Shadow Complex

I had the opportunity to play this some more last night and, at least for me, the game is living up to the pre-release hype. One of my favorite games of all time is still Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and this game borrows heavily from that game's design philosophy, along with Super Metroid. I'm going to hang my head in gaming shame and say that I haven't spent much time with Super Metroid, and after this experience it's clear I'll be finding a copy of that in my near future.

The graphics are great, the action is a lot of fun (without being difficult to pick up and play), and the story is believable enough to make me want to know what happens in the end. For a collectophile like myself, there are many weapon and health upgrades to search for and collect, some involving backtracking through already explored areas.

I've embedded the E3 trailer for the game, to give anyone not familiar a flavor of the game.



I dare say that, if the game continues to impress me the way it has, I may actually start up a second playthrough, which is unheard of in my gaming world. If you're playing (or already played) this, feel free to leave a comment in chat.

Also, I found this post on Jostiq that discusses a bit about Metroidvania games and provides a link to a picture history of other games that use similar mechanics. I was impressed to see several NES games, which I had played and enjoyed.