Shadowgrounds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shadowgrounds | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Frozenbyte, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Finland: Plan 1 North America: Meridian4 |
| Distributor(s) | Valve Software |
| Engine | Modified Storm3D-engine |
| Release date(s) | November 11, 2005 (Finland, Germany) February 2006 (France, Benelux, Russia, Australia & New Zealand) |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player, single-system multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | Finland: 15 |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| System requirements | Windows XP/2000 1.5 GHz CPU 384 MB RAM GeForce 4 Ti / Radeon 9000 1 GB Free Hard Drive Space |
Shadowgrounds is a PC shooter game developed by Frozenbyte, Inc.. It was released on November 11, 2005 in stores in Finland and Germany, and in Spring 2006 in the rest of Europe and North America. As well as being available through retail stores, the game began being distributed on Valve Software's Steam platform on 8 May 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The game is a fast-paced top-down shooter clearly reminiscent of the Alien Breed series. Like the earlier Finnish game Death Rally, Shadowgrounds presents a highly refined version of an anachronistic concept. The plot of a monster attack on a space colony exists only as a thin justification for the action, monsters are plentiful and weapons large.
Shadowgrounds uses light and darkness as vital components of gameplay and atmosphere, hence the name. The game is largely dark, and the hero carries a motion scanner and a flashlight with a regenerating but limited power supply (a common gaming cliché). There are ten weapons, all with three possible upgrades. Medkits, weapons and ammo are found in stores and near dead soldiers, although weapon upgrade points are dropped by slain enemies.
[edit] Gameplay
Players explore indoor and outdoor facilities in order to complete a usually linear series of tasks (usually of the FedEx or "get to Point B" varieties, though other tasks include disarming force fields, enabling a radio transmitter, or fixing various broken machinery), while clearing the area of a chain of progressively more powerful creatures. Occasionally other NPCs fight alongside the player, but, especially in the case of characters central to the plot, they are seemingly invulnerable and can be left to kill while the player recharges his flashlight or hunts for items.
In order to enable upgrades the ten unique weapons (which include a powerful secondary fire mode for each weapon), players collect upgrade pieces from killing monsters (the more powerful ones dropping pieces in greater frequency or larger quantity). As well, players can pick up weapons and ammunition (the pistol has unlimited ammo and electric gun can be upgraded to automatically regenerate, but every other weapon requires ammunition to be found) and health packs, and destroy a large amount of crates (another cliché of the genre) along the way. Finally, similar to Doom 3, there are various PDAs and computer terminals scattered through the maps that serve to loosely advance the plot with some optional exposition.
There are a number of vehicles shown both in cutscenes and on the various maps, including an alien ship and an earth mover; however, none of these are player-drivable, and the game will switch to non-interactive cutscene if a task involves a vehicle.
[edit] Co-operative Mode
Co-operative gameplay, which was added late in development as a bonus for fans, is available within the single-player story. Co-operatively, one player controls Tyler via the keyboard and mouse, and one to three more can play as unnamed characters, using gamepads attached to the same computer (there is no internet/LAN support for this game).
There are a few differences between the single-player and co-op modes. The respawns that are available in single player mode are still a facet of the game; however, each time any player dies, all players are respawned at a safe location, and one less respawn is available (until all are used). Similarly, weapons collected are made available to all players, and upgrade parts are shared (ammunition, however, is not distributed, so each player has to find their own).
[edit] Criticism
Alongside its 'throwaway' story, Shadowgrounds was criticized for its unsuitable 'respawn point' saving system. Saves are made at the start of each level, and from then on until the start of the next the player must survive on a limited number of lives and respawn points. The original game was one of short levels and no mid-game saves, but as later environments became larger the respawn system was hastily added in the hope of avoiding tedious re-treading by players. However, particularly in later levels, there were not enough lives to comfortably complete given sequences. "It's one of those mistakes that we made simply due to lack of experience", stated Joel Kinnunen, one of Shadowgrounds' writers, and PR rep for Frozenbyte (fb_joel on their forums) in a post on the game's official forums [1].
[edit] Soundtrack
Lordi guitarist Amen played guitar on the official Shadowgrounds soundtrack, which was composed by Ari Pulkkinen. The soundtrack has been praised in reviews.
[edit] Modifications
Frozenbyte has released extensive documentation on how to make modifications on their engine, as well as how to make custom maps and scenarios. While the first version of the official Level Editor, released on 29 June 2006, was only for retail versions of the game, users who purchased the game via Steam received access to the editor on 13 July 2006. With that release, all of the filesystem for the Editor was moved onto the Steam platform, which means that modder's would have access to the original game's files as well.
There currently is only one officially recognized third-party modification in development, entitled Shadowgrounds: Baxter's Sacrifice.
[edit] Screenshot gallery
 The player electrocutes an alien. Note the lighting and shadowing effects. |
 Shadowgrounds supports multiplayer co-operative play on one machine. |
