Review: Shadow Complex (X360)

Those of you who follow my tweets know that I've been looking forward to Shadow Complex for...actually not all that long. I had heard something about it in the gaming press after E3 2009, but it didn't really stick. It was when my friend reminded me about its impending release and I started researching it myself that I became pretty excited. The game had the approximate look and feel of Super Metroid, making a focus of exploration and a gradually unfolding world that only the right set of weapons could blow open. When I first saw the game in motion, I was impressed with the level of quality that was being packaged into an XBLA title. And that's what really had my interest peaked here; I wanted to know if a $15 game could deliver the kind of experience I would normally pay the full $60 for. Read on to find out how Shadow Complex stacks up.

Story

You play as Jason Fleming, a bizarre mash-up of Jason Bourne (see what they did there?) and that tool from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (note the bizarrely tucked t-shirt) [Update: Imagine my surprise when I learned he was voiced by the same fella as well], with a bad case of missing girlfriend syndrome. Your pleasant weekend hike is brought to an abrupt end when Claire goes missing; abducted, you soon learn, by a terrorist group veiled in secrecy and packing some serious technology. The plot is really just a mechanism to explain why you're invading a technologically advanced (but very well ventilated [wink wink, nudge nudge]) enemy base. There's really nothing remarkable or memorable about it and most of that is because of how poorly the story is integrated with the game; go here, watch a brief cut scene, go there, watch another cut scene. There are some “overheard” conversations during your travels, but rarely do they impart anything that can add up to a substantial story. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying this is a bad thing. It follows the same minimalist story structure found in the early Metroid universe, and I like it just as much now as I did then. There's something to be said for a game that isolates the player from all friendly contact and pits them against wildly improbably odds, a trait that Metroid and Shadow Complex share. The trouble is that while Metroid strikes a great note by truly leaving the story in the periphery, Shadow Complex experiments with story and tries to make you care about its characters, but doesn’t really succeed. The most heartbreaking part about this whole story issue for me is that I’m fresh off of reading all the material in the Ender’s Game universe, and when I heard Orson Scott Card was involved, I had some pretty high expectations for this story.

Gameplay

Shadow Complex plays a whole lot like…you guessed it, Super Metroid. The core gameplay here is that of a 2D sidescrolling shooter. The controls are simple: aim with your laser sight using the right stick, run with the left, and jump with “A.” Unlike Metroid, you have 360-degree control over your aiming, allowing for a whole lot more precision in your targeting; headshots are possible, and rewarded. As you defeat enemies, you’ll fill up an experience bar and build up levels, to a cap of 50. I’m not entirely sure, but I think you net more XP for 1) environmental kills, 2) head shots, and 3) stringing kills together. Honestly, the leveling mechanic went by me barely noticed. There are three attributes that improve as you level; Accuracy, Precision, and Stamina. I can safely say that I cannot, for the life of me, tell the difference made by any of these factors during gameplay; true, I noticed a significant difference in how well I was able to aim during the course of the game, but I was unable to separate my own improvement from Jason Fleming’s. More notable are the bonuses you get every ten levels: a health boost at Lvl 10 and a full revelation of the map at Lvl 20, as far as I’ve discovered.

While the “leveling” left me with little sense of how I was progressing, item acquisition creates the opposite effect. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Metroid style gameplay, here’s the rundown. You start the game with next to no capabilities, and are barred from entry into certain areas of the gameworld. As you progress, you’ll acquire items and weapons that gradually increase your capabilities and your available exploration area. This progression is was made Super Metroid (and its predecessors) one of the best games of its time and beyond. In most games, picking up a new item creates opportunities from that point forward; new ways to kill enemies, new ways to move around, a new indicator on your HUD. Shadow Complex and its predecessors use item pick-ups for all of the above purposes, but primarily to open up the past. Remember that glowing purple grate your flashlight (which acts like the X-ray visor from Super Metroid) illuminated in the first 20 minutes of the game? Well now you can go back and see what’s up there. This mechanic is what makes Shadow Complex so addictive; there’s the nagging curiosity every time you pick up a new item…where can I go now? And it pulls you often times into the next segment of the game, even if you were only intending to explore a little bit further, and the cycle starts again. The freedom of motion you feel by the time you’ve gotten all the game’s items is pretty amazing, as is mowing through enemies like a force of nature.

