Final thoughts on Shadow the hedgehog (game)

[Wooduck51]

Well, ShTH has been hanging around long enough, was there anything you liked? for me the game was a big step above heroes; yes ShTH was fugly in game graphic wise, but as far as fun goes it beats the crap outa heroes. No stupid "team action" to contend with, and sonic team did try to make a better camera, the controls were rather good also. Story was disjointed from time to time but that's SonicTeam for ya.

[The Doc]

The music.

[BlazeHedgehog]

I agree. I haven't gotten a chance to play Shadow yet - yes, I still want to, my curiosity is still nagging at me - but I really like the Soundtrack. Strangely, Winamp shuffled up a Shadow track just as I opened this topic (Final Haunt).

[(...)]

Well, ShTH has been hanging around long enough, was there anything you liked?

Lots of stuff. I mean if it weren't for the fact that the graphics suck and Shadow is the star and there are guns in it, lots more people would have loved it.

Stuff I liked:
- The soundtrack.
- The cutscenes (why doesn't Sonic next-gen look like this??).
- The Outrun2-style branching level progression (five games in one, each with two endings).
- The story progression (no matter which route you take through the game, the cutscenes always make sense, even though the different stories have no continuity with each other).
- The guns (I know I know, a black Sonic with guns is blasphemous! But that said, the actual gameplay mechanics of the gun-play worked, mostly because it was ripped from Devil May Cry. I don't know what version of Shadow everyone else was playing, but I found the auto-aim to always work, apart from with the rocket launchers).
- The whole "good and evil" thing (admit it, being the bad guy is cool and y'all know it!)

[jenkins]

- The whole "good and evil" thing (admit it, being the bad guy is cool and y'all know it!)

No, it's not. There's nothing greater than tearing around Angel Island as Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, especially when compared to running around swinging guns as Shadow. Furthermore, the idea has been done time and again, so it's not even original or creative.

[Baba O'Reily]

- The whole "good and evil" thing (admit it, being the bad guy is cool and y'all know it!)

No, it's not. There's nothing greater than tearing around Angel Island as Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles,

How about as Big?

[Segaholic2]

I've got a question, actually. I'm planning on buying Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders soon, if only for the sake of completion in my collection.

Anyhow, what I want to know is which version is best for each? I'm assuming the PlayStation2 version is the weakest, and it'll be a match-up between the GameCube and Xbox versions. Do either provide any substantial advantages over the other?

[BlazeHedgehog]

The PS2 version of Shadow has an option to change voices to Japanese, I believe. I think you can do it in the Xbox version, too, but you need to change the entire console's language to Japanese. The Gamecube is the least buggy and the most stable version, and apparently it has the best control.

Not sure about Riders.

[CE]

My understading has been similar to Blaze's -- the GameCube version is the one Sonic Team paid the most attention to.

[jenkins]

- The whole "good and evil" thing (admit it, being the bad guy is cool and y'all know it!)

No, it's not. There's nothing greater than tearing around Angel Island as Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles,

How about as Big?

Slipped my mind, I guess.

[James McGeachie]

I've got a question, actually. I'm planning on buying Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders soon, if only for the sake of completion in my collection.

This is the way I've been thinking for a while, that I have to own the games for the sake of my collection, but I'm starting to change that view. There's a limit to how much shit I'm willing to buy and the latest entries are easily breaking it, I have enough games sitting around unfinished as it is without adding horrible broken ones to the collection that I'll never want to play, ever.

At this point, I think I'm only going to buy future titles if they're actually proven to be quality, which counts Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm only ever going to even consider touching Shadow, Riders and Gems if they're offered to me for near-free prices.

[Gaz]

I actually ended up buying Sonic Riders last weekend. I wasn't planning on getting it but I saw it being sold at budget price so I figured what the Hell. It's no where near as bad as I thought it would be but it's not a particularly great game either with dodgy controls and some frustrating moments. It's not bad for a budget game but if I paid full price for it I'd probably feel a little pissed off.

[Frieza2000]

Riders is ok. The levels are modestly enjoyable, though few contain anything I'd call an alternate path, just lots of shortcuts that don't really leave sight of the main path. I've only finished the Heroes story, but so far it's been short and forgettable, which is the best thing I can say for any Sonic storyline for the last third of the series' life, yet the still managed to squeeze in the nonsense. For instance, after collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds Eggman ignores them and instead grabs Jet's little blue cube and rushes off to seek treasure unknown.

I wouldn't say the controls are bad. The turbulence system, though, comes close to breaking the game. It sounded cool at first, but it's not what it sounds like. You don't just ride behind the other racers, gaining speed and air for it. No, everyone leaves these ugly, white, <i>opaque</i> halfpipes in their wake, and once you nudge yourself into one you can let go of the controller because you're not getting off of it until the end, which is often on a path you didn't want to take, if not a wall or pit. The only way out is to jump, but half of the time I seem to land right back on it.

If you're in first place it's not an issue, but the game would've been better off without it.

[liferuiner555]

I've got a question, actually. I'm planning on buying Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders soon, if only for the sake of completion in my collection.

This is the way I've been thinking for a while, that I have to own the games for the sake of my collection, but I'm starting to change that view. There's a limit to how much shit I'm willing to buy and the latest entries are easily breaking it, I have enough games sitting around unfinished as it is without adding horrible broken ones to the collection that I'll never want to play, ever.

