I’m going to take a small break from art updates for some likely-unfocused game punditry of my usual variety.
I had a little free time this weekend to actually game, and I have a lot of games in my stash that I haven’t actually touched, on pretty much every system in my house. I spent a little time with Shadow Complex, the download-only X-box 360 game that by all rights I should have picked up last year. I’m only a couple hours in, but I think I may be done with it for now. I had thought the whole “Metroidvania” genre was really for me, but I’m easily frustrated by this game.
I think a big part of it is character. It’s sorta fun to be a vampire prettyboy and extremely fun to be Samus Aran, intergalactic badass female bounty hunter. It’s somehow a lot less fun to be Generic Brown-haired Guy, who is the protagonist of Shadow Complex. I think his name is Jason? He’s a very non-character and I don’t really feel like an experience being him is meaningful. The bad guys in the game are all astonished by his infiltration skills. Yet I’m the one doing it, and even I don’t buy it. The cries of “oh my god, where is he? Who is he?” and etc are pretty fun if I feel like some kind of superman but seem weird if I’m just some Regular Joe.
Also I feel like the game is designed to be replayable at the sacrifice of the fun of the first playthrough. I keep seeing places I’d like to go but I don’t have the thingie I need, and not in the good fun way but in the “grr why do I not have missiles yet I just want to save the damn game down there” way. Maybe that’s a weird complaint considering how much I love replayability in games, but I also love freedom to explore and it’s hard sometimes to serve both masters.
I’ve come to realize that I’m only still playing the game so I can get to the next dialog chunk. I want to hear the words continue to majestically soar over the craggy landscape like giant leaden balloons. I actually like Orson Scott Card, but my first impression of Shadow Complex involved this exchange:
“At least the Vice President is safe…”
BLAM!!!
“You mean, that Vice President? Of the United States?”
Really? I literally cannot decide if that is the worst ever or if it is the best, in a camp ironic way.
I guess it seems like I’m slamming this one pretty hard, but it’s okay. I admire what’s going on with the very clever 2.5D perspective and the lush environments. I just don’t know if I’m gonna be taking it all the way.
So… what’s next? Well, Other M will be out real soon, and that’s definitely up my alley as long as I get to be Samus again. Also, I’ve been loaned basically the entire Persona series by a friend, and since I enjoyed the fourth I’m moving in to that. For some reason it feels sacrilegious to sit down on the couch with the X-box 360 sitting cold in front of me while I play a portable hand-held system. However, I should have plenty of quality time with the PSP while I’m on the airplane to Seattle this upcoming weekend.
Yes, that’s how I segue in to mentioning that I will be at Penny Arcade Expo! Stay tuned for trip reports or maybe I will see you there…
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