Once again a game has come along that makes me feel like an old granny. No this isn't a game about knitting or queuing at the post office, it's because I distinctly remember playing the original Alien Breed about 17 years ago back on my trusty old Amiga.
The top down 2D shooter was a massive hit back in the day, not only was it an unofficial tribute to the excellent movie Alien, but it was a damn good game too. The story was basic but did the job; Johnson and Stone, two tough troops from the Interstellar Peace Keepers are on their way back to Earth after completing their latest tour of duty. All of a sudden they are ordered to change direction and are then diverted towards what is believed to be a renegade space station that has recently stopped all radio communication.
Their mission is to find out what the hell has happened. Long story short you ended up traveling floor to floor, deeper and deeper into the space station kicking some serious alien ass. Looking back now the gameplay is a little dated. Most of the levels consisted of you exploring the area for your objective point, once reached you would then trigger a self destruct command that when completed would rid that floor of aliens. You had sixty seconds to get back to the Deck Lift before the destruction, if you made it then you'd continue down to the next floor to complete a similar task. If you didn't make it then it was Game Over; no continues, no replay mission – GAME OVER.
Of course there was (a little) more to it than that but I can't start reviewing the original game can I?
Now I'm not going to go and explain what happened in episodes 1 and 2 for you because Digital Lard's very own Ray 'the beard' Whitney has already reviewed the first two episodes here and here. Alien Breed Descent is the final chapter in Team 17's downloadable Alien Breed 3 trilogy, a reboot of the series built using the Unreal engine. There's no 'over the top' 2D to be found here my friends, this is a proper 3D isometric shooter.
Once again you control ship engineer Conrad who is not only a tough looking bastard but also very proficient with an Assault Rifle considering he's supposedly only used to using spanners and sonic screwdrivers. Conrad and the android MIA are still trapped in the belly of the alien vessel hunting down the crazed artificial intelligence that is genetically altering those aliens which keep running towards you.
If this jumped up calculator carries out his plan to release these monsters upon the universe then things could really bad for things back home on Earth and the other inhabited planets of the solar system.
Anyway all this story crap is getting in the way of the gameplay talk – Alien Breed has and always will be a run and gun shooter. You'll be running up and down corridors like nobody's business shooting alien scum that burst out of the walls, the floor and even slimy pink egg things. Just like the original (but a bit broader) it's a case of moving from area to area completing objectives, almost all of the time it's heading to computer terminals to unlock new areas. This could be in the form of closing flood gates, opening airlocks, re-routing electrical pathways or even raising and lowering bridges. Just like the original Amiga game you'll find ammo, medkits and cash scattered around the place just lying there waiting to be picked up. If you're feeling a bit necro then you can even search dead bodies and lockers for cash, items or ammo too. It's essential you always have enough ammo for the proper weapons because you don't want to be facing a horde of aliens with your crappy pistol.
As you progress into the ship things certainly do get trickier and you'll no longer be simply following the radar map; if you want to find the more powerful weapons and the Intex computer terminals you'll need to wander off the beaten track a little. Yes that dark corridor may well be going in the opposite direction to your objective but there may be something cool like a Flamethrower up there – let me tell you, searching around isn't compulsory but if you want to survive then I advise looking around as much as you can. Every wad of cash you find may help you buy something good from the shop. Not only are the Intex terminals the games 'save point' but also the only way you'll get hold of some serious goodies, great stuff like Hardened Armour and an Automatic Turrets are available as well as upgrades for your weapons.
There's no denying that Alien Breed 3 is not only atmospheric and full of action but that on it's own does not a great game make. You've got to take into account how the seven hours of (story mode) gameplay actually feels when you play it and it's that I had some issues with.
Firstly it's not only plays but looks very repetitive. If I told you that the most unusual thing you'd partake in was finding a dead scientist's keycard and opening a door with it, would you believe me? Well you'll have to cos it's true. There's not even the slightest bit of puzzle solving to be had. I'm of course happy with Team 17 trying to keep that retro feel but 7 hours of using computer terminals to open doors is taking the biscuit.
Almost the whole game takes place in the same five metallic looking environments;
- Lit Corridors
- Dark Corridors
- Walking Gantries
- Rooms with computers
- Rooms with giant machines and computers
Now I realize that we're aboard a whacking great space vessel but it would have been nice if whomever designed the ship had been a bit more varied. No matter how much you'll explore you'll never see ship's cafeteria, the toilets, the sleeping quarters or even the kitchen sink.
I should mention that if you have a friend on Steam or Xbox live who owns the game then playing through Alien Breed 3 with two players on COOP can be a real benefit and makes things much more interesting – yes you'll have double the fire power but half the ammo. However it's probably 10 times as much fun so it's still worth it even if you have to be more careful how much weapon you offload into the scenery.
Graphically Alien Breed 3 Descent carried on where episode 1 and 2 left off, metallic environments full of explosions as the ship slowly falls apart around you. I've always thought the unreal engine produced games that look a bit muddy and blurry, sadly AB3 doesn't seem to buck the trend here. Now I don't have the world's most advanced gaming PC but my Quad Core CPU system with Nvidia cards running in Sli seem to run games like Left 4 Dead 2 with fairly high settings. AB3 on the other hand seemed to feel a little sluggish in places. Conrad himself and the environments always seemed to move smoothly but the enemies appears to move at a slower framerate than the rest of the game, either that or animation is poor – it's hard to tell which.
The music score is very atmospheric and suits the scifi theme very well, you'll notice the music get louder and scarier when things get busy or after you've awoken loads of aliens from a slumber. What annoyed me was the constant repetition from the ship's warning system advising all passengers to get to an escape pod, for seven long hours you'll hear the same message repeated on loop. Combine this with the nasty AI dude taunting you all the time with his evil laugh and like me you'll probably get a bit fed up of hearing the same old speech.
I really do have mixed feelings about Alien Breed 3 Deacent. On one hand I enjoyed the mixture of action and exploration but on the other hand the game is so repetitive in such a short amount of time. It is quite frankly boring to do the same two tasks over and over again, I know we put up with that in the 90's but nowadays I just don't think it cuts the mustard. Lastly I found the default PC controls are tricky to get the hang of, aiming your gun and controlling the camera with the mouse (at the same time) is very clunky to say the least, especially when the game sometimes flips the camera around itself without warning you. Plugging a USB pad into your PC (or playing the Xbox 360 version) is advised over the WASD controls.
I'm especially a little disappointed in the lack of originality here on Alien Breed 3, retro is cool when it's fun but quite a chore when it's not. Playing this game solo could be a frustrating affair and I think the only way to play is online COOP mode with a friend – with two players things get much more interesting and being able to attack and defend in a team really makes the difference. The addition of an extremely tough Survivor/Horde mode adds longevity, it's a nice little bonus but the three maps are once again, bland and repetitive.
Alien Breed is a bore for one but fun in a pair – grab a friend and you may enjoy the seven hours but even so I can only award Alien Breed 3 Descent a score of six out of ten.
Click here to buy Alien Breed Trilogy on Xbox360 from Amazon.