Shadowgrounds Survivor

Another Frozenbyte game that's rough around the edges. The game's first sin is using an auto-save system that only saves progress between missions. Stopping mid-mission is not an option. This was mildly irritating until after the aptly named Canyon to Hell mission at which point the game started crashing when starting a mission. Frozenbyte's known of this unresolved issue since 2014 (see https://steamcommunity.com/app/11200/discussions/0/35220315897554295/) and has some workarounds on their FAQ (see http://board.frozenbyte.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20058). Using method 2, I was able to complete the game. Otherwise, with an initial PhysX update, the game ran without issue.

Mac version is buggy and doesn't work. Starts up fine but gets progressively slower and slower until it's beyond slideshow levels of poor framerate. Doesn't matter what you do with graphic settings, etc. Since you can't save your game mid-level there is no way to get through a single stage because the game starts to crash before you can get to the end of a level. Developers are not supporting this game anymore and are taking no efforts to improve compatibility. Original Shadowgrounds works fine, play that instead.

Performance is bad, I had to lower the graphic settings a bit. Gameplay, story and level design is worse than in the first part of the series. The character classes were a good idea badly implemented. I unlocked a load of stuff in the playthrough, tested one survival level, restarted the game with the electric gun, monochrome-mode, 100 skillpoints and a higher difficulty setting but it was still "meh" and I deleted it.

NOT RECOMMENDED. HAS ABOUT 4.0 HOURS OF CONTENT AND EVEN THAT IS ALL ABOUT REPEATING "SHOOT A MONSTER" AD NAUSEAM. There was not a single moment of wonder in the game. It's like a Alien Breed clone many years too late and without its charm. The "Survivor" part adds sections, where you wait for enemies to come out of exits to instantly kill them. That, like everything in the game, drags on and overstays its welcome. There is not a single redeeming factor AFAIK. Multiplayer makes any game tolerable, though that here is just more of the same boring shoot-an-alien that gets boring in five minutes. The music is okay-not-great and the physics are interesting to play with for two seconds. The plot is absolutely terrible. The pre-mission narration further emphasizes how soulless the characters are and how ass plot is. Whole plotline is ultimately about activating some sentry guns to kill more aliens. This one-note goal is the only trick in this game's bag. Kill aliens, Alien Breed - there is the all you need to know. It even manages to capture the 1991 AB's boredom involving killing the clones of same alien enemies over and over and over again. CONS: It's only four hours long and extremely boring. PROS: It's only four hours long. Grade: F this game.