So what would happen if you took Doom 3 and married it to Smash TV? Chances are, you would get something similar to Shadowgrounds, Frozenbyte's upcoming shooter for the PC. We can't say that they ripped a page from the id handbook, though: this is an original and stimulating game in its own right, and it's a shame that this small action title isn't receiving more attention. From what we managed to get our hands on, Shadowgrounds isn't breaking wholly new ground, but it does manage to be a refreshing take on a tired genre.

It does this by giving the player a top-down third-person perspective more familiar to fans of RPGs than shooters. After a cool introduction to the spacefaring backstory, we find ourselves in the shoes of Wesley Tyler, a mechanic on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, where he works at the water-treatment plant. What sci-fi shooter would be complete without some strange goings-on and an unlikely, gun-toting antihero? Seems that something weird is happening, and it's up to Wesley to find out just how weird it is. Task number one: fix the offline generators and get the plant running again.

Right away you'll notice that Frozenbyte is going for a high-tension atmosphere: a thunderstorm is making it appropriately dismal, and lightning flashes illuminate the sky. The music is appropriately tense, and the occasional cutscene grant us some quick glimpses of the horrors lurking just out of sight. Even though the first mission doesn't even equip you with a weapons right away, you can smell the fright. Checking computer terminals for messages provide a window into the people that work here, and egg you on to find out more about the as-yet unseen alien presence you know must be out there.

It's only after you realize you must rescue Corporal Jane Arvyn from the plant that you discover the true meaning of action in Shadowgrounds. Although you start only with a pistol and meet some creepy extraterrestrial arachnids, you'll soon find yourself swarmed with them, and your arsenal rapidly improves to include such wonders as a minigun, grenade launcher, pulse rifle, and more. Even the weapons are more than meet the eye, however: along the way you will find upgrade parts with which you can improve your guns. For example, with enough parts, you can upgrade you pulse rifle with radiated bullets, which do double damage. Or, maybe you'd like to increase the shotgun's ammo limit, or add a secondary fire that sprays out multiple rounds at once. Either way, you can modify your favorite weapons to make them more powerful—and that much more interesting.

There's definitely an attempt at Doom 3's surprise scares in Shadowgrounds. Several times, grates popped open and nasties came swarming out of them. At another moment, we arrived inside the facility building just in time to see a worker dragged off to an undoubtedly merciless fate. All the while, our multilegged enemies teemed from every nook and cranny, and defeating them required our utmost run-and-gun diligence. However, unlike Doom 3, which implemented its flashlight in a rather annoying fashion, Shadowgrounds attaches it to your suit and gives it significance. Sure, it's necessary for peering into the dark corners, but more importantly, it scared off some of the beasties, which made them easier to handle. The resulting tactical element took the run-of-the-mill battles and painted them with an original sheen. We look forward to seeing more of this gameplay element in the full version, and wonder why more developers haven't taken their fancy lighting and given it this kind of significance.

That isn't to say that Shadowgrounds is a technical marvel, but for all of its lighting effects and swaying vegetation, it's a wonder that it runs so smoothly at the highest possible settings on two test systems with quite different specs. The crooked trees and deluge of rain lent a pitch-perfect air of desolation, and vibrant explosions lit up the screen. It looked that flames also had a nice distortion effect. Sound effects were more utilitarian, and while it's understandable that a small studio wouldn't have professional actors at its disposal, the voice acting could use some work. Considering Shadowgrounds' narrative starts so intriguingly, some realistic voicing would lend credence to the affair. Even the scares seem a little tame due to the generic ambient sound. If an enormous spider is going to crash through a ventilation grate, scare the willies out of us with a huge crash, rather than a mild clang.

Thank goodness we have small developers to bring us their invigorated visions. This is the kind of game we need to see more of coming from the big publishers that spoon-feed us our regular diets of hollow FPS's and RTS's. Props to Frozenbyte and Meridian4 for remembering that fun is what it's all about. And Microsoft, if you're listening: this is the perfect game for Xbox Live Arcade. So get these guys on board, already!