ShadowGrounds Demo – PC

Do you remember the Alien Breed games on the Amiga? Yes? Well if those were fond memories then I would recommend you check out this game:

http://www.shadowgroundsgame.com/new/

It’s a top down shooter with a very derivative plot (people colonise planet, people go drilling, uh-oh killer aliens unleashed… etc) but that shouldn’t really be a concern as long as the game stands up.

I tried the demo version that you can download for free (via Steam) that offers two of the early levels and one of the later ones. There is a nice progression where you start with just a torch light (that scares the smaller aliens – very neat feature), and slowly progress to pistol, shotgun etc. Weapons are upgraded via the currency of green blobs that some of the aliens drop after death, where you can add secondary fire functions or improve firepower. Levels are big and pretty varied in layout, it will be interesting to see if the final ones go more organic (alien hive) as the ones in the demo are all human facility buildings.

All in all this game is good old fashioned fun, and via the demo you get a great chance to try before you buy!

How much is it? – via Steam US$20 + tax or via play.com £18 and you get it in a box.

ps – I haven’t yet tried the coop mode, but really want to as it sounds like lots of fun (sadly it’s not over LAN, you all need to play on the same PC). And the only negative was that sometimes the graphic for my torchlight corrupted dramatically, which I’m hoping was caused by my drivers being a bit out of date.