Shadowgrounds Survivor

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 71
  3. Negative: 6 out of 71
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  1. J
    Nov 15, 2007
    9
    A great fun game for a great budget price. Too bad it's pretty short though.
  2. TimothyS.
    Nov 20, 2007
    9
    What a great gaming experience! SGS is even better than the original Shadowgrounds!
  3. AlexanderB
    Nov 15, 2007
    10
    This game is great! Evertyhing you loved about Shadowgrounds, only prettier, better, and more physics and cooler explosions, fire, everything!
  4. AkuA.
    Dec 12, 2007
    9
    Well finished and polished retro game, a very unique atmosphere and very good break from forever spawning fps games. Good value for the small amount of cash it cost.
  5. PhilT.
    Nov 27, 2007
    9
    Very fun little action game. The graphics are a step up from the previous game and look pretty darn good for an indie developer. It has fast-paced action and a serviceable storyline for people not looking for a lot of epic storytelling or tons of depth. It's pretty standard space opera fare, but that doesn't mean that it is not truly enjoyable. Voice acting and dialog are cheesy Very fun little action game. The graphics are a step up from the previous game and look pretty darn good for an indie developer. It has fast-paced action and a serviceable storyline for people not looking for a lot of epic storytelling or tons of depth. It's pretty standard space opera fare, but that doesn't mean that it is not truly enjoyable. Voice acting and dialog are cheesy and fun, exactly what I want from a game that lets me play out a cheesy sci-fi action movie. The addition of physics is a nice touch, but it doesn't really alter gameplay, but that is okay. The RPG-lite system of character upgrades is back in full force and incredibly fun. Overall, a great action game for people looking for a nice diversion for a few hours. Don't pick it up looking for the best game ever made and you won't be disappointed.… Expand
  6. EricE.
    Dec 28, 2007
    9
    Graphics got even better! I didn't think that the graphics in Shadowgrounds could get better but this tops it with Ageia PhysX capabilities, which allows you to move/destroy virtually anything from boxes to chairs to tables. *Does not require the Ageia PhysX card but is better with it.* This time around rather than following one single person, you follow 4 different characters. You Graphics got even better! I didn't think that the graphics in Shadowgrounds could get better but this tops it with Ageia PhysX capabilities, which allows you to move/destroy virtually anything from boxes to chairs to tables. *Does not require the Ageia PhysX card but is better with it.* This time around rather than following one single person, you follow 4 different characters. You are also able to take control of a Mech and canons. If you liked Shadowgrounds at all you will like Survivor. I found Survivor actually easier than Shadowgrounds. Ammo was much more plentiful. No real big boss mobs, just waves and waves of mobs coming at you instead.… Expand
  7. digimortal81
    Jun 7, 2011
    10
    I LOVE this game. Great moody music-detailed yet simple lighting and graphics-reminds me of the top down shooter days of my NES gaming days from waaaaaay back. I like all the characters and actually enjoy the story. Almost like a top down Doom 3 in way. One of the more under-rated games of the past few years.
  8. eyEZix
    May 6, 2012
    9
    Great game, i wish there were more games like this.
    its a good twist on the original...........................................Great game, i wish there were more games like this.
    its a good twist on the original...........................................
  9. InsanelySane
    Feb 27, 2008
    2
    The first Shadowgrounds was a breath of fresh air, with its simple yet immersive world and gameplay kind of allowing you to forget the typical setting and story and just focus on the upgrades and 'suspense'.
    This sequel is terrible on a few level. What a disappointment and a few steps backwards from the first. In this sequel, the developers have adopted typical decisions you see    The first Shadowgrounds was a breath of fresh air, with its simple yet immersive world and gameplay kind of allowing you to forget the typical setting and story and just focus on the upgrades and 'suspense'.
    This sequel is terrible on a few level. What a disappointment and a few steps backwards from the first. In this sequel, the developers have adopted typical decisions you see these days with companies, thinking these sort of features are a requisite for good games these days (they're not at all!). Story is pathetic and thin with painfully (!!!!) cliche'd characters, horrible horrible voice acting (what were they thinking?!) and generally where as in the first game you had all weapons to choose from and slowly discover, with this sequel the SAME weapons with SAME upgrades are distributed (read: limited) between each of the 3 characters. Aside from this, the game was boring this time round. Very boring and repetitive.. Who cares when nothing new is there to discover? there is no 'suspense' in this sequel. No atmosphere. Graphics are slightly nicer than original, as are improvements of physics - but again, who cares when the core is now rotten?!    … Expand
  10. TitaniumDragon
    Aug 20, 2014
    5
    Shadowgrounds: Survivor is a top-down shooter set in a darkened environment. A game from 2007, its graphics have aged poorly, but not nearly so poorly as its predecessor; still, close-ups on faces look quite terrible. On the whole, it is a great improvement over its predecessor, with superior pacing and voice acting, and it feels less like a low-budget title. Still, it gets repetitive atShadowgrounds: Survivor is a top-down shooter set in a darkened environment. A game from 2007, its graphics have aged poorly, but not nearly so poorly as its predecessor; still, close-ups on faces look quite terrible. On the whole, it is a great improvement over its predecessor, with superior pacing and voice acting, and it feels less like a low-budget title. Still, it gets repetitive at the end, and unlike the first game, it lacks boss fights. As such, I would generally recommend Alien Swarm, which is free on Steam, over paying for this game.

