Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2) Gonic's opinion

Use this forum for all your game reviews, SEGA or otherwise. All threads will be moderated.
User avatar
Gonic
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 1905
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:42 pm
Location: West Yorkshire, Leeds
Contact:

Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2) Gonic's opinion

Post by Gonic »

Done. -Shadid (Thanks)

Shadow The Hedgehog (Playstation 2)


When this game was announced all the way back in early 2005, I remembered getting hyped. Not because it had guns or the choice to be a evil bastard over a good guy. It was because it had Shadow, one of the very few sonic characters I actually liked. But after playing this game, did it destroy my respect I had for shadow the hedgehog. Lets have a look shall we?

Story
As mentioned before, shadow is one of the few characters I actually liked, so when I heard this game would look more into his back story I couldn’t wait to play it! Unfortunately this game's 'story' was horrible and very forgettable. The game starts with shadow moping about his past and who he is until Armageddon happens! OH NO! Actually I wish that happened but this Armageddon looking thing turns out to be black doom and his alien army which start to attack the city. Black doom then approaches Shadow reminding him of the 'promised time' and to bring him all the chaos emeralds. Upon hearing this shadow somehow works out that the chaos emeralds are the answer for finding out his past. This is the only part of the story that makes sense as the game has TEN yes TEN endings. The cut scenes between stages don’t actually add anything to the story as you will always be taking different pathways for the different ending. Even the 'true' ending never really explains who Shadow is so you just wasted hours of your free time to find out NOTHING about Shadow at all. Oh, the other Sonic characters make cameos and add nothing to the overall story.

Story – 1/5
(I actually found this part difficult to write about)


Gameplay
After the semi-decent (in my opinion) Sonic Heroes I was expecting the game to control like that expect with gun play added in. It did, just more horribly and with unnecessary gun play. Your going to use your homing attack more then guns, mainly because with your homing attack you know your going to miss your target 95% of the time, but when it does hit, you deal more damage then your normal homing attack. Running around is very clunky, turning a corner can result in instant death or running into a nearby enemy and losing ten rings, also running to fast can sometimes result in the map disappearing and you falling to your death which happened to many times to me. Another thing worth noting is the chaos gauges. If your a good boy and do deeds of good (e.g. heal G.U.N soldiers and kill aliens) the blue gauge fills up and you can use chaos control which blast you through the stage at top speed and is useless for 90% of missions expect get to the goal missions and sometimes boss missions where It freezes time instead (to sum up boss missions: all of them are easy with the exception of Diablo which takes to long to beat). Being a bastard (e.g. Killing gun soldiers) will fill up your red chaos gauge and when full you can use chaos blast which is actually useful as it kill most foe's on screen, it also deals a decent amount to bosses to. The whole pick your path is also frustrating, as you keep playing boring and repetitive missions from each side (good and evil) and most of the time the neutral being the most enjoyable mission to play (get to the goal). An example of the missions would be 'find and heal all the G.U.N members' when you think you got all of them you end up spending at least 20 minutes finding the last one member. You can also choose to be on on black dooms side for this mission which makes no sense as it would cause a time paradox in shadows past.

Gameplay- 2/5
Neutral stages are the only enjoyable stages.

Music
Most of the time, even in bad sonic games, the soundtrack turns out to be the only good thing about the game. The same could be said about this, but not all of the music is great. A lot of it is forgettable and the only decent music pieces in this game I really enjoyed was 'I am...all of me' performed by Crush 40 and the beautiful 'Lost Impact' stage music. The rest of the music is hit and miss but it really depends on the person listening to it.

Music – 3/5

Graphics

Even by PS2 standards this game could of done a hell of a lot better. One or two stages are nice and colourful but to many stages are bland and boring. Room designs can confuse the player as a lot of them look the same, which does not help if your doing missions such as 'find and heal G.U.N members'. Explosions, fire, lasers and all other SFX in the game don’t look very impressive at all. The game can also suffer horrible frame rate issues causing the game to look like a power point slide show. CGI cut scenes are impressive but does not make up for everything else already mentioned in this review.

Graphics – 2/5

Shadow the hedgehog was hyped up way to much by the media and fans. But in the end we ended up with another broken and unplayable game and did not live up to any of the promises made. Even if your a hardcore sonic fan like me, this is still a game to avoid

Overall Score 2/5

Note: If any of you have anything to say about the multi player. Please let me know as I have not tried it out.
Image
Image
metalgamer
Level 8
Level 8
Posts: 176
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:52 pm

Post by metalgamer »

Now I see some of the points you made even though on some aspects I don't agree. But I have played multiplayer, I'll try and explain. Imagine the Sonic heroes multiplayer, but instead of three characters each and a small stage, you have a big stage and you can use six "Diffrent" kinds of shadow, which makes little diffrence, apart from the fact that each Shadow has diffrent weapons and can be shiny. Even I think the idea is a bit boring. Basically get rings, attack the other player with guns until one of you dies. The end. Multiplayer isn't great, I admit. If you've never played the multiplayer on Sonic Heroes, then get someone else to explain.
Dr Shaneman
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 2652
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:54 am
Location: United Kingdom>Cornwall

Post by Dr Shaneman »

You reviewed the worst console version though.
User avatar
Gonic
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 1905
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:42 pm
Location: West Yorkshire, Leeds
Contact:

Post by Gonic »

