Be Excellent To Each Other

This looks aces, and we don't have a thread yet. It was announced at E3 and is being developed by Epic Games of UT and Gears of War fame. It comes out on the 19th of August and it will cost 1200 points (booo, hissss, etc.). It's an Xbox Live Arcade game, by the way.

Official gamepage at Xbox.com:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/shado ... efault.htm

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/shadow-complex-review

9/10!

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... %20complex

Blimey!

Want.

I really wanted this to be good. I have points ready to splurge - it just annoys me that MS can have a massive barren period on XBLA then two corkers within 7 days of each other.

It's like they want to replicate the Christmas release chokepoint over summer on XBLA. Gits.

Looks like a defo.

1200 points seems like a brilliant bargain for something like that.

I'm not paying 1200 points for a re-skinned UT3.

ZOMFG UT3=UNDERTURD!!!!111111!1!!!!!!!1111!

Well, I have it.

It becomes fairly obvious quite quickly that it's no Castlevania: Symphony of the night. Then it hits you: my god! OMG! It's unreal, but with a facelift!!!

But small amounts of mockery aside, it could very easily do with a bit more character and a bit less scenery. It's often hard to make out what's in the player layer and what isn't. Which leads to easily being torn apart by enemies. Could do with a few health packs. (HAng on, health packs, like you get in Unreal, but not most modern games. It really is unreal with a facelift!!!)

Aside from more unreal engine mockery, strangely enough my other complaint is that there's not enough backtracking. You don't get at all familiar with the map (At least not in the early stages, this may change later) leading to the rooms feeling even more identakit that they already did.

I really really liked the demo.

And I can't seem to get it for free.

I am going to have to pay for it.

Aside from its being almost artistically bankrupt in the visual and thematic stakes, my only other gripe with Shadow Complex, so far, is that it's nowhere near as nippy or fluid as the game it supposedly worships (i.e. Super Metroid). In fact, the controls feel a bit Prince of Persia-ish at first. Now that I've got my double-jump, though, it's definitely becoming much more easy and fun to get around, but I can't see this fella growing to become as agile as Samus is in SM, or even as agile as Alucard is in SotN. Still, it's a pretty superb game in all other respects.

Also, True Conquerors of Zebes play with the blue line OFF.

I picked it up having played the trial. Nice to see the bloke from Uncharted doing something different.

I am finding the aiming a bit fiddly and some crappy deaths from enemies who are out of the camera's field of view but in the main it's compelling enough to warrant the expenditure.

Oh also the shoot out between secret service and the army peeps in the first scene looks like something from Police Squad. They are 5 feet away from each other with no cover managing to miss completely.

I'm enjoying it. As for backtracking - I've done plenty. Like, when you get the grenades and go all the way back to the start, etc.

Indeed. Normally I'll play a game through on default settings but this time I'm almost straight away did a lot of fiddling.

1) Turning the blue line off turns it from being an extremely linear game (though it's a great thing to have to avoid gamefaqs so it's good that it is there - but by default it should be off).

2) Turning it to 'vivid' makes it far more colourful, so thats an obvious change

3) I moved up to hardcore, makes the combat more interesting and it can be changed at any time so I don't feel like it's going to get me stuck on a difficulty spike. Nice stuff.

It's truly an EPIC game. Artistically sterile and bankrupt but technically stunning. Plays far better than their 'proper' titles too.

I love 2d games and will eat up any effort to keep them alive, but taking that into account, I would still recommend people try it as it is ace.

Another 1200 point game worth buying... bloody hell.

Plays like Flashback meets Saboteur. Ace.

"Ack! I am paralysed! Except for my mouth and neck. *cough*"

"We are INROWT"



Hnnngh.

It am complete. With 100% of items. The last few were utter (monkeynuts - Ed) to get.

Huzzah!



Edit: That is, you can glitch the demo to let you play the full game for free.

You don't get achievements, but you also don't have to pay for it.

I'd imagine it also doesn't save.

Well, it saves as in "if you die, it reloads the last save", but I think it won't let you continue if you turn the console off.

It is only a short game though, pretty good so far.

I've bought this. Seems pretty darn good so far, very Metroid.

It's less than £9. Isn't that a bit... cheap?

LewieP dun pay fo' nuttin', foo'.

Well, it took me about 8 hours for my first run, not including time spent dying.

Yes, and I am very poor, and like video games, and I am in the habit of never having to pay for XBLA games and entitlement culture, and blah blah blah.

Do you tape the Hit Parade off the wireless too?

Only nowhere near as intelligent or ingenious, sadly. Apart from the fact that most of the secrets are one-dimensional (if you blow open a secret passageway, your reward is usually a weapon expansion situated right behind the opening), there doesn't appear to be any interconnection between the areas, or useful shortcuts that loop back to earlier sections of the game. It's quite like Metroid Fusion in that sense, only Fusion was a lot easier to get around, because everything was broken up into bite-sized 'hubs' anyway.

It apes the Metroid style well enough on the surface, but doesn't really understand it, or what makes it compelling.

"quick, press record on the vee sea are, TOTP is on!"

I bet he votes for the Pirate Party too...

I thunk it was more like Switchblade 2, to be honest.

Isn't this advertised on Live as being from the makers of Undertow? Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Yeah I know, not a patch on 'Daddy M' but it's how I'd describe the play style.

Metroid Schmetroid. Switchblade. It's really good for a reskinned UT3.

Switchblade Smitchblade, bummed in a ditch blade.

It is reminiscent of Undertow, for instance in the cut scenes - the way they use masks to make the animation easier, and the 2D in a 3D engine confusion also points that way. And the aiming mechanics.

However, one of the problems undertow had was the file size limit. And the concept. Neither of which this has.

It's the most 1200 point deserving game I've bought rented so far.

Well that was enjoyable, if somewhat hackneyed story. Boo to that keycard collectable being in the same room as the scuba mask, but appearing collected on the map. Boo indeed.

Better or worse than Cold War Commander? That has Ronnie Reagan reclaiming his jellybeans from evil Soviet Russians!

I done never did played that.

That took me ages to find. (Along with the grenades behind the cart and the keycard lurking near the helicopter.)

As compared to the run really fast collectables which took me ages to figure out. (Yeah, I know, you have to run really fast)

Overall, good, but SOTN is much better. (And has comedy voice acting in there, just for giggles)

Well the IGN guide was mentil about some of those runny ones. They wanted you to construct a foam bridge to build up the speed. Sod that, the two most troublesome ones were easier to do upside down.

Seriously? Surely the foam wouldn't last long enough anyway (And wouldn't help with the blue box in one of the spider rooms anyway)

Yeah, at one point it was suggesting hanging off the side of a platform and blindly shooting to the left to construct a foam bridge some 30 or 40 shots long. I dropped down to the floor below and ran down the hill, up the wall, jumped and ran through the containers. Mad heads.

It's so good I might go back and give Undertow a second chance.

It could also, possibly, be the first game I could get 100% achievos on.

Time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Good Idea: Play Shadow Company.

Bad Idea: Think that Undertow will have magically 'gotten better' and subject yourself to it again.

It is a very different game on insane.

Has anyone actually managed to rip the circuitry out of those lanky walkers? I kept jumping up underneath them, even trying with the hook shot, but I've always ended up sitting back and peppering them with bullets.

I've managed it by...

Just finished this on Hardcore - some frustrating bits mainly involving hanging on to or grabbing a ladder when being shot at but in the main what a thoroughly splendid game that was.

The leaderboards are totally fucked though - says I have only kicked 14 bombas when I've done at least enough to get the cheevo and a shitload more. Bah.

This is really good, isn't it?