Title: Shadow Complex
Dev: Chair
Pub: Epic
Platform: XBLA
Price: 1200 MS points ($15)
Release: August 19
Chair is the team responsible for Undertow on XBLA. I'll admit, I hated that game. (Got it for free and deleted it from my HDD.) So that tempers my expectations somewhat, but with Epic on board and with Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night as inspiration, SC looks like yet another revival of old-school sensibilities on modern digital platforms.
Known stuff so far:
- approx. 10 hours of campaign
- 120+ items
- 18 major pick ups that expand your abilities
- 2D gameplay in 3D engine (UE3)
- Scoring at end based not just on completion %, but on what you got and how you did it. (ie, use no special items for big score)
E3 trailer (via Giant Bomb)
http://www.giantbomb.com/shadow-complex ... er/17-737/
Demo from MS press event (via Giant Bomb)
http://www.giantbomb.com/e3-2009-demo-s ... ex/17-800/
IGN interview with some gameplay video
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/988/988143p1.html
Kotaku impressions from E3Mustard has spent most of his career flying just under the radar while working on projects like Advent Rising and Undertow. Those days appear to be over though after much of the gaming world was introduced to him when he took to the stage during Microsoft's E3 press conference alongside Cliff Bleszinski to announce Shadow Complex. Having sat down for an extended demo of Shadow Complex, I can truthfully say that this is the next big thing on the Live Arcade. This is what you should be preparing to play this summer. If you haven't yet already, read our first-look preview of Shadow Complex to learn why.
Mustard serves as the creative director at Chair Entertainment, a small studio whose first project was the colorful online multiplayer XBLA game Undertow. With one game finished, the group quickly set its sights on bigger fish. Shadow Complex wouldn't just be a fun diversion. I was to be a return to the 16-bit side-scrolling action era of game design with Super Metroid as the inspiration. This time, though, it would be a 2D side-scroller modeled in three dimensions with full cinematic cutscenes and the power of the Unreal Engine 3.
.....
Once you beat the game, you won't find a simple leaderboard that only tracks completion percentage. Bonus multipliers to your score will be applied based on how you played the game. "We're factoring in the percentage of the items you found, how fast you beat the game, how many kills you got, how much experience you got and what difficulty you're on. When you beat the game, you're going to get points so you're not going to have a bunch of people bunched up on the leaderboards." Being a fast completionist isn't the only way to get to the top though, according to Mustard. Players will also be rewarded for finding ways through the game without fighting or exploring or finding power-ups. "Those bonuses go the other way too…If you beat the game with nothing, you're going to get a massive bonus."
Shadow Complex has its roots in classic, hardcore game design, but it clearly doesn't eschew modern design sensibilities. In making the game, the team started by playing very close to the Super Metroid playbook but then evaluating each aspect to see if it still works today. The most important factor was fun.
"Is it fun? Does it add to the experience? What could be done better?", Mustard questioned while talking about the old-school designs. "We know that we're going to want to put in modern stuff, so if we stick really close [to the old design] at the start it will quickly allow us to go off on our own. We created a core foundation of old-school and then we started making the game and just let all of the new start seep in."
http://kotaku.com/5284635/shadow-comple ... morph-ball
