Description
A science vessel, Barnett, carrying important information is ambushed...now, with only rumors of a new Shivan weapon and reports of a mystery ship in the area, Alpha wing must save the Barnett

Storyline:
The story in Shadows is strong. The Barnett has been ambushed, and a series of Shivan encounters have left it without defenders. Find out what's up and retrieve the Barnett. Wreckage from a variety of ships augments this within the mission. Also, in-mission messages provide updates as to what's happening, though they seem a bit out of place, all being from the main campaign.

Balance:
There is only a small selection of ships and weapons, and the Hercules I wished for was not an option. There is also a major balancing problem in-mission; the enemy comes in massive waves. The player is supplied with too-few wingmen, and while victory is attainable, keeping the enemy off my back to jump out is perhaps the hardest part of Shadows.

Design:
For the most part, Shadows' design is rather good. The events all work like a charm, and if there are too many objectives, none are screwed up. Some of the few purely technical problems are that "Bonus objective complete" is spoken about 5 minutes <i>after</i> the bonus objective is actualy finished and granted. <br>Make no mistake, however, Shadows has some serious problems. Chief among these is the fact that all of Alpha wing warps out only a couple of seconds after arrival. This may be because their departure is supposed to be linked to an event at the end of the mission, but the departure sexpression is incorrectly set up. Even with the reenforcment wing of Valkyries, the enemy wings come hard and fast. While I was able to overcome the enemy fighters and protect the Barnett, I was never able to eliminate the remaining Nephilim and Scorpions, so I was never able to warp out without being smashed into small peices, even after successfully completing all objectives.

Gameplay:
Unfortunatally, the gameplay in Shadows is quite monotonous, without the arrival of anything new to break up the sequence. While the enemy comes in waves of 6 to 9, they never do anything interesting, and a sequence involving a "myseterious ship" just feels tacked-on and silly. Without the support of the two full wings I expected, things were, however, much harder than they would otherwise be.

Other Thoughts:
An excellent use of the built-in sounds to draw attention to the messages. Also, a message saying, "the thing has been destroyed" lends credence to the rumor that there is an event in the main campaign in which the player can destroy Barney.