Shadowgrounds

Shadowgrounds: a name that fits the games flaws more than it fits the game itself. What first started as a very promising game had soon after … got lost. But then nothing in the world is completely dull; stick around long enough and you might just squeeze it onto your list of games as a last resort.
 
In my lifetime I have played a lot of games. Some are worth throwing in the nearest trash can, and some should be awarded gold medals. But games themselves are innocent. You cannot blame a game for a narrow minded designer or a bad coder. That though will be the feeling when you start playing Shadowgrounds. But if you are a big fan of shoot-em-up games, then this one might just be your next target.
 
Shadowgrounds starts off with Wesley Tyler, a mechanic on planet Ganymede. To be more even scientifically precise, Ganymede is one of Jupiter's Moons. It is the year 2096 and mankind has found the ultimate technology to terraform planets and transforms them into a fully habitable environments. But as always hell rises in this forsaken "planet", as if humans have "you shall never live nor know peace” stamped on their foreheads. Getting a call from your boss, Tyler along with his two friends goes to check some malfunction in a power plant. That is when it gets creepy, for aliens have invaded this so called "planet", or just maybe no-one even suspected their presence while they were there for a while.
 
Now I am sure you have heard such a similar story before. But hey now, don't get rushed into conclusions. Shadowgrounds makes out for that kind of flaw. Not like any other shoot-em-up this game is played through the old and now modified Storm3D Engine. The game is played through a Commandos like view mode, with the availability of lock on to character view or free roaming. The graphics look good and the engine looks polished and well used. With the new engine, the concept of light and shadow (hence the game name) is well used and well put together.
 
But what can you do to an endless horde of agile aliens equipped with claws or even state-of-the art laser guns? That is where the big guns come on show. Staring in the weapon showroom is the all purpose pistol; the one that no game or modern SC-FI story implementation can do without. There is the typical SMG, Shotgun, Flame Thrower and the Grenade Launcher. Various other types are also available later on the game, like the Rail Gun and the Laser Rifle.

Each weapon however has three upgrades available. One for the clip size, another for the speed and the last one for the damage it inflicts on enemies. Easily enough you can collect upgrade points from fallen foes and just simply click on the upgrade you want. Eventually once you upgrade a weapon to a certain degree you will get a secondary fire option with a special effect. The Rail Gun for example receives a "bounce off walls" upgrade, where one shot can cut through your target bouncing off the wall a couple of times to hit more enemies.
 
The system works fine until you get whacked over your head with the saving feature of the game, why? Well… maybe just because there is no save feature at all. You can't by any means save at any point in a level. With no means of checkpoints, only 4 respawns are available throughout each level. Yet once you consume them all you are in for a restart tof the whole thing. It seems that even the game designers haven't realised that the system is already futile, but they managed to make it a little more lamer for players by making levels long. Though arguably each level consist of 4 to 5 areas to battle in, or sections to be more specific.
    
The mission system however is the usual find item (usually a key card to open a door), get to point X or use some terminal. As I am no fan of such excuses to make you kill hordes of enemies, I can only say that the game gets rather dull as you advance. Almost all of the time you fight alone, but occasionally you are provided with some help from a character or two. However, those AI driven characters are invulnerable. They never die or get hurt, so you might as well forget about them.

The games atmosphere is much helped with the destructed constructions of the planet. However, the build up is only ruined by the identical indoor environments you battle in. Even the outside places where you have to go through in most of the levels are almost the same in terrain and setup, varying only in the types of enemies.

The AI of the characters and even the enemies you fight seems good enough. I remember in a particular situation where I had no ammunition in my SMG in a level and hadn’t upgraded my pistol yet. I was followed by Jayne  -a soldier you will “have” to help - who I used as a “weapon” just by letting her deal with the enemies while I run around objects to save myself (and my last respawn). Jayne had managed to dodge a lot of the hindering objects I was running around, and she also managed to find shortcuts to the enemies she was after. But once the enemy is at a certain distance she just stops following it, while the same applies to your enemies.
 
However, there is one "shiny" element in the middle of all this. The game offers a Multiplayer co-operative mode. Though you can't play it through LAN or even the internet, you can manage to invite 3 friends to play with you using Joysticks while you use the mouse and keyboard. Then, once you get a weapon it is added to your friends as well. But once one of you dies, all of the team will respawn in the last checkpoint and a respawn will be taken from you all. Med packs and weapons upgrade are shared along the team, though ammunition isn’t.
 
Shadowgrounds was a game I started to play from all my heart, but as I advanced through the levels that admiration is made nothing but less. Too many disappointments lurk around this game; probably much more than anyone could handle. Nevertheless, if you like the games such as Kill Switch, where you almost aimlessly manage to kill everyone you see around you as an excuse of a mission, this game is definitely for you.