Comments on: Review: Shadow Complex

By: Alex Shaw

Alex Shaw — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:42:03 +0000

Forgive me Bowlby. I wrote the review lying on my side in the middle of a week confined to the sofa with an inner-ear disorder. Plus my dog ate it.

By: Bowlby

Bowlby — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:16:57 +0000

And, of course, when I make a critique on somone else’s English, I make a mistake in my own usage – typical. In the first line “is” should be “are”.

By: Bowlby

Bowlby — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:13:13 +0000

I think the only real complaints I can levy against the game is that the Z-axis auto-aim is a little wobbly and that it’s slightly sterile in terms of character and world design. Apart from those two points, I think it’s a great game for its genre and in general.

Also – and I mean this in the politest way possible – your punctuation, specifically at the beginning of your review, is not that good. Your content is fine, but, as a reader, when I see a punctuation mistake in the very first line of a review it sets things off on the wrong foot.

I don’t like picking on people’s grammar, but I felt you’d probably prefer an honest opinion.

By: Alex Shaw

Alex Shaw — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:05:52 +0000

Would it make you feel better to know that the super jumps are aided by a rocket pack and hyper-boots with springs on the bottom (probably)? And Tony, the aiming into the background becomes second nature very quickly and by a few hours in you’re just a death-machine anyway, charging between rooms and dealing out destruction with a variety of attacks. Aiming becomes something you do to get the aiming achievement and for style only so don’t worry. It’s more about the exploration and seeing where creative use of your abilities can take you.

I’ve finished it now and have restarted. My first playthrough got me 100% map and 100% items and lasted ten hours. I loved every minute of it.

Finding the location of an item and then working out how to get to it is more of a treasure hunt than any other game I’ve played. SO worth the 1200 points.

The plot IS nonsense and has anybody else gotten all 12 gold bars and seen what you get then? That’s absolutely ridiculous!!! But the smooth, addictive gameplay, graphics and detail are sound as a pound.

By: Steven Jones

Steven Jones — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:43:14 +0000

I too have only tried the demo, and I can see it being a good game. The find equipment and then back track to re-explore reminds me very much of Metroid Prime game.. (and I have something in my mind telling me there is some relation there) however I found the jump height to be a bit jaring.. seeing someone jump massively high is ok in Super Mario, but in a real world game it sits oddly for me. That said I can imagine picking this up at some point.. once I’ve got a few more platinum awards in TRIALS

By: Tony Atkins

Tony Atkins — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:25:04 +0000

I completely agree with you Joe. I’ve been playing a lot of Trials HD over the last 4 days and that game is all about instant gratification. Get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ in the fastest time possible and along the way try to beat your friends to boot. So upon trying the demo for Shadow Complex I must admit I was initially underwhelmed. I found the layered shooting, i.e. into the scenery whilst dodgily trying to aim as frustrating as the three layered platforming from Littlebigplanet. I can understand why it’s there to give depth and a 3D-esque feeling but I kind of found just annoying. Like I said, I’ve only tried the demo so maybe you become quickly accustomed to this. I have no doubt in my mind from hearing feedback and seeing many reviews that this is an absolute steal at 1200 MS points butas of writing this it has yet to grip me

By: Joe Burman

Joe Burman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:39:14 +0000

I’ve found its a bit of a grower…and I’ve put it on a hard difficulty, but more and more this game has penetrated my thoughts. I found Trials HD was an ‘instant hit’ whilst Shadow complex is taking me a few hours to get in to properly. 1200 bucks well spent though for sure.

By: Ryan "FoolishUK" Sandrey

Ryan "FoolishUK" Sandrey — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:26:40 +0000

Wow alex you persuaded me to buy it. i was wondering whether i should get it, but as soon as i read your review i went and bought it straightaway,

if i don’t like it, heads shall roll

Fantastic review

By: Maj Malfunction

Maj Malfunction — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:08:51 +0000

I agree 100% Alex, this game is awesome. Anyone who thinks this thing is not worth $15 needs their head examined.

I spend periods of time thinking some of the jumps I had to make were impossible or just too hard, then realized that there were puzzle elements I needed to engage such as shooting water valves etc.

I played for maybe 2 hours last night and had a very hard time putting down the controller to go take care of things before bed. I actually can’t wait to get home and play this game vs the past week where I could not be motivated enough to pick any of my unfinished games form the pile to work through.