06 was a game that was left... about 30% finished, I guess. I wouldn't even call it alpha status, really.
Shadow the Hedgehog had another completely different problem. When it was announced, I was seriously happy. I LIKED the concept. Shadow with guns? Yay, Sega are actually trying something fresh and new. The problem with it, was that it is by far the WORST example of game design I have ever seen in my entire life. The game was broken right out of the planning stages.
The game focused on:
- Collecting/activating items that were sometimes hidden
- Killing/sparing certain kinds of enemies
The gameplay focused on:
- Going as fast as you possibly can, meaning no level exploration
- Having no control over where you fire your gun except for the game's very broken lock-on mechanic, which indiscriminately murders any kind of enemy
- Two power-ups, which focus on either racing away from things that are important in the level, or killing all enemies around you, including ones you're supposed to leave alive.
Even the damn power-ups work AGAINST the game itself. The very concept of the game was broken. Exploration had to be done by trial-and-error, and levels had to be gone through again and again due to the "checkpoint system", something so stupid I don't believe any game has ever tried to incorporate in its normal gameplay. Add to that bad graphics, bugs, bad level design, bad gameplay mechanics, the fact that it looks, plays and feels like some fan mod of Heroes (which it is) and you got Shadow. The one linear game in the world in which its main objectives are explorative. And probably the only game in the 21st century I can find where you're forced to repetitively replay levels just to try to get a different conclusion in order to access other levels in the game.