12/31/2016
Shooter
Action-Adventure
Sci-Fi
Action & Adventure
Epic Games
Microsoft Studios
Shadow Complex is a 2.5D side-scrolling action-adventure platformer developed by Chair Entertainment in association with Epic Games and originally published by Microsoft exclusively for Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) on August 19, 2009. Players control Jason Fleming, a young protagonist who ventures into the mountains of Washington state along with his new girlfriend Claire. While exploring some caverns, Claire stumbles onto a clandestine underground military base and is immediately taken prisoner by soldiers outfitted with advanced weapons and equipment. Following after her, Jason must explore the soldiers' expansive "Alpha Complex" in order to rescue Claire, acquiring high-tech combat gear while uncovering the agenda of the secret "Restoration" army along the way.
Shadow Complex is known for its Metroidvania-influenced gameplay. Players must explore an interconnected, labyrinthine game world via side-scrolling platforming in order to discover permanent item-based upgrades that progressively unlock new areas of the map.
This downloadable title is the last of five games released as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade 2009 promotion. In late 2015, Shadow Complex received a remastered release for Windows PC as Shadow Complex Remastered, with subsequent releases for Xbox One and PS4 in 2016.
Jason discovers Alpha Complex
Taking place in the "near-future," the events of Shadow Complex run parallel to those of Orson Scott Card's 2006 novel Empire. The game's prologue is set in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. and follows Colonel Sam Dallas as he defends the vice president's motorcade from a hostile military force. After acquiring one of the enemy's advanced combat suits, Dallas easily dispatches the hostile troops and their support helicopter. However, his suit is disabled remotely by Commander Lucius, the leader of the insurgent radical-leftist "Progressive Restoration" army, before the vice president is subsequently killed inside his vehicle by an explosion.
The bulk of the game occurs in the Olympic Mountains of Washington state. College student Claire Duncan travels into the wilderness area along with new boyfriend Jason Fleming, where the pair plan to explore a cave that Claire recalls from her childhood. Claire scouts ahead, prompting Jason to follow after her when she does not respond to his calls. After locating Claire's discarded climbing gear, Jason discovers a metal walkway leading to a sealed door embedded in the cave wall. As he searches the area, Jason witnesses Claire being taken prisoner by several armed men in strange uniforms, who drag her through the door.
Jason enters the unlocked door, which leads to a series of underground corridors equipped with automated security cameras. Evading their gaze, he soon locates a control room with a monitor screen, which displays an image of Claire being brutally interrogated as a spy in a different section of "Alpha Complex," the massive subterranean facility in which the Restoration trains its insurgent forces and stockpiles advanced weaponry. Jason arms himself with an acquired pistol before resolving to rescue Claire and escape from the insurgents' base.
The game features over 100 hidden items to collect, as well as an experience system that rewards players with various upgrades for leveling up. Leveled-up characters can carry over to multiple playthroughs.
There are two achievements tied to collectibles. One achievement requires players to get 100% of the collectibles and beat the game, while the other requires players to finish the game with no more than 13% of the collectibles.
Melee attacks give more experience.
While strictly not an RPG, Jason gains experience points by exploring the environment, defeating enemies, and acquiring upgrades. In turn, attributes like accuracy, precision or stamina, are increased automatically. A unique attribute of Shadow Complex's XP system is the idea of XP multipliers. If the player performs certain actions (head shots, melee attacks) a multiplier is added for every successful move, increasing the overall XP reward. Shadow Complex also rewards the player for defeating larger enemies like bosses by exploiting their weaknesses or attacking them in clever ways. While all enemies can be defeated simply by continuous shooting for extended periods of time, the game "knows" when this is taking place and gives less XP.
Additionally, uncovering squares of the map grants more experience than killing enemies. However, acquiring collectibles grants the most experience of all. This means that there is more incentive to explore and play through the game multiple times.
Challenge rooms are included to hone the player's skills, all with accompanying online leaderboards. In each challenge room, the player can earn a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum medal, depending on how well they have completed it.
The extensive map.
Embracing Metroid and other similar games' traditions of speed running and sequence breaking, Chair has endeavored to add multiple achievements for these feats. The most difficult feats are not in the form of achievements, but rather in the form of "master challenges" that exist only within the game - a way to give achievement lovers more easy achievements while also giving the hardcore players a standardized set of goals.
A remastered version of the game was announced at The Game Awards 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The PC version of Shadow Complex Remastered was released via Epic's download client following its announcement; this version was released for free for a limited time. The other versions of the remastered game are slated to be released in 2016.