Game review: Alien Breed: Impact - PC (From News Shopper)

Game review: Alien Breed: Impact - PC

10:26am Monday 23rd August 2010 in

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I never played Alien Breed. It was one of those games before my time, but which left a legacy I am familiar with.

The original game – an isometric shooter born of the Alien-mania of the late 80s – was a big hit for the Amiga, full to the brim with all the alien blasting a Cameron fanboy could want.

This version – an updated, bulkier shooter along the same line of its predecessor – is aptly named. It makes quite an impact straight away, and is an excellent evolution of the original game, but rather than evolving into some new, exciting form, instead it seems to have merely grown a few pointless, shiny spines.

Ok, enough of the Darwinian rubbish. To put it simply, Alien Breed: Impact is a slightly more streamlined version of Alien Breed: Evolution (the first re-release of the game), which is a more modern version of Alien Breed (the Amiga classic).

That’s not to say it’s a bad game – far from it. It’s just all been done before.

Though Team 17 – the creative minds behind the seminal blast-em-up Worms – are behind this iteration of the legendary title, the game itself is a pretty standard corridor shooter.

The game centres around the starship Leopold and the adventures of feckless engineer Theodore J. Conrad. The ship, which gets rammed by a mysterious ‘ghost ship’ in the prologue, is quickly infested by aliens of all colours, forcing Conrad to take arms against these invaders and fight to save his life. He is assisted by an android, Mia, who provides advice and navigation.

That’s about as far as the game’s plot goes, but as the rest of the game revolves around shooting neverending tides of aliens in the corridors of the Leopold, that’s no bad thing.

The action is fast-paced and intense and plays a little like Contra, but from an isometric perspective.

The camera is under player control, which is pretty useful at times when enemies are swarming you from all directions, and the game does a good job of leading you through the various simple tasks assigned to Conrad.

The weapons on offer include the usual variety off assault rifles, shotguns, grenades and alien weapons, and it’s immensely satisfying to mow down the enemy with bolts of green energy.

The aliens creep and crawl from every vent and grate, and though hardly a survival horror, the game throws up the occasional scare at points, especially when the game’s reasonable graphics takes you into an area of the Leopold which has lost all power – forcing Conrad to use his torch to get from bulkhead A to airlock B.

Graphically the game is very bright and vibrant, and the action paints the scenery in glow-in-the-dark alien blood at pace. This is backed up by an intuitive and clever control system – it’s similar to the original’s arcade style, and is easy to get to grips with.

The game also includes a co-op story mode, and a Gears of War-style Horde-alike mode, but they’re pretty badly implemented and don’t bring a lot to the experience.

All in all, Alien Breed: Impact is a decent shooter, if a little derivative and repetitive. The visuals are bright and vibrant and the action has a cracking pace, but the weak plot and the lack of variety scuppers it a little. If you’re an old-school Alien Breed fan, it’s probably worth a look.

Score: 7/10

Good Stuff:
- Old-school blasting action
- Pick-up-and-play simplicity

Not So Good Stuff:
- Repetitive objectives
- Dull story

Alien Breed: Impact is out now on Steam, Xbox Live and PSN.