Because it's the only thing that will allow Sega to make a profit (and actually, so far, this game can't even serve that purpose effectively), here comes another Sonic game… well, kind of. You see, Shadow the Hedgehog for the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox (I reviewed the game on Microsoft's console) doesn't star the blue hedgehog we all know and love, but instead, the main character is Shadow, a Sonic-like character created by Dr. Robotnik's grandfather. Shadow became quite popular after debuting in Sonic Adventure 2, so now he has his own game, a concept which I'm all for, by the way. However, this game isn't what I had in mind.
As the game opens, Shadow is suffering from amnesia. Who is he? Why is he here? Who created him? I could go on with more questions, but you get the idea. As our hero (or enemy; more on that later) ponders his existence, the nearby city of Westopolis is being attacked by a group of aliens known as the Black Arms. Shadow runs into the army's leader, Black Doom, who claims to know about the black hedgehog's past and will reveal what he knows if Shadow collects the seven Chaos Emeralds for him. Before his meeting with Doom, Shadow himself came to the conclusion that perhaps he could use the emeralds to restore his memory. Meanwhile, Sonic and his pals are off to defeat the Black Arms and when they run into Shadow, they request his help. However, it doesn't seem that assisting Sonic will help answer Shadow's questions. So what option will he choose? That's for you to decide.
The big innovation of Shadow the Hedgehog is the option to play through the game being good, evil, or neutral. On each level, you have a choice of completing one of three missions. The good mission has you assisting Sonic or one of his friends to complete a certain task. The bad objective has Shadow help out Black Doom in his plans, and the neutral goal has you helping neither party. In the latter missions, you usually just have to finish the level, which will allow you to find a Chaos Emerald for yourself. Depending on the objective you decide to complete, you go down a different story path and enter a different stage. Much like Star Fox 64, you'll need to play through the story mode multiple times if you want to open up every level.
As you play, certain actions will fill up either a good or evil meter. Good actions involve destroying evil monsters, while bad deeds are usually killing SWAT team members or breaking elements in the environment. Along with the meter filling, you're also given good or evil points for each moral or amoral action. However, the ration of evil actions to good ones is extremely lopsided; aside from defeating the evil aliens and collecting rings, basically every single thing you do is considered evil. Why can't I break a nondescript wooden box without being slapped on the wrist?
By filling one of the meters, you can perform a certain special move. Filling the evil bar gives you access to Chaos Blast, which causes massive damage on every item/person on screen. The light side power, Chaos Control, lets you rush through a segment of the level for a short time. However, it's rendered useless when you consider that most missions require you to find an item or kill a bunch of characters; you often will find yourself blasting past what you needed to find, only to have to spend even more time going back to where you needed to be. The only use for Chaos Control that I can imagine is to help you speed through the levels faster, but even then, it's more fun to simply run to the end on foot.
I know that Shadow the Hedgehog isn't technically a Sonic game, per se, but after playing around with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, I expected to get the same sensation of speed. Sadly, I did not, and that's because this game makes the mistake of emphasizing combat over speed. Admittingly, most of the neutral missions can be completed by rushing through the level, and not surprisingly, they're the best part of the game. However, I wish that this game could've combined the speed and combat to keep the game moving, something that Sonic Heroes did so well.
Having said that, I'm surprised that the weapon-based combat is as decent as it is. You have a nice selection of guns that you can pick up from dropped enemies and wooden crates. You can also knock down parts of the environment and use them as melee weapons, including Speed Limit signs, wooden pillars, and fiery torches. You can still use regular hedgehog attacks like the spin dash and homing attack to attack, but the focus is placed more on the new weapons.
Guns have a nice auto-aim feature that makes shootin' folk easier; you simply point at who you want to shoot and fire away. However, you sometimes will find yourself shooting at things that you may not be able to see, making yourself wonder if you're actually hitting anything (usually, you are). Also, although auto-aim is nice, I'd easily trade it for a lock-on button like you find in games like Ratchet and Clank.
As far as the rest of the controls go, everything is pretty simple for both newcomers and players of the past 3D Sonic games. Unfortunately, many of the control quirks that have plagued this franchise since it hit the third dimension have gone unfixed in Shadow. You'll still find that the auto-targeting on homing attacks will sometimes cause death because it didn't lock onto the enemy properly. The sometimes glitchy light speed ring dashes from Sonic Heroes are back, too, so you'll still have times when the game doesn't have your character follow the ring path correctly, usually resulting in your death. Also, the screwy camera system that basically every critic complained about since 1999 still hasn't been fully addressed. You'd think that after six years of 3D Sonic and multiple complaints, these issues would have been fixed. Talk about a refusal to evolve.
And speaking of refusal to evolve, what's up with the graphics? Aside from the gorgeous CG cut-scenes, there's been literally no improvement to the visuals since Sonic Heroes, and in some areas, Shadow actually looks worse. The character models are very low-res, with stiff animations, out-of-sync mouth movements, and low polygon counts. Although I only played Shadow on the Xbox, I've observed video footage of the other two versions, and unfortunately, all three suffer from a myriad of technical problems. There lots of distracting pop-up and clipping, and there's even more slowdown in this game than there was in Sonic Heroes, which is just inexcusable. However, if want to play this game and have the choice, you'll probably want to play Shadow on the Xbox or Gamecube, since the PS2 version has an even worse framerate, if you can believe that. Considering that the critics tore the PS2 version of Sonic Heroes apart for this very reason, why didn't they address this issue one year later? Again, it's unforgivable.
The biggest problem with this game, however, is the same issue I had with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within; the new mature direction this game is taking the franchise. Can someone tell me why we needed to hear SWAT team members begging for their lives to be spared, an evil voice telling you to kill all the humans, and Shadow exclaiming "damn it" every time he takes a hit or die in a Sonic related game? What's the point of it all? Is it too much to ask that Sega give me some sort of justification for taking this series in this mature direction? As it is, the adult-oriented elements come off as an unnecessary change that only served to take me out of the game. In fact, I was personally offended by the mission where you have to five huge bombs in order to blow up a city to kill all its citizens (that's how it's described to you). Sure, it's part of the evil path and we don't see the resulting carnage and suffering (thank God for that), but this game doesn't deserve to have such an objective in it. Of all the games you could inject terrorism into, why do we need it in a Sonic related game? Didn't anyone at Sega think that maybe this would be considered distasteful or insensitive, especially since the game containing such a mission came out barely a week after the Jordan hotel bombings?
As if the force-fed mature elements weren't bad enough, Sonic Team actually undercuts their attempts to grow up their famous franchises through some of the design choices. For example, instead of hiring the voice actors from the previous Sonic games, the developers recruited the entire cast of the Sonic X cartoon to do the voices. For those who don't know, Sonic X (the TV show) is basically a kids' cartoon that plays on Saturday mornings. Considering that this game is a bit more intense than Sonic X as far as content goes (what with the profanity and all), why would they bother to have the cast of a kids show do the voices for a more mature game like this? This game was going to get a Teen rating before Sega toned it down to an E10, so wouldn't a decision like that, effectively, alienate the more mature gamers that Sega was trying to bring in?
Audiowise, Shadow is pretty decent. I love those nostalgic sound effects (like the rings chiming upon collection) and I enjoyed hearing some remixed music from past Sonic games and some adequate original tunes. As far as the voiceovers go, it's a mixed bag. Although the addition of the Sonic X voice actors bode much better for some characters over Sonic Heroes (like Tails and Cream), I preferred the original voices for many of the characters, particularly Sonic, Kunckles, Robotnik, and Rouge.
Overall, this game is a disgrace to the Sonic franchise and Sega shou
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