Trine & Shadowgrounds Survivor

This post is a bit overdue as I completed these games a few weeks ago, but I felt it was better late than never. In an ongoing effort to catch up on my backlog of games, I decided I would jump start the process by knocking out a few smaller games first. As I browsed my collection, Trine and Shadowgrounds Survivor jumped out at me. Both of these games I had started at one point, but never got around to completing.

I am not sure where to even begin with Trine. The first thing that grabs me about the game is the visuals. The characters are very well designed, and the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous. I often found myself pausing my progress in the game, simply to absorb some of the background scenes I would pass. The art direction for this game, not to mention the music of Ari Pulkkenin, is excellent.

Even more impressive are the characters within the game, and the unique play style each one brings. The wizard can create objects to assist other characters, the rogue can kill enemies at range and ninja her way into secret places, and the knight is all about bashing the crap out of anything in his way. I often found myself gravitating towards the knight character, as the shield system was very well done. The player can hold the shield up in any direction to block incoming attacks, or shield the character from falling debris. This made for some great battles, as there were quite a few standoffs with other shield wielding skeletons and having to time my attacks correctly. It felt like a real, mini sword fight.

I have little in the complaint department about this game. Only two things really stand out to me. First, this game would have been better with online multiplayer. Living in a small country town, a majority of my gaming friends are based online. Alas, I did not get to experience the fun people often talk about while playing this game coop. Secondly, the last level was just terrible. I was expecting a great boss fight, or something that would require me to really put my character skills I have developed to use. Instead, it was platform jumping race to escape the rising lava. Once the top was reached, it was game over. It really felt lackluster, and the level was incredibly frustrating. All in all though, an excellent game.

Then there is Shadowgrounds Survivor. I am a huge fan of these type of games. The last one I played was Alien Shooter Vengeance, which while rough around the edges, was a blast to play. How can you not have enjoy trying to survive against hordes of aliens rushing at you? Thus, I had high hopes for Shadowgrounds Survivor, and it did not disappoint.

There are two things that really seems worth mentioning with this game. First, the controls in this game are excellent. They follow the standard FPS setup (WASD movement, etc), and feel very fluid and responsive. This may not sound like much now, but after playing similar games (Space Siege), this is a welcomed change. To put it simply, it just felt right.

Secondly, the lighting in the game is excellent. Flashlights were especially entertaining as they cast proper shadows around the room, and the light beam would correctly break up when pointed at certain objects. This may sound like such a silly things to be impressed with, after all, we have seen flashlights in games before. That is very true, but rarely are objects like flashlights implemented well. So on that note, I was pretty impressed, especially for such a small game and studio.

Overall, the game was very fun, and well worth the time. The weapons were entertaining to use, and I especially enjoyed the railgun which could pierce through multiple enemies and bounce around the room. This made for quite a few entertaining scenarios, and I often found myself kiting aliens until they were grouped up just right for some devastating railgun shots. The music in the game was also very well done, adding to the sense of action when defending against large alien rushes.

The only thing I did not appreciate was constantly switching between three different characters, as I would often forget and try to use a weapon that was no longer available to me. Otherwise, this is an excellent little alien shooter game, and well worth the investment. I imagine I will be playing this one quite a few times down the road.