Shadow Grounds Survivor
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Shadow Grounds Survivor is the sequel to the 2006 hit Shadowgrounds. Developed by Frozenbyte, the game is played from an angled over the top view.
The story follows the last remaining humans on Jupiter's moon Ganymede following an alien onslaught which has left the human colonies devastated.
You take on the role of three different characters, each with their own unique abilities and each character specialised in very different weaponry.
Your first character is a marine, a machine gunner and grenades specialist. The second specialises in heavy weaponry such as a flamethrower and the third is an expert with the sniper rifle.
Now let me tell you, you have no choice in the main campaign over which character you get to play. It follows the progress of each character as you progress through the levels. By having to play as each one of these unique characters, your style of play has to adapt for each player. The heavy weapons specialist uses a flame thrower; hence, close combat is needed to get the aliens in close enough to kill. He also uses a minigun, great for devastating your surroundings at a distance, but it takes time to kick in to full swing. The next level has you playing as the sniper. Two shots per click before reload means you have to be very fast and highly accurate with each shot fired unless you want to be swarmed over by all kinds of nasties. If you get surrounded, quick switch to pistols and lob a couple of nades in the alien scum’s direction.
However, all these weapons have upgrades, which brings us to the RPG type upgrade system. As you progress, you will find various cell keys dropped around the levels. You need to collect these in order to purchase upgrades for your weaponry and for yourself.
Upgrades include enhancements for your ammo type which increases bullet effectiveness. Weapon upgrades include increase in ammo clip, faster reloads, target lock on systems and so on. Also as you level up, new upgrades become available which include increased health, auto medi packs, you get the picture. All this adds to the addictive nature which left me playing the damn game continuously. Okay, it may not be the most visually stunning game I have played, although graphically it is polished, yet the simplicity of the game, from the control of the characters to the upgrade system leaves a strange warm feeling of déjà vu in my belly.
And there is a very good reason for this. Those of you from the Amiga 500 days will remember a game known as Alien Breed. Well, that was one of my favourite shootemups as a young lad, and Shadowgrounds Survivor looks like a very polished modern day version of it.
The environments range from snow to rain to lava and tunnels. Scenery detail is nicely done and the ambient lighting effects of your torch help in giving you that feeling of being surrounded by danger. The aliens you battle are not too challenging, yet not too easy leaving you feeling satisfyingly challenged and rather chuffed when you complete a level. Sound is everything you would expect from this type of game, heavy machine guns, screeching burning aliens and eerie atmospheric background music. There’s plenty here for several weeks of play time and for those of you who enjoy decent game play more than most of the graphically stunning crap game play bug fests that are out there, Shadowgrounds Survivor is well worth the money.
Reviewed by The Don
Developer: Frozenbyte
Publishers: Meridian 4
Genre: Shooter
URL: http://www.shadowgroundsgame.com/survivor/
