Gamecube PlayStation 2 XBox
There isn't anything that will change it, and people liking or hating the gameplay won't make a difference. Contraversy (as Rockstar Games found out) usually leads to popularity of some kind, good or bad, which then makes sales. More about the theory?
Get right to the facts! If you don't like the tune of common reviews or threads Click now
Shadow has lost his memory, and is in the right place at the wrong time to meet up with Black Doom and his alien hoard who have just arrived at Earth (after a 50 year abscence). They want to take it over, but need the 7 chaos emeralds to do it. (big surprise). Black Doom, somehow knows who Shadow is, and offers to explain more if he'll just do the legless space-thing's bidding.
Doom mostly wants GUN killed off, as well as any human who gets in his way. There is a floating odd sort of temple that Doom says the Black Aliens placed there on their first visit. Supposedly some Religious Rite will awaken a power of somekind within the temple, allowing the aliens to overtake the planet for some reason.
Meanwhile, the Sonic cast is off on their own little tangent-missions, such as finding secret disks, locating files or emeralds or helping to stop the aliens in some way. Sometimes they team up with GUN, or are just doing their own thing to try and save the world.
Eggy is forced into a somewhat heroic role, as he tries to also prevent Black-Doom from taking over...but only because he wants the planet for himself. He knows the Aliens can't have anything good in mind, and so allows himself to team with his arch-enemies: the cast of Sonic.
YOU pick the path you travel, and who you choose to help. Your actions control the path the story takes, which leads to different cut-scenes, bosses and endings accordingly. There are the traditional unlock-ables such as more weapons and vehicles if you like collecting keys.
Shadow presents the expected and enjoyed Sonic-Fare that anyone anticipates from a 3D Sonic game, plus adds in the 'guns use' element, as well as some flying and driving to spice things up.
* There are "Seek-n-find" levels where you have to kill/destroy/activate a certain number of hidden and non-hidden items or people.
*Pure speed option levels where one mission may have you racing to the end for max points
*Time limit levels where everyone yells at you (harks back to Rouge in Sonic Adv. Battle)
*Chase-it levels where you have to race or chace someone/something to win
Yes, when ST wants you to use something new, like a vehicle or gun turret, it pretty much FORCES you to use it to pass the level.
It makes you drive through an acid filled street, it necissitates picking up torches to light fires, it requires the use of gun-turrets to destroy mainframe towers. It also makes you use Black-Hawk and Hover-Disks as well as alien slime to transport yourself.
However:
The bits to do this in are fairly short, and not that frequent. So if you don't like it, it doesn't nag you till you freak out. Grinding which had become 'over used' in many opinions by the point of Sonic Heroes is a good example of what this isn't.
Don't like the whole "Guns theme"?
Oh well. You don't have to use every gun you see. There are few that are actually essential (turrets). Don't worry! Shadow maintained the ability to take care of himself JUST FINE without fire-arms. Just go ahead and spin attack things if you feel. This gives the game a more "Sonic-ey Feel" and is your option to explore.
Tons of sites and reviews are bashing it because they don't know how to play it right. If you want to have fun in here, it's important to play it right.
First off:
*The instruction manual LIES about the C-stick*
On the GameCube (and probably any other system's equivelent, such as the rt.stick on PS2) It says you never use it, but you CAN use it to look the camera around. I beat it 2x w/o looking around and it was frusterating as heck. This helps you aim too, and stops "zomg the camera is busted" which is a huge complaint. Fix it in a quarter of a second by touching the C stick if the camera goes wrong. You NEVER find out that you can use it unless you go heroside first and press EVERY question mark that makes Sonic talk to you. This is ESSENTIAL for the camera, which admittedly has flaws. Bah!
They say he doesn't aim/always misses
NO you just have to go close enough to enemies and he won't miss them unless they block. Everyone who is doing the reviews is trying to snipe with the grenade-launcher and failing then whining about it. Diff weps have diff ranges, but few have 'target icons'.
Yes the target-lock lack is a nuisance, because E-102 had it back in the day, I don't know why they didn't give it to all weapons here, they already proved they have the capability. Still, ammo is pretty plentiful, so you can afford 'test shots' on most weps to see if you're within range. Holding "R" on game cube will keep him focused foreward, and C will look you around if you need to angle-aim.
Things to look for:
--VERY realistic little twitchy eye movements of people's iris, when Shadow is unsure, you can see it.
--The GUN commander has an eyebrow twitch tic, and 2 different colors of eyes.
--Chrome items are very sweet
--Shadows' spikes move a bit in wind, and his accessories maintain shine
--The president is less styleized/toony and the GUN commander is fairly realistic too
Things To Look For
--All the GUN soldiers look like they're creeping around, even when they shouldn't
--They still havn't got a good Maria who is not inadvertantly scary.
--Most things you carry CLIP LIKE HECK, he buries the chaingun in the floor constantly
--All the weps seem a bit 'too big' for him because the Sonic-Characters scale is so small compared to the world they're in