The combat isn’t without its hiccups; while Shadow Complex is at its core a 2D game, the environments are all rendered in 3D, and enemies can and will use the extra dimension they have access to. In theory, targeting these enemies should be just like targeting any other enemies, and for the most part it is. The trouble is that the game sometimes requires you to aim differently in order to kill that last pesky baddy in the background, and finding just the right angle feels a lot harder than it should be when you just cleaned out the other eight guys in the room effortlessly. It’s an irritant, but it doesn’t even come close to ruining the experience, especially after you become accustomed to shooting into the background.

Visuals

When I first started looking at screen shots from this game, I didn’t realize that it was going to be an XBLA release. The level of polish here is pretty spectacular. Explosions are gorgeous, the weaponized foam looks like a strange, throbbing, living thing, and the cut scenes are nothing like you’d expect from an XBLA title. Is it all perfect? Of course not. I had a few serious bouts of spontaneously falling through the floor (into electrified water, no less) and walking about a foot above it. I kicked Bombas into walls and watched them get stuck and distort before exploding, and saw a few ragdoll enemy corpses spontaneously launch themselves into the sky. But these are all minor (and mostly humorous) blemishes. The environments are well detailed and widely varied, and since you’ll be spending a lot of time backtracking through each and every one of them, this is definitely a good thing.

Worth the Money?

You bet your ass it’s worth the money. At $15 for around ten hours on your first playthrough, you’re already paying a trifling $1.50 per hour. And believe me, I said “first” playthrough for a reason. This came keeps you coming back in a number of ways. The first is the simplest…this is the kind of game that won’t let you sleep at night unless you’ve gotten 100% of the items and see 100% of the map. This is a completionist’s best dream and worst nightmare. Moreover, you’ll notice as you play that certain actions are being tracked; headshots, Bomba punts, melees and others are posted on Live leaderboards, and you’re compared to your Live friends in game via a pop-up HUD element. It creates a nice meta game that adds a little more punch to the typical proceedings. In addition to that, there’s a separate time trial mode with some devilishly difficult puzzles and challenges, which is also tracked on the Live leaderboards. So go drop your $15 and start playing Shadow Complex. You won’t regret it.

Review: Zenonia (iPhone/iPod Touch)

I heard about Zenonia, the buzz-generating iPhone/iPod Touch RPG on Koku Gamer via digg a while back. In a bit of a gaming rut, and frankly not expecting a whole lot, I downloaded Zenonia Lite and gave it a shot. I downloaded the full game minutes after the brief demo ended for a pittance of $3 (I think I caught it on sale). Considering that I’ve already sunk over twelve hours into the game, I’ve got to say I’ve more than made up my money’s worth, though I’m not sure how much further I’m willing to go.

Gameplay

Zenonia plays like everyone’s favorite nostalgia trip, Link to the Past. An isometric top-down view point (that sounds about right…) follows your Cloud Squall look-alike protagonist (or antagonist) across colorful towns and villages populated by spritely looking types, both innocent townsfolk and bloodthirsty beasties. You’ll talk to characters, wail on baddies with a predominantly one-button attack system, horde a pretty wide variety of items, equip 10 different stat boosting items at any given time, and generally action-RPG it up. I went with the Assassin class, and much like this type of class in other RPGs, the Assassin is all about massive damage in a frail package. This is exactly the kind of thing I love; the game factors in critical hits, and right now, I’ve got about a 40% chance to bring the pain every time I swing my blades, which comes out to twice every time I hit the button…sick!

I can do this because of the leveling system in the game; when your XP bar fills up at the bottom of the screen, you get three stat points and one skill point to spend as you wish. As of level 34, this is how I’ve been spending my stat points.

My skill points went almost entirely to passive skills, into two major categories; don’t get my frail ass hit (Evasion up), and hit really frakking hard as often as possible (Critical up). What I’m trying to get at with all of this is that there is a whole lot of room to make a character that plays the way you want to play. I mentioned that the battle system was mainly a one-button affair; that’s something I did to myself by focusing all my energies on passive skills. I chew through enemy health bars like nothing right now, but the experience isn’t all that engaging. With a full arsenal of active skills, I’m sure that this would play very differently.

The quests the game’s various denizen’s send you on are simple fetch and/or kill quests that any MMO player has long since become familiar with. Nothing to write home about, but nothing broken either; and frankly, since the drop rate for “special” items is 100% so far, I don’t mind doing the quests because I was already going to be whooping the same beasties anyway.

