Earth's Shadow

Prepare yourself for Earth’s Shadow! Set a thousand years in the future, this title is a stunning third person action sci-fi dungeon crawler that will have you running around like a madman trying not to explode on the battlefield filled with incredible monsters that you’ve never seen before. You take control of Alexi-Ru is a cyborg pilot who dreams of adventure, but when his ship gets a bit too close to a dangerous planet, he must make use of all his abilities and more when he crash-lands. Alexi-Ru must discover what happened to this place, and to those who once called it home.

Gameplay

The gameplay to Earth’s Shadow is that of a third person action game. You will be offered a vast amount of physical freedom to run, jump, roll, and evade from the dangers that you will be encountering as Alexi-Ru. You will make use of many abilities that Alexi-Ru develops over the course of the game to defeat monster in all shapes and sizes. It’s got those clearly defined roll-play aspects, but functions like a shooter. It gives of a clear Returnal vibes with a little Dead Space in there that I can’t be upset about, that game was great and so is this one. Alter your character as you go and create a loadout that really speaks to your playstyle.

Much of the world is procedurally generated which creates an interesting dynamic for the player where you never really know what you are going to get next. There is adjustable difficulty so if you aren’t interested too much in getting beaten down 300 times an hour, then you are able to make things a bit easier on yourself. The frenetic energy of this gameplay is crazy good.

Visuals

The visuals in Earth’s Shadow are actually really good. Its clear at times that this game was not made by a triple A studio, but mostly it holds itself together very well. Once of the most standout parts of this title is the lighting, which I found to be incredibly immersive and dynamic. Lots of the enemies and parts of the environments have parts that light up and it all effects the ambiance in a way that sells the entire feeling of the game.

Story

The story of the game is shrouded in mystery and that’s the way I like it. You play as Alexi-Ru, a cyborg pilot who crash lands on the mysterious world of Sumbra. This world is filled with all sorts of nonsense that will kill you if you blink during an attack. There are some real dark secrets lurking around here and discovering them is truly an interesting experience. I do feel like the game could have had the gameplay revolve around the story a little more, but I appreciate this game for what it is and what it tries to be.

Pros

• Great visuals and lighting
• Interesting story

Cons

• Needed more foreshadowing
• There’s a little movement jank every now and again