Shadow the Hedgehog

"A good game, without a shadow of a doubt!"

Introduction

Shadow was originally introduced in the game Sonic Adventure 2 and in spite of what all of the dislikers may say, it's about time he got his own game. This topic seems to be incredibly hard to get hold of, largely due to the fact that most shops where I live aren't even interested in selling Gamecube games any more. After searching in no less than thirteen shops, I finally bought this online for £17.99, making this one of the best bargains I've managed in my entire Gamecube collection.

Gameplay - 9/10

This is the most mature Sonic game made so far, gaining a "12+" rating in Britain, for example. This is due in part to the use of mild cuss words (Shadow constrantly says "damn it"), but mainly because you will be constantly shooting your enemies down with guns. Throughout every level, you will find a number of weapons scattered around to use against enemies, those who feel that this is an unnecessary addition will be pleased to know that most of the time these aren't necessary to actually beat the levels, and you can also beat the levels using traditional jumping attacks. I did, however, find the guns useful when I was supposed to be taking down enemies while riding over deadly slime on a hoverboard.

The levels themselves mainly consist of the sort of fast-paced action that I've come to expect in Sonic games, consisting largely of running through the levels, running around giant 360 degree loops. This isn't always true; a couple of times, the action seems to get slowed down a little too much - the sequences where you ride on the bat-like creatures are a good idea, but also do seem rather tedious. My initial impression was that I was going to find the game annoying, as I ran through the city streets only for the gameplay to be interrupted twice by cutscenes to tell me that Sonic and Doom's Eye had arrived on the scene, the gameplay also seemed awkward at first because of all the explosions taking place around Shadow, but after a while it stopped bothering me. There is a large amount of variety in the types of levels, including levels set on board ARK (from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle), Eggman's haunted castle and a couple of very enjoyable levels reminiscent of The Lawnmower Man where Shadow helps Rouge and Espio to break into a computer mainframe while dodging firewalls.

As well as the guns, another new addition is the introduction of "Normal", "Dark" and "Hero" missions. The normal missions follow the straightforward task of reaching the goal ring, while the other missions tend to resemble the tasks that Team Chaotix carried out during Sonic Heroes, ranging from finding certain areas, finding items to killing a set number of enemies. Depending on which mission you complete, the game will take a different course. Although in a single game, you will only get six levels, there are twenty-two main stages, with a level structure somewhat reminiscent of Yoshi's Story (there are five final levels that can be unlocked). This means that you can take a large number of paths through the game.

The most notable additions, though, are the "Dark" and "Hero" gauges, which will increase depending on who you help. During each level, two characters will try and get you to help them - Sonic or one of his friends will ask you to perform a task for the "Hero" mission, while another character (usually Doom's Eye, but not always) will get you to do their bidding. Helping the hero character will fill your hero gauge while helping the dark character will fill your dark gauge, and the effects of filling these up unlock amazing powers that Shadow can unleash. The levels will be filled up with two different kinds of "enemies", usually GUNs soldiers and the evil aliens; Eggman's robots also make an appearance, and exactly who you attack determines which gauges fill (the aliens will want you to attack GUN's soldiers while Sonic and his friends will tell you to leave them alone). This is a bit weird as, whichever side you decide to help, both the GUN soldiers/machines and the aliens, AND Eggman's robots will choose to attack you. I guess everyone has it in for Shadow. I also found it rather strange on one particular level when Eggman asked Shadow to perform the "Dark" mission, and Amy (who wanted me to search for Cream) started telling me off for attacking Eggman's robots. The only big problem I found with the levels is that in a few instances, they actually seem to clone each other. On my first play through the game I played through a level where I found myself running along cliff tops and at one point having to avoid a bunch of rolling stones after two pillars fell down; soon after, I was playing a level where many of the features seemed near-identical, in particular another sequence where Shadow had to avoid falling masonry in the same fashion to before. It would have been nice for the creators to use a bit more imagination. Other levels are more successful, though - including a completely non-linear stage where your choices are to either eliminate a bunch of small bombs or detonate a bunch of large ones within a time limit.

As well as the levels, the game also features the occasional boss fight. Boss fights in this game aren't a lot to get excited about, but they're certainly an improvement on the Eggman fights in Sonic Heroes, where I became sick to death of chasing him endlessly through the levels.

Overall, the gameplay is fun, and even the often unnecessary addition of firearms does not detract from the game's quality.

Story - 8/10

If there's one thing that can be said about the story, it certainly shows what vast differences there are now between Sonic and his rival, Mario. While Mario only seems to feature in family-oriented games which often look a bit too childish, the Sonic series often explores slightly more mature themes, and the same is certainly true for this game.

