Shadowgrounds
Score: 75% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Meridian4 Developer: Frozenbyte Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Shooter
Graphics & Sound: Shadowgrounds’ overall presentation is great. Character models aren’t all that detailed, though they show off enough detail that it doesn’t look too bad. Whereas the characters aren’t that detailed, the environments are. While the actual “scares” don’t present much of a fright, the dark atmosphere is definitely there. The game’s creepy look is due in large part to the shadows cast by your flashlight. While it might be covering up some of the game’s blemishes, it still works well enough. The game’s story is a bit shallow, but what is there is delivered through well-done voice work. Most of the time everyone is spot on, though once or twice you’ll run across someone whose acting doesn’t quite match what is going on. Other than that, expect to hear lots of gunfire and explosions.
Gameplay: The story behind Shadowgrounds should be familiar to anyone who has played a sci-fi shooter in the last ten years. You are stationed at a base on one of Jupiter’s moons. As these things usually go, everything goes wrong and you’re soon caught in the middle of an alien invasion. Unfortunately, that bit of setup is as deep as the story goes. There are a few attempts to try and build up story through scattered notes and conversations, but most of your time is spent shooting hordes of enemies and running around mazes. On the positive side of things, Shadowgrounds is a fairly good shooter – at least when you first start. There’s plenty of variety early on that will keep you playing for awhile. Enemies pop out in small groups and sometimes even pop out of walls or floors to try and make you a little jumpy. Unfortunately, the effect never comes through as more than a cheap amusement park trick. There are few moments where you actually are scared or even spooked. What this eventually amounts to is hours of wandering around dark corridors shooting at things. It’s fun for a little while, but runs out of steam quickly.
Difficulty: Shadowgrounds isn’t that hard of a game, though the challenge does kick in on a regular basis once you’re caught in a onslaught of enemies. At various times during the game you are accompanied by an A.I. partner who will do their fair share of ass kicking, so you do have some help when the really big groups come out to play. Enemy A.I. isn’t all that bad, though it does tend to rely on outnumbering you more than outmaneuvering you. One noticeable problem is that you’ll respawn in really bad spots after dying. You can fight your way through a tough area, only to die and respawn in that tough area. Expect some backtracking.
Game Mechanics: Again, Shadowgrounds is a straightforward shooter and reminiscent of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in a few ways, if just because it’s a shooter. There isn’t much in the way of puzzle solving, instead you’re just running around and blasting stuff. While it does get tiresome after awhile, it is pretty fun to watch the various ways enemies react to being shot thanks to the game’s physics engine. Hitting a monster with a shotgun is enough to send him flying back. There are even times where you’ll have to use the physics to manage the objects in your environment in order to get past an obstacle. For a budget-priced game, Shadowgrounds isn’t too bad. You’re not going to get the high-end production values found in a normally priced game, but what is here is fun, if for only short bursts of time. If you’re in the market for a shooter and tight on money, Shadowgrounds is a decent purchase. Otherwise, pass on it.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP; 1.5GHz or equivalent; 384 MB RAM; 128 MB VRAM; 1000 MB HDD Space   Test System: Windows XP; Pentium 4 1.8 GHz; Radeon 9250 256 MB; 640 MB RAM; DirectX 9.0c
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