Shadow the Hedgehog

"A conflicting, fundamentally sound but fundamentally flawed game"

Sonic games in 3D are difficult to pigeon-hole. Let's face it - a lot of the time they don't seem like platformers. With the camera behind the player and the pace of the game so fast, they can often seem to be racing games with some platform elements.

Or at least the Sonic portions can. The other characters, whilst mostly derided by fans, at least added variety to the proceedings, and Heroes did try to tie the speed of Sonic with the freedom of Knuckles and Tails, with a little bit of success.

The latest iteration in the Sonic series isn't really a Sonic game at all. Starring the anti-hero of the series, the recent Shadow, the game combines Sonic's speed and moves with (if you should choose to use them) the guns of Tails' walker from Sonic Adventure 2, as well as various missions harking back to Team Chaotix from Heroes.

This makes things slightly complicated.

First off, we'll go into the story. The amnesic Shadow, an experimental lifeform who has helped and hindered Sonic and friends at various stages throughout Sonic Adventure 2, Heroes and Battle, wants to find out more about himself. The leader of an invading alien force, Black Doom, promises him all the answers in return for the seven Chaos Emeralds. In the meantime, everyone is trying to stop the aliens, including Sonic and co, the GUN force who originally imprisoned Shadow, and even Eggman (deciding that, if the aliens destroy the world, there's not going to be much left for him to take over).

From here, how the player acts through the levels decides what path they take and which party they side with. Each level gives two or three objectives, and the player can choose a good objective (such as destroying all the aliens in the level, disarming bombs and so on) or an evil objective (such as destroying all the soldiers in the level, setting off the bombs and so on). There are also the neutral paths, which are mainly just finding the next Chaos Emerald or getting out of the level.

This works relatively well, making the game a decent size (you can get through one path, from start to finish, in about an hour or so) but also a fair bit of replay value. You see, each objective you take will lead to a new level. For instance, on the first level, Westopolis, doing the evil objective and destroying all the soldiers takes you to the Digital Circuit, where the aliens will ask you to break into the government mainframe. Doing the good objective (I really should start calling them "Hero" and "Dark" but can't be bothered changing it now) will lead to the Lethal Highway, where Sonic will accompany you in trying to bring down the alien escape vehicle. Just going for the Chaos Emerald along the neutral path will take you to Glyphic Canyon, where the aliens will test you further and ask that you activate their ruins (which turn up later in the game in the amazing Sky Troops level).

All these lead to different objectives as well. Each level has their own set of the Hero and Dark objectives, and occasionally the neutral. This gives you quite a flexibility in the story around the game. Want to save the world from the aliens? You go do it. Want to conquer the world with them? Go do it. Want to go after Eggman and see if he has some of your answers? Go do it. There are apparently over three hundred paths you can take through the game, though only ten endings (not counting the Last Mission that you get after completing these ten).

Shadow also has a Hero and a Dark meter, which get filled throughout the level depending on how good or evil he is. Destroy aliens and the hero meter fills. Destroy soldiers and the evil meter fills. These activate two different attributes. Fill the Hero meter and Shadow can use Chaos Control for a small amount of time, allowing you to essentially fast-forward throughout part of the level (or in a boss situation slow down time, but this is so inconsequential to be near-useless). Fill the Dark meter and use the Chaos Blast, which essentially creates a big explosion. Occasionally useful, and a nice touch.

All this and the inclusion of just probably 90% of the main Sonic characters (yes, that means no Mighty, Ray, Bean, Bark, Heavy, Bomb, Big, Gamma, and sadly Metal Sonic) in one way or another. The Chaotix make their appearances (again, minus Mighty, Heavy or Bomb), as well as the main Sonic cast plus Cream (though I suppose she can now be considered one of the main ones), plus Rouge, plus Omega making an excellent comeback. Throughout the levels characters also accompany you depending on which objective you wish to perform, and you can turn them on and off at will. The characters will give advice and help you if they can (for instance, an Eggman monitor will just dispense advice, whilst Tails will advise, pick up items and destroy enemies).

However, all is not fun and games, and this is where the game breaks down. The objectives. Those of you who have played the treasure hunting of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 will have a tiny bit of an idea, though it's not anywhere near as bad as that. Those who played the Team Chaotix levels of Heroes will have a better idea.

You see, getting back to my original point, the 3D Sonic games seem more like racing, with some platform elements. They just don't work as exploration games, and you need to explore to complete some of the objectives. Some of them are fine - finding, say, six secret disks or destroying three computers is okay - Sonic Team seem to have anticipated this in some cases and positioned the objectives along the main path. But others, for instance destroying all the soldiers, is a bit of a pain. Occasionally you will not have noticed one and have to go back (fortunately the restart points allow you to teleport instantly to any other restart point you have passed).