The game opens with Shadow hanging out in the park, thinking, before without warning, an apocalyptic scene worthy of the Terminator movies ensues, as aliens start to take over the city. A creature called Black Doom starts to tell Shadow to carry out his evil bidding and help to take over the world. The story then goes in various directions depending on the player's choice, leading to a number of different endings. Not all of the different endings are much to get excited about though, as a number of them seem to be virtually identical; also, sometimes the stories don't make a lot of sense, as one moment Shadow will be assisting Dr. Eggman, but then Eggman will decide to perform a boss fight against you anyway. Like with all recent Sonic games, there is an extra story at the end of all this, which shows the true climax, which I will not spoil.

Despite the fact that the story is distinctly lacking in humour (it is certainly darker in tone than any other Sonic game I have played), it is nice that for once the "Eggman wants to take over the world" cliche has been completely thrown out of the window, in favour of - Black Doom decides to take over the world. A number of Sonic characters appear for cameo appearances, including Doctor Eggman, who takes on the rather more ambiguous role that he has ended up in during many of the recent Sonic games, appearing here as the "lesser of two evils" for most of the game, although once again, the story ends up with Eggman choosing to side with Sonic and his friends - haven't Sonic Team used that idea far too many times now?

There are more appearances by the President, previously seen in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (probably one of the most dull characters I've ever come across, and there is also a new character, a general born with one blue eye and one brown eye, who hates Shadow. The story does a little to flesh out Shadow's past and explain exactly why the General despises him so much, with cutscenes between each level. Unfortunately, a lot of the scenes that don't feature Shadow or other familiar Sonic characters tend to seem dull and tedious, notably the ones featuring characters such as the President talking about the destruction that is being caused. Also, bad news for Tails fans as the two-tailed one seems to have now fallen behind both Knuckles and Rouge in the "pecking order", as both characters get to make more appearances than him, something which left me muttering in disgust - and most painful of all is one of the later cutscenes where all the characters show up, only for Tails to stand there saying nothing whatsoever.

Graphics - 10/10

Very nice level designs, and character models. The opening cinema, with the appearance of the monsters is very enjoyable and dramatic-looking, and it is nice to see that the design of the levels set on board ARK actually look similar to the appearance from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. I am rather fond of one of the more humorous moments when the president looks at a photograph taken of Sonic and Shadow, which shows Sonic happily posing for the camera while Shadow looks grumpy and turns the other way. Even the weird-looking smirk that Shadow gave in one scene, or Eggman's bizarre facial expression in another, or the occasional bad lipsynching did not give me cause to drop any marks for graphics.

Sound - 5/10

This is the only thing I was nonplussed by. The background music for recent Sonic games is never up to the quality of the original, and I was hard-pressed to find a single catchy tune in this game at all. The character voices as usual vary between good and bad, and thankfully most are good. Shadow's voice acting is as good as always, though I could have done without the embarrassing, cheesy maniacal laugh that I heard Shadow do in one particular cutscene. Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge also sound just as good as ever. Tails' voice is an improvement on Sonic Heroes, but for some reason it makes him sound rather too much like Amy Rose. Doctor Eggman has a new voice actor who, while not bad, is certainly not a patch on the late Deem Bristow who previously played the evil genius.

However, Black Doom's voice makes the character sound like the biggest Drama Queen ever, with hissing tones almost as cheesy as the villains from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. It is impossible to take this guy seriously, especially when Shadow starts attacking the aliens and Black Doom tells him, "Shadow, stop at once", "What are you doing, traitor?" "Stop attacking our soldiers". While this will probably leave some players rolling around on the floor laughing, at least it isn't quite as bad as the voice given to Charmy the Bee. Just listening to his voice when I met him was enough to make me want to start helping Black Doom and his evil minions.

Lastability - 10/10

Going through this game and unlocking every level, every possible sequence and outcome could keep you occupied for some time, especially when some missions towards the end get very challenging and can even be automatically failed before you get chance to beat them. There is also the challenge of trying to get A-ranks in all of these.

Final Verdict

I happened to notice this game was a nominee for "Biggest Disappointment of the Year" by Gamecola, something I couldn't disagree with more. If you're a Sonic fan, you will not be let down, as this features addictive (and only occasionally repetitive) gameplay, without the need to add annoying distractions such as fishing levels or finding your character confined to a slow moving machine for an entire level. I would definitely recommend buying this.

Now, when does Rouge get her own game?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/06, Updated 03/24/06