Epic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But set pieces and boss battles are highly engaging and at times&comma; often brutal&period; <em>Shadow Complex<&sol;em> does a great job at variation and changing things around to give a new dynamic and fresh feel to the same boss or encounter&period; Even turret sections are varied and the scale will change&comma; which makes for more intense fights with alternating factors to make it feel different from the last&period; I partially enjoy the spider tank fights as the method of destroying the tanks as I usually change from using fire arms to interacting with the environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Small encounters can be varied too as multiple areas have different ways to progress&period; Usually you’ll shoot your way through&comma; but keep an eye out as vents provide a stealthier approach while green vents can become deadly when a grenade is popped in&period; Any enemies standing next to exit of said pipe will become TOASTY&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For those who have played the game before&comma; it’s best to try out the campaign on one of the harder difficulties as normal is a breeze for those who know the ins and outs of the game&period; However&comma; be warned as there are glitches and bugs which could become a pain if you play on the higher difficulties&period; It annoys me that there are still bugs present that actually can affect your progress&period; One in particular is shown when you kick a small spider bot and it explodes on impact&period; The bug results in the spider bot becoming stationary and exploding at your feet&period; Now if you’re on the easier difficulties&comma; it’s no problem&comma; but on insane&quest; Wow&comma; prepare to be pissed off&period; Check points are also oddly placed at times&comma; and they&&num;8217&semi;re either too close or too far away from those bigger encounters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1064px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;d964cb06d4c23234d4a72843cbee1ad3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1064" height&equals;"599" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Shadow Complex does a great job at providing masses amounts of fun mechanics&period; Gold guns that shoot endless foam bubbles is epic&excl; &lpar;Shadow Complex Remastered&comma; ChAIR Entertainment&comma; Hardsuit Labs&comma; and Epic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Something to keep in mind&comma; unlike Castlevania SOTN which had a neat little transportation system&comma; Shadow Complex will require players to venture a majority of the map on foot&period; Now it doesn’t sound too bad at first&comma; but the map is gigantic&excl; However this does help lengthen the game time as playthroughs will vary&comma; lasting between 4 to 10 hours&period; If you want to unlock and find everything&comma; it’s going to cost you some decent man hours but it&&num;8217&semi;s well worth it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even with some flaws in the narrative&comma; bugs and the lack of quick travel&comma; I failed to put down the controller&period; I was hooked and even though I’ve played the game a multitude of times&comma; it still engaged me&period; I felt like I was 19 again and just couldn’t stop until I collected everything and tried out all the ways to defeat bosses and discover all the secrets the game has&period; Simply put&comma; its brilliant and well worth checking out if you’ve never played it before&period; Those who have played it already on the Xbox 360 might want to check this classic out again&period; This is a game you shouldn’t let pass by if you love games such as Strider or Castlevania&colon; SOTN&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;