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Is Shadow worth playing these days?

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  • Is Shadow worth playing these days?
• Is Shadow worth playing these days?

• Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  NeoMetallix > 12-28-2023, 07:58 PM

  I never owned Shadow. I did rent it but I never did beat it. I remember it had problems but it wasn't horrifically unplayable. I even had some enjoyment in parts. It got trashed by reviews though because of the premise of using guns in a Sonic game based on Shadow.
  
  Is it worth hunting it down for a play now days?
  
  
  P.S. A long time ago shortly after Sonic Heroes, Sega put up a poll for fans on what they wanted for the next game. It had who you wanted to be the main character and different themes to pick. I picked a mature Shadow game and most others also did because that's what we got!

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  PolarNight > 12-29-2023, 07:58 PM

  It's something of a controversial opinion I feel, but I actually enjoyed the game overall and still replay it every now and then. I guess it's something of a guilty pleasure of mine as a result.
  
  Some Pros:

  • The branching paths allow for quite a bit of replay value, with each different overall mission path you take adding a new sequence in the game's library at the end of the run detailing the cutscenes that took place. There are, in total, roughly 326 different sequences. You have access to up to three different missions per stage, with other stages only having two. Whichever mission you choose to do will take you on a different path. 
    
  • The branching story paths in turn allow Shadow to have 5 different alignments (Evil, Semi-Evil, Neutral, Semi-Hero, and Hero). Shadow will always start off Neutral, but helping Sonic in the first stage Westopolis for example will move Shadow onto the Semi-Hero alignment path. If he then performs a Dark-aligned mission, he will go back to the Neutral alignment path. Each alignment has two different final bosses you can fight, depending on the mission (Hero or Dark) you do in the last stage of that alignment.
    
  • The gun/weapon system, while controversial, does give the game something of a unique gameplay element. The auto-aiming system is a bit wonky, but overall I felt the system was actually pretty enjoyable.
    
  • The game features nearly the entire cast of Sonic Heroes in some way outside of Big and Metal Sonic, with most being mission-related allies depending on the mission you're aiming for. Most of the mission allies can actually be played as by a second player if you have a controller set up on the second port, at least in the GameCube version.
    

  
  Some Cons:

  • Movement seems to be somewhat slippery. There's been a few times I'd fall into the abyss in a stage as a result of Shadow still moving a bit after letting go of the stick.
    
  • As mentioned above, the auto-aiming system has some issues. Sometimes you may be trying to shoot a particular enemy only to shoot a different one you didn't intend to shoot, and that can be somewhat problematic depending on your alignment.
    
  • Many of the "Destroy X amount of specific enemies!" missions can take forever to complete if you miss one or two and get to the end of the stage, which leads to you having to warp back to an earlier part of the stage to find them, sometimes multiple times if you miss them again. Lost Impact's Hero mission is probably the most egregious example I can think of, with the mission often taking up to 16 minutes or more for me to complete.
    
  • The story is quite weird, especially depending on certain branches you take. It's entirely possible to have Shadow act like a hero one minute, and a bad guy the next.
    
  • You have to complete the game at least 10 different times to get the chance to fight the game's true final boss, because the two final bosses of each alignment must be defeated.
    

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  NeoMetallix > 12-29-2023, 08:39 PM

  Thanks for the detailed reply! I want to try it now, I just have to figure how to get it as I think it's locked on PS2/GC/Xbox. Probably will have to use an emulator.

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  PolarNight > 12-30-2023, 08:15 PM

  Yeah, unfortunately the game doesn't seem to have ever been re-released in any capacity.
  
  I've heard that supposedly the GameCube and Xbox versions are the best due to the PlayStation 2 version running at a lower framerate than them, but given I've never owned or played the game on either PS2 or Xbox I can't really confirm this.

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  NeoMetallix > 12-31-2023, 11:22 AM

  That makes sense. PS2 shined when first party developers exploited it to punch above its weight(Gran Turismo 4/God of War 2) but 3rd party games that didn't put that kind of effort didn't do so well. Sonic Heroes was also worse on PS2.
  
  Well I guess I'll have to emulate it. I still have a PS2 but it wasn't meant to be hooked up to an HDTV.

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  RedFox99 > 12-31-2023, 04:26 PM

  (12-28-2023, 07:58 PM)NeoMetallix Wrote: P.S. A long time ago shortly after Sonic Heroes, Sega put up a poll for fans on what they wanted for the next game. It had who you wanted to be the main character and different themes to pick. I picked a mature Shadow game and most others also did because that's what we got!

  
  Wut. They actually chose what the next game would be based on a poll?! They should do that again, I'd choose a Tails game.

• RE: Is Shadow worth playing these days?

  Blue Voltage > 01-26-2024, 10:19 PM

  I was too young to play this when it came out and I never got a chance to play it. I should put this on my list of games to go back and play.
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