Shadowgrounds
I liked it. It was good for playing on and off, one or two levels at a time, and it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, but still scary enough to always keep me on my toes. More seasoned players than me might find it too easy, but for me the balance was just perfect and I'm amazed that they pulled this off. There are no checkpoints and you can't save during a level; if you lose you have to restart it from scratch, but you get a limited number of respawns, lives so to speak, maybe four or five per level, in addition to the medpacks (which you automatically use on pickup, so you can't take them with you for emergencies).
And this approach really had me worried, because it had all the right ingredients for a ragequit. Five lives sounds easy enough - until you suddenly get caught unprepared in a tough arena fight with no way to escape. I wouldn't have enjoyed replaying an entire level at all (30-120 min, depending on your pace; mine was slow and cautious). Who knows, maybe it would have been irritating enough for me to completely abandon the game, if that had happened to me. But surprisingly it never happened, although it was a close call with some levels. So the limited respawn system worked quite well for me in that it really made me scared of dying and at the same time it was still generous enough so that I wouldn't get frustrated,
The gameplay was simple but satisfying, with a lot of different weapons, an upgrade system for each, unique opponents each with their own dangers and weaknesses, and different possibilities to deal with them, head on, but also sneaky or tactical by builiding traps. Admittedly, you can also exploit the AI sometimes, but I found that fun, too.
*MILD SPOILERS* I also liked that the level design didn't follow clear patterns, like putting a boss at the end of every level and making each one bigger and tougher than the one before. Instead, while the gameplay was more or less the same all throughout the game, the missions were comparatively unpredicatable, which helped create tension. *SPOILER END*
I have very few criticism to direct at the game, but what I got would be unforgivable in a game like this, if it hadn't built up so much goodwill with me by doing everything else right: The collision with walls, objects and NPCs isn't as polished as one would expect, and that can become a big issue if you're under attack and you roll around a room and try to dodge fire and melee attacks from fierce creatures, only to get stuck on some protruding piece of wall or to bump into your helpful companions blocking the escape route (they love to do that). Still, I managed to survive and have fun nevertheless, so I'll let it pass this time. ;)
Post edited July 22, 2014 by Leroux
