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Shadow the Hedgehog Review: Is It Worth It?

Shadow the Hedgehog cover art

Shadow the Hedgehog Review: Is It Worth It?

Shadow the Hedgehog was developed by Sega Studios USA and published by Sega in 2005 for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. This game features Shadow, the dark and mysterious character who debuted in Sonic Adventure Battle 2, Sonic Team has placed an emphasis on more mature gameplay; hence Shadow carries a gun and themes of murder and violence are found within. Let’s discover whether or not this game is worth the money.

Storyline of Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow armed and ready to take on his mission.

Shadow The Hedgehog allows players to collect an arsenal of weapons, vehicles, and objects to rocket through more than 50 unique missions. In his feature debut, Shadow is tormented by a dark past, struggling to discover his true identity. He is caught in a complex battle between aliens, the G.U.N. army, and Dr. Eggman, and discovers that he may be the very element that will tip the scales between good and evil forever.

Shadow’s loss of memory told through an excellent cutscene at the beginning is the catalyst for the entire adventure. After being contacted by a menacing figure known as Black Doom who commands Shadow to find the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Upon receipt of the Chaos Emeralds Black Doom will return the hedgehog’s memory. So, the race is on to locate all of the precious items which have been a staple of the series since day one. Acting of his own volition, Shadow is a free agent and can therefore team up with whomever he feels can be the most benefit to him in any given situation. At least that’s how it looks on paper. Execution is another matter entirely.

Lackluster Gameplay

Shadow and Sonic
Shadow and Sonic go toe-to-toe.

Guns play a large part in distancing Shadow from his spiky blue-haired counterpart. The weapons are helpful and necessary as jumping on enemies is kind of weak by this point in the series, but the target lock function isn’t very good due to the overly sensitive controls. Players might get off on this for a while if they can handle hours of repetition. Shadow will run a bit, shoot a bit, run a bit, shoot a bit and eventually make it to the end of the game. To up the gameplay ante even more, Shadow will have the ability to drive vehicles such as a mech and a hummer.

At the tap of the D-Pad, Shadow can team with Black Doom, Eggman or Sonic and his pals. Since sides can be switched instantly, this naturally throws a little monkey wrench into the current objectives and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It actually provides some healthy replay value for those who have the patience to put up with the games’ less than stellar mechanics.

Parting Words

The worst offender of Shadow the Hedgehog is the spastic camera mixed with the speed which leads to frequent deaths, some of which occur due to falling through the environment or the camera being stuck on something while shadow flies on ahead blindly. The other nuisance is lost moments of gameplay where players are forced to watch Shadow go through a scripted event such as a loop de loop.

The game design and mechanics don’t mesh into a cohesive gameplay experience. Sonic Team would have been much further ahead had they continued in the direction of Sonic Heroes instead of this amalgam of platforming, shooting and speeding through levels.

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