Launch Day Earth’s Shadow – SPONSORED CONTENT

A black alien world, a ship that had been “parked vigorously,” and the promise of ancient relics worth enough to make the danger seem almost reasonable. Welcome back to Earth’s Shadow.

This was launch day, but not our first expedition to Sumbra. After visiting the game during its very early development, it was time to start again in Story mode and discover what had changed. What followed was a journey through brain slugs, hostile machines, one-pixel health bars, an increasingly infamous crab and, ultimately, an enemy no weapon could defeat: the update screen.

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🌌 About the Game

Earth’s Shadow is a third-person sci-fi action dungeon crawler set in 3081 on Sumbra, a remote alien planet wrapped in stories of valuable relics.

Those legends attract explorers hoping to turn a dangerous expedition into a bright future. Unfortunately, Sumbra has a considerably darker history waiting beneath the surface, and the deeper we ventured, the clearer it became that this planet was less treasure hunt and more graveyard.

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🚀 Where We Are in the Journey

We previously explored Earth’s Shadow several months ago in a very early build, complete with an accidentally enabled developer slow-motion mode that transformed the stream into several hours of cinematic explosions and questionable decision-making.

For launch day, we started fresh. Some early issues had clearly been improved, including dialogue audio, while the legendary slow-motion button had sadly disappeared. Without it distracting us, though, we were about to make considerably more progress.

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⚠️ What Happens in This Episode

Sumbra wasted very little time reminding us why survival here is complicated. After relearning the dash, scan and warp abilities, the health bar immediately developed its usual enthusiasm for approaching zero. Our first major encounter ended back at the crash site, and “low health” became such a reliable companion that we could practically tick it off the bingo card permanently.

Between deaths, we found stronger weapons, upgraded armour and rediscovered the puzzle systems. One early puzzle refused to cooperate because several interface points simply couldn’t be selected, so that was marked down as something to report. Fortunately, another component puzzle behaved itself and opened the way forward.

Then things became considerably darker. We discovered the remains of a missing human expedition and heard warnings describing Sumbra as a graveyard. Not long afterwards came the brain slugs — lots of brain slugs — followed by another death and a more cautious second attempt.

Without slow motion tempting us into spending twenty minutes filming every explosion, progress through the levels was surprisingly rapid. We warped between platforms, hunted switches, cleared hostile creatures and steadily upgraded our weapons. We also forgot about melee attacks, forgot which objects were bombs and occasionally warped confidently in entirely the wrong direction. Progress does not necessarily imply competence.

Then came the crab.

We entered the boss fight already short on health, somehow failed to notice the enormous boss health bar immediately, and died. Then we returned and died again. Attempts to introduce the crab to nearby explosives weren’t especially successful, while a spacecraft attacking from above made matters even worse.

This naturally became JD’s Death Loop Incorporated, dedicated to keeping us in the same boss encounter for as long as possible. Eventually we discovered a position the crab apparently couldn’t enter. Heroic? No. Effective? Absolutely. The boss finally fell, and we escaped the loop.

The community chaos continued around the expedition. JD gifted a subscription during the boss struggle, Frodo arrived with a six-month sub, “it’s dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door” inevitably appeared, and #BlameChrissy became the official explanation when nobody knew how many levels we’d completed.

Even better, the developer joined us during the stream — promptly introduced as “the maniac responsible for this game.” That gave us the chance to mention the troublesome puzzle and, naturally, ask the truly important launch-day question: where had our slow-motion mode gone?

As the journey continued, we encountered turrets, floating creatures, hostile parasite clouds requiring alien dust — or “pixie dust,” as it inevitably became — and towering enemies reminiscent of War of the Worlds and Half-Life 2. Better equipment pushed our weapon damage into the twenties, while a perfectly timed level-up even rescued us from another near-death situation.

Then, just as another boss encounter appeared to be starting, Earth’s Shadow crashed.

Steam immediately began installing an update with a completion estimate that climbed from hours into days. With no way back into the existing version, Sumbra finally defeated us. Not with a monster, trap or parasite, but with patching.

We finished by revisiting some glorious slow-motion clips from the previous stream before raiding another creator. It wasn’t the ending we’d planned, but we’d defeated the crab, explored several new levels, improved our gear and travelled considerably further than before.

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🎬 Watch the Episode

See the entire launch-day expedition, including JD’s Death Loop Incorporated and the moment an update finally achieved what Sumbra’s monsters couldn’t.

Watch Launch Day Earth’s Shadow on YouTube

You can continue exploring with the Earth’s Shadow playlist, and there are plenty more adventures waiting on the Dr Ravenholm YouTube channel. If you enjoy the madness, remember to like, leave a comment and subscribe.

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🔴 Join the Adventure Live

Recorded episodes show you where we’ve been. Twitch is where you get to watch everything go wrong in real time.

Join me live on Twitch or catch the streams through YouTube. Come along, join the conversation and witness the next death loop before somebody turns it into a highlight reel.

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🌐 Community & Links

The expedition doesn’t end when the stream goes offline. There’s an entire community beyond Sumbra, whether you’re looking for the next livestream, joining the conversation or exploring everything else I create.

Live transmissions: Catch the next adventure on Twitch or YouTube.

Join the community: The Discord is where we gather between streams to talk games, projects and whatever chaos is coming next.

Follow the signal: You can also find me on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and X.

Beyond the games: My music is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Support the channel: If you’d like to help keep the madness running, visit the Fourthwall shop, Teespring store or Streamlabs.

More from me: Venture beyond Dr Ravenholm through the Business Centre, browse the service brochure, learn more about me or explore the blog.

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🌑 Until the Next Expedition

Sumbra is still waiting, there are more secrets buried in the darkness, and somewhere out there another boss is probably preparing the next death loop.

Until next time, keep your weapons loaded, your pixie dust handy, and never trust an update screen.

— Dr Ravenholm