At this point, I think I'm only going to buy future titles if they're actually proven to be quality, which counts Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm only ever going to even consider touching Shadow, Riders and Gems if they're offered to me for near-free prices.

Even near-free isn't worth paying for Shadow. Seriously, it's less enjoyable than pissing on yourself.

I can see why somebody might be entertained by Riders, but avoid Shadow entirely because it's just plain unlikeable. I'd rather eat my own semen than play that again, it's like getting shot in the face with lasers.

[Wooduck51]

Even near-free isn't worth paying for Shadow. Seriously, it's less enjoyable than pissing on yourself.

I can see why somebody might be entertained by Riders, but avoid Shadow entirely because it's just plain unlikeable. I'd rather eat my own semen than play that again, it's like getting shot in the face with lasers

The game was in fact solid and fun, not great, but quite fun. you are apparently a Shadow hater.[/quote]

[Zeta]

The game was in fact solid and fun, not great, but quite fun. you are apparently a Shadow hater

Shadow hater = person with a brain.

I tried Shadow. It played like shite. I couldn't steer, I kept on runing into walls, there was no build-up time to speeding up. You touch the control stick and you're veering off a cliff, and you couldn't aim, so all the weapons were useless, except maybe the melee ones.

[Wooduck51]

The game was in fact solid and fun, not great, but quite fun. you are apparently a Shadow hater

Shadow hater = person with a brain.

I tried Shadow. It played like shite. I couldn't steer, I kept on runing into walls, there was no build-up time to speeding up. You touch the control stick and you're veering off a cliff, and you couldn't aim, so all the weapons were useless, except maybe the melee ones.

You haveth no patience, but it also helps that I really wanted to like the game in the first place, so like I blinded myself to all of heroes faults, I ignored the problems in Shadow and just compensated. But since it is in the end a small step above heroes, Shadow stays and heroes went.

and the weapons aim automatically, WHICH MEANS YOU CAN ALMOST FACE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION AND STILL HIT SOMETHING

[Ngangbius]

I say if I use my precious hours playing a video game, then I rather use them with a game I enjoy right off the bat than to spend hours of suffering an awful game in the alleged fanboy claim that "it actually gets better".

[Menander]

I found the controls and actual core gameplay of Shadow to be solid. Not great mind you, but just running around and shooting guys and stealing their guns was pretty fun.

What killed it was the terrible mission system. I don't know who thought that it would be a good idea to force the player to painstakingly search every nook and cranny of levels that are designed like racetracks so that you can kill all the enemies. Those missions were terrible. The whole "they forgot to program that the side you're helping should try to kill you" thing didn't help. The missions where you had to do something unique, such as activate those green keys were fun. I could still race through a level and bust up crap. And I am just really bad at the game, or did everyone else find those "chase the presidents plabe/alien tank thing and blow it up" missions to be almost impossible? No matter how much I shot that stupid thing it would never die.

The boss battles were pretty bad too. Most of them were about running around some huge arena, and blindly throwing yourself at the boss until his sheild came down. A couple of them, like that flying pig thing and the military spinny death thing were better, but the fights against Eggman and the General and Black Doom where just awful.

All that and the games tone was unbearable. It was the cheesiest attempt at being "badass" I've ever seen from a big game company. The menus make gun cocking sound effects when you navigate them! Come on!

It's kind of a shame Shadow turned out so poorly. It really has a bunch of great ideas (choose your own destiny, rival factions fighting during levels, the take anyone's weapon sort of gameplay) but it's all executed so badly. I assume this game was rushed?

So yeah, I really didn't like this game. I gave it an honest chance. And even though the core gameplay is tighter than recent Sonic efforts, I'd still rather play heroes.

[Wooduck51]

I assume this game was rushed?

Thank you for rubbing sand in an open wound.

[Frieza2000]

Zeta, which console did you play on that had such bad controls, and Menander, which console did you play on that had such good ones? I was going to buy the PS2 version (eventually) for the Japanese audio, but if it's that much worse than the GC I might forfeit it so that I can finish the game faster.

[Menander]

I played it on GC and I honestly had no problem with the controls. Granted, Shadow did move around a bit floaty, but given his hover shoes I think it was supposed to be like that. The guns and homing attacks all worked fine.

Maybe I got used to the bad Heroes control?

[Zeta]

Zeta, which console did you play on that had such bad controls, and Menander, which console did you play on that had such good ones? I was going to buy the PS2 version (eventually) for the Japanese audio, but if it's that much worse than the GC I might forfeit it so that I can finish the game faster.

PS2. I played through the first 2 levels and was so disgusted I didn't continue, just returned it to the rental place.

[SegaSonic]

Same here..I rented it, I completed it but didnt bother getting ranks.

Had it on Japanese too, the english voices Suck bad man. Since It was on Japanese, I got a better experience.

[Hybrid]

The only thing that saved Shadow from being a completely wasted opportunity for me was some of the throwbacks to previous games. That space level where you race Sonic to the Chaos Emerald is the only level I've played more than was absolutely necessary, and I still get a kick out of it despite the fact that Sonic is supposed to be racing you yet he is completely nonexistent in the stage.

Oh, and some stage music was actually pretty good, though most of the vocal tracks were terrible so I can hardly call the audio a plus.