Story

The story is a fun romp that ties in all manner of elements that we’ve seen before, but never with such a sense of self awareness. The main character, Regret, is constantly aware of how little sense his life makes, and often wonders aloud to the player what is going on. I’m not going to go into too much detail here; it’s a game review, not a book review, and quite frankly, I haven’t seen enough of the story to know how it’s all going to shake out. What I will say is that there is moment fairly early on that will determine whether you’re fighting for good or for evil. It’ll be pretty obvious when it happens; choose wisely.

Controls

My single biggest gripe with the game is the control scheme, and it narrows down even more than that…it’s the movement. It’s not so much Zenonia or even Gamevil’s fault; it’s that the iPod touch has no physical controls. I believe that Gamevil has done best they could with the hardware available, but it doesn’t change the fact that movement can quickly be come a chore. With no tactile feel for what direction you’re pressing, it’s easy to naturally shift your thumb and end up running in a different direction or selecting a different menu. It’s something that you’ll get more comfortable with over time, but it’ll never go away. Is this game breaking? Not by a long shot, but it is certainly something you should be aware of.

Visuals

Zenonia does not look like a title for the platform it’s on. It could easily be a port of a DS or late GBA game. Colors are crisp and bright and the environments each have their own feel to them (and I’ve seen less than half of the game world). Animations are smooth, and combat comes with a nice set of visual effects.

Looks nice eh? That’s not even a Critical hit!

Worth the Money?

Yes. The Gamevil claims you can pull 40+ hours out of this game, and after what I’ve seen, I don’t doubt them. Whether or not it’ll hold my attention as the blockbuster fall console titles start showing up remains to be seen. However I’m enjoying myself, and being able to bust out the iPod for a spot of action RPG goodness almost anywhere is pretty awesome; not something I expected to be able to do when I first bought my iPod. So my recommendation? Snatch up and play this thoroughly enjoyable game!

Google Voice Thoughts (from a half-hearted adopter)

I was lucky enough to make it into the Google Voice invite-only phase, but now I almost feel bad about it.  I signed up on a whim, but I feel like the dog who caught his tail; what do I do with it now that I’ve got it?  There’s people who were excited to make a hard switch to Google Voice, and even people who are writing instructions on how to do so.  So far, the only people that have this number are my wife and my three friends who also happen to have Google Voice, plus a few random co-workers who’ve asked for a contact number since I got the invite.  So while I haven’t used the service to its fullest extent, I’ve still got a few comments about it.

Numbers and Phones

When my phone died early in the day a few weeks ago, I was a little annoyed, as I had a few things to do after work  was expecting some lunchtime calls.  I was thrilled when I remembered that the people who would be calling me had my GV number, switched some settings around in the GV dashboard and was able to receive those calls on my office phone.  A very useful trick indeed.  The rules and settings open up worlds of options for handing calls, and I look forward to someday, maybe, putting them all to use.

Call Quality

This is the single reason (aside from my own cowardice) that I haven’t made the leap to GV full time. Call quality is crucial in my mind; there’s no point in talking to someone over the phone if you can’t accurately communicate with them.  The varying levels of delay (anywhere from half a second to a second and a half) in GV calls are extremely off putting to me.  As a person who does not interrupt if I can help it, it’s mortifying to me to feel like I’m interrupting every time I open my mouth.  Maybe I can get used to this, but I’d much prefer it if Google would continue to perfect this service.  Cell phones had delay when I first started using them, and they’ve grown beyond it (90% of time at least).  Hopefully GV will do the same.

Voicemail

The first voicemail I got was far from perfect, but I got the gist of it.

hey ryan it's ### good to hear your and we'll use i actually have that service is well so we should to use it more

My buddy was letting me know that he had GV too, and that we should use it more.  I’m thinking ok, this isn’t too bad, I can actually use these voicemail emails constructively.  Another friend called me while I was on vacation and left this message, and the only thing I had to go on was the text.

hey calling you and actually using by google was to call me right now i've been getting an injured from soon so i can build what's that build it that'd be cool i'll talk to you later bye

Er…ok, clearly he has GV too.  But…did he get injured while building something that I should build too?  After listening to the message a week later, I realized that the only way I could have known what this message said was by playing a long and involved game of Mad Gab.  Essentially, he was letting me know that he too had Google Voice (one pt for me!), and was planning on getting an Android phone, and the app for that would be cool.  No points for anybody there, and no building either.  It must have been a fluke, I said to myself.

