Platform reviewed – Playstation 2
Other platforms – Xbox, Gamecube
Developer – Sega Studio USA
Publishers – Sega
Genre – Platforming, action-adventure, third-person shooter
Rating – 12+
Release date – November 2005
Yes it’s time to review the game which receives nearly as much bad-mouthing as Sonic 06; Shadow the Hedgehog! This 2005 multi-platform release stars Sega’s own bad-ass, dark, anti-hero, amnesia-suffering hedgehog, Shadow.
So this game is another 3D platformer similar to that of the Sonic Adventure series and Sonic Heroes, and yet again this is something most gamers and sonic fans dislike. While not being one of my favourite Sonic games I feel it’s not the worst and I have admittedly played this game a lot (I admit to having over 90 out of the 326 different gameplay combinations you can get, as well as finishing the final story). Now while I do love the older Sonic games don’t get me wrong, but I feel that these 3D platforms aren’t at all that bad.
Now before I get into the actual review I’ll let you know that even though I do actually like this game (yes I aint lying, I do enjoy this game) I am not completely a Shadow fan – Silver all the way! But on the whole he is a pretty good character, especially in Sonic Adventure 2, his debut game.
Released on the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Xbox the game did in fact receive mixed reviews. Many people criticised the dark theme to the game, as well as the fact weapons had been introduced to defeat enemies instead of just a homing attack. The dark element added into this game is a nice change I think from the happy-happy teamwork raving shown in Sonic Heroes (don’t get me wrong, I like that game too). I actually don’t find this too much of a problem; perhaps it’s the amount of times I’ve played the game but the weapons just gives it a bit of a different feel (Like Sonic and the Black Knight, weapons in Sonic games doesn’t really bother me).
The use of weapons in the game was a feature many disliked.
Though the game was not completely slatted and was in fact praised (and this is one of the strongest points of the game) for its replay value. You see, this game has a feature where you can select which route you want to go down on each level; dark, hero or normal. Some levels only hold two of the possible choices, though the options you pick determines what level you go to next and how the actual plot of the game will pan out.
Find the damn fourth Chaos Emerald!
Now the plot of the game in the beginning goes a little something like this; Shadow the Hedgehog, the creation of Professor Gerald Robotnik, Doctor Eggman’s grandfather, is trying to find out the truth out his past following the amnesia he experienced in Sonic Heroes.
Not remembering anything about the events of Sonic Adventure 2 he ponders over the ominous memories of a young girl, Maria. A 50-year event, the fire in the sky festival, is to take place, where a Black Comet looms over the planet. Shadow, who witnesses the arrival of an alien race known as the Black Arms, turns his back on the city, being his usual grumpy self. It is then though that one calling himself Black Doom approaches him, telling Shadow about his link to the seven Chaos Emeralds.
With questions left unanswered Shadow decides that to find out the truth about his existence he must collect all the Chaos Emeralds; he sets off for the city, and it is there that the first mission begins.
From here, as I said before, the plot changes depending on what missions you carry out and is indeed the strongest element to the game. The idea of choosing hero, dark or normal is a thing I loved back then and still love now; there was just something about it which was, and still is, different to other sonic games. Though the only problem I have with the plot is the overall ending, don’t worry I won’t tell you what it is if you feel like playing the game, but it’s just the actual roots of Shadow’s past which is a little iffy to me, cool yes, but iffy.
Hero or villain? You decide.
Linking in to this whole idea of being good and evil isn’t only just limited to just missions and what pathway you go down. Who do you think gives you the missions anyway? Well there are a multitude of characters who Shadow must work with in the hero and dark missions (the normal ones involve Shadow doing his own thing and not being good or evil); Doctor Eggman, Black Doom, Maria, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Amy, E-123 Omega and the Chaotix. Most of the hero characters you fight alongside with are on the side of G.U.N (The Guardian Units of Nations) which act as the Nation’s military.
Shadow the Hedgehog faced off against the ‘alien scum’ that has plagued the planet. Being hero or villain depends on whether these guys are your allies or foes.
Most of the different missions require you to do different tasks, be it to defeat a certain amount of humans, collect a number of rings or just merely reach the goal before the time limit is up. The only problem I find with the idea about being good and evil is the fact that the AI doesn’t pick up which side you are fighting for. The amount of times I have been working for Black Doom and his soldiers end up attacking me anyway when I get too close is annoying.
