Imagine Diablo and Doom 3 got married......
You play Tyler who is a mechanic on a space base where *gasp* scientific experiments and such is going on. Almost immediately, things go wrong and chaos ensues as aliens take over leaving carnage in their wake. Tyler is, of course, becames our unwitting hero as he helps out the few miltary personnel that our left alive taking on missions such as saving scientists, repairing satelite links and of course kicking alien butt with an arsenal of weapons typically found in most first person shooters. The catch is that Shadowgrounds is not a first person shooter.
You control Tyler from a top down view perspective as you find in many action RPGs like Diablo. The environments both inside and outside of the several installations you will explore are dark so you have only a limited field of view which can be slightly extended by your flashlight. Of course, as in all future flashlights it only lasts for a period of time before needing to recharge. In Shadowngrounds, your flashlight often plays a more strategic role than usual because some of the aliens are afraid of light while some cannot even be seen at all unless using a flashlight directly on them. Those sneaky aliens.
Another addition to the gameplay, which I found quite enjoyable, was the ability to find upgrade pieces on some of the aliens you kill. There are 10 weapons ranging from flamethrower to minigun each having 3 unique upgrades. For example, you can upgrade your grenade launcher for 15 upgrade points to give your 5 explosions for each grenade you launch. One extremely useful upgrade which I suggest getting early on is a stun gun on your machine gun which freezes enemies momentarily. This even works on some of the larger enemies so you can freeze them with your machine gun and then switch to some thing heavier like your mini-gun to lay waste to them. You have to be really close up to them to stun them though so some minor stealth is required using this strategy. Tyler even has a nifty little roll move to get out of the way quick if all else fails.
The graphics are very clean and has a lot of options to tweak for lower or higher end machines. It may not be something spectacular to look at but the aliens are really well done and so are the animations. The environments themselves are pretty plain as is the case with most futuristic shooters. I guess Trading Spaces must be canceled by the time we reach 2050. There are a lot of detail in things as dead bodies strewn on the floor, lighting effects and destructable objects.
The sound is very average and weapons sounds (albeit for the mini-gun) just don't have the impact that is needed to get your blood pumping. Voice acting is another throw away "I don't care about this job" affair except for Tyler who does at least have some funny lines that he carries off now and then.
Overall, I found the game a refreshing mix that is rarely seen these days. It has an old school flavor like Contra 3D but with new school panache. Don't be turned away by its budget price because it is a pretty polished title. There is also a level editor included in the game that hopefully will get some extra love for the modding community expanding replayability. So if you like your sci-fi shooters but want it in a different perspective give this game a shot.