Gameplay
Like other overhead shooters (Robotron, Smash TV; Geometry wars) Survivor is about blowing lots of stuff up. On normal difficulty, the game wasn't a challenge, but it always threw enough enemies at me that I felt like I was fighting for my life. Part of that may be the health kit system. If you have full health and pick up a health kit, it goes into your inventory. If you have one point less than full health, the kit heals you for one point of damage, largely going to waste. As such, I would fight every encounter trying to take no hits at all. I guess you could say my own OCD made the game exciting.
There are three characters in Survivor who alternate missions. Each has different weapons and upgrades which give the game much needed variety both in play styles and in carrots to chase. Additionally, trying out the different weapons and upgrades and learning to use them strategically was fun.
Theatrics
Uh, yeah. The characters in the game have some personality. And the game succeeded at creating some dramatic tension to complement the tension of the fighting. It's kind of hard for me to judge because as ridiculous as some of the dialog is, it's worlds better than the original Shadowgrounds. I really appreciated the extra effort put into this aspect of Survivor, but at the end of the day, the story and characters still aren't good, just better.
Aesthetics
True to it's "Shadowgrounds" name, Survivor provides nice lighting effects.
And true to the type of game it is, plenty of carnage.
And while I wouldn't say the game's locales are widely varied, the combination of a few different environments and weather effects keep the game from bogging down too much.
The sounds do their job well, with music, weapon sounds, monster noises, and ambient sounds contributing to the feel.
Final Score
3 of 5
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