Shadow Complex -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Shadow Complex numerous times and have earned the full two-hundred Gamerpoints. I have to say that Shadow Complex lived up to the hype and delivered a grand finale to Microsoft's Summer of Arcade II. Chair Entertainment and Epic Games have brought about a nearly perfect title. The only real flaw happens to come in the gameplay with the 3D aiming. It's not as dependable as it needed to be. It becomes far more noticeable on the harder difficulties. You'll die numerous times on the harder difficulties because it just wouldn't cover the target you needed it to cover. Another complaint, but not really a flaw, is in just how much they borrowed from the games that inspired Shadow Complex. They just blatantly steal from Super Metroid and Metal Gear Solid, and they throw in some G. I. Joe in there as well. I don't think I've ever seen anything as blatant. The graphics are great for an Xbox Live title. They're expanding the boundaries on what one would have thought possible for a download title. The music works very well, and there are some unique choices in the score. The voice work is top notch all around. The game's story is actually good in a quite goofy way and it doesn't get in the way. I found the game to be surprisingly cinematic. One of the aspects that I was surprised that I enjoyed were the bosses. In the fact that none of them are telegraphed with a boss door as they are in Castlevania. You just happen upon all of them without warning. I'm also really impressed with how they used achievement like pop-ups to inform you of your running totals towards the achievements. And that they took it a step further and started showing you the progress of the people on your friends list who were playing the game. You'd do a melee kill and you'd get a pop-up saying that ZBo had this many melee kills and that you had that many melee kills. The pop-ups inspired some friendly competition and they provided an interesting look at how others played the game. Overall Shadow Complex was a very satisfying conclusion to the summer season for me. I'm giving Shadow Complex a 9.