In Shadowgrounds you play a mechanic stationed at a base on Ganymede who soon
finds himself trapped in the base when nasty aliens decide to take over. A
deserted and isolated space station with power issues and overrun with vicious
aliens bent on slaughtering a lone but well-armed hero? Yes, you certainly have
heard this story before and many times at that, so if you’re one of those gamers
that need to have a deep and engaging storyline to go along with your games you
won’t find it here. What you will find is a game that’s a throwback to an
earlier era when action gaming meant a top-down view of the action and plenty of
attackers to fight off.
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| Alien bloodbath on Ganymede. |
Shadowgrounds takes advantage of its setting to try and build tension and a
scary atmosphere into the game. As you move through different areas of the base
you’ll find that most of it suffers from power issues and that your best source
of light is your own flashlight. To further add to the creepy feel of the game,
the light sources all cast long shadows and in the case of your flashlight these
shadows move as you do. The effect of this is to make you feel that each moving
shadow is a potential alien beast waiting to leap out at you. When the alien
monsters do come they leap out at you in packs, which leads to frantic bursts of
action as you try to fend off creatures with the singular purpose of tearing you
apart. While it certainly gets credit for trying to be creepy, Shadowgrounds
doesn’t entirely succeed primarily due to its top-down view of the action. Dark
rooms with moving shadows and aliens that pop out of the woodwork can make for
some tense first-person action, but it loses something when you view the action
from above. You feel more like you are an observer than a part of the action and
this change in viewpoint drains a lot of the tension out of the situation. The
game probably would have been better served by a steadier stream of action than
by its attempt to make you jump every time you see a scary shadow.
When the action hits it hits hard and you’ll often find yourself swarmed by
an alien menagerie that runs the gamut from space spiders to space demons. Your
enemies will come at you with a variety of attacks and part of the challenge is
to make sure that you use the right weapon for the job. Luckily for you you’ll
have a good variety of weapons at your disposal from pistols to rocket launchers
and flamethrowers. Some aliens will drop weapons upgrades when killed and you
can use these to add additional capabilities to your weapons. The upgrades are
pretty much standard fare of your increased firepower or multiple shot variety
and it would have been nice had a bit more imagination been put into the weapons
in such a weapons-centric game.
The gameplay has you completing objectives along your path from one alien
bloodbath to the next, but these are your standard run-of-the-mill missions that
have you flipping switches and the like. Shadowgrounds is really carried by its
action sequences, and as a one-trick-pony it won’t be able to hold your interest
for long gameplay sessions. The game is best enjoyed in the same manner as it
delivers its action – in short doses. As a budget title it’s not bad as a
mindless alien-blasting diversion or a walk down memory lane for older gamers
who grew up in the top-down view era. If you’re looking for deep immersive
gameplay you won’t find it here, but it fits the bill when you’re in the mood
for some quick and easy action.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
70%. A back to the future diversion for those looking for some old
school alien-blasting action.
