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Shadowgrounds
Shadowgrounds transformers gamers into the
heroic role of Wesley Tyler, a former soldier turned mechanic who has
been stationed on the cold and heartless Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.
Unfortunately for our hero, his memories of the military still haunt his
dreams and the accident that he was blamed for was never his fault. In
despair, Tyler’s soul searching soon begins when things go from bad to
worse, the hero once again shows his true colours. When the power is
mysteriously disabled on their moon base, Tyler discovers that they have
been invaded and its up for him and his crew to liberate their freedom.
With these notes, Shadowgrounds is your
classic RPG style sci-fi shooter that is similar to games such as
Diablo, Gauntlet, Fall Out or Space hack which has the player battling
his way through a plethora of deadly futuristic scenarios.
Grabbing whatever weapons are available,
Shadowgrounds is an action packed ride through a world… or moon gone mad
of aliens and amazing technology. The control system of Shadowgrounds is
relatively straight forward with the player using the mouse and keyboard
to navigate the gaming environment and use a plethora of objects and
weaponry, whether it’s your trust torch or a laser rifle, this game will
appeal to anyone who loves the sci-fi genre.
Apart from battling your way through the
game solo, Tyler also has access to a variety of different non-player
characters (NPC’s) who will assist you on different missions. The
missions in the are varied and diverse that contain the main storyline
and a variety of different sub quests. The cutscenes in Shadowgrounds
assist with the storyline of the game and nicely break up the gameplay
and the story.
The combat of Shadowgrounds, although
simplistic is rather addictive and straightforward that doesn’t push the
limits of the genre but is still great fun. You basically run around,
solve quests and shoot your way through just about every nasty to have
ever crawled into the Sol system which is just like a classic 1980’s or
90’s Hollywood science fiction movie with aliens and high tech weaponry.
Graphically, Shadowgrounds still holds its
own against many of the newer titles on the market at the moment and
contains some wonderful detailed background environments and a wide
gamut of various NPC’s and enemies that you encounter which have been
professionally designed. The developers have also added a variety of
special effects from realistic lighting, fire effects and some Hollywood
style explosions that really immerse you into the gaming environment.
As with the graphics, both the music and
sound have been professionally implemented into the game that contains
exceptional voice acting, realistic weapon effects and a variety of
spooky background ambience that will have the player thinking that they
are in one of the Alien movies.
In conclusion, Shadowgrounds is an
entertaining title that truly gives another spin on the traditional
gauntlet style of game that although set in the distant future, I would
recommend to all lovers of the genre, especially for those that love
Star Wars, Aliens or Predator. With a great affordable price, most
gamers will probably only play this title once but it’s still a great
journey through one mans search for his soul. |
