There are several clever angles one could take in writing this review. But after careful consideration, the simplest and most straight-forward fact is that my 360 finished downloading Shadow Complex at about 6pm, and by the time I was finally forced to put the controller down for the night it was 2am.

It’s been a very long time since any videogame has rekindled that habit – as if pressing the start button caused me to fall into a nexus of time where I was on summer vacation from school and able to obsessively play until the sun came bleeding in through the curtains – always wanting just 5 more minutes, and just one more room.

In fact, it’s been so long since I’ve felt that sensation that I’ve often questioned my relationship to gaming as I’ve grown older, assuming that the blind fun of losing myself to a game was something as lost to me as Charles Foster Kane’s childhood sled.

Read on to find out why despite some hiccups along the way, Shadow Complex has proven itself my Rosebud.

Aside from a few RPG detours, the last titles to stir a similar commitment from me were the same that Shadow Complex takes inspiration from – one part Symphony of the Night and several more shades of Super Metroid. Along with the other card carrying members of the gaming faithful, I’ve been waiting for a sequel to those two titles since originally finishing them, and will likely continue waiting. But while Chair’s Shadow Complex lacks the licensing appeal of my memories with those two titles, it hits enough of the same notes to alleviate the pain.

Shadow Complex has made me question why the 2D continuations of Samus’ saga and repeated revisits of the Castlevania series on handhelds hasn’t quenched my thirst for an HD upgrade to those franchises. Would the simple upgrade of HD sheen really make all the difference? It’s a question I lack an answer for, because to say that this was all that Shadow Complex offers would greatly take away from the accomplishment, which takes inspiration in equal measure with fresh ideas to create a game that doesn’t simply follow the cookie-cutter style guide of side-scrolling gaming 101.

The core of Shadow Complex is fueled by the legacy of Super Metroid, leaving the player to explore a seemingly endless environment to search out secret passages, weapon and storage upgrades, and new abilities that allow access to what was at first inaccessible. And this vast military complex meets that challenge with an immense series of layers that players can savor while committing every inch to memory.

But there’s a critical difference between the physical layout of Shadow Complex and the continuing comparison to Super Metroid. Planet Zebes was a vast and organic environment, where the natural design worked to keep designer secrets away from all those except the most committed and diligent gamers. Shadow Complex lacks the variety of areas a planet offers, succumbing to the curse of all areas essentially becoming indistinguishable.

Additionally the game is not only modern because of its release date, but also in the way that it naturally leads the player toward complete discovery by design. The physical layout is by no means overtly simplified, but secret paths are most often found behind grates and hatches that are clearly visible, and change color when met by your trusty flashlight to illuminate the necessary means of opening them.

For better or worse, the days of randomly blasting walls for hours are indeed behind us.

In the absence of truly hardcore exploration, players are instead offered more levels of gunplay, with what would traditionally serve as unused background space functioning as an additional layer of action. While players are confined to a straightforward line of movement, enemies can move between the foreground and background while attacking. To combat this players are able to rotate their line of fire to spray bullets across both plains. And while this is key to Shadow Complex marking its own territory, it doesn’t always work as well as planned – at times it is absolutely aggravating to swivel and aim at a target with precision. And yet at other times this feature allows for incredibly frantic bouts of action when multiple targets are attacking from every conceivable direction.

For kicks the game even offers a few scant turret sequences that switch the player’s perspective quite seamlessly into a kill-everything-that-moves-a-thon.

The central weapon of mass distraction is the foam gun, which can be used to damage electronics, build ledges, or immobilize enemies. Aside from this, the run and gun gameplay is aided by a series of discover the next biggest gun moments – from pistol to rifle to machine-gun and you get the idea.

Whether ability upgrades such as the hookshot and speedrun are perhaps discovered a little late into the game is debatable, and perhaps affected more by the fact that because the game so aptly leads the player through the complex, the self-discovery and experimentation that these abilities might have fed is lessened.

But it’s all so easy to fall into while taking the complex apart, with explosions and occasional sequences like flooding a level with water leaving me hungry for more. Jason Flemming’s physical character is a joy to control when running, jumping, and gunning – something that 3D still struggles to convey for me - making ledge-jumping and grappling a joy rather than a chore.

Small moments of overheard conversations and soldiers working at tasks remain with me, along with a plot that pulls the story along a predictable path, and more importantly never interferes or overshadows the gameplay.

The only missed opportunities that stand out are the boss confrontations scattered throughout the complex. Nearly all are similar, tossing players into battles with mechanized armor vehicles, which degrade into quick bouts of firing as many missiles and grenades as possible while dodging simplistic patterns – the height of tedium coming from a battle with a giant saw in which I was able to stand completely still and lob missiles as it passed. And this is undermined greatly by the occasional scenario requiring direct interaction with the environment, mixing puzzle with battle in a way that delivers far more satisfaction and demands more occurrences.

Enemy soldiers are limited in design as well, but offset by their reactions as they scream, flail, and fall over after being riddled by bullets – shout out to the “head-a-splode” achievement.

In the end we have a game marketing several fond remembrances while adding a few new tricks to the sauce, creating a crucial balance that keeps me playing and wanting more – a classically abusive but tantalizing relationship.

Expecting an experience every bit formulaic and predictable based on the shadow the game stepped into, Shadow Complex surprised me in several ways. By the end I was left to consider that this isn’t a game searching to bring the 2D back to gamers in HD, but rather one that takes plenty of additional inspiration from the 3D back to a two-dimensional style of gameplay.

The result is a game worthy of the wait, as if picking up where others left off when 3D became the priority, and discovering new opportunities for the genre from the effort. And while there are an equal share of highs and lows, there’s also a sense that Chair has established a new set of footprints that other developers should be inspired to follow in.

Shadow Complex
Chair Entertainment / Epic Games
Microsoft Game Studios
Xbox LIVE Arcade
August 19, 2009