Shadow the Hedgehog: 10th Anniversary Remastered Edition Except not really this is just a topic about the game don't worry

[Tara]

The game's soundtrack isn't bad by any stretch of the word, so it's good by virtue of simply not being offensively bad.  Everything is well-composed, the instrumentation is up to usual standards.  It's just that it doesn't stand out and has a notable lack of variety, something which every game previous had in spades.  It's not bad, just not spectacular.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

When I say I think Shadow's soundtrack is bad, I mean by Sonic's standards it's bad. Regardless of what anyone thinks, I expect a higher quality due to the fact Sonic's well known for quality soundtracks. Is there good songs? Of course, but most is really bland in my opinion, and repetitive, especially when Shadow's levels tend to really drag due to missions  that last for a good 10 minutes or so.

[cjmoore25]

Y'know, the next time Shadow is given a leading role in a game, I think they should pull a page out of Advent Children and have him have imaginary conversations over morality or responsibility or something like that with a vision of Maria whose face we never see and is never addressed by name. Moodiness for everyone!

MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

That's good angst.

[Weh]

The game's soundtrack isn't bad by any stretch of the word, so it's good by virtue of simply not being offensively bad.  Everything is well-composed, the instrumentation is up to usual standards.  It's just that it doesn't stand out and has a notable lack of variety, something which every game previous had in spades.  It's not bad, just not spectacular.

I feel the same. It's not horrible at all, it's just not very memorable. Can't exactly hum the majority of the game's tunes like I can the classics' or most of the other 3D titles. Love me some Digital Circuit, though.

[Tara]

I feel the same. It's not horrible at all, it's just not very memorable. Can't exactly hum the majority of the game's tunes like I can the classics' or most of the other 3D titles. Love me some Digital Circuit, though.

Always been partial to Death Ruins and Sky Troops, personally.  The former is just the most delightful sort of edgy, Devil May Cry metalcore that's fun to listen to if you don't take it too seriously, and the other has this sense of free-flowing elevation that I just adore.  Not to mention, Sky Troops is the only track in the game where I feel the music actually COMPLIMENTS the level.  Like, it's hard to picture this being placed on any other part of the game, because it evokes imagery of the sky and being at great heights so well.

[Weh]

Always been partial to Death Ruins and Sky Troops, personally.  The former is just the most delightful sort of edgy, Devil May Cry metalcore that's fun to listen to if you don't take it too seriously, and the other has this sense of free-flowing elevation that I just adore.  Not to mention, Sky Troops is the only track in the game where I feel the music actually COMPLIMENTS the level.  Like, it's hard to picture this being placed on any other part of the game, because it evokes imagery of the sky and being at great heights so well.

Oooh, I forgot about Sky Troops. You're right, it does fit that zone very well, and it has a pretty catchy melody to boot. I wish the rest of the games' OST could've been more like this.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

I remember overall enjoying the game back when it first came out. Never played it again after that tho… I don’t remember to much details of everything, but I know the game loosely still.

I personally don’t mind the concept of Shadow using guns & vehicles myself… It gives him more of his own style and separates him from just being a Sonic clone with extra powers tacked on top, but I think it could had been done a LOT better… they should had only choose devices that would actually be a benefit to him and not content that conflicts or is worse then his own skills…

I am not a fan of the more realistic world & art style of the game. Never was with any Sonic game that remotely tries to go that direction. Even a dark story can use surreal trippy fantasy worlds no problem if done right.

The team shouldn’t had bothered doing multiple endings in my opinion if they were only going to make 1 ending the “True ending” … that is a problem with nearly any game I see with multiple endings… As I feel there is no point in them if you are going to throw in my face that only 1 of them is real. :Y

[StaticMania]

Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the worst things a game can be for me and that is boring.

All I really have to say is:

It's incredibly dull. The missions they give you aren't interesting in the slightest and all you're doing is just variation after variation of the same two mission types. The level design is boring, flat and unimaginative. There's the occasional downward or upward slope, but it really is all just flat terrain.

The music I find to be very forgettable. I all just sounds the same to me. The environments being all dark, dull, and drab don't make for very memorable stages either.

Is a terrible game in my opinion, yes.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

I'm mostly neutral on the game, from a gameplay perspective.
There's nothing I outright love but neither anything I hate.
If you ignore the missions and just rush trough, this Was the closest you get to a straight forward no gimmicks 3d Sonic game we could get back then. The guns weren't too intruding for me. So I kinda like it from that angle.

And I'll always have a soft spot for Dark Doom, I love that guy.
Ranting and rambling on how horrible humans are without ever having arguments or any points, yet he and Shadow still have this adorable relationship together in some scenes. It's like having a racist and crazy hermit from the woods act like the wise and reasonable mentor, it's endearing.

And good old Gun Commander with his obsession with Shadow.
Look at the game as indecisive Shadow bouncing between 2 lunatics in an insane Naked Gun esque universe , and we go from generic plothole ridden nonsense to brilliant social satire.
 

Edited November 16, 2015 by Roger_van_der_weide

[Johnny Boy]

I still can't believe this game exists

I never played it, and I probably won't.

You should......... Only when your hanging out with your friends one night, your all drunk and you need something to make you guys laugh.

[PandoloFox]

I think shadow the hedgehog is funny. I had a lot of laughs with that game. Why this game is so funny is because its in a way going for "serious humor", be it intentional or not. An example of this is when the president is looking at a photo on the hedgehog all seriously. Its such a left field moment that you cant help but laugh which makes that scene brilliant in a comedic way.