    Story

    A base on Ganymede has been attacked by a horde of aliens. Three survivors work together to save the world:
    A soldier, who is the last member of his platoon and is trying to work his way back to the colony.
    An old Russian janitor, who seems to enjoy setting things on fire.
    A sniper, who keeps a count of every kill she gets.
    They are assisted by a scientist, saved early on in the soldier’s sections, who helps them set up the defense of the colony.
    The game’s story is very bare-bones and exists to serve the gameplay, and in that role, it is adequate; the voice acting is fine and not phoned-in, unlike the first game, and on the whole it serves its purpose, though why the aliens are there is never clarified – though on the other hand, maybe it doesn’t matter.

    Gameplay

    The game is a top-down shooter. Each character has three weapons plus grenades, and each character has a special power that only they can activate. As you kill aliens, you find upgrades for your weapons, which makes them more powerful and gives them alternate fire mechanisms, and gain experience, which allows you to directly upgrade your characters’ abilities and stats.
    On the whole, the gameplay is reasonably engaging, and by switching between different characters with different weapon sets, the game keeps its gameplay somewhat fresh. Unfortunately, by about halfway through the game you have encountered every type of alien present in the game, and as a result the second half of the game is mostly greater and greater numbers of aliens, with the odd “defend the area” or “ride around in a mech shooting things” or “sit in a turret shooting things” thrown in. As a result, the game does wear a bit thin by the end, though the game on the whole isn’t terribly long.
    There is a secret hidden in each level, a S lying around on the ground, which adds a minor exploration aspect to the game, but on the whole, I didn’t really feel driven to find the things. Still, it was nice that there weren’t an excessive number of collectables.

    Graphics

    The game was made in 2007, and while it looks okay when you are looking from the third-person, well-above-the-character perspective, whenever the characters speak their faces are shown on-screen and look absolutely terrible. On the whole, the graphics are serviceable, but it has not aged well and nothing looks really spectacular.

