Friday, August 13, 2010

Video game number two hundred and thirty four: Alien Breed Evolution

Video game review number two hundred and thirty four in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Alien Breed Evolution".

Alien Breed is one of those arcade games you may have missed if you weren't paying attention. It's (another) top down shooter....although at least this one isn't twin stick.

It's an overhead game that takes me back to the days of games like Crusader for the PC, and some of the other top down action games (Myst anyone?).

Your weapons are machine guns, shotguns, grenades and your fists. I completed the first level without using any special items (for an achievement) and I have to say...this game is incredibly "blah".

The entire first level consists of:
"Go turn off this reactor".
"Whoops, you need a key to open that door, so run back to the room you just came from and get that key."
"Got the key? Good...now go turn off another reactor".
"Now it's time to turn on the elevator. You turn that on by running back to the room you were just in and flipping an elevator switch".

Man...I hate these sort of games. None of the keys, switches or consoles you need to turn on seem to activate until you've already entered and left the room. I must have ran over the same parts of the map about three times each (no exaggeration) before I beat that level. It's supposed to be suspenseful (you