Shadowgrounds
Fair · Shooter · 2006
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
NO RUSH.
Fair at $6.99. Buy it if you want it.
- Length
- 6.2h
- Value
- $1.13/hr
- Reviews
- 82% positive
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Runs on Windows, macOS.
Shadowgrounds breathes fresh air into the action genre with explosive combat sequences, an innovative weapon upgrade system, and an intriguing storyline. The adrenaline-pumping, top-down gameplay and audiovisual fireworks set the scene for this new action experience which also includes single computer (split keyboard or joystick) co-op...
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
November 2013 is where it bottomed out, at $0.69. Its cuts run 85 percent off as a rule. There have been 117 in the 14 years tracked, about 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price. The last sale was about 3 weeks ago, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 5 weeks.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 27 percent on value. It is cheaper than 64 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 62 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Alien Shooter ($4.99, scores 87) beats it on value, while it beats Alien Breed: Impact ($9.99, scores 34).
Critics scored it 74. Players sit 8 points higher at 82 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
None of the 314 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 68 percent of the 380 reviews written there were positive, against 82 percent overall, and those are 31 percent of everything written about it.
Players
1 players at peak in the last day.
The chart appears once this game has been counted more than once.Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
no mid game saving and its a pain in the ass to get to run but when it dose work its just OK of a game
I can't recommend this game, everybody treats you like the errand boy, they yell at you and then send you to a suicide mission, telling you to hurry up, nagging you, its a chore. Do not bother. The combat is nothing special, the upgrades feel nice but later down the game, there are wayyy to many enemies compared to the bullets you get, so expect having to go back to your pistol. Story - wack, gameplay - wack, the...
I liked Shadowgrounds but I must admit that can be my nostalgia making it more enjoyable then it probably is. To start with the positives, the gameplay is good enough for what its worth. Weapon variety may be basic, but it works well, plus you have additional ways to enhance them further. Weapons also have their own different weaknesses, on top of their own strenghts, so they all feel like they have their own role...
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
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Shadowgrounds scores 57/100 on the BANG Score (fair value). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/2500/shadowgroundsThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 3, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.