god of destiny Moderator
Number of posts : 2133 Age : 32 Job/hobbies : sending souls to hell Favorite word : Go to Hell Awards : Currenty playing : Dirge of Cerberus Registration date : 2007-12-15
| Subject: Alien Shooter: Vengeance Mon Apr 28, 2008 1:11 pm | |
| Metachronos overall score = 7.2 / 10 Positive - Great pace and intense action - Nicely revives a long-dead genre - Fantastic retro feel for nostalgia buffs Negative - One-note shooter - Maybe a bit too self-consciously retro for some Old-timers will quickly note that Alien Shooter: Vengeance resembles the two Crusader games, No Regret and No Remorse, that shot up DOS PCs way back in 1995 and 1996. For those of you who haven't got enough gray in your beard to remember that duo, the simple concept behind those games saw the viewing perspective of a standard kill-everything-that-moves FPS switched to an isometric, third-person camera. Sigma closely follows that template here, keeping the focus on the action but also adding some interesting, light squad tactics along with character creation and RPG elements similar to those seen in the likes of X-COM and Jagged Alliance. The story itself is pretty bare-bones. It's the postapocalyptic future, you're working as a mercenary for the MAGMA Energy Corporation (described as "the leader of many things energetical," whatever that means), and a lot of ugly aliens need to be blown away. Chances are you've heard this sort of thing a few times before. This skeletal framework is sufficient to support a game where you do little more than smear ET blood all over the walls, and Sigma has done great work with the RPG aspects of the game. Rolling up initial characters is spiced up with the ability to pick a special perk. These options are fairly limited, encompassing just eight different choices, but they include some nifty ideas modeled after what you could give your character in the Fallout games and are given similarly humorous descriptions. For instance, you can be a vampire, with the ability to suck health out of enemies, or a hypnotist, who gets to take over the minds of baddies. Beyond this, though, the RPG personality of the game is limited. After picking a perk, you choose from between eight premade characters, although at least during gameplay you level up and can apply experience points to buff typical shooter skills like the ability to use pistols, shotguns, and machine guns. The look and sound of the game are totally retro. While there are supposed to be more than 50 types of alien to shoot, most look like typical variations on praying mantises, slugs, and a couple that seem sort of like dinosaurs. Movement and animations are clumsy, although this ultimately helps reinforce the game's throwback flavor. Explosions are just fantastic, however, and colored lighting gives many levels a suitably eerie air. Audio is limited. When the lights go out or the doors close and you get gooned by a phalanx of bugs, you get the stereotypical driving heavy metal tunes that have accompanied shooter shooting since the early '90s. Other than that, though, the dialogue is as sparse and as roughly delivered as you'd find in an old Sega Genesis cart. Again, this seems entirely intentional, so you'll get a kick out of the sound if you remember playing games like this back in the day. You probably need to have the nostalgia gene to really get into Alien Shooter: Vengeance, but you don't have to be an old fogey to get some base-level enjoyment out of this gleeful shoot-'em-up. Look past the dumb name and give it a shot. | |
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Tymon Admin
Number of posts : 2411 Age : 30 Job/hobbies : Organizer of where people go when they enter hell Favorite word : WTF! Awards : None Currenty playing : Urban terror Registration date : 2007-12-09
| Subject: Re: Alien Shooter: Vengeance Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:47 am | |
| kina has old graphics but looks pretty good | |
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gamemaniac Ultimate User
Number of posts : 249 Age : 32 Job/hobbies : Tennis, Xbox 360 Awards : None Currenty playing : GTA IV Registration date : 2008-04-14
| Subject: Re: Alien Shooter: Vengeance Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:54 am | |
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| Subject: Re: Alien Shooter: Vengeance | |
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