- Genre: Action/Adventure, Metroidvania
- Platform: PS4
- Also Available On: Windows (Steam, Windows Store, Epic Games Launcher), Mac App Store, Xbox One, Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Back before they spawned the mobile juggernaut known as Infinity Blade, Chair Entertainment released a nice little Metroidvania title called Shadow Complex. In honor of why the hell not, a remastered version has come out for PC and current gen consoles. With the great folks at Limited Run Games releasing a physical version, I figured it was as good a time as any to make a run through this one again, and as it turns out, the game is still damn good.
If there’s one genre I’m a sucker for nearly as much as JRPGs, it’s Metroidvania-styled Action/Adventure games. If you ignore the setting, this one definitely strays much closer to Metroid than a lot in the genre. It’s got upgradeable guns and pickups that unlock ways to get through new doors, a computerized mech suit that tells you where to go, and eventually a chargeable dash that breaks through even more doors. Basically, a lot of what is here is straight out of Metroid, but grounded in a somewhat more believable Earth-based setting.
That said, all its similarities are definitely not a detriment to this game. They’ve captured a lot of the exploration magic that the Metroid series, and in the roughly 3-5 hour adventure, you’ll traverse a lot of the same areas multiple times, but always in new ways. The pickups and upgrades are scattered all over the place, so returning to old places always brings side paths to grab things that were just taunting you out of reach before. To some extent I was even going out of my way once I got some of my larger weapon upgrades just because I’d remembered a handful of upgrades that I wanted to get right away. In addition, unlike some games in this genre, ammunition for secondary weapons (grenades, missiles, etc) are plentiful, and available for recharge at all save stations, so you never feel crunched into not using some of your more powerful arsenal.
That said, there’s definitely some things that are missing that I wish were explored more. There’s really not much in the way of memorable boss fights in this game. For the most part, you fight the same spider mech a handful of times, with a couple other fights that can be mechanically exploited to avoid difficulty. As an example, one fight has you up against a giant mech wheel that is jumping around the walls of a ring-shaped room. By positioning yourself just behind one of the corners of the room, you could avoid all damage, while still being able to easily shoot at the boss’ weak spot, giving an easy victory. In addition, there’s some points, particularly in the final battle, where I would get shot at and effectively instant killed without much of an idea where damage sources were coming from.
All that being said, when this originally came out in ’09, it was one of the best Metroidvanias that had come out around that time. In 2016, I’d still say that it’s one of the better Metroidvanias out this year. While the upgrade didn’t bring much new to the table, other than some improved visual fidelity, the game itself has not lost anything in its age, and should definitely be played if you missed it the first time around.