PixlBit

A visually stunning experience that is accentuated by its intriguing gameplay.

A few days ago, a demo from Hudson arrived at our door for their upcoming title, Lost in Shadow. The demo covers the first few introductory levels as well as the first 9 levels of the tower that the story's protagonist must climb to reach his body in the real world.

In the opening cutscene for the game, a young boy is seen shackled to two poles and suspended in the air by some sort of aura. An ominous being then steps into the scene and proceeds toward the boy, striking him with an oddly-shaped sword. The sword seems to have no effect on the boy, but suddenly his shadow collapses. The attacker grabs the shadow and tosses him off the tower, leaving his body suspended at the peak. In the next scene, the boy is seen waking up in a garden, with a fairy at his side, wherein starts the actual game. The cutscene proved to be a tremendously interesting beginning to the game; it was dark, ominous, and it perfectly set the stage for the unique adventure players were about to embark on.

Upon starting to play, it's clear that you won't be moving around in the real world, but on the shadows cast there instead. Things start out relatively simple with basic platform jumping over voids, which is then followed by an introduction to both memory and level instruction markers. Level instruction markers are no more than tutorial-like descriptions that explain whatever it is that you are about to encounter. Memories, on the other hand, perform two functions. On one hand, they progress the story by presenting the player with a short blurb of text, on the other, they also make your shadow heavier. The weight of your shadow is actually your life bar, so reading memories slowly boosts the maximum weight throughout the level.

After reading a few instruction markers, players will quickly learn that there are three red orbs to collect in each level in order to progress to the next. If players happen to miss any of them, a shadow wall at the end of the level will both damage them and stop progress. From my experience in the few levels of the game I played, red orbs were easy to come across initially, but progressively became more shrouded and complicated to obtain. Presumably, this trend continues the further up you get in the tower.

After learning of the orbs, players are introduced to their main character's first special power. The fairy that awakened you in the garden doubles as a tool for you to modify objects in the real world. By pointing the Wii Remote at the screen and tapping the B button, the fairy will ping the surrounding area and find points in the world to perform an action on. Once the spot is found, another tap on the B button will make the object move in some manner. As you would expect, this changes the shadow the object casts, thus allowing players to progress.

At times players will have to manipulate an object multiple times in order to reach new heights. Because the shadow seen doesn't perfectly mimic the real world, players can stand on the shadow of a paddle wheel, for instance, and only start to move when one arm makes its upward ascent. Initially, it was quite obvious what must be modified in the real world, but as the demo progressed, what must be manipulated in order to pass a given obstacle became more obscure.

Not long after learning how to manipulate the world, players are introduced to the next concept in the game, the Shadow Corridor. These will impede progress in the shadow world and upon encountering them, players will be sucked in and forced to complete the obstacles within them. Two new concepts were demonstrated during the demo in separate corridors. The first is the ability to modify a light source. Players are presented with an impossible jump, but with the fairy's help, they can easily tweak the way the shadows fall on the wall by swinging the lightbulb, in turn changing the angle of the shadows and making it easy to progress. The second, is the ability to twist and turn the world with certain markers in the level. Because the level turns, the shadows are cast completely different upon turning, opening up new pathways to help reach your intended destination.

To say the least, both of these mechanics blew me away. It was amazing to see the shadows stretch differently and open new pathways through such simple actions. It's also a bit of a mind twister, as we are so conditioned to look at things in the world of the game rather than in the shadows. While the light source movement seems mundane here, later in the demo players have the ability in the shadow world, and moving the light source wildly distorts the stage, making it a far more challenging and deep tool than initially shown.

As mentioned earlier, your character has a health bar, which would in turn mean that some opposition must exist. In fact, players are quickly introduced to the red-eyed shadow spider. These creatures will remove weight from your shadow quickly, so players must dispose of them with a sword found shortly after the first encounter. At first, three strikes will put down the spider, but as you kill more, you will level up. Defeating the spider causes him to drop health and experience, both of which are auto-collected by your shadow.

Further levels provided a different set of enemies including the blue-eyed shadow spider that can only be killed by a level trap, and the giant red-eyed spider that has a set attack pattern, greater health, and a much fiercer and more damaging bite.

Visually and aurally, Lost in Shadow is a real treat. The game looks extremely sharp, and it gives off a real artisitic vibe. It's background sounds complement the gameplay, as they aren't quite music, but more ambient noise to match whatever the current setting is. The combined effect of both strongly reminded me of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, which was something I personally could appreciate. Even the color schemes matched Ico quite perfectly. Combine this with the games solid controls and platforming and the result is an undoubtedly immersive experience.

When putting Lost in Shadow together as a package, one can only be impressed and excited for the coming title. The demo does a great job at hinting towards future gameplay devices still left unseen, and all of the already presented functions show great promise as their implementation became deeper and deeper with each passing level. I'm eagerly anticipating the game's final release in January 2011.