What I think would work would be to have a better sense of what side you are on, the hero and dark scores at the top of the screen should impact who attacks you and who doesn’t, if a hero score is higher than no characters linked into the hero-side should attack you. Shadow the Hedgehog faced off against the ‘alien scum’ that has plagued the planet. Being hero or villain depends on whether these guys are your allies or foes.
Now I mentioned scores for hero and dark (there is one for normal too) so let me elaborate. Similar to how Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes had a scoring system and a rank at the end this feature is also found in Shadow the Hedgehog (with E being the lowest and A being the highest).
Now depending on which mission you are aiming to complete depends on which score is taken into account when delivering you a rank. Time bonuses go across all three, but obviously there is no point in receiving a high dark score when you are trying to complete a hero level, so when doing dark the hero score is ignored and when doing hero the dark score is ignored. For normal the middle score at the top of the screen is used, and is the all-around score which is dependent upon the amount of rings you gather.
Linked to these scores is the two powers Shadow can use, when filled with heroic deeds such as killing aliens and healing soldiers you gain hero points, as the bar above it fills Shadow can use Chaos Control to zoom through the level, useful for some levels, not so useful for others. While Chaos Blast is the move Shadow uses when filled with dark energy from killing good guys (which can include Eggman’s robots in some levels) to destroying obstacles and causing destruction. Both of these turn Shadow near invincible and gives him unlimited ammo for his current weapon.
Trip down memory lane!
Now remember how nice and long Sonic Adventure 2 felt? A nice big storyline, the Hero, Dark and Final storylines to complete? It took a while to complete and held a lot of different levels in it, didn’t it? Well through a single playthrough you might be quite disappointed by how short this game is with only about 6 acts with at least 1 boss battle at the end (though you can fight bosses halfway through the game). Though don’t fret, as there are 22 different levels to be played, all of which with at least two different sides of the level to be seen. The ability to mix these levels up too and go down different pathways allows this game to become much longer than what it actually seems.
Yes Eggman has the master plan and will conquer this world with his tools. This time he is using one of his machines in one of the eight different bosses to be fought (on one of the 17 different stages), here this Egg Breaker is found in the Mad Matrix level.
Having mentioned Sonic Adventure 2 the way you receive the emeralds in Shadow the Hedgehog is exactly the same as both Sonic Adventure games. You receive them through the storyline instead of special bonus stages seen in the older Sonic games and Sonic Heroes. The special stages might not have worked too well with the missions and storyline of the game, hence the lack of special stages, but this is a feature I actually do not mind to see. Sure the special stages are very interesting, and in some ways extremely, annoying difficult, but as I said before they wouldn’t work.
The bosses also have a very Sonic Adventure 2 feel to them, though a vast majority of them require the use of guns the style and simplicity brings out the Adventure 2 charm. Besides, some of the bosses do not really require you to use weapons; it just makes the fight easier and faster.
Some of the levels, and bosses, while lacking in difficulty actually are annoying to complete. Most of the bosses can be done fairly quickly, especially when you take advantage of the unlimited ammo ability you get when you fill out one of the two gauges at the top. The difficulty of the game overall isn’t anything terrible as gaining an A rank in the levels is pretty easy in my opinion and doesn’t require much of a challenge which is a shame, since gaining higher marks on SA2 was a little harder if not a lot harder in some aspects.
Though there is no Chao Garden unlockables here, neither are there unlockable themes for the main menu or modes such as Boss Battles to be found there are collectables to be found in this game. Depending on how you finish each playthrough (pure evil, pure good, normal, etcetera) depends on what sort of weapon you unlock when smashing open Shadow Crates in the game. These weapons are special in the fact they are more useful than the normal weapons you can acquire from foes.
Another unlockable is Expert Mode which sees you playing every level, one after the other, in an attempt to best it without losing all your lives. It’s a tough trial and a worthy little challenge. The only downside is the lack of reward for gaining all or a fair share of the different multiple pathways, with 326 different combinations some sort of prize would have been nice; a secret movie, debug mode, I dunno, anything.
Though similar to other Sonic games there is a feature where you can go back and redo levels again in Level Select as well as a music area where you can listen to level and theme songs from the game; some things never change, which is always nice.
The Ultimate Game?
