Beat Shadow Complex on Friday
PostPosted:Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:04 pm
For a downloadable game, it was a very solid title with retail game-level production values. Well, for a 2 1/2D platformer, that is, which means it's basically Saturn-level with more polygons and HD-quality textures. There's a ton of upgrades in the game (100 I believe) so there's plenty to do for the completionists (took me about 9 1/2 hours to beat it with 100%). There may not have been many, but the cutscenes were pretty well done with solid voice acting (guy who did Nathan Drake is Jason), pretty decent story, and a great premise. Put all that into what is essentially a Metroidvania game that looks and feels a lot like BC:Re-Armed and you have a pretty solid title. It's an solid 8.5 out of 10 and really is above nearly all other downloadable games in terms of depth and production values. It really is a new version of Super Metroid or Symphony so if you like those two games, you'll feel right at home with this one and should enjoy it quite a bit. If you didn't like those two classics? Well, either you're a sports gamer or a FF7 fan :-)
I have to mention a few big complaints, though, which on their own stop this game from being a 9 or 9.5. Remember, I very much enjoyed this game but these need to be mentioned. Spare me the "Zoos, you complain about everything" responses. You can ignore the rest of this post if you just want to bitch about that.
First, the one downfall of any Metroidvania game is ambiguity over what to do next. There was only one part I got stuck on and really, it was silly and there was no reason for it. One great thing about this game is for the first 2/3rds of the game, they decided to actually include a path for you take to go to the "event". It was an awesome idea 'cause it gave you the freedom to explore but never get lost as to what to do next. Usually, it happened right after you finished triggering one event so you always had a way to go. For whatever reason, there was one path that didn't trigger until you reached a certain point. No big deal, right?
Ah, but here's the kicker: it wasn't really clear on where you actually had to get to in order to trigger the path. See, much like the maps in other similar games, you can tell where the doors in each room lead in and out from. So if you've been in an area it ain't so hard to get back there, you can just make a path. Well, in order to advance further you actually had to find one specific room with a secret door in that room in order to get to a certain area in order to be able to advance further in the game. There is only one path no alternate. And the kicker? Even if you knew exactly where on the map you had to go (good memory) you couldn't see on the map where it was 'cause that particular secret door (or access to the adjacent area from that particular room) doesn't appear on your map (most other do).
Only one alternative requiring a secret door in order to advance the game with no help from the in-game assist system which, for the only time in the whole game had a delayed activation until you traversed the secret path. It's a very puzzling design choice and had no real reason to occur. But pervasive enough that it actually strongly affected a lot of people for far too long (when I was looking for help on where to go next, I found quite a bit of forum discussions with many people stuck in the exact same place; took me a while to find a proper explanation from someone on where to go next). Without exaggeration, I lost an hour to an hour and a half (of my 9 1/2 hour total playtime) on this one issue. For no reason at all.
The second complaint is something that'll only really affect you if you try for 100% of the items. What you find as you're travelling around the map is that there really is only one path, on very rare occasions a second, on how to get from one area to the next even though it may appear on the map that there's more than one path. If you're just going through the game it ain't no issue but if you're like me and you're searching every nook and cranny of the game to find everything, it actually becomes a chore to get the last 10% of the items remaining that are all over the map. Not a pervasive issue like the first one but a product of slightly more lazy game design (it's harder to make multiple alternate paths balance out well than one) that 'causes slight frustration for no reason.
The last complaint is the location of the secret items. Another great design choice they made was the appearance of question marks in rooms where the secret items once you've entered the room. Awesome idea, that way you can just come back later and find it. Once you get the item, it turns into a dot. Even better? Once you reach level 20 (which means you're nearly done and have put in some decent extra time to find stuff; excellent balance on the level) you actually unlock ALL of the question marks, even in areas you haven't been. Brilliant idea that rewards you for trying by opening up that portion of the game to help you be a completionist. But guess what? There's actually two items that never have a question mark appear for them. Why? Well, one room is a save room (game automatically saves when you enter certain rooms) which is marked by a star on the map. The other is 'cause there were two items in the same room with different secret paths to get to them. You need to have these markers 'cause so often even if you find the secret paths, you can't access them until you get a certain upgrade or item which can occur 4 or 5 hours later. So trying to get 100% is not only a pain 'cause of the very restrictive movement throughout the map but also 'cause there are two items which are PURE trial and error. A NES-style game-extending technique that should be long dead and buried.
