The Head of the Hydra
I played it when I was a kid.
Loved it but it was too hard for my stupid kid self.
Plus I got scared easy so I thought it was too scary.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
It's a perfectly decent game in its own right, just a terrible story.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Agreed. I'd put it in So Bad, It's Good territory at worst, with the story and presentation being the "bad" part and the rest being mostly decent.
Edited by SapphireBlue on Apr 10th 2020 at 8:31:08 AM
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
Really? I thought Shadow using guns and riding vehicles were considered lame and implemented badly respectively.
Though I've read a few arguments that it reflects his pragmatism (willing to use anything to get the job done) even if he technically doesn't need it. Plus it can be argued that it's another part of his being a Foil to Sonic.
The latter (barring one exception) never uses weapons, and doesn't need vehicles (though he's not completely adverse to them).
Huh. Sonic and Shadow may not be as different as I thought.
One Strip! One Strip!
That's how they work best; Shadow being a bit of a more reserved and ruthless Sonic, but still more similar that either one would accept.
Vehicles were bad in Shadow, that's one thing 06 did better (although the saucer and the jumping walker were fun).
Guns were decent, provided you didn't try to snipe, and just shot in the general direction of the enemies. They kinda felt like a leveled up Power character in Heroes: Quick approach to high HP enemies. But that kind of enemies, and sorta Beat em Up approach, was building up to 06 fucking everything up.
CHADhan Player.
Haven't played Shadow in forever, but man did I not enjoy those search missions as a kid. Even as a 12 year old, that shit was obnoxious.
I didn't remember having any strong feelings about the story, but I do think the ending left Shadow in a much better place as a character.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
The Unknown Unknown
Me as a child: Where's that DAMN last Artificial Chaos?
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Snow Ghost
My favorite thing about Shadow is people now calling it decent...
Because a bad game can't be just bad anymore...of course that's not really surprising. It's grungey.
Edited by randomness4 on Apr 10th 2020 at 1:06:43 AM
YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.
I thought it was decent at the time too. Doesn’t mean all of it is. Some parts are just bad.
CHADhan Player.
Quality is in the eyes of the beholder; but the reason for the upturn is because there's a lot of Adventure nostalgia at the moment.
And if you remember, Shadow didn't get exactly poor reviews; it got mixed/average reviews, and most of its negativity stems from it severely deviating from what many deemed a "proper" Sonic game by purists.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
The Unknown Unknown
And some legitimately bad elements even if YMMV. Let's not revise history here.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
CHADhan Player.
Its a mixed bag more than an outright trash fire. But the marketing and the game being subpar just put the nails in the game's coffin
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Snow Ghost
Yes, more levels should've put checkpoint warps at the beginning of levels.
YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.
CHADhan Player.
Shadow controls similar to how Heroes did, as in he's slippery as hell and builds up speed fast. Having a character go that fast with level design that encourages exploration does not work, at all.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Snow Ghost
Those games have momentum/speed storage...why do they accelerate so fast?
Edited by randomness4 on Apr 10th 2020 at 1:11:43 AM
YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.
CHADhan Player.
The controls want you to go fast; they're not designed for exploration.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Uhh the Shadow reviews are not great. Forces are slightly better actually.
Well what's the game that's handled speed and exploration the best?
CHADhan Player.
Sonic 3.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
so i made a new avatar
Having a character go that fast with level design that encourages exploration does not work, at all.
-side glance at Unleashed-
To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."
Snow Ghost
Good thing Unleashed does the opposite of that...
YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.
The Unknown Unknown
Gotta be fast enough to find and use those branching paths!
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
CHADhan Player.
Incidentally, I bought Sonic Adventure on Steam given it was on sale. By the power of modding, good god did this game get butchered in the DX release. The textures and lighting are all so much detailed on the Dreamcast.
And coming off of Forces, doing a spin dash jump with Sonic has never felt more gratifying.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.
Unleashed was a great example of a game having exactly that problem, tbh.
Behold these beautifully rendered and conceived locations that you barely get to see because you're blowing past everything a million miles per hour in a game designed to keep you from slowing down! Unleashed has some of the most interesting and well conceived levels in Sonic history imo, but you rarely got the opportunity to appreciate them - especially since that game did not do "slow" well.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 10th 2020 at 7:43:38 AM
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Only Sonic game I managed to fully A-rank, complete with beating Expert mode (Expert Cosmic Fall can go die in a fire... well, it is maneageable after getting all 5 keys)
...
Oh fuck, I never got all 5 keys in all levels.
To be honest, it felt like a more polished Heroes in terms of gameplay; still not Adventure 2 level, but was fun.