The Review Site - Shadow the Hedgehog PS2 game

Brief summary of the item: Destroy or protect? Shadow the hedgehog carries a dark past shrouded in mystery. Embark on a journey to unveil his true identity. The choice you make determines the outcome of shadows future.
Good Points: Play as hero or villain. One or two player. Good graphics and sound quality.
Bad Points: A bit confusing to start off.
General Comments: .
TWO PLAYER GAME

This is a split screen battle mode for two players. Each player can use any weapon and techniques to defeat their opponent in one on one combat. Each player starts from a different area on the game with zero rings, you have to hunt the other player down and inflict damage any way you can and the game ends when one player sustains damage while holding no rings, if a player falls to his death the game will restart from it original condition. If the time limit of 10 minutes exceeds the player with the most rings win. I enjoyed playing this a few times but I found the one player game more fun.

ONE PLAYER GAME

At first I was confused as how to choose between the hero mission and the dark mission it took me hours of running around killing different enemy's to figure out what was going on, I kept bumping into sonic he would help me for a while and then disappear again. I didn't think of reading the instruction manual. I paused the game and went to the toilet and when I returned I saw on the screen a choice between dark, normal and hero mission. When a dark or hero mission is selected, the requested mission character will travel with shadow helping him and recommending actions with the mission goals. The mission progress is displayed at the top of the screen with different colour bars and they fill up the more you complete.

This still was a little confusing but the more I played it the more I understood it. It seems as if you can complete any of the dark, normal or hero mission according to what you do on the level but some missions you will fail and have to figure out how to complete them.

As you complete the levels you work through a grid, it goes in a straight line for the normal missions, up a space for the dark and down a space for the hero. At first I just went through the game doing it anyway I could and when I reached the end I tried to go back and stick to just one of the three options, this was hard because if you killed too many of the wrong enemy's you would complete it in a different mission than what you wanted. This seems confusing but I assure you once you have the hang of it you will understand what you are doing.

There are lots of different attacks. I found by jumping up in the air and pressing the jump button again you would home in on the enemy for a guaranteed attack. As you work through the game you come across lots of different items and objects. There are question marks and you touch these to receive advise from the mission character, Containers which can be broken and may contain weapons or other items. The save points are handy because if you die you will restart from here and not have to do the whole level again, this is only if you have touched the save point. There are five hidden keys in each stage, find all five to open a secret door.

You still get the original invincibility which is for a limited time and you have different shields, green ones for protection against enemy's and red ones for protection against heat. You collect rings so when you get hit you loose the rings and if you have none in the first place you will die. You also get a go in a gun vehicle and a jump vehicle. There is an air saucer which I found to be like a hover board and helps you across hazardous areas. You also come across all different weapons to help you on your way.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

After all the confusion I thought it was a rather good game because there were different endings and I takes a while to complete them all, I found it less frustrating than the old sonic games. I don't tend to play the 2 player game much but I'm sure I will have a go later. The sound and the graphics are good and I think it is a game which will take a long while to complete fully. Once you have completed a level you are awarded a rank from A to E so I always want to try and better myself.

I would recommend Shadow the hedgehog to any sonic fan!

Thanks for reading and I hope I did not confuse you!!