It's only a small point, but somehow it just breaks the game down completely in my book. I don't quite understand it. Back in Heroes, Team Chaotix had to destroy every enemy in a level. I was quite alright with that for some reason, but here it just doesn't seem like it works.

Another major change comes with the weaponry, and how the levels seem to have been changed to suit. Of course the weaponry is optional - every enemy can be destroyed by using the regular tried-and-tested Sonic moves. But the levels have changed and are seemingly flatter, split into parts for you to move from one shoot-out to the next, with one or two enemies in between. Loops, compared to the other games, are a rarity, as are many of the other high-speed thrills. Fortunately grinding has been carried over, but even that is scarce and implemented differently - I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not. Bolted on to the game are vehicles, which work exactly like the guns - use them or not. Some vehicles enable you to travel over toxic slime, whilst others allow you to jump extra-high. And you'll find you'll be using the alien saucers quite a lot.

But now on to the lesser things. The presentation of the game is iffy. The menus are average, and the music that occurs when Shadow's Hero/Dark meters fills (destroying soldiers fills your Dark meter, destroying aliens fills your Hero meter) serves to disjoint the game further. The voices, lifted from the recent (and mostly poor) Sonic X anime, are a mixed bunch. Shadow, Amy, Cream, Espio, Charmy (in my opinion anyway) and Tails are okay, and Eggman's new voice actor (since the previous voice actor passed away) is excellent. Sonic doesn't seem quite right, Black Doom just doesn't strike a chord and Vector sounds just... well... wrong. And I swear Knuckles shound be shouting "come back here Kaiba" half the time, as he appears to be somewhere between regular and Pharoah Yugi which doesn't quite work, given his regular voice before this game.

The graphics, at least in the Xbox version, are excellent. The characters are solidly rendered, and there are various points during cut-scenes where I wonder whether I'm looking at FMV. But then I see the FMV (what little of it there is - most of the cut-scenes using game graphics) which is amazing. There are a few good details - for instance, playing the Sky Troops level and one of Eggman's ships warps in in the distance, appearing to bend the sky, and also at the start of the Westopolis level, whilst the aliens pound the ground from orbit and their laser blasts cause all manner of great visual effects. I haven't really seen any slowdown, and the entire game seems to run at a constant, smooth framerate. Compared to the PS2 version (of which I've played a few levels), this seems like a finished and polished game whilst the PS2 version seems like a beta build with bugs needing ironed out and last effects adding.

The music too is also worthy of note, with some tracks proving excellent (again, Sky Troops stands out as an example) and some being odd (such as the ones where you experience events on the Ark fifty years ago). Some of the ending tracks are also excellent, in particular Waking Up.

But where does this leave us? A game with excellent graphics, good music, average presentation and a fundamentally sound, but also fundamentally flawed, gameplay system? I'm all up for the objectives. I'm all up for taking my own path through this game, and I love how it affects the story. However, most of the objectives just don't gel. And when the objectives take up most of the game you've got a problem.

Again, it's a good idea in principle. Hell, it's a great idea in principle! Decide what you'll do - are you going to help the aliens then double-cross them? Help Sonic then double-cross him? Search for the answers on your own? Excellent! And the system for implementing these changes is great too - complete an objective and there you go! But it's the objectives that don't work, and that's because, in my view at least, the game itself can't let them work. I can't think of anything Sonic Team could do to get the objectives working better whilst still sticking vaguely to the Sonic series roots, but that can't excuse it.

One the whole, what do we have?

Pros
++++
+ Excellent graphics
+ Some excellent sound
+ Multiple paths
+ Good storyline which ties in with the other Sonic games
+ Pretty good replay value

Cons
----
- Voices are occasionally too different
- The objectives disrupt the flow of the game too much
- Weaponry means much of the game's speed suffers
- Vehicles are bolted on and don't offer much

Overall, I do want to like this game. I do. And I do like it, but not very much. The weaponry has meant that some of the free-flowing speed dynamic has changed, and the objectives disrupt the game too much. I do have to confess that I had more fun with the other 3D Sonic games so far than this. Whilst there are some excellent points - being able to choose a path, the storyline and the graphics, the flaws are unfortunately too fundamental to a game like this.

But I do still have to recommend the game to people in some way, which does make this a very conflicting review for me. If you're interested in Shadow's storyline, what really happened fifty years ago and the other Shadows at the end of Heroes, then this is for you. If you're a Sonic fan, think whether you want an experience that stays true to the blue blur's roots or takes the series in new (but not necessarily better) directions. If you want a platformer with guns, you could do worse, especially considering the January sales have just meant a reduction in price.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/05