Shadowgrounds Survivor: Game Review

Overall, I liked the original Shadowgrounds. It offered fun shooting and interesting weapons.

Shadowgrounds Survivor seemed to have fairly good reviews and being a sequel with additional classes, I thought it would be even more fun than the original. From a game design perspective, additional classes means being able to truly draft levels and gameplay to suit a variety of players and that means that you can experiment more with the gameplay and create even more interesting game modes and situations.

What I liked:

• Overall still fun like Shadowgrounds Survivor
• Weapons are balanced and feel right as do their new abilities.
• RPG upgrade system balanced.

What I disliked:

• Shallow plot which doesn't even explain anything to new players.
• Grenades seem too slow for any tactical use
• Characters only have 1 special move - The developers could have easily added even more moves.
• Seems to lack any new enemies maybe even less than the original Shadowgrounds.
• No boss battles which Shadowgrounds had.
• Multiplayer needs better support - You can only play multiplayer on the same computer.
• Really short and needs more interesting level design
• Feels more like an expansion pack than a true sequel
• Ending isn't very exciting, just you defending a computer room from four directions

I originally paid $15 for Shadowgrounds and then bought this on the humble indie bundle. Shadowgrounds and Survivor is probably worth around $5 - $10 as a bundle. I would recommend to go play the free Alien Swarm first however and that's pretty much what you'll get with both except longer.

Overall, a hugely wasted opportunity to something better, bigger and even more explosive. I understand Frozenbyte is a small independent company, but I'm sure they could have done way better with just a little more thought.