Shadowgrounds Survivor

Good Points:

Great weapons.
Great graphics.
Very atmospheric levels.
RPG elements, such as character upgrades, weapon upgrade etc.
Background music is very atmospheric.
Different characters.
Much better voice acting than in the first game.
Secret unlockables.
Stationary guns.
Controllable MECH (we've been crying out for this since the first game).
Character specific special moves.
Runs well on multiple cores!
Supports dual mice and keyboards for better co-op on one PC.

Bad Points:

Levels are smaller.
Doesn't have any of the classic tunes from the first game. :(
Story isn't as well explained as I would have liked.
You can't use just one character through the whole game.
Torch has super long life batteries, would have been better with the torch from the first game.
The game is too short.
Still no LAN or internet multiplayer. :(

Frozenbyte are back with another old school shooter. Shadowgrounds Survivor is a spin off of the original Shadowgrounds. In Survivor you play as three survivors of the initial alien attack, you have to fight your way through hordes of aliens to join up with the others and save the colony from a massive impending alien attack.

Graphics:

The graphics are just as great as the original if not better than the original. Survivor has new environments such as snow, sewers and even a volcano.

Sound:

Survivors sounds are just as good as the original and has some really nice explosions (what can I say explosions are Good!).

The background music is very atmospheric and really fits in with this overall much more spooky game but sadly none of the great tunes from the original made it into the game. It might just be me being picky but the Shadowgrounds soundtrack is awesome, I even brought it direct from Frozenbyte (signed by Ari Pulkkinen himself) and it's now taking pride of place on my MP3 player.

http://www.shadowgroundsgame.com/new/index.php?page=buy_soundtrack Ok plug over!

I'm thankful to say that the voice acting in this game is a lot better than the original. Not to say all the voice acting in the original was bad it just wasn't up to the standard i've come to expect.

Overall:

This is another great game from the people at Frozenbyte however it's not the game I was expecting. I was expecting to be able to control what ever character I wanted through the whole game, not just at certain parts in the game. I also felt that the levels were a little too short just like the full game was a little too short.

The new features such as the MECH, stationary guns and the other RPG elements added by Frozenbyte do add some new blood to the franchise (well with two games I guess it's now a franchise). Even with these features the game is too short and the story isn't explained as well as I would have liked.

Both Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor have some brilliant gameplay and features. I think what Frozenbyte needs to do is find a middle ground between the two games and make that into a game. It doesn't necessarily have to be in the Shadowgrounds universe but it would be a great game. They should also add LAN and/or Internet multiplayer.

Anyway if you enjoyed the original then get this, chances are you'll enjoy it too.

Here's looking forward to the new IP Frozenbyte are working on!