Shattered Soldier is a good reminder of the classics from the past, although people will be disappointed with the value.
I mean this, Contra: Shattered Soldier is without the shadow of the doubt the most difficult game you will ever play for the Playstation 2. All got to say is this, you better be prepare to die, a lot. You have 3 lives and 3 continue, and you have to beat the whole game to be able to save your progress, and that is almost impossible. To tell you the truth I only beat it twice on the normal difficulty, and one of them I got the “A”. So for people who are first going to be playing this, practice a lot, then move up to easy, then you can go to normal, which is the highest difficulty, because this game will kick your ass.
Each of the 7 levels will grade you based on your performance, which is your hit rate, how many times you die, and how many continues you used. Your hit rate is when you destroy the main enemies/details on the level, but when you complete the level, it will go down some if you die, and a lot if you use one of your continues, then you will be graded. A perfect is an S, then it goes A, then B…well you get the idea. What is so impossible is beating the whole game with an S rating. That is not dying once, and destroying everything in the game while on the highest difficulty. The odds are tremendous when it comes to that.
This game plays out just like Contra 3 did for the Super Nintendo, and one of the reasons are the boss battles. There are lots of them, which fits perfect because that is what contra is all about. You even got some that will easily remind you of Contra 3 like the huge turtle, the turret, and the main boss on the last level.
It’s the same 2D shooting game with a 3D environment if you would say. You can shoot in 8 different directions. You start always with 3 weapons, a machine gun, a flamethrower, and a grenade laucher. Each weapon has their own charge move as well. Too bad they couldn’t bring some of the classic weapons from the past such as the spread, homing, or my favorite, the crush weapon.
Graphics:
Talk about bringing the old school to these days. Wow! Those bosses look stunning. The work of art to them, and the explosions look great. Plus it is at 60 fps, so you wont have to worry about a rough frame rate at any time. Although the characters don’t look as close as good as the sceneries or the bosses.
Sound:
Well, there are no voiceovers, which really doesn’t matter to this game does it? The audio is ok. Its not award worthy like God of War or Metal Gear Solid 3, but it isn’t horrible either. The guns sounds and explosions are good too. it does have that contra music though.
Replay:
This is what hurts this game. It is easily a rental, because this game is very short. Remember how long Contra 3 was for the Super Nintendo, yeah maybe a little bit longer than that. But it isn’t short when you first play it, it will take you some time to figure out the patterns of the bosses. You have some goodies you can unlock like some of the artwork of the game. You can try out the co-op mode, which is fun, but then that’s it.
Flaws:
Like I said before it is way too short. Also you always and only start out with just 3 weapons, unlike contra 3 which you can collect a variety of weapons by shooting the things that fly on the top of your screen. Also some people just move on with the games we have today, basically they wont be interested in playing old school games anymore. Also the storyline is pointless and stupid, but who cares about that right, this is contra. the main problem is the difficulty, because just like the old games, one hit and your dead.
Conclusion:
People who have played the contra classics will be happy to what they have to deal with, and it is a good reminder of the past. Its good old-school classic action, but if I was you, just rent it.