[Weh]

Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the worst things a game can be for me and that is boring.

All I really have to say is:

It's incredibly dull. The missions they give you aren't interesting in the slightest and all you're doing is just variation after variation of the same two mission types. The level design is boring, flat and unimaginative. There's the occasional downward or upward slope, but it really is all just flat terrain.

The music I find to be very forgettable. I all just sounds the same to me. The environments being all dark, dull, and drab don't make for very memorable stages either.

Is a terrible game in my opinion, yes.

This is kind of why I consider Shadow to be worse than 06. I can pop 06 into my PS3 and wander around for hours breaking everything in that game, laugh at the sheer incompetence of the story, and have a grand 'ol time. Like, sure, the game is a complete and utter mess and nothing works, but at the end of the day I'm still able to have fun with it, even if it's not how they intended for me to have fun with it.

I can't do that with Shadow. Like you said, the missions are boring, the level design is bleak... And the worst part is that it's not a glitchy mess like 06. So there's absolutely no reason for me to even try and put up with the mundanity. The gameplay on its own isn't fun, and it's not broken enough for me to derive any enjoyment from trying to glitch it out.

I'm not really sure what the point of me saying this was. I guess I wish that Shadow was a broken game. That'd be great fun.

[Nepenthe]

I only played Shadow for a few days or so before the Xbox decided to go kaput, so I never really got around to getting into a groove and actually beating the whole thing. But one thing I do remember appreciating is that Sonic Team did actually address some of the appalling control decisions in Heroes, namely how rails actually worked. I don't care that it's automated now, guaranteed switching is a fucking godsend.

I also still like the concept of branching pathways in a platformer that are based upon the goals you aim for and the paths you take, and I think it's a really underrated idea. I don't think it makes sense from a morality standpoint considering the series is relatively black and white on that, but the idea of different stages, bosses, and angles of a multifaceted story being unique to different playthroughs is pretty cool and would work well in an Adventure-esque setting where there's already different viewpoints at play. The only thing you have to make sure of is that the first level is absolutely banaynays if it's going to be the starting point each time.

Overall though, the game doesn't bother me too much.

[Regen]

Shadow the Hedgehog started the true downfall of Sonic. A truly terrible game.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

The idea of branching storylines was a good idea in my opinion, and especially one I was interested in when I heard it was originally to be put into SA2. The difference there however is when you'd play a level, you'd be given two different approaches that I felt would have been much more well executed in Shadow if done. Basically, in the example given, the player would be stuck on a sinking submarine and the player would need to decide to simply escape alone, or get the submarine back up to land and save everyone on board.

Here though, the problem is there's only a small number of mission types, and missions are slight variations. Sometimes you'll have to kill 25 enemies, and other times you'll have to get 100 rings. But more often than not, it's always going to be kill enemies. It also doesn't help that the story is so terribly written, and so underdeveloped that it's littered with poor characters, and underdeveloped story. There's one story where Shadow can be a hero up to the very last possible second and then literally betray Sonic just to be a asshole to him.

[Tara]

I honestly don't like the concept of branching narrative pathways, even on games that do it relatively well.  It always adds an unnecessary sense of pressure to me, because for the first few playthroughs, it always seems to be less about reflecting your choices and more about the choices you make accidentally as a result of something finicky or something that you didn't mean to do.  That and I'm constantly indecisive, so forcing me to choose a path just slows me to a halt.  This is all mostly personal stuff, I mean.  Some people like this, but to me, it just doesn't add anything to me, with the exception of games like Undertale where choice is the main to ONLY mechanic in the game.

Now branching GAMEPLAY paths is something I can get behind, as it makes exploration more interesting and offers me more content to play through.  I don't mean just alternate paths in levels, but also different levels based on different decisions made within different levels and different bosses depending on what path you take, a la Star Fox 64, where the connecting story remains mostly the same with additional plot details added as opposed to changed entirely as the story goes on.  That I don't mind.  But having several different stories (and by that I don't mean several different interconnected stories a la Adventure) just isn't my cup of tea, personally.

[Nepenthe]

^ That's basically what I meant to convey: a game with a single plot line where the information you know about the story and the levels you visit are based on where you end a specific stage versus a predefined level order.

[Treacher]

One week since ShTH's tenth anniversary, been meaning to post this earlier. How's this for a nice change of pace when discussing the game?

http://www.1up.com/previews/shadow-the-hedgehog_2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohCL6oj8gzM

http://s9.postimg.org/cqqmro6a7/IMG_20141006_0002_page_001.jpg

 

 

 

[FantasticMrRobb]

http://www.1up.com/previews/shadow-the-hedgehog_2

 "Pizza, Doritos, Snickers, anything mobile...also a big fan of Hot Pockets. "

 Holy Stromboli, Batman. Shadow's a fan of Hot Pockets, who would have known?

I loved reading that little survey! I didn't even know it existed. Best part was it was answered by the people at Sonic Team who made Shadow. Love it, love it, love it! c:

[Tara]

 "Pizza, Doritos, Snickers, anything mobile...also a big fan of Hot Pockets. "

No Mountain Dew?

[Ripe]

I forget to tell that to "celebrate" this game I decided to A-rank all the missions which I haven't already done, 4 missions. Three of those missions I did and then there was the last one: Lost Impact hero. I tried and then I just stopped. I hate that mission so much not to mention how hard it is to A-rank. I mean, for example Mad Matrixs dark mission is not that hard to A-rank because of how low the requirement for A is. Lpst impact is a completely differwnt story...