When I was first told of “The Protomen”, I was skeptical. The band’s first album was described to me as a rock opera based on the classic Mega Man series. Though I am a huge Mega Man fan, I just couldn’t see something like this actually being executed well. To my surprise, I loved it. In fact, I was so fond of it that I feared their next album wouldn’t be able to live up to it.

Fortunately, my fears were dashed to pieces. Not only did the album turn out great, it actually surpasses the quality of the first! The album is approximately twice as long as the previous one (which isn’t hard to do), sounds much more “refined”, and kicks the “epic level” up a notch or two.

Though the title says “Act II”, this album’s story is actually a prequel. The last album focused on the origins of Proto Man and Mega Man, taking place in an Orwellian-style city under the control of Dr. Albert Wily and “the watchful eyes” of his robots. The Father of Death takes a step back and gives us a glimpse of how the city got the way it is.

It starts with Dr. Thomas Light recounting the death of his father who worked himself to death in the mines to provide for his family. In an effort to prevent this situation from ever having to be repeated, Light is determined to build robots, with the help of Wily, to perform such dangerous jobs in the place of humans.

While Light wanders the streets, wondering whether he made the right decision, Emily Stanton (his “beloved”) walks into his apartment only to find Wily going through Light’s belongings. After she rejects him, he has her killed by one of the newly created robots. He then frames Dr. Light for the murder and takes control of the quickly developing city under the guise of making it a better place.

One of the great things about The Protomen’s storytelling is how they use different genres of music to perfectly fit the events unfolding. The first half of the album feels reminiscent of a “Spaghetti Western” film. As the old mining town steadily grows into Dr. Wily’s own personal metropolis, the music shifts from the western vibe it originally had to that of eighties synth rock.

Dividing the two halves is the instrumental “How the World Fell Under Darkness”; a song with a heavy string focus that seamlessly transitions itself into synthesizer pads. You can actually feel the time lapse of what must be decades from the way it plays out. Though this isolated moment is my favorite transition of all, the whole album moves brilliantly from track to track. This album would lose a lot of its appeal played out of order despite the individual songs’ strengths.

We may be moving to the digital age when it comes to distribution for music, but this album should really be purchased as a physical CD. Along with the fantastic cover art (partially featured above) is a booklet that contains not only the lyrics, but an expansion of the story. There are extra paragraphs of narration in both the vocal and instrumental tracks that help to flesh out the whole experience even further.

I must make it abundantly clear that you don’t even have to know what Mega Man is to love this album. The music is completely original (not remixes of songs from the series) and the story is the band’s own unique take on an origin story that’s never really been told in the first place. You can find the album on protomen.com for ten bucks.

Skip going to see the next crappy movie that comes out in theaters and buy this album with the money instead. Then bask in the glory of your wise decision.

When I first heard about XBLA, and the kind of games you would be able to buy, I was a little skeptical of any real quality coming from it. Geometry Wars was neat, but I was really expecting it to be a medium used to foist Bejeweled clones upon us. I never expected to get something quite like “Shadow Complex”.

Shadow Complex is Chair Entertainments’ second shot at an XBLA game. While their first game, Undertow, wasn’t especially strong, they have come back this time around with renewed vigor. Shadow Complex is a breath of fresh air for the downloadable games market, and makes me reconsider what the platform is capable of.

The game takes place in a not too distant future of America, in which increasing tensions between the Right and Left turn into all out civil war. Enter Jason Fleming, a man backpacking through Washington with his girlfriend, who gets caught up in a whole conflict he never knew existed. The story of the game is based off of the novel Empire, by Orson Scott Card, and manages to be one of the more interesting stories in recent games I’ve seen. I especially enjoyed the Cobra Commander style enemies. One of the nice things about this game is that it keeps the story minimalistic, offering chunks of it between upgrades and new areas, and leaves the gameplay sections uninterrupted.

Graphically, the game is pretty stunning. The whole game, while done in a 2D perspective, is fully rendered with 3D graphics, and these are shown off in full detail during the cutscenes. However, they use this trait to full effect when you come across turrets, which take the game into a behind the back perspective in which you can aim at all corners of the room. These parts break up the gameplay with fresh action, but they also manage to give you real appreciation for larger rooms, and let you see how beautifully designed the rooms are.

Character models are great looking. The enemies are decked out in snazzy uniforms, and have enough variation to make it seem like you’re actually facing different ranks of soldiers. The outdoors areas look especially nice, and traversing the lake is one of the more memorable moments for me. The game is rendered with the Unreal 3 Engine, and the characters do have that “action figure” look because of it, but it actually works for most of the characters. I especially enjoy the character design of Jason Fleming upon getting all of the upgrades for his suit.

The voice acting in the game is surprisingly good, especially the conversations between the soldiers. Whispered fears between men of an intruder, the stern commands of the men in charge, and the maniacal leader makes the army you’re fighting feel much more real, if not a little ineffectual. Nolan North does a passable job as protagonist Jason Fleming, but he uses the exact same voice he used in Prince of Persia and Uncharted, and it’s starting to become jarring.

Done in the now familiar “Metroidvania” fashion, Shadow Complex is a sidescrolling platformer that offers free movement throughout the game world, and encourages backtracking and exploration. As you progress through the game, you obtain tools that allow you to access new areas via increased mobility and more powerful weapons. However, there are also many hidden items throughout the game’s world, and it will take vigorous exploration and creative use of your tools to get them all.

One thing that I especially enjoyed about this game is the flashlight. The flashlight shows you, when swept around, if something is breakable, and what is needed to break it. While I initially thought this would ruin the exploration and discovery aspect of the Metroidvania games, it actually just erases any complaints I had with the formula initially. As you unlock new weapons, you feel exponentially more and more powerful, and each new weapon uncovered feels more glorious than the last. By the end of the game, you feel like a creature wrought from pure devastation. You really feel as though you’re taking on an army single-handedly. The controls are tight, and the aiming always feels as though it knows what you are aiming for. The reticule moves with precision, and I was rarely frustrated with the controls.

I enjoyed most of the designs of the enemies, and the bosses look truly fearsome. That is why it is unfortunate that most of the bosses in the game are actually quite weak, and tend to turn into a strategy of “Just keep throwing grenades.” I feel like they missed a solid opportunity with the boss fights., especially since the game lacks anything of a strong “Final Boss”. The whole game is fairly easy, but it provides 4 difficulty modes to go through,  extra challenge levels, and some extra challenging Achievements, so there is plenty to do.

At only 15 dollars, Shadow Complex provides the entertainment and replayability that many games four times the cost do not provide. There is much to do, the story is entertaining, and everything about it screams quality. Is it Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night? No, but in its own way, that’s a plus. It even surpasses those games in some respects. It is an homage without feeling like a ripoff.

It redefined what I thought was possible though XBLA, and I am now excited to see what else may come.