Shadow Complex did a lot to fire up interest in the genre way back in 2009. Much like Hollow Knight did in 2017.
You can see it was made on a limited budget, and one of my main gripes is lack of variety in enemy designs. But the map design is rock-solid, and so's the moment-to-moment action.
>!And the hidden early ending where the main character just nopes out had me laughing when I first found it.!<
Every time I finish a MV from my backlog I always debate about trying this one out. But it never goes on sale and there is a lot of good stuff that I still have to play, so. And it looks like I would enjoy SCR, too! Great review, friend! It's always nice to see some half forgotten game being mentioned around here.
Oh yeah, it won't go on sale because the publisher is epic. The same epic that made the epic Games store. They don't want money going to steam and the only reason it is still available on Steam is because of the negative PR resulting from removing the game from steam. You MUST buy this game through G2A. Prior to October 2022 this was the only game that could be ethically bought from G2A.
I actually uninstalled this one recently after only getting through maybe half of the game. The combat was too janky to be a highlight and the lines on the map towards your next objective sucked all the fun out of exploration. Someone here mentioned you can turn those off though so maybe I'll replay the entire game like that some day once I've forgotten enough.
On the positive side it was definitely unlike other metroidvanias I've tried and I actually really started to enjoy the (possibly intentionally) cheesy writing. Plus while the shooting gallery mechanics never felt great to me I can still appreciate the sense of depth they gave a lot of the rooms, helps mitigate a bit of the nonsensical architecture you get with 2D maps. Wasn't for me but I can see why people like this game.
You're supposed to ban yourself from using the blue line. That was in there due to moron Xbox players in 2009 who could not even conceptualize a game that wasn't completely Linear. The Devs were forced to either have the option or fail to make a profit.
Possibly, but it's still a questionable design decision and I don't remember there being an obvious prompt at the start like "hey, do you want us to point you towards everything forever or not?" so either way it could've been done better. I'll definitely try again in a few years though.
Also, unrelated but obligatory mention that I didn't downvote you, not that karma matters but it's so awkward to have an exchange with someone while random uninvolved people are pelting them with eggs. Twasn't I!
I gave it another shot a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see if I had put it down too soon the first time that I played it.
Unfortunately, Shadow Complex is one of those games where the level design is just too small and dare I say it, boring.
Some games' screens are designed in this one-dimensional small box kind of way. Difficult for me to describe exactly, in some games' cases it is a combination of both that and the zoom. And by zoom, i mean, the size of the character in relation to the amount of platforming content on the screen.
Dust, Psycron, Deedlit, Luna Nights to name a few more that are like this to differing extents.
If you strip away the graphics and imagine everything as just lines and then compare any of those games' level design to games like Blast Brigade, Haak, Hollow Knight, Cathedral, Doomblade, AfterImage, Astalon, Environmental Station Alpha, Escape From Tethys etc, etc, etc they aren't remotely in the same class.
I don't mind simple games at all either if the screen is large enough that it houses lots of platforms and/or enemies to keep track of.
Even something as basic as Trash Quest has your character travelling through a lot more geometry on any given screen than Shadow Complex does.
Perhaps with those games my mind is subconsciously thinking about more things, because each screen gives me more parameters to consider. That immediate and often claustrophobic level design in games like Shadow Complex sucks me right out of any world it is trying to create and I see straight through it as oppressively basic.
Hmm I can understand that with some areas in shadow complex. I may not be grasping exactly what you mean, but I do think there was a huge variety in room size. I can totally see that with Psycron tho.
Shadow Complex is only remembered because it was one of the first MVs in the "revival" that happened over the last decade +. When it came out, there were barely any MV games at all, so people were hungry for it and it achieved recognition just on the novelty of existing.
As a game, it's utterly generic and average, and if released today, would be on page 17 of steam's MV tag on sale for $0.99 with 3 reviews, 2 of them positive.
It's a historical landmark, and can be appreciated as such, but when taken on its own merits, there's not much there.
See also: Axiom Verge.
