f13.net

This game is an Xzibit joke waiting to be made. Although I can't vouch for the Castlevania aspects, not playing one since 2, there sure is a lot of Metroid in it. There's a little Uncharted in it also, as the Nathan Drake resembling main character is voiced by the same guy that did Nate in Uncharted. He's enough Nate that I don't remember his actual name in game.

My 360 is now cabled and has been powered on in the first time since beating Fable 2 in late 2008.  I really struggled with the decision to let the power brick out of its wooden prison and let the 360 roar to life again.  However, the draw of a Metroidesque sidescrolling adventure, getting good word of mouth and available for cheap, was irresistible.  A demo was available, which allowed me to possibly not waste $15 if for some reason I'm the 5% that hates the universally loved game (see Braid).

Perhaps, the best praise for a demo can be that it leaves you wanting more.  The demo accomplished this much as it introduced me to the world in a few short, skippable cutscenes and then plunged me into a cave that quickly led me into an underground complex of a shadowy (yuk, yuk) military organization.  Right after you get your first major arsenal addition and down your first boss mob, it cuts off and promptly asks you to insert more tokens to continue.  In fact the only part of the demo that turned me off was all of the insistence that I "BUY NOW TO KEEP THESE ACHIEVEMENTS". Unlocking the game wiped out my save and reinstalled the entire thing, so don't feel pressured.

Shadow Complex should provide $15 worth of weapon upgrades, keycards, and backtracking; just like any son of Metroid should. The controls aren't my favorite and neither is the inclusion of a wonky auto-aim system.  The 3D aspects intermixed with the 2D sidescrolling at times are somewhat neat and at other times bothersome and clunky.  There are a few things that I already see got past whatever QA a $15 title that looks this good can afford. The flaws are easily overlooked and, you don't upgrade a classic, while still retaining some of the original magic, much better than Shadow Complex mangages to do. Perhaps now my 360 will finally red-ring.  YEAH!

On a side note, the new XBL interface can go to hell. What an ill conceived piece of ad-plastered crap. I can draw up a better system on a napkin in under a minute (resume available upon request).

Try it.  The demo should convince you one way or another.

Why can't I try it if my 360 is modded? Hasn't stopped me from playing/downloading on Live.

Ahh, from talking to someone with a modded one, I thought it would prevent you from doing so.  I'll make the correction.

Most people with modded 360s don't have use XBL.

Beat this at almost the 8 hour mark with about 85% of the map explored and 70% of the items obtained (rough estimates).  The end fight wasn't that spectacular, but the last gun you get is a hoot.   

Last gun reminded me of Anton's gun from No Country For Old Men.

Well that was fun, and definitely worth it, but I'm kind of aggravated now that I spent the last 2 hours trying to get everything and found out the game cockblocked me from getting the last gun and a few other things...


Can someone spoiler me and let me know what the final gun is?  I spent so much time exploring I don't really feel like replaying it right now.

I finished the game at 100%, it was surprisingly fun doing so, just got to keep your eyes open.