Shadow The Hedgehog Can't Be That Bad.... Can It?
By the title of this post you would think that I am implying that yes, it is that bad as according to top game reviewers such as IGN and Gamespot. Both sites reviewed the game to be below a 5 out of 10, and I think this is a very understatement. Perhaps this is because they're comparing it to past Sonic games, but this isn't a Sonic game, it's a Shadow game. I recently rented and just got through my first run of the game. I'll admit that at first I was slightly skeptical of the quality of the gameplay, but in the end I find it not the best, but not bad. Some of the levels I played were quite tedious, such as kill 50 of a certain type of enemy, which somehow took 17 minutes!? But when I look back at it, if I had went faster, I could probably get it down to 8 minutes. Other levels though can take about 3 minutes, so it's no problem. This game has so many levels, I believe it's 22 levels, with then 8 bosses, and 11 end bosses/game endings. This game is so expansive that it could take days and weeks to complete everything. I find the sound great. Many people may say that they hate the cheezy 80's rock music, but I wouldn't exactly call it cheezy 80's, but more rockin' 90's music, as the same goes for all past Sonic games. Every game has their own big theme music, and this one delivers with "I Am." I await the big final boss where the music should be the title theme, which not many games do, having a full out rock piece with lyrics play during a boss fight, and every Sonic game pulls it off great. The graphics of the gameplay isn't anything special. They're not bad, but even the Dreamcast could pull it off I bet. And with some frame dropping here and there, it's no where near as bad some people has said it is. Although I have heard that the frame rate on the PS2 version is much worse, but that is expected with the over 5 year old console. The graphical quality of the cinematics are amazing, and possibly the best I have ever seen. Along with such amazing production value on these cinematics, combined with top-notch scripting and cinematic voice overs, it's easy to see how you can easily be blown away right from the beginning cinema. The voice overs in cinemas as I said was great, but in game wasn't quite as good. Like all past Sonic games, they still can't get the characters mouths to match up good at all. Sometimes they won't even move. Sound effects are all right, although sometimes you can tell that they are re-used a lot, even re-used from like Sonic Heroes. Controls are great. Every button has it's own simple function and it all works well. But here's one of the big debates... a Sonic game (technically Shadow...) with guns? Well actually it's really good. I was unsure about the guns addition, but it works great. You can pick up TONS of weapons, even slash weapons like swords, or stop signs? And there's also cars in the game... Not many of them, and thankfully there isn't many. It's like the cars in Tony Hawk's Underground (1), they control bad, and not really needed. They aren't that bad, but they aren't really good, and could have been done without them. The story for me is still very confusing only going through one time, but it seems amazing and very expansive. All in all, Shadow The Hedgehog isn't that bad of a game. Yes it could have been better, but with 3 missions on each level, and 22 different levels with a huge array of bosses, this game will seem like it never ends... in a good way. It's interesting to see how gameplay has changed. We don't exactly need a sequel, because too much of something could be a bad thing in some instances. It's done, it's over, and let's keep it at that. Maybe another Shadow game could be of use if it was re-done a lot (no vehicles!), and if they could work in another top-notch story. I don't know if they'll be able to make another game story wise, unless it's a prequel.
I give this game a 7.5/10
I give this game a 7.5/10
posted by ElChibo at 7:20 PM
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