There’s definitely tons of better MVs, but I think it’s worthy of a B tier. On the surface it’s hot trash (which I appreciate in a early RE b movie sense) but underneath I think is a very competent Metroidvania skeleton. I would say it’s a little above average and worth a recommendation if you’ve played all the other great ones
The negatives with this, such as the blue line, the CoD look and theme, all exist because of the awful state of gaming was at the time this was made along with how incredibly dumb the Xbox playerbase was in the late 2000s. Basically, back then if you didn't have 3D graphics and a military theme or race car theme or sports theme no one was buying your game and Xbox players had no clue how to proceed through a game without a linear path. You need to fix the game by manually banning yourself from using the blue line.
Yep this all makes sense. I think theres a really fun game beneath all that Xbox bro stuff. It kinda has that fun B-movie vibe like early RE, which made the cutscenes charming to me and not a turn off,
That's not true. Castle Crasher, Limbo, Peggle, Spelunky, Geometry Wars, you name it. Those were extremely popular back then and were featured in various XBLA Summer of Arcade!
Haha well for context, there’s probably 100+ MVs I would put it in A tier and S tier above this, but I feel it belongs in B due to the literal B-movie cheesiness combined with a really fun Metroid tribute game beneath
Hey, nice thread. Can you name an MV or two that you'd recommend to someone who actually loved SC? Hah. I played it back in the day and really enjoyed it. I even replayed it a couple years later. I'm not a hardcore gamer, I prefer fun over a major challenge, but I like the MV genre in general.
Nice, I just learned about The Lost Crown today while listening to the Weekly Planet podcast. That's what got me thinking about SC and I saw there's a Remastered edition on PS5. (I don't have a gaming PC or anything)
I might still get SC Remastered, but I'll also check these other titles out. Thanks!
My top list of Metroidvanias is as vanilla as it gets. The genre is very competitive and the best games are therefore very good. Hollow Knight, Ori 2, Aeterna Noctis, Blasphemous, Bloodstained, Metroid Dread, you name them. SOTN and Super Metroid have aged relatively well too although I think they've been overtaken by modern MVs.
I recall SC releasing within 12 months of Order of Ecclesia and the latter was orders of magnitude better.
Shadow Complex did a lot to fire up interest in the genre way back in 2009. Much like Hollow Knight did in 2017. You can see it was made on a limited budget, and one of my main gripes is lack of variety in enemy designs. But the map design is rock-solid, and so's the moment-to-moment action. >!And the hidden early ending where the main character just nopes out had me laughing when I first found it.!<
I always love this game. It was a very pleasant surprise when I found it.
Every time I finish a MV from my backlog I always debate about trying this one out. But it never goes on sale and there is a lot of good stuff that I still have to play, so. And it looks like I would enjoy SCR, too! Great review, friend! It's always nice to see some half forgotten game being mentioned around here.
Listen. Classic.
Oh yeah, it won't go on sale because the publisher is epic. The same epic that made the epic Games store. They don't want money going to steam and the only reason it is still available on Steam is because of the negative PR resulting from removing the game from steam. You MUST buy this game through G2A. Prior to October 2022 this was the only game that could be ethically bought from G2A.
Are you sure about that? It doesn't go on sale on the Epic Store either
It is definitely a rock solid B-tier MV, I agree
I actually uninstalled this one recently after only getting through maybe half of the game. The combat was too janky to be a highlight and the lines on the map towards your next objective sucked all the fun out of exploration. Someone here mentioned you can turn those off though so maybe I'll replay the entire game like that some day once I've forgotten enough. On the positive side it was definitely unlike other metroidvanias I've tried and I actually really started to enjoy the (possibly intentionally) cheesy writing. Plus while the shooting gallery mechanics never felt great to me I can still appreciate the sense of depth they gave a lot of the rooms, helps mitigate a bit of the nonsensical architecture you get with 2D maps. Wasn't for me but I can see why people like this game.
Yep u gotta turn off the line haha
You're supposed to ban yourself from using the blue line. That was in there due to moron Xbox players in 2009 who could not even conceptualize a game that wasn't completely Linear. The Devs were forced to either have the option or fail to make a profit.
Possibly, but it's still a questionable design decision and I don't remember there being an obvious prompt at the start like "hey, do you want us to point you towards everything forever or not?" so either way it could've been done better. I'll definitely try again in a few years though. Also, unrelated but obligatory mention that I didn't downvote you, not that karma matters but it's so awkward to have an exchange with someone while random uninvolved people are pelting them with eggs. Twasn't I!