And the game is better on the other versions? The PS" is the only console i had
to review it on :P
Image
Image
Dr Shaneman
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 2652
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:54 am
Location: United Kingdom>Cornwall

Post by Dr Shaneman »

Well the frame rate, graphics and loading times are.
User avatar
Gonic
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 1905
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:42 pm
Location: West Yorkshire, Leeds
Contact:

Post by Gonic »

Still a bad game :P
Image
Image
Dr Shaneman
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 2652
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:54 am
Location: United Kingdom>Cornwall

Post by Dr Shaneman »

Yes, but just saying is all.
SaleanaFaye
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:32 pm
Location: A quiet town in Ontario

Post by SaleanaFaye »

Gonic wrote:Done. -Shadid (Thanks)

Shadow The Hedgehog (Playstation 2)


When this game was announced all the way back in early 2005, I remembered getting hyped. Not because it had guns or the choice to be a evil bastard over a good guy. It was because it had Shadow, one of the very few sonic characters I actually liked. But after playing this game, did it destroy my respect I had for shadow the hedgehog. Lets have a look shall we?

Story
As mentioned before, shadow is one of the few characters I actually liked, so when I heard this game would look more into his back story I couldn’t wait to play it! Unfortunately this game's 'story' was horrible and very forgettable. The game starts with shadow moping about his past and who he is until Armageddon happens! OH NO! Actually I wish that happened but this Armageddon looking thing turns out to be black doom and his alien army which start to attack the city. Black doom then approaches Shadow reminding him of the 'promised time' and to bring him all the chaos emeralds. Upon hearing this shadow somehow works out that the chaos emeralds are the answer for finding out his past. This is the only part of the story that makes sense as the game has TEN yes TEN endings. The cut scenes between stages don’t actually add anything to the story as you will always be taking different pathways for the different ending. Even the 'true' ending never really explains who Shadow is so you just wasted hours of your free time to find out NOTHING about Shadow at all. Oh, the other Sonic characters make cameos and add nothing to the overall story.

Story – 1/5
(I actually found this part difficult to write about)


Gameplay
After the semi-decent (in my opinion) Sonic Heroes I was expecting the game to control like that expect with gun play added in. It did, just more horribly and with unnecessary gun play. Your going to use your homing attack more then guns, mainly because with your homing attack you know your going to miss your target 95% of the time, but when it does hit, you deal more damage then your normal homing attack. Running around is very clunky, turning a corner can result in instant death or running into a nearby enemy and losing ten rings, also running to fast can sometimes result in the map disappearing and you falling to your death which happened to many times to me. Another thing worth noting is the chaos gauges. If your a good boy and do deeds of good (e.g. heal G.U.N soldiers and kill aliens) the blue gauge fills up and you can use chaos control which blast you through the stage at top speed and is useless for 90% of missions expect get to the goal missions and sometimes boss missions where It freezes time instead (to sum up boss missions: all of them are easy with the exception of Diablo which takes to long to beat). Being a bastard (e.g. Killing gun soldiers) will fill up your red chaos gauge and when full you can use chaos blast which is actually useful as it kill most foe's on screen, it also deals a decent amount to bosses to. The whole pick your path is also frustrating, as you keep playing boring and repetitive missions from each side (good and evil) and most of the time the neutral being the most enjoyable mission to play (get to the goal). An example of the missions would be 'find and heal all the G.U.N members' when you think you got all of them you end up spending at least 20 minutes finding the last one member. You can also choose to be on on black dooms side for this mission which makes no sense as it would cause a time paradox in shadows past.

Gameplay- 2/5
Neutral stages are the only enjoyable stages.

Music
Most of the time, even in bad sonic games, the soundtrack turns out to be the only good thing about the game. The same could be said about this, but not all of the music is great. A lot of it is forgettable and the only decent music pieces in this game I really enjoyed was 'I am...all of me' performed by Crush 40 and the beautiful 'Lost Impact' stage music. The rest of the music is hit and miss but it really depends on the person listening to it.

Music – 3/5

Graphics

Even by PS2 standards this game could of done a hell of a lot better. One or two stages are nice and colourful but to many stages are bland and boring. Room designs can confuse the player as a lot of them look the same, which does not help if your doing missions such as 'find and heal G.U.N members'. Explosions, fire, lasers and all other SFX in the game don’t look very impressive at all. The game can also suffer horrible frame rate issues causing the game to look like a power point slide show. CGI cut scenes are impressive but does not make up for everything else already mentioned in this review.

Graphics – 2/5

Shadow the hedgehog was hyped up way to much by the media and fans. But in the end we ended up with another broken and unplayable game and did not live up to any of the promises made. Even if your a hardcore sonic fan like me, this is still a game to avoid

Overall Score 2/5

Note: If any of you have anything to say about the multi player. Please let me know as I have not tried it out.
For Multi player it's just basically a find a shoot the other player...not so interesting, but it's okay.
User avatar
Gonic
Level 15
Level 15
Posts: 1905
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:42 pm
Location: West Yorkshire, Leeds
Contact:

Post by Gonic »

So as standard for sonic games (beside the classics) the multiplayer sucks
Image
Image
User avatar
IvyRave
Level 10
Level 10
Posts: 288
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 9:31 pm
Location: An Island....
Contact:

Post by IvyRave »

Personally I've found that the homing attack was the only problem with the game (I've got the gamecube version) I see some of your points and would have to agree with your view on the story
Am back for now:P
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests