Shadowgrounds Survivor

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $17.88

Features:

• 3 playable characters, each with impressive new tactics
• RPG-like upgrade system for weapons and characters; including special attacks such as the all-engrossing Napalm Flame and the mighty Brute Slayer.
• New gameplay features such as the Sentry Turret and the powerful Mech!
• Campaign mode short of filler and full of action, running parallel to the Shadowgrounds story and expanding it to new locations, including snow and ice environments, gritty sewers and the suffering New Atlantis colony
• Survival mode where the player is pitted against hordes of alien monsters - the clock is ticking and they just keep on coming!

Customer Reviews:

An interesting, but short, 3rd person shooter. [Posted on 2007-11-15]
Following in the footsteps of the original 'Shadowgrounds' (a 3rd person shooter with RPG type upgrades), Frozenbyte has come up with this sequel...

Some points of interest; some good...

1.)Good spooky atmosphere with excellent effects done with ambient lighting (especially from your flashlight), deep shadows and weather. The audio is also quite good.

2.)In this game you take turns being one of three fighters, each with their own skills and unique weapons; you choose one of the three to use for the finale.

3.)Each weapon has 3 major up-grades available (by using your hard earned XPs or finding hidden items within the maps); there are also a couple of minor player up-grades as well.

4.)There is a Mech that you can operate in a couple scenarios, and a turret gun in another.

5.)You have five lives for each segment; The first four deaths result in regeneration at the spot where you died. With the 5th death, however, you restart the level (not the entire game).

6.)There is another game mode that becomes unlocked with progress; it's called 'Survival' (and aptly named) . In this mode you have one life, and you try for the highest score (kill count + time) in whatever amount of time you last. This is a short, brutal game (I've gone longer that 4 minutes once), but kind of fun; in fact, probably more challenging than the actual game itself. Again, as with the finale, you can choose any of the three 'heroes' for this mission.

7.)A finale that is do-able (I found the ending in the original game was almost impossible, except on easy)


And, the not so good...

1.)The game is quite short; I finished it is less than 2 days of intermittent play. Maybe 5+ hours in total.

2.)Overall the game play, weapons and aliens were very similar to the original 'Shadowgrounds'. Really very little new here.

3.)On visiting the 'Frozenbyte' website, it appears the game must be purchased (at least at this point in time) through 'Steam' (that's where I got my copy). I've had absolutely no problem with this or another other 'Steam' product I've purchased, but I realize some potential buyers maybe put off with this. I felt I needed to at least mention this for the sake of completeness.

Conclusion:
If you enjoyed the original, you will probably like this game. It is, in my opinion, not as good as the original*, BUT, it is not bad. Also, it's fairly short in actual playing time. 3 Stars.

*after finishing this game, I went back and replayed some of the original game (to compare the two). It seemed to me this game, although there were some tough areas, was much easier than the original. It just didn't have the same persistent sense of urgency and tension that made you want to play on and on, like the first had.

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