Super Metroid, remade for the Gears of War generation.
Shadow Complex starts off familiarly enough - you play as Jason Fleming, a seemingly ordinary man who stumbles upon a massive terrorist base and becomes the only one capable of thwarting their plans of world domination. The narrative is flimsy and sparse, the characters cardboard cutouts voiced by actors with equal levels of charisma. No, the real star of Shadow Complex is the complex itself - a massive, sprawling military base with dozens of nooks and crannies just begging to be explored.
Though the facility may seem intimidating at first, the game provides lots of great tools to help traverse it. The first - and arguably most useful - is Jason's flashlight. Of course, its primary function is to illuminate darker rooms, but shine it at a barrier and the flashlight will expose its weakness. Orange requires gunfire, green is for grenades, and red will need a bit more firepower - missile launcher, anyone? Along with the more obvious additions to his arsenal, there's the Friction Dampener and the Foam Gun - the game's own takes on Metroid's Speed Booster and Ice Beam, respectively. However, each weapon has a couple tricks up its sleeve. With the Friction Dampener, Jason can run on ceilings and walls. This ability contributes to some of the game's more challenging puzzles. The Foam Gun is an interesting weapon-cum-platforming tool. The foam can freeze an enemy in their tracks, but can also create a temporary platform for Jason to stand on when fired at the wall. With a little creativity and patience, the Foam Gun can be used to reach just about any point in the complex.
Thankfully there are myriads of soldiers to test out all this weaponry on. The game encourages experimentation - what happens if you throw a grenade at a Foamed enemy? Oh, you're just going to have to see for yourself. Aiming is never a worry thanks to a very well-implemented dual-stick aiming system. However, there is one glaring problem with the combat. Though Jason's movement is limited to the 2D plane, the world around him is fully three dimensional. Soldiers will frequently lurk in the foreground or background, engaging Jason when they're alerted to his presence. Though they have no issues with plugging a few rounds into you, returning fire is a bit more problematic. The game will automatically switch to aiming in these directions, and it rarely does it do it when you need it too. Bigger firefights feel based on luck rather than skill, which is a disappointment.
Priced at 1200MSP ($15 USD) Shadow Complex is one of Live Arcade's premium offerings, and with the economy what it is the big question on most people's minds is, does it have enough content to justify the price of admission? The answer is a resounding yes. I beat Shadow Complex in just under four hours, and I've spent at least three more trying to achieve 100% completion. Much like Metroid, Shadow Complex feels built for speedruns. There seems to be shortcuts to be time-saving shortcuts hidden all over, and the hardcore crowd will have a blast finding and exploiting them. In the very near future, I'm sure threads will be popping up all over the net, boasting player's quick finish times and low completion percentages. I can see a dedicated player easily getting three playthroughs out of this one. I'm sure I'll do it, myself.
Apart from the main campaign, Chair has included 21 Challenge Rooms. Besides being great introductions to the game's arsenal, the challenge rooms are... well, a challenge, boasting the toughest platforming and combat scenarios in the game. You'll need crazy precision and timing to get Platinum medals on even the easiest maps. With only 21 maps on offer the mode doesn't last as long as I would have liked, but it adds a couple hours onto the already meaty adventure.
Shadow Complex is probably Live Arcade's best looking title, using the Unreal 3 engine to pull off some seriously cool effects. The lighting is of particular note, using the flashlight in dark room always looks great. Except for when you boot it up, the game never needs to load, which is impressive with a world this big. Sometimes it pushes the engine more than it should, evidenced by some frame hiccups and clipping. The gunfire always sounds quite good, and though the music is sparse, it's fitting. The only issue with the sound is the voice acting, which is generic and instantly forgettable.
If you've read all this and you're still undecided about Shadow Complex, ask yourself a simple question: Do you like Metroid? If you do, you'll certainly enjoy Shadow Complex; it's just about the same game, only with less atmosphere and more explosions. For your 1200 points, you'll be getting a lengthy, deep adventure that easily ranks among the Arcade's best.