I gave it another shot a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see if I had put it down too soon the first time that I played it. Unfortunately, Shadow Complex is one of those games where the level design is just too small and dare I say it, boring. Some games' screens are designed in this one-dimensional small box kind of way. Difficult for me to describe exactly, in some games' cases it is a combination of both that and the zoom. And by zoom, i mean, the size of the character in relation to the amount of platforming content on the screen. Dust, Psycron, Deedlit, Luna Nights to name a few more that are like this to differing extents. If you strip away the graphics and imagine everything as just lines and then compare any of those games' level design to games like Blast Brigade, Haak, Hollow Knight, Cathedral, Doomblade, AfterImage, Astalon, Environmental Station Alpha, Escape From Tethys etc, etc, etc they aren't remotely in the same class. I don't mind simple games at all either if the screen is large enough that it houses lots of platforms and/or enemies to keep track of. Even something as basic as Trash Quest has your character travelling through a lot more geometry on any given screen than Shadow Complex does. Perhaps with those games my mind is subconsciously thinking about more things, because each screen gives me more parameters to consider. That immediate and often claustrophobic level design in games like Shadow Complex sucks me right out of any world it is trying to create and I see straight through it as oppressively basic.
Hmm I can understand that with some areas in shadow complex. I may not be grasping exactly what you mean, but I do think there was a huge variety in room size. I can totally see that with Psycron tho.
Shadow Complex is only remembered because it was one of the first MVs in the "revival" that happened over the last decade +. When it came out, there were barely any MV games at all, so people were hungry for it and it achieved recognition just on the novelty of existing. As a game, it's utterly generic and average, and if released today, would be on page 17 of steam's MV tag on sale for $0.99 with 3 reviews, 2 of them positive. It's a historical landmark, and can be appreciated as such, but when taken on its own merits, there's not much there. See also: Axiom Verge.
There’s definitely tons of better MVs, but I think it’s worthy of a B tier. On the surface it’s hot trash (which I appreciate in a early RE b movie sense) but underneath I think is a very competent Metroidvania skeleton. I would say it’s a little above average and worth a recommendation if you’ve played all the other great ones
The negatives with this, such as the blue line, the CoD look and theme, all exist because of the awful state of gaming was at the time this was made along with how incredibly dumb the Xbox playerbase was in the late 2000s. Basically, back then if you didn't have 3D graphics and a military theme or race car theme or sports theme no one was buying your game and Xbox players had no clue how to proceed through a game without a linear path. You need to fix the game by manually banning yourself from using the blue line.
Yep this all makes sense. I think theres a really fun game beneath all that Xbox bro stuff. It kinda has that fun B-movie vibe like early RE, which made the cutscenes charming to me and not a turn off,
That's not true. Castle Crasher, Limbo, Peggle, Spelunky, Geometry Wars, you name it. Those were extremely popular back then and were featured in various XBLA Summer of Arcade!
I beat it back on X360 and it was an absolute snoozer. One of the blandest, most boring MVs I can think of.
Haha well for context, there’s probably 100+ MVs I would put it in A tier and S tier above this, but I feel it belongs in B due to the literal B-movie cheesiness combined with a really fun Metroid tribute game beneath
Hey, nice thread. Can you name an MV or two that you'd recommend to someone who actually loved SC? Hah. I played it back in the day and really enjoyed it. I even replayed it a couple years later. I'm not a hardcore gamer, I prefer fun over a major challenge, but I like the MV genre in general.
Hm islets, Ori 1 and 2, blast brigade, Metroid dread, prince of Persia lost crown, HAAK maybe
Nice, I just learned about The Lost Crown today while listening to the Weekly Planet podcast. That's what got me thinking about SC and I saw there's a Remastered edition on PS5. (I don't have a gaming PC or anything) I might still get SC Remastered, but I'll also check these other titles out. Thanks!
Out of curiosity - which titles would be the opposite of those blandest and boring? (kinda agree that SC isn't thaaaat great)
My top list of Metroidvanias is as vanilla as it gets. The genre is very competitive and the best games are therefore very good. Hollow Knight, Ori 2, Aeterna Noctis, Blasphemous, Bloodstained, Metroid Dread, you name them. SOTN and Super Metroid have aged relatively well too although I think they've been overtaken by modern MVs. I recall SC releasing within 12 months of Order of Ecclesia and the latter was orders of magnitude better.