Shadow the Hedgehog

"Never should a Sonic game feel like this much of a chore"

Let's all just admit it. Sonic has had some recent problems. His 3-D transition isn't exactly what you call spectacular. I mean, Sonic Adventure is no Mario 64. So, as more and more 3-D Sonic games have been released, the Sonic Team has been slowly, but steadily, learning. And Shadow the Hedgehog is a message to fans saying: it's time for the series to grow up.

And that's when everything started crashing down.

Shadow the Hedgehog attempts to darken the series, throwing in death, guns, destruction, and language. On paper, that may sound all handy-dandy. If anyone can take the series into an edgier territory, it's the recent character Shadow. The problem with the game is that pretty much everything - from graphics, to control scheme, to the camera, to the freaking sound effects - is executed so poorly and is so obviously rushed that it makes one wonder if the idea could have ever worked at all.

Shadow the Hedgehog kicks off with the black hedgehog catching sight of a newspaper article about the “black comet” that is passing by. Right on cue, a black comet passes by. And all hell breaks loose. A mysterious alien shows up and claims to have a connection to Shadow's past. Thus, our great adventure begins.

Immediately, Shadow the Hedgehog tries to launch you into the thrill of the action. And, to be fair, the first level aint half bad. In fact, it's probably the best level in the game. The problem is, after the rush of the first stage, the game stops dead in its tracks. No longer are you speeding through a city full of turmoil, aliens, and debris. Instead, you're launched into another “find the ten items” mission through a level that's so poorly designed it will make you wince.

This brings me to the first problem with the game. Sonic has been, and always will be, about speed. In a game like Shadow the Hedgehog, we should be rushing through loops and jumps and ramps, blowing up things and making daring escapes. Instead, most of the mission objectives require you to search through a level to locate thirty of the same item. And the levels themselves have no structure; all of the rooms look the same, there is absolutely no variety in a stage, and all we usually get is a maze of passageways that becomes really frustrating. Really fast.

The game tries to incorporate a non-linear element by giving you three different mission objectives in every level. The mission you complete will determine which stage you advance to, where the same thing can be done. Once again, the thought sounds cool. However, the missions always consist of the same things – wipe out the good guys, wipe out the bad guys, or reach the goal. The game uses it's mission structure (hero, normal, and dark missions) to incorporate two gauges, the “hero” and “dark” gauge. Killing baddies fills the hero gauge, and vice versa. These let you destroy all enemies on-screen or zip across the level. While useful at some points, the powers cause problems. Since so much of the game is focused on exploration and item-searching, zipping ahead is exactly the thing you don't want to do.

Reaching the goal - the normal mission - is usually mild entertainment if it's a fun level, because you'll then be zipping through. However, later stages are structured like large mazes in which you'll be stopping every ten seconds or so to look for the next way out. Careful jumps are required at other points, ones that require you to cope with the horrific camera (which I will discuss later).

Granted, because of the branching paths of the game, many different endings are possible. The game has quite a few final boss fights as well, because every branch ends with a different fight. The boss fights start off interesting, but ultimately turn out to be on a “meh” level – they aren't particularly tedious to deal with, yet they offer no form of excitement. Even the final boss, which is usually a great part of the 3-D Sonic series, seems to have been watered down. All of the endings are very similar, and quite short – they last about a minute each. Of course, completing all of the endings will net you more of the same, but you won't feel motivated enough to do so.

Now let me get to what is probably the biggest change in the series – the weapons. Yep, in addition to his homing attack, Shadow can wield a large arsenal of weapons. Anything from street signs to a machine gun to a Halo-type blaster is available in the game. Once again, another idea that sound good, yet the one that is probably executed more poorly than any of the others. In Shadow the Hedgehog, there is absolutely no a manual aim and no way to lock-on. Shadow will only shoots straight ahead, and because of that, it becomes quite difficult to hit your intended target.

The gameplay of Shadow the Hedgehog is definitely the weakest link, and that's a massive problem in games. However, it's not the only element of the game that doesn't shine.

The graphics are, at best, of Dremacast level. The textures aren't there and the polygon count is low. There is a wonderful CGI opening sequence, yet afterwards the cinema scenes all go back to real-time graphics. Things look incredibly blocky and the explosion effects (lots of them) all look the same. The environments are quite bland – almost no detail has been placed in the game, which of course results in few things to interact with.
On a note of good news, the framerate seems to be steady. I've heard bad things about the PlayStation 2 framerate, but the Gamecube runs at 60 FPS, and slowdown rarely occurs, even when ten enemies are coming at you and five explosions (some of the worst looking explosions on a next-gen console – bad ‘cause there's a lot of ‘em) are happing on screen.

Shadow the Hedgehog tries to set their music to fit the level design, and because of that we get a wide range of tunes. Some of them you won't even notice, average background music that tries to set the mood. Other tunes, however, are horrible. Funky techno music and an odd use of synthesizers – the fact that the tracks are quite short and quite repetitive doesn't help – actually makes some of the levels even worse to get through. Luckily, Crush 40's two vocal tracks – “I Am” and “Never Turn Back” – are some great punk-rock tunes, despite the fact that punk rock has never, ever belonged in a Sonic game.

The voice acting keeps up the tradition of being awful. To be fair, Shadow sounds dark, cool, and uncaring, and Sonic isn't able to pull off as many god-awful one-liners as usual. But the real problem here is the sound effects, some of the most mismatched sound effects I've hear in any game. All the gun sounds are just flat-out off and are laughably unrealistic. The game features the traditional strange Sonic noises made when jumps and attacks are made, and the chaos in the background is essentially the same in every level that requires it. The game does run in Dolby Pro Logic II, but it doesn't really matter, since there's nothing in the sound that equals quality.

One of the biggest complaints with the 3-D Sonic games was the control scheme and the camera. Sonic Team had begun to slowly improve on it – the last Sonic game featured a “semi-smart” camera system and control was sharp – but Shadow the Hedgehog has, without a doubt, the worst camera and the worst control of the group. The camera tries to follow Shadow while, at the same time, giving you freedom. The result is the camera often gets stuck behind a building or a wall, or maybe even under Shadow's feet. At one point, I stopped moving, yet the camera continued to rotate in a circle around me (I never solved that one). And since the game tries to incorporate so many platform-jumping elements, you'll find yourself plunging into a nearby abyss one more than one occasion.

The control scheme is another issue altogether. Shadow is quite unresponsive – sharp turns and quick, smart movements are hard to accomplish when Shadow is moving too fast to respond. This can especially cause a problem in boss fights, when you need to change direction quickly to avoid attacks. And the best points of the game – when Shadow is shooting through a loop or leaping off a boost pad – require no control whatsoever, trying to invite you to sit back and watch. It'd be nice if these were a little more interactive.

Shadow the Hedgehog is a missed opportunity. It is Sonic Team's attempt to join the ever-growing list of series that is trying to “grow-up” its characters. The game has its moments, but far too many bad things outweigh the good. The result is a game with sub-average gameplay and half-finished graphics, sound, and control. I've always been a massive Sonic fan, and have found stuff to love in every game, but this one feels far too incomplete to warrant a good time. The extra endings and the addition of a multiplayer mode are there to extend the replay value, but casual gamers are bound to stop playing far before completion. There's far too much tedium to warrant a good time; you're best off avoid this game all together.

FINAL SCORE: 4.1/10

Over and out.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/06, Updated 07/31/06