    Final Summary

    The game is a competent third-person shooter, and you could do worse. However, Alien Swarm is still probably a better game, and it is free on Steam.    … Expand
  11. Anon
    Jul 6, 2009
    8
    Excellent shooting experience. I needed a break from the common FPS's in our world(Team Fortress 2, Crysis, etc etc) I saw this on steam for dirt cheap, and the metascore was pretty decent. I've enjoyed every single minute playing it. It actually got my adrenile pumped, and modern games just don't do that for me sometimes. Outdated graphics for a release in 2007, but whoExcellent shooting experience. I needed a break from the common FPS's in our world(Team Fortress 2, Crysis, etc etc) I saw this on steam for dirt cheap, and the metascore was pretty decent. I've enjoyed every single minute playing it. It actually got my adrenile pumped, and modern games just don't do that for me sometimes. Outdated graphics for a release in 2007, but who cares? The price is under 10 bucks. And you'll enjoy a break from those common First Person Shooters… Expand
  12. [Anonymous]
    Nov 16, 2007
    8
    A quite fun little mini-sequel to the original. Building on the original isometric shoot-em-up action, survivor adds some nice new graphical touches and a smattering of physics based destruction. Unfortunately the gameplay, whilst still quite fun has been changed somewhat oddly in survivor. You will often find yourself trapped in an area by mysterious forcefields blocking all exits until A quite fun little mini-sequel to the original. Building on the original isometric shoot-em-up action, survivor adds some nice new graphical touches and a smattering of physics based destruction. Unfortunately the gameplay, whilst still quite fun has been changed somewhat oddly in survivor. You will often find yourself trapped in an area by mysterious forcefields blocking all exits until you manage to kill the required amount of beasties. I would love to see a full-blown fallout style rpg done with this engine, it really shows off some nice effects.… Expand
  13. RayF.
    Dec 3, 2007
    7
    I really didn't enjoy the first shadowgrounds, due to the high difficulty, but this seems to be much easier and therefore more fun. The graphics aren't anything great, its a bit budgety in terms of production values, but it is fun to play and worth the $20.
  14. Wrick
    Nov 15, 2007
    8
    Survivor builds nicely on the original, maintaining the excellent fast-paced action and improving on the faults of its predecessor. Survivor shows huge improvement in writing and voice acting, as well as adding a choice of three characters to play. There are some nice new special moves for each character (including the brute execution, where the marine hauls himself onto the head of the Survivor builds nicely on the original, maintaining the excellent fast-paced action and improving on the faults of its predecessor. Survivor shows huge improvement in writing and voice acting, as well as adding a choice of three characters to play. There are some nice new special moves for each character (including the brute execution, where the marine hauls himself onto the head of the enemy and shoots them in the back of the head) and new character upgrades on top of weapon upgrades. The action remains heavy and challenging, perhaps even more so than the original, and the soundtrack has undergone (in my opinion) some great improvements. The graphics and physics updates are also excellent, and the ability to shift crates and barrels and the like to where you need them adds a whole new tactical layer to combat, as does the inclusion of hand-thrown grenades. The game also seems to run better on low-end machines than the original, suggesting superior exploitation of resources by the programmers. Survivor also nods towards replayability, which the original really lacked, with the addition of secrets in the campaign and the "Survivor" mode, where the player is pitted against wave after wave of aliens. The sections are also smaller and more numerous in campaign mode now, meaning less chance of the minor frustration of the original as you have to play through an hour or so of the same mission because you failed at the end. Although the game was so fun to play it wasn't a real issue. The negative points are that the campaign feels rather short, and Frozenbyte still hasn't implemented online mode. There is a co-op from one computer that allows for two mice and keyboards, though. All in all, survivor is a grerat achievement and improvement on the original, retaining and building on tremendous gameplay.… Expand
  15. NiklasMadsen
    Mar 18, 2008
    5
    Let's get one thing off first.
    I loved the first game.
    I loved the story, the guns, pretty much everything. This this game.. I mean, what the hell went wrong! Where is the story! In the original Shadowgrounds, there where awesome logs everywhere. Now they're more rare than diamonds on a pigfarm! D: Okay, the graphics are nice, but that's not enough. And why 3    Let's get one thing off first.
    I loved the first game.
    I loved the story, the guns, pretty much everything.
    This this game.. I mean, what the hell went wrong! Where is the story!
    In the original Shadowgrounds, there where awesome logs everywhere. Now they're more rare than diamonds on a pigfarm! D:
    Okay, the graphics are nice, but that's not enough.
    And why 3 characters? It gets extremely confusing!
    No, do not like.    … Expand
  16. MarkG
    May 15, 2008
    7
    Very addictive. I play mostly fps and this was a nice change of pace. I liked how you can upgrade weapons and abilities. The reason I gave it a 7 is because the story part was pretty lame, but most games are. Also the chapters seem too short and too easy. But for what it is it's a great game, and when you can snag it up for 5 bucks do it.
  17. GolovA
    Dec 9, 2014
    7
    Sequel to the Shadowgrounds it does not add much, rather it takes and divides: you have these Three Characters, which are pretty unique, and each one uses one third of the weapons from the original. However, with additional unique traits and upgradable skills. As you play, you play all the characters asymmetrically (so you play the soldier, then an engineer, than a soldier, than aSequel to the Shadowgrounds it does not add much, rather it takes and divides: you have these Three Characters, which are pretty unique, and each one uses one third of the weapons from the original. However, with additional unique traits and upgradable skills. As you play, you play all the characters asymmetrically (so you play the soldier, then an engineer, than a soldier, than a sniper, and so on, not in any particular sequence, but to propagate the story). The story is kind of the same - Kill Aliens! :) About 5 hours play in this one, fun while it lasts; rather fast.… Expand
  18. JimCorbett
    Apr 6, 2012
    6
    This game is better than it's predecessor. The gameplay is more fun, unlocking weapons is better and the graphics are nicer. On the flip side the story is bad and the campaign is even shorter than the first one and ended up taking me a whopping 3 hours to finish. Another bland game from Frozenbyte, would not recommend it.
  19. ErnestBeqiri
    Nov 13, 2012
    6
    Shadowgrounds Survivor is an outdated video game. It's overrated. If this game was released in 2000, It would be good, but for now-standards It's not that good. That's not the only problem, there's more. The storytelling in this game is pretty weak, the graphics look outdated and the characters are forgettable. But, we all Know that the gameplay is the main part of a video game. It is fun,Shadowgrounds Survivor is an outdated video game. It's overrated. If this game was released in 2000, It would be good, but for now-standards It's not that good. That's not the only problem, there's more. The storytelling in this game is pretty weak, the graphics look outdated and the characters are forgettable. But, we all Know that the gameplay is the main part of a video game. It is fun, It is challenging, but outdated. (6.6)… Expand
  20. Klewer
    Dec 20, 2013
    4
    Sadly on the quest to add polish and features to the originals game base they have left out any sort of story and quite quickly you are wondering about aimlessly and not really having a good time.
  21. Captain_Chaos
    Jun 22, 2016
    7
    More Shadowgrounds, split across three campaigns with variations in gameplay between the three: there's a marine, a sniper, and a flamethrower-wielding engineer. Has the same strengths and shortcomings as the base game, so if you've played that, you will know wether or not you want to play this one. I enjoyed it, but there are much better top-down shooters out there.

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Best PC Game of 2007
65
#65 Most Discussed PC Game of 2007

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. GameZone
    77
    Next to the Orange Box, this is actually a sweet value title. You must like killing aliens, lots of action and the kind of game where it pays to go looking down deserted dark corridors.
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  2. CPUGamer
    85
    All in all, Survivor is not big step forward, actually it’s hardly even a step, but it’s more Shadowgrounds, which is enough of a reason to go and get it. I don’t know of any other top-down shooters for the PC which are done as well, or look as good or cost $20.
    Read full review
  3. PC Zone UK
    77
    Truly a visceral, retro experience that takes us to a warmer, happier time. [Feb 2008, p.90]
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