Brian those. I'll forward sailboats Evergreen a avenue like your that you would think it was God damn rockets surgery but I think you could get to the movies back faster that payment from mate.

What?  I was absolutely positive my friend was just messing with me when I saw this, but no, it was an actually message about how frustrated he was about waiting in line for 20 minutes to get a sandwich.  Notice how many times the word “sandwich” appears in the transcription…interesting, no?  Though I was a little surprised to hear that he had, in fact, used the phrase “rocket surgery.”

Demo Impressions: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I returned from a family reunion/vacation down in South Carolina this past weekend.  Being the geek that I am, (almost) the first thing I did when I got home was turn on the Xbox and revalidate my XBL account (I had used it for some streaming Netflix down in SC on my brother’s box).  As has become my habit, I checked the demo section for new arrivals (honestly I was hoping for a Prototype demo), and was happy to see the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo up.  I haven’t been keeping too much of a close eye on the game, but it’s been in the back of my mind, so I downloaded it and gave it a shot.

The game’s visuals do not disappoint, but you can’t help but notice a certain “look but don’t touch” sensibility about things.  The environments are gorgeous, in a run down, institutional sort of way, but almost nothing about them is interactive.  Maybe more is coming later in the game.  For instance, I’d really like to be able to take out lights, especially in the stealthier portions of the game.  I’m trying to remember off the top of my head just how interactive the environments in Bioshock were, because let’s face it, this game is counting on you playing it and saying “Wow, this reminds me of Bioshock.”  Bioshock had debris and pick-ups scattered across the environments; walking into a cluttered room sent objects at your feet skittering across the floor (Holy hell! Was that a splicer or a tin can?).  Granted, in Bioshock, this junk served a purpose; you could pick it up with TK and hurl it, or light it on fire…and then pick it up with TK and hurl it.  You get the idea; it created an option for defending yourself (or starting shit, depending on how you rolled, you Little Sister murderer, you).  Getting back to Batman, I’d say it’s too early to judge whether or not this pretty facade is being wasted.  Something to ponder though: aren’t gargoyles generally an outdoor decoration?

Combat was visceral and fast, with a more or less infallible counter system like we’ve seen in Spidey games past, and this could go either way.  I don’t mind it, because I like to feel like a terrifying badass when I’m playing as a terrifying badass (one reason Gears of War always bugged me.  Cover schmuver, I’m a huge man in huge armor…let me fight like one!).  Those that must have an obscene challenge in their games may be put off by the “press this button to win” nature the counter system brings to combat.  Still, open encounters with multiple foes can get hectic because the counter isn’t an instant kill, it’s an instant trip to the ground.  You have to execute a finisher to finish your foe (imagine that), and the other lowlifes aren’t going to stand by and watch you “incapacitate” their co-henchmen.  There is a combo multiplier that seems to affect your experience, represented strangely enough by a cloud of bats that circle you after a “kill,” but I didn’t work up enough experience to level in my three playthroughs, so I have no idea how it really works.

The stealth (predatory, if you buy the marketing) mechanics are simple and fun; just get on top of a gargoyle (indoors? really?) and flip on the “detective visor” that lets you see the skeletal forms of enemies through surfaces, as well as what weapon they’re anxiously waiting to brandish at you (i.e., a henchmen with a firearm will show up in red).  From there, plan your attack…do you wanted to take them out silently, one by one?  How about you make an example of one by leaving him hanging by his feet, and dispatch his buddies as they frantically rush to find out what happened?  A word of warning: you are not bulletproof by any stretch of the imagination, and you cannot hope to prevail against anymore than one armed gunman (at least I couldn’t; maybe you can find the “be more badass” button).

I haven’t really taken any time on story, voice acting or other aesthetics, but it’s hard to get a feel for that kind of stuff in a demo.  My initial thoughts are that things are shaping up interestingly, though the Joker’s voice is more than a little grating, though it does have some of the nice range in pitch and intensity that the late Heath Ledger brought to the role in The Dark Knight.  The takeaway?  If you’ve got the hard drive space, download the demo and give it a shot!