Shadowgrounds:Survivor

Rating Mature Genre action Publisher Meridian 4 External Links Shadowgrounds:Survivor Website

Warning to Windows Vista Users: Those of you who have the illustrious honor of owning a system with Windows Vista will immediately notice upon completion of the instillation process that Shadowgrounds:Survivor doesn't work. If you’re like me, then you will be blessed with a game that causes an “unspecified error” and will spend more time than you should trying to discover the problem. This error usually occurs due to a missing Direct X.DLL file that doesn't come with Windows Vista called d3dx9_31.dll. Downloading this file from any of the dozen of free .DLL download sites will alleviate most problems with Windows Vista and allow you immediate access to the alien killing goodness.

Shadowgrounds:Survivor is a modernized take on the classic top down arcade shooter style of game play. Players start off the game as Luke “Marine” Giffords who finds himself the lone survivor of a military squad stationed on the outskirts of New Atlantis, a colonization facility located on the surface of Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. Eventually players can gain access to two new characters, “Napalm” and “Sniper” who offer their own unique abilities that are useful in surviving the unending alien assault.

And speaking of abilities Shadowgrounds:Survivor offers an “RPG” style leveling system that allows players to upgrade their characters personal abilities as well as their weapons skills. These upgrades vary based on each of the playable characters, and include everything from increased health obtained from collecting Med Packs to special, one shot annihilation attacks. This gives the players more control of their characters progressions through the title and helps to expand the overall enjoyment of the game.

Shadowgrounds:Survivor offers simple, but decently textured environments and characters. The real bang for your buck comes in the games finer details. The light from the players flashlights reacts as it should, stretching to see far away objects, bending or breaking against obstacles, and casting eerie shadows at all times. Environmental objects, such as boxes and fuel canisters, break and blow up correctly, affecting nearby obstacles in the proper manner. It's clear that the creative team at Frozenbyte went to a lot of trouble to make the visual atmosphere of the game as refined as possible.

The Campaign Mode allows players to slaughter murderous alien bugs while trying to find other survivors and hopefully make it off the moon alive. Controls use the standard WASD with the Mouse targeting your weapons. Occasionally the player will find themselves trapped behind several force fields, resulting in a battle against an endless swarm of enemies and typically a boss style opponent that must be defeated in order to advance.

Shadowgrounds:Survivor also sports additional game play modes in the form of “Survival” and “Co-op”. As the name implies, Survival Mode requires players to liquefy waves of alien creatures in an attempt to live as long as possible. Co-op mode allows multiple players to work together throughout the game. Strangely enough the game doesn't have a networking function. Instead, players have to connect multiple controllers to one computer and share the monitor in order to play. While common enough in console games, this seems like an oversight when it comes to PC Gaming.

Additionally, the overall story concept is quite generic, and delivered with no real depth of purpose. The voice acting is unremarkable, and is easily overlooked against the background music, which successfully complements each level. There are also some problems with the AI, causing enemies to routinely get trapped against objects or just charge in the wrong direction. Still, the name of the game is “Kill”, and Shadowgrounds:Survivor succeeds splendidly in this aspect.

While Shadowgrounds:Survivor isn't going to win any awards for best story, this game will still provide players with hours of enjoyable, simple entertainment. Always remember, on those long dark nights when the cool air blows and the alien armies are staring you right in the face, “Kill, Kill, Kill! Blood makes the grass grow.”