shadowcomplex


Shadow Complex is a 2009 action game developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade. The game is part of the same franchise as, and runs concurrently to Orson Scott Card's 2005 novel, Empire. The game follows Jason Flemming and Claire Duncan on an hiking date in the American Northwest, but not all is as it seems. Following Claire's kidnapping by a mysterious paramilitary force known as The Progressive Restoration, Jason must fight his way through their underground base to rescue her and ultimately save the United States from their insurrectionist plans.

Plot

Shadow Complex starts with a prologue set in Washington D.C. where the forces of an insurrectionist military force, known as The Restoration, move in to assassinate the Vice President. U.S. Army Commander Samuel Dallas, wearing a captured Omega Armor XOS-7 suit, takes out the troops and an enemy helicopter. After informing the Pentagon of his success, Dallas is betrayed by Restoration Leader Lucius who remotely triggers to the suit to paralyze and kill him.

The scene changes to the backcountry of Washington in the American Northwest. Jason Flemming, a university student, is on a date with fellow student Claire Duncan to check out a series of caves she explored as a child. After giving Claire a head start, Jason follows her in but becomes increasingly concerned when she doesn't respond to his calls for her. Eventually, Jason discovers a metallic doorway deep in the cave. Hiding nearby, he watches armed, faceless soldiers drag Claire inside the facility before giving chase. He finds his way to a control room and finds out that Claire is being interrogated in another area. Jason flashes back to a time he spoke with his father and denounced the violence of the military career path. Snapping back to reality, he grabs a nearby pistol and goes to rescue Claire.

Delving deeper in to the facility to locate Claire, Jason encounters Restoration forces of all kinds and uses their weaponry he finds against them. Jason just barely misses Claire as she's being loaded onto a Hellcat to be transported to the laboratory of Mr. Sweet. After besting the troops sent to stop him and venturing even further into the complex, Jason finds Mr. Sweet's lab and dispatches him, only to find that Claire's been left immobile by a paralyzing agent. After hiding her for the time being, Jason sets out once more to find a means of escape for both of them.

Venturing deeper still into the complex, Jason deduces that the Restoration is preparing to invade San Francisco, California. Claire convinces him to destroy their manufacturing facilities and capture a set of their advanced armor to help them escape. On his way back to her, Claire is captured once again, though not for long as Jason uses his newfound abilities to free her. Taking her back to the Jeep they arrived in, Jason sends Claire off to get help while he resolves to put a stop to the Restoration for good.

Jason eventually locates the Command Center of the complex and comes face to face with Lucius, the commander of Alpha Complex, who reveals the scope of the Restoration's plans. After escaping the center's self-destruct sequence, Jason comes to the shore of Lake Chinnereth, which drains to reveal a large airship being primed for takeoff. Jason successfully destroys the airship by launching several ballistic missiles at it. Crawling from the wreckage of the airship, Lucius confronts Jason and threatens him and his family with death before he's shot dead by Claire. Claire reveals her true identity as an operative for the National Security Agency and that she took Jason along to bolster her cover story. The game ends with both leaving the area by Helicopter.

Gameplay

Shadow Complex plays in a 2.5 world with the core gameplay tenants of a Metroidvania.

Just like a traditional side-scroller, players can move the playable character in two-dimensions to navigate the world. In contrast to such titles, however, players can aim in three-dimensional space, shooting enemies in their same plane but also those in the background.

As a Metroidvania, Shadow Complex is an action-platformer with an emphasis on non-linear exploration and item collection. The game was strongly influenced by genre-namesake titles like Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. To pay even further homage to these games, Shadow Complex was developed with sequence breaking in mind.

Development History

Trivia