A serious review by a serious gamer.
Gameplay: This game is just beautiful. The graphics are up-to-date, the guns look like they took years to process, and the enemies never cease to amaze me. Oh yes, there's that one aspect ratio of this game that people still don't get. The guns. May I quoth many a gaming forum, "Shadow doesn't need guns cuz he's the ultimate life form ad he doenst need cars either!!11!". May the screen name and dignity of this person remain secure. The controls are easy to master. It's a simple thing, A to jump, B to fire/attack, Y to use powers and drop weapons, and X to board vehicles, pick up items, swap weapons, and basically everything else. The game itself runs quite smoothly, even with a new engine created from scrap by Sonic Team. The engine features destructible environments, and many things that weren't possible in previous games to date. Back on the previous comment, guns. Why do we need them? Shadow IS the ultimate life form, right? Well, take this for example. If you, yourself, were in a terrible crisis where aliens are plotting to destroy the world and you were the only one to stop them, what would you do? Pick up a gun and blast the living hell out of them, saving the world in the process, or repeatedly jump on their heads until they get bored and shoot you to death? Guns are NEEDED in this game, because a lot of the enemies you face cannot be defeated by just jumping on them. This is Shadow, not Mario. The gameplay can be hard to get used to, but after you've played for a while it's extremely fun.
Gameplay 9.8/10.
Graphics: As I said before, this game is beautiful. With up-to-date, smooth-framed graphics, this game looks like it was created with 47 government supercomputers than a regular game-creating one. The guns are extremely high-detailed, the enemies look so menacing that they're almost real, and basically everything else is in a High Definition format. To make a long story short, you wouldn't be disappointed in this game after you've played it.
Graphics 9/10.
Sound: It's nice to have new music styles introduced to franchises, but Shadow's music is a little too hardcore for most Sonic the Hedgehog fans. It features loud beats and blasting bass melodies most of the time. But if you're into that kind of hard rock stuff, then this is the game for you. The voices in this game are the same actors who do the Sonic X voice acting, but to tell you the truth, unless you tape both the original and the new voices, put them on a computer with 50X50 Inch speakers, paste the two tapes into one sound, turn your computer up to full blast and listen to it 700 times over, you can't really tell the difference.
Sound: 8.5/10.
Value: This game is worth more than they sell it for. With multiple endings and over 326 different ways to play through the story mode, the replay value is just amazing! I've played it 76 times so far and I'm not bored of it yet.
Value 10/10.
Overall, Shadow the Hedgehog is a gamer's dream. Most Sonic fans stray away from it because of gunplay and "cuz we want sonic, not shadow" and "well sonic heroes sucked so shadow's gotta suck". This review will hopefully change people's minds about the Sonic series and put an end to all those "Shadow sucks" forum topic starters (you know who you are!). This game will blow most gamer's minds, and if it doesn't blow yours, then you obviously don't have an open one.
Overall: 9/10. Superb. Sega and Sonic Team, this is a message for you. Don't listen to what those flamers say, because those people don't have an open mind. Sure, I was let down by Sonic Heroes as well, but I still gave you guys a chance, and I wasn't disappointed. Rock on, Sega.