As a freshman title (from indie developer, Frozenbyte), Shadowgrounds is a surprisingly solid little sci-fi action ditty. A little rough around the edges, maybe, what with the inconsistent voice work, lack of auto-save, incongruous or disruptive cut scenes and characters that walk like the slightly squat Robaxacet marionettes (i.e., people in urgent need of a bathroom and/or who didn't quite make it on time), but still way more value than its sub $30 (at steampowered.com) price tag suggests.

The environments--set mostly on a barely colonized Ganymede--are artistically striking in that "concept moon base" sort of way. The creatures you meet (and kill), meanwhile, though insipidly recurring, are elaborately rendered and fairly original.

It's played from an isometric, top down perspective with the camera fixed behind you at all times--you'll find yourself craning your neck in hopes of peering into the distances, which can't be done, which, typical of this sort of design, makes for a perpetual sense of claustrophobic near-sightedness, which ends up adding to the intensity of it all.

You can walk, strafe, and do diving rolls, but you can't jump. Aiming merely involves pointing in an enemy's general directions and letting loose with whatever weapon(s) you have on hand, the semi-auto-aim feature taking care of the rest, because you can't truly aim from the top-down perspective anyway. Altogether, it makes for a brisk romp through some cool environments, fulfilling a string of puzzles/objectives/tasks while laying waste to some seriously ugly nasties and saving the day.

Nothing epic, not particularly polished, but a cheap good time nonetheless.