Shadowgrounds

"Despite the poor voice acting, sub-par graphics, and limited gameplay variation, Shadowgrounds is a lot of fun and worth a look for ten bucks."

So this game came out a while back. I played the demo for it, and though "meh." It had moments, but just wasn't that great. Also, a large part of the demo was very slow. The demo represents the first two levels of the game, which, for the most part, aren't too challenging or intense, aside from a few rare occasions and a boss battle. I just wasn't impressed. However, I heard about there being a sequel for the game as well as a big price drop. I looked on Steam and saw some deal where I could get both games for a low price and went "What the hell?" and bought them. I haven't touched the sequel yet, but I just finished the original and decided to make a review since there wasn't one on GameFAQs yet.

GRAPHICS: 2/5

The game features a very small number of "movies" that look a little better than the average game looks during actual gameplay. The cutscenes look horrid as the detail in this game on humans as well as aliens is just plain bad. They look awful. The only brightside is that when looked at from afar, the aliens look pretty good. The bright side is that the entire game is played from an overhead view, meaning most of the time, things look decent. This game is by no means a graphical pillar of greatness. In fact, it doesn't even achieve mediocrity, as Shadowgrounds' graphics are sub-par even for the standards of when it was released. The only saving grace for the game's graphics is the light. You get a flashlight that you can aim all around you and it will cast shadows and light up the area. It looks really good. Unfortunately, that's it. All the rest of the graphics are quite bad, looking like something from 2003 with a low budget.

SOUND: 2/5

The guns in the game and the alien noises are great. They're just great. Unfortunately, the game's voice acting is not. In fact, it's really bad. I've heard worse by far, but you just have to keep saying to yourself "There's like five important characters in the game. How could you NOT find FIVE people who can do convincing voice acting?!" The only voice that doesn't blow in the game is a voice you hear at the very, very end, during the ending, after you've beaten the boss, and the voice is actually pretty darn good. Despite the guns and other sounds being good, the voice acting just tramples over any quality the sounds brought to the table.

MUSIC: 5/5

I honestly can't even remember if there's ordinarily background music. I'm not sure at all even though I just finished the game. However, whenever a big fight begins, the game will trigger some music to play. It's typically some kinda hard heavy metal stuff. I'm not too big on loud music that's not melodic, but this music is badass when it comes to slaughering tons of aliens with it playing in the background. It works and it works very well. Good stuff.

CONTROLS: 4/5

On the whole, the controls were pretty good. The game is only for PC, meaning no bizarre console transition to screw up the controls. All the actions can be binded to a key of your choosing, which is always a plus. It's expected in today's gaming world, but it doesn't always happen, so I still give this game kudos for that. You use the mouse to look around and (if you choose so) WASD or arrows to walk around. F is the standard for flashlight and E for use. It's all the standard stuff. Everything works just great. You can press a button to roll, though it's rarely of any use since you don't move fast enough to merit not just running instead, not to mention you can't shoot and roll at the same time. The fact that there are very few necessary controls makes the game easy to play, which is always a plus, as finding a game challenging just because it's hard to control isn't a good thing.

The only drawback to the controls is a fairly big one, though. There are ten weapons, and you can select each with 1 thru 0 on the numbers above your letter keys. The only downside is that it's difficult to remember which weapon corresponds to what key. Sure, I did that back in Doom and Heretic, but I've since moved past that in modern times. If they're going to use that system, they need to bring the game into the past decade of gaming by giving it a weapon selection system like in Half-Life. Have pistols and weaker weapons all grouped under 1, have the machine gun and minigun under 2, the shotgun and flamethrower under 3, etc. Having to use ten keys is just overkill, especially considering that you need to switch weapons in a hurry to make them tactically effective. Even using the mousewheel, it's just not a good system.

STORY: 7/15

I would've given the game like a 5 or less for having an all too typical plot, but there's actually a pretty good plot twist in the game that I never saw coming. No, you weren't a ghost all along. It's good, really. However, the overall plot IS lame. You're a mechanic turned space badass because aliens suddenly appear for reasons that won't be explained until way, way later. Along the way, you'll meet a small number of characters, some of which will travel with you on occasion. Your goals are to escape the aliens, kill the aliens, save people from the aliens, etc. That's it. Nothing special aside from a good plot twist. Otherwise, it's just a really bland plot.

A good deal of story and backstory, however, does come from computer screens that you'll find (or not) as you scour the facilities. Some of them are just love letters and little jokes, but others have scientists' theories about why the aliens are there and all. Unfortunately, so few of these are truly relevant that a hasty gamer could easily pass these by.

GAMEPLAY: 14/20

This is why you play the game. Then again, I would hope, as a gamer, that this is why everyone likes particular games. The graphics are pretty bad, the story's extremely mediocre, the voice acting is real bad, and the music is only pretty good. However, it's gameplay that will make this game addicting. You view the game top-down, sort of like the old Legend of Zelda on the NES or SNES, and will run around going through big, sci-fi installations killing tons of aliens. There are very few enemy types, but fortunately, each is pretty unique to fight.

You can collect weapons and ammo to help you with dealing with all of these aliens. Fortunately, the pistol is your "fallback" weapon, as it has infinite ammo. Oddly enough, though, it is at times the best weapon in the game. Even part of the final boss fight becomes easier when using the pistol. It's shocking but true. All of the weapons, including the pistol, have up to three upgrades you can perform on them, all of which are different, though some have similar effects. As you kill aliens, some of them will drop upgrade parts allowing you to perform these upgrades. The upgrades are very useful and can make your alien-slaying life much easier.

The biggest downside to all these weapons is that they're pretty useless most of the time. It's nice to have a huge pool of ammo since you'll have so many weapons, but you'll rarely use some of them except when out of ammo for other weapons. You'll find yourself using the pistol, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, electricity gun, minigun, and flamethrower almost always, while the other few weapons will just gather dust. They could have had less weapons, but I suppose they believed that a bunch of weapons was a good bragging point for the box to sell the game or something. In this case, though, less is more. They just needed less weapons that were handy in various situations.

The game lasts like 5 or 6 hours or so; maybe more, maybe less. I didn't really pay attention, though I know it's "short." It's not a long game by any means, which in this case, is a good thing. I remember Tomb Raider 3. It took countless hours and there were so many damn levels. It was a nightmare. After beating it once, I swore off playing through it again. It's just no fun when a game goes on forever, unless the game can truly keep you entertained throughout those long hours. Shadowgrounds, on the other hand, though short, delivers pretty well over its short lifespan. The game will occasionally start to get a little bit old, but by that point, something new will come up, whether it be that you get a new weapon, encounter a new enemy type, or something. All in all, you won't be squealing with glee the whole way through the game, but it's pretty darn fun most of the time.

CONCLUSION: (2 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 7 + 14) * 2 = 68, 6.8 rounds to 7.

The game's not amazing, but it's pretty fun. I would imagine that most other players will enjoy it, provided the subpar graphics and voice acting aren't too painful to endure. There's a pretty good game underneath the poo-covered exterior of Shadowgrounds that I hope you find. If you've got nothing better to play, I'd recommend getting it, especially since it's like ten bucks now. Play the demo as well, just to see if you like it. The game is like the last half of the demo, but with more enemy types and weapons, not to mention a lot of upgrade parts. If you think you'll like it, you might also look into getting the sequel with it for a discounted price. Anyway, I'm going to go play the sequel now. Hope this review helped!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/07

Game Release: Shadowgrounds (US, May 2006)