• At the start of the game, Jason has no tools except for a flashlight and some climbing gear. But over the course of the game, you find more and more weapons, gadgets, and upgrades to aid your adventure. And by the end of the game, you’re an unstoppable bad-ass in robotic armor with a shotgun. It’s really, really satisfying, and a great reminder of why this genre of games is beloved by so many.

• Though a bit more linear than Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night, Shadow Complex’s huge game world is a blast to explore. It strikes a great balance between teasing the player with items that are just out of your reach, and giving the player enough stuff to keep him interested. A few of the items are quite tricky to obtain, making it very satisfying to finally reach them. There’s also quite a bit of room for sequence breaking (playing the game out of the order intended by it’s creators), which will surely lead to some very entertaining speedruns.

• The game’s graphics are powered by the heavily used Unreal Engine 3, and to great effect. The environments are highly detailed, and make great use of lighting and shader effects. But it’s the explosions and certain underwater segments that are really impressive. You’ll know what I’m talking about once you get there (it’s right after getting the scuba mask).

• The background music in this game is really well done, and is used appropriately as well. The epic, action movie-esque combat music is only used in big, action movie-esque fights. The calmer, moodier music is played during specific sneaky parts, and the piano music that is played during that certain underwater segment makes the already great moment even better. The licensed music isn’t quite to my taste, but nonetheless works well in its context.

• I admit it, I’m an achievement addict. You guys probably don’t care so much about them, but this game has a really good achievement list that rewards replaying the game and trying new things you might not usually do. There’s an achievement for completing the game with all of the items, an achievement for completing the game with 13% or less of the items, and an achievement for kicking 20 walking bombs.

• Shadow Complex is a rare breed of games with a secret, non-canon “joke” ending. It’s a fun little addition to the game that made me giggle a bit. I won’t tell you how to get it, though. Google it if you want.

• No matter how satisfying plowing through enemies near the end of the game is, there’s an unshakable feeling of that it should be harder, after all, games are supposed to get harder as they progress. And once you hit level 20, the entire map is revealed to you, including all of the locations of the secrets. It’s the same problem I had with Metroid Prime 3, once you know where everything is, the feeling of exploration is gone. Yes, I know that if you play on insane difficulty (the hardest one) the game doesn’t show you where anything is, but it’s hardly the difficulty you’d want to choose on your first playthrough. And there should be a way to turn that off, anyway.

• The final boss is epic and cool and all, but it’s just a puzzle boss, and it’s not even a hard puzzle. You fire three nukes at the boss. That’s it. The tons of enemies constantly shooting at you isn’t even a threat, because there’s a health recharge station in the middle of the arena. It makes Saddler from Resident Evil 4 seem like a formidable foe by comparison.

• Though technically not a true point of no return, the explosion escape sequence near the end  of the game does prevent you from exploring a sizable area of the map for the rest of the game, potentially ruining an unsuspecting gamer’s 100% run. It’s not even like there’s any warning given, you may just randomly walk into the room without even knowing it’s important to the plot.

• Once you gain access to the friction damper, you can move at really, really fast speeds. Unfortunately, the game may not be able to load fast enough, causing the game to temporarily pause while it renders the scenery. And many times, when using the foam gun, the game just can’t handle the sheer number of polygons on screen, slowing the game down a touch. It’s nothing too major, but it’s very noticeable.

• The faces in this game are just… off. From Claire’s dead looking eyes, to Jason’s tiny baby face, they just don’t look right. Same goes for the facial animation in certain spots.

Shadow Complex is something of a rarity. A downloadable game with more content and depth than it’s retail counterparts, and looks just as good too. It is incredibly fun, and is the kind of game you can play over and over again. Not only that, it may yet bring back the slowly dying MetroidVania genre from the brink of extinction. If you have an Xbox 360 connected to the internet, you owe it to yourself to try this game out.

Gameplay:    4/5