The very mention of the words "space" and "shooter" can often make the average games journalist imagine numbers below 50 while he hurriedly thumbs a thesaurus for words like "awful." The kicker is occasionally we get blindsided by a game that's good, and we have to take a few minutes to still our hearts.
Shadowgrounds Survivor is the sequel to a distinctly average nearly top-down shooter, and follows on the utterly forgettable storyline from where the original left off. Here, let me retell it -shooty angry aliens attack poor humans on a far off colony and you shoot them back because you have guns.
The big difference is the atmosphere. Survivor has a completely different look, with gorgeous, slick movement, great physics, and some remarkably fine ambient light. Your torchlight bends and moves around boxes, morphing through wire grates, and making huge, ominous shadows behind your enemies.
Control-wise, you move with WASD, shoot with the mouse, and that's all you need; movement is the essence of simplicity and fits perfectly with the constant, frantic action. It never lets up, leaving you tense and twitchy in the few-second lulls of fixing terminals and the fleeting conversations with the survivors.
This game is so much fun that you'll forget that you really are doing the same thing again and again, Diablo-style. This is mitigated by the fact you change characters several times, each with different weapons, and the quasi-RPG upgrade and experience system that keeps things a little different throughout.
Undoubtedly, many people will skip Shadowgrounds Survivor, regardless of its budget price. However, while the game has got a boring-arsed story, and can be repetitive, it's so unbelievably enjoyable, so fluid to control, and so chillingly good-looking that you'll forget all that.
Shadowgrounds Survivor is truly a visceral, retro experience that takes us back to a warmer, happier time.
Ed Zitron
// Overview
Verdict
The fittest
Uppers
Great atmosphere Amazingly fluid controls Fantastic graphics
You're starting to become like a viagra spam email humorguy. My mind just is approaching the stage where it almost automatically filters out what you write.
No online play sadly, but it's the best game I've bough this year.
All the negative comments like repetitive etc... could be directed just as easily towards Diablo, Diablo II and no doubt Diablo III.
Shadowgrounds Survivor is just great fun to play, even solo. The levels look great (not just great GFX, but they really help with atmosphere) and playing the game at lower resolutions actually gives the game a groovy, retro feel.
For $20 (on Steam) you can't go wrong with this game. Diablo III might be getting the column inches, but apart from the lack of online play, this game deserves to be bought.
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Great atmosphere