As well as this feature there is a multiplayer option which while not as amazing as the multiplayer in Sonic Adventure 2. In this mode you can pick out of the original Shadow and a few recolours. You can only play this mode with two controllers, no more and no less, and can choose out of three stages with the aim to battle the other and destroy them. The way you survive is similar to that of the main storyline and many other Sonic game multiplayers, collect rings. If you are hit while having no rings then you lose, simple as.
This is not the only way a second person can play though, in the PS2 and Gamecube versions (not Xbox) you can use a second controller to control the support character you are paired with in the main storyline (with the exception of Doom’s Eye, Charmy and Eggman). This unofficial co-op mode is a very nice touch which I actually like, very much Sonic and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
But now onto the graphics, the way the game looks, the style, the colours. Well I can safely say that this game is not ugly in terms of graphics; they are that of a more well defined Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Heroes, yet the shiny latex look for Sonic and Shadow are still there.
The levels are very nicely designed with obvious inspiration from other games of the series such as Cryptic Castle looking like the Sonic Heroes stage, Hang Castle, and Space Gadget being a recreation of Final Rush from Sonic Adventure 2 which is fortified by Sonic’s line; “This is just like old times, a race for the emerald!”. Most levels are very bright and colourful, even the grim ruin levels have a rustic charm to it that doesn’t make the stages seem unattractive.
The Black Comet is another example, despite being the ‘hive’ for the aliens the design of the level is well thought out; with the colours being purple and grey they match the colour scheme of the actual aliens. The vast range of different feelings of levels (up in the air, in cyberspace, in the middle of a destroyed city) gives this game a great range which is something that most Sonic games capture very well.
The graphics in the cut-scenes are fairly standard, nothing too terrible though nothing to write home about, except the extremely pleasant odd cut-scene which obviously had quite a bit of money put into them. These scenes are ones such as the introduction along with some regarding memories of Shadows past; the normal look for the cut-scenes are similar graphics to the gameplay, though the ones which really strike me as beautiful are the CGI ones.
The fact they didn’t use this style of cut-scene for every other cut0scene is disappointing, though I can understand why and assume it is because of money restraints. Despite this though the cut-scenes are still enjoyable to watch even if a little blocky and I swear one of them the audio was a little out of synch.
The audio is pretty good in some parts, terrible in others, though that is the same as most Sonic games to be honest; nothing great but nothing completely terrible and unbearable. As mentioned before there is some troubles with matching up the mouths to the spoken dialogue. There are many infamous quotes scattered about though that have quickly became internet memes and sayings such as “Where’s that damn forth Chaos Emerald?” and “Find the Computer Room!”.
Though the voices for Sonic games have been a bit sub-par before Shadow the Hedgehog came out there is in fact one element which has remained unchanged, and that is the music. From Sonic the Hedgehog back in 1991 all the way to today’s time of 2012 Sonic music has been one of the strongest elements of the games. Shadow the Hedgehog is a game which added a number of great tunes to the ever-growing soundtrack for Sonic.
Though not an amazing collection of sounds when compared to a few other games the songs are by far terrible and fit into the dark atmosphere and the tone of the levels. I for one enjoy the music in this game, especially “Doc Robeatnix Mix” which is a remix version of E.G.G.M.A.N from Sonic Adventure 2. If it’s one thing Sonic Team can do well (apart from actually coming up with Sonic the Hedgehog) is create good sound.
Now for pricing it all depends, with it being an older PS2 game and the fact that the game shop industry is failing the game can be found for both cheap and slightly expensive pricing. The best I have found is here at CEX and at that pricing (for all the consoles) I say it is very good for money and definitely worth a buy if you are a fan of either Shadow the Hedgehog or just a big Sonic fan in general. Another place to buy from is Ebay for the PS2 which is slightly good priced.
With decent graphics, being a nice follow-up from the Adventure series and Heroes as well as having a nice large cast of characters and music this game is a pretty good addition to the Sonic series and even with its dark demeanour is a good play. The only downside, as mentioned before, is the finality to Shadows origin, while it is nice to link with Sonic Adventure 2 it doesn’t seem satisfying. Shadow the Hedgehog, the poor, misunderstood, dark rodent of Sega which has managed to survive in this crazy video gaming world, has received his own video game which does slight justice to him is not finished yet, oh no. Still clawing his way into other games of the series fans have claimed to want Shadow the Hedgehog 2; while very unlikely stranger things have happened.
7.5 rupees out of 10
Green Rupee Gaming 