The Thrifty Gamer

Being a huge fan of the Metroid series as a youngster, I was informed about a downloadable game on Xbox live called Shadow Complex. I’d heard that the game was made using the unreal engine and that Shadow Complex was like Metroid but without the outer space setting. Biting the bullet I forked over some dough to buy the points to download the game, and boy was I glad that I did.

I grew up in the era of when side-scrolling games like Metroid and Mario were King and from the first cut-scene until last of the game the grin on my face was unmatched even by the Joker. Shadow Complex is one of the most beautiful games that I have ever played and game play is just plain good old fashion fun. I love the fact that they use cut scenes to help move along the story, which is predictable but good as well.

The Shadow Complex story starts out with you chilling with your girlfriend while exploring a cave system. While you are doing some freelance spelunking you come in contact with some heinous dudes who end up kidnapping your girl. The Hero then becomes the hunter and is hell-bent upon getting his girl back from these dudes and in the meantime thwarting their evil plan.

Throughout the game Shadow Complex gives you multiple opportunities to level up when you locate pieces to a diabolical suit of armor. The stages are also very entertaining and immersive, especially the ones in which you get to swim through flooded parts of the hidden facility. Once you have leveled up your character to his full capacity you find yourself transformed from a amateur spelunker into a distinguished killing machine.

Being a future game designer I find Shadow Complex a great game to base my future work from because it takes the old concept of side-scrolling games and transforms it into something new. I have so many ideas for side-scrolling games and would love to take the idea that is Shadow Complex and build upon it, who knows maybe take some RPG elements and create a hybrid side-scroller.

In conclusion, Shadow Complex is the best side-scrolling game that I have ever had the pleasure to play and in retrospect the absolute best bang for your buck on Xbox Live. If you own an Xbox and are fortunate enough to be a member of Xbox Live, I highly recommend you give Shadow Complex a look.

Written by JasonParman (70 pts ) in Console Gaming Blog
Last Edited on Mar 16 2010, 09:53 PM
Tags: Video Games, DLC, Shadow Complex, Downloadable Video Game, Side Scroller, Xbox Live

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