Shadow Complex Remastered

Shadow Complex is a legitimately fun, brainless little Metroidvania-lite. The story is goofy, the gameplay can be janky at times, and the bosses are dull and forgettable, but the way you scale in power from initially just a regular guy running and gunning to a triple-jumping, hook-shotting, rocket-firing machine is a joy.

There’s no sugar-coating it though, the story and writing in this game are bad, and I think the main issue is that I could not quite tell if it was just badly written in general, or badly written on purpose in a nudge-nudge, wink-winksort of way. Generally, though, if it’s hard to distinguish whether it is satire or not, it’s probably not.

Shadow Complex begins with a guy wearing a stolen set of power-armour, disobeying orders and going on a killing spree to save the Vice-President, who is under attack by a shadowy cabal of unknowns (I do genuinely wonder why it’s always the Vice-President, who, to a Brit, seems to do fuck all. Please correct me if I’m wrong). After shooting down a helicopter, the armour is then hacked and shut down, and a voice tells him it’s all too late and the Vice-President is now dead. So far, so schlocky.

Then we’re on to the main character, Jason, a completely generic, characterless everyman, who is on a climbing date with a woman he recently met called Claire. Again, a character so bland I can genuinely only describe her as a MacGuffin to get the main character into the eponymous Shadow Complex. From then on, there’s an eye-rolling B-movie plot about Cobra Commander, sorry, I mean The Restoration trying to take over the USA by inciting a civil war, which somehow involves murdering the Vice-President and also building a big airship.

But I guess we’re not here for the plot, are we? We’re here for the gameplay, which is actually a hell of a lot of fun. The movement and shooting are smooth, and only a tad wonky when you’re shooting people in the background rather than on the same plane as your character. Melee takedowns are meaty one-hit contextual kills (even if the animations are often quite janky), which I absolutely adored using as often as possible. Once you have your power-armour, you’ll be smashing guys as hard as possible across the room. You slowly upgrade from a pistol to a machine gun as you go, as well as gain power-ups such as grenades, a goo-gun, and a rocket launcher. The steady trickle of upgrades never makes the game feel boring.

The general gameplay loop is a lot of fun, and I had a genuinely good time traversing the complex’s various corridors and outdoor areas. However, I could have done without the boss fights. There is nothing interesting or original here; they are completely unremarkable robots, feeling almost as if they were tacked on at the end. They nearly all involve dodging a barrage of bullets and then popping out to repeatedly grenade or rocket them in the face.

Apart from this, though, I had a good time with Shadow Complex Remastered. It does nothing special, the story is B-movie at best, the characters are soullessly dull, and yet there’s something so enjoyable about the moment-to-moment gameplay that really gelled with me. I will give it one thing story-wise though: there’s a moment where you reach the surface again, and as I was pressing B to melee what I initially thought was an enemy, Jason got in his jeep and just drove home, leaving Claire and Cobra Commander to their fates. I just think more games should give you this option, really.

https://questtozero.com/game-review/shadow-complex-remastered-review/

Shadow Complex, a small Metroidvania Game. That's what it says is for the Game not to be for everyone! It consists of VERY VIEL Backtracking, and many probably lose out because they are attractive to play through:( Well, what keeps me playing, though, are the Unlockable Weapons, hidden Secrets and the little funny Story (because of the Women beating). Story: You have to save your Girlfriend who was kidnapped by a Kind of Terror Group. Very broken down but I don't want to anticipate anything. But It also gets a bit boring before the end. But the End in itself will hit you in the Face ... It was more likely ... Unexpectedly. Gameplay: You climb up your Way to large Labs and shoot your way through a few Enemies. You have a Handful of Weapons, all of which can be killed a little, for example, Accuracy. Aim makes the Game on the PC very easy and you usually don't die by the opponents, but because you wanted to try something new (Grenade Bounces on the Wall directly into the face from the Opponent). Climbing is very nice as it goes very well off your Hand and hardly needs to get used to it as it is just funktrionians. Graphic: It lamps up on the UE-3 what you can sometimes see (texture streaming), but that also somehow fits the Game! The Game lows but very fluid But also has few Graphic Opions. Looks also a bit dated but ... Graphic isn't the only:) Unfortunately also very kurtz, about 5-7 Hours and one is through. You can find more Secrets at a new Beginning, but that's why:/ Otherwise a good Game and also worth the Money! However, Recommend buying it on Key Stores (I habs get for 55 Cents, would also spend more!). PS: I've played the Game on the X-Box before and I'll play it again on the PC.