In the end, the good far outweigh the bad. It's a great title with a lot of solid choices and is a shitton of fun to play. It just has a few issues that keep it from being incredible. Certainly worth $10. But $15? Not sure. It's definitely BC:RA level but 50% better? That's a matter of opinion.
I have to mention a few big complaints, though, which on their own stop this game from being a 9 or 9.5. Remember, I very much enjoyed this game but these need to be mentioned. Spare me the "Zoos, you complain about everything" responses. You can ignore the rest of this post if you just want to bitch about that.
First, the one downfall of any Metroidvania game is ambiguity over what to do next. There was only one part I got stuck on and really, it was silly and there was no reason for it. One great thing about this game is for the first 2/3rds of the game, they decided to actually include a path for you take to go to the "event". It was an awesome idea 'cause it gave you the freedom to explore but never get lost as to what to do next. Usually, it happened right after you finished triggering one event so you always had a way to go. For whatever reason, there was one path that didn't trigger until you reached a certain point. No big deal, right?
Ah, but here's the kicker: it wasn't really clear on where you actually had to get to in order to trigger the path. See, much like the maps in other similar games, you can tell where the doors in each room lead in and out from. So if you've been in an area it ain't so hard to get back there, you can just make a path. Well, in order to advance further you actually had to find one specific room with a secret door in that room in order to get to a certain area in order to be able to advance further in the game. There is only one path no alternate. And the kicker? Even if you knew exactly where on the map you had to go (good memory) you couldn't see on the map where it was 'cause that particular secret door (or access to the adjacent area from that particular room) doesn't appear on your map (most other do).
Only one alternative requiring a secret door in order to advance the game with no help from the in-game assist system which, for the only time in the whole game had a delayed activation until you traversed the secret path. It's a very puzzling design choice and had no real reason to occur. But pervasive enough that it actually strongly affected a lot of people for far too long (when I was looking for help on where to go next, I found quite a bit of forum discussions with many people stuck in the exact same place; took me a while to find a proper explanation from someone on where to go next). Without exaggeration, I lost an hour to an hour and a half (of my 9 1/2 hour total playtime) on this one issue. For no reason at all.
The second complaint is something that'll only really affect you if you try for 100% of the items. What you find as you're travelling around the map is that there really is only one path, on very rare occasions a second, on how to get from one area to the next even though it may appear on the map that there's more than one path. If you're just going through the game it ain't no issue but if you're like me and you're searching every nook and cranny of the game to find everything, it actually becomes a chore to get the last 10% of the items remaining that are all over the map. Not a pervasive issue like the first one but a product of slightly more lazy game design (it's harder to make multiple alternate paths balance out well than one) that 'causes slight frustration for no reason.
The last complaint is the location of the secret items. Another great design choice they made was the appearance of question marks in rooms where the secret items once you've entered the room. Awesome idea, that way you can just come back later and find it. Once you get the item, it turns into a dot. Even better? Once you reach level 20 (which means you're nearly done and have put in some decent extra time to find stuff; excellent balance on the level) you actually unlock ALL of the question marks, even in areas you haven't been. Brilliant idea that rewards you for trying by opening up that portion of the game to help you be a completionist. But guess what? There's actually two items that never have a question mark appear for them. Why? Well, one room is a save room (game automatically saves when you enter certain rooms) which is marked by a star on the map. The other is 'cause there were two items in the same room with different secret paths to get to them. You need to have these markers 'cause so often even if you find the secret paths, you can't access them until you get a certain upgrade or item which can occur 4 or 5 hours later. So trying to get 100% is not only a pain 'cause of the very restrictive movement throughout the map but also 'cause there are two items which are PURE trial and error. A NES-style game-extending technique that should be long dead and buried.
In the end, the good far outweigh the bad. It's a great title with a lot of solid choices and is a shitton of fun to play. It just has a few issues that keep it from being incredible. Certainly worth $10. But $15? Not sure. It's definitely BC:RA level but 50% better? That's a matter of opinion.