Shadow is a fast paced game which is flawed, but at most times, very fun and extremely entertaining!
The Bad: Controls are not as good as past games. Constant deaths guaranteed for newcomers or beginners. Level objectives can be repetitive. Vehicles are simple and are not required for most of the game. Backdrops on many levels are stationary. Story can be confusing. Voices can be bad. Weapons can slow the game down, and are not always accurate.
Shadow the Hedgehog is the latest instalment to the Sonic 3D series. The story continues from where Sonic Heroes left off. Shadow the Hedgehog has amnesia, and is desperate to find out who he is. Whilst standing on a hill looking toward a city, Shadow hears an almighty roll of thunder, followed by red clouds, from which aliens fall down into the city below. As Shadow is about to walk away, the Alien leader, Black Doom, tells Shadow that he must bring him the Chaos Emeralds, as promised.
Shadow, not knowing what to make of the alien leaders sudden appearance, quickly decides that the only way to learn the secrets of his past, would be to gather the seven Chaos Emeralds, in hope that in giving them to the dark alien leader, his past will be revealed. Shadow sets off on a quest to gather the Emeralds, and ultimately find out who he is, decided the worlds fate in the process.
The Graphics in Shadow the Hedgehog are average for a game of this Gen. The textures are neither Excellent nor poor. In some areas the textures may appear blurry and out of place, but you won't be noticing that whilst travelling at a high speed. The textures themselves aren't as good as what you'd normally come to expect from Sonic Team, and they are nowhere near as good as those seen in Sonic Adventure 2/battle or even Sonic Adventure/DX. The scenery and characters have lower polygon count than past games too, meaning the game is a fair bit rougher around the edges visually. The Gameplay is what you'd come to expect from a Sonic game. Your character runs about an assortment of environments collecting Rings, solving the odd puzzle or two, and trying not to get hit by an enemy or fall into pits or water. There are also Guns and Vehicles added this time, which are dotted around the levels for Shadow to cause destruction with. The vehicles are pretty basic, only simple controls for them. the Guns can be picked up with the X button, and fired with the B button. Guns allow you to kill enemies and destroy debris quicker, and also help build up your Hero/Dark gauges. The Hero and Dark gauges are filled by killing certain enemies, and destroy environments and doing certain tasks. Once a Hero or Dark gauge is filled, it allows Shadow to unleash a special attack, much like the Team Blast mechanics of Sonic Heroes. The Hero gauge allows Shadow to use Chaos Control, which warps you part way through the level. The Dark gauge allows Shadow to you Chaos Blast, an attack with kills all enemies in the surrounding area. Although these are handy they can also hinder the experience. as Chaos Blast does not recognise which enemies are good or bad. using Chaos Control can make you miss certain enemies or objectives, which means that sometimes backtracking is required. Luckily there are 5 or 6 checkpoints a level, which allow you to warp back and forth between checkpoints to save time.
As with the Adventure games, bosses will randomly turn up every so often (instead of every X number of Acts), and in order to advance to the next Zone, the boss must be killed. After every Level of the game, Shadow will be awarded a Chaos Emerald (The Chaos Emeralds replace the end of level Rings from Sonic Heroes, although there are a few exceptions depending on levels).
Once you've beaten enough levels (6 in a story route and one final boss), you'll have gained all 7 Emeralds, and the credits will roll. However, while it seems that the game is short, there are actually 11 different story paths (Becoming Good or Evil in levels changes the route you take in-game, and there are 360 different story routes to uncover). Once you unlock all 11 different endings, the real ending of the game will be unlocked. The game itself is quite long, and although repetitive - as you may have to play through the same levels often just to get the 11 endings, the game is quite rewarding. Doing certain tasks or actions will unlock new areas, and new weapons and levels. You'll keep coming back just to collect those hidden keys and such, which raises the value of the game.
There's a two player element to Shadow the Hedgehog, as plugging a 2nd controller into Control port 2 allows another player to become a side-kick character, as with the retro games where Tails could be controlled by player 2. The screen isn't split though, which means that player 2 only has a certain degree of control. The Main Menu also houses a Two Player head to head battle, where two Shadow Androids roam around 3 different types of 'small' maps, killing each other with Guns, Lasers, Lava, Cars, Jeeps, Walkers and anything else found lying about. Unfortunately the camera can get a bit in the way here, and this stops the players fully appreciating this mode.
The Sound in Shadow the Hedgehog is pretty decent too. The same crisp quality you come to expect from the previous games, as the sound is presented in Dolby Pro Logic II. However, even with Stereo, or even Mono, the sound still holds up well. In fact the only thing which lowers the score of the sound section is the voice acting. Which ranges from great (Sonic, Shadow, Dr Eggman...), to average/strange (Vector, Charmy Bee...). The Music is typical 'Sonic Rock', and a few tracks of Heavy Metal used for the Evil endings. Many Musical tracks have been re-used and remixed, the theme "EGGMAN", Radical Highway's "Vengeance is mine", the Gun Boss theme from Sonic Adventure 2 and more. You know you're playing a Sonic game due to the music, and the style of music fits with the games scenarios. The game is let down a bit by the many mistakes hidden within the dialogue however, and it's clear the speech was rushed within the game. The game's controls have changed unfortunately. Whilst most of the buttons remain the same, the camera is now controlled with the C stick. Meaning that jumping, shooting and moving the camera all at once is a no no - due to Humans lacking extra fingers. The Controls on Shadow are not precise enough either, whilst Heroes took a step in the right direction, this game has made the controls unnatural and awkward. Shadow now slides along the floor as if on ice and dodges less easily. He also grinds to a halt more abruptly and quickly, and while this may sound like a good thing, it means that the controls take even longer getting used to than normal. There's something about the controls that just don't seem as responsive as they used to, and after many hours of game time, I still have not put my finger on it. Once you've got the hang of the control scheme completely, you'll whiz through the games modes, but expect to see the Game Over screen many times before you do.
Due to the introduction to a new camera style AND a new means of controlling the camera, the game's difficulty is increased as you will find that the camera will often hinder your vision around corners and such. Controlling the camera easily in a game like Sonic is essential due to the many paths and areas only available by looking around, yet the new camera only lets you see Shadow's surrounding area above, left and right, so no up or down, which means that you'll be dying by no fault of your own a fair bit too.
Shadow the Hedgehog is a Standard Sonic game, with a nice few extras added. The story and characters are both unique and interesting. Unfortunately, the Camera and Control scheme spoils the game a lot. If you're a fan of Sonic, chances are you'll probably like it. If you aren't a fan, it's still possible you'll enjoy it, but you have to wonder why the camera and control scheme seems to have gone back in time...way, way back.