It's blasting time!
This is the followup to the original Shadowgrounds and together with its predecessor forms a sort of modern spiritual follow-up to the likes of classic topdown shooters such as Gauntlet, Chaos Engine, and Alien Breed. This one is solid stuff, if a little lacking in anything special to make it more than a brief diversion, but if you're looking for some blasting thrills, it just about does the job. This one follows up on the original tale of an alien massacre on a human colony and once again sees you exploring a series of science fiction-themed environments while taking out the bad guys. You get to control three different characters, each of whom has access to three individual weapons and their own distinct skills. As you progress you also get to try out some cool turret weapons and even a dinky little mech suit, just for some added variety. There are plenty of upgrades to try out, like healing and special attacks, and which are collected by exploring the levels. There's little in the way of direct storytelling in the game, and it's more or less left up to the player to figure out what's going on, but the main point off thing is simply to blow stuff up and in that regard, the game is pretty successful. The environments are highly destructible and much fun can be had by watching things blow up in spectacular fashion. The visuals are nicely detailed and atmospheric, with some cool locations and creepy monsters, while the range of upgrades adds a nice element of depth. All in all, this provides solid blasting thrills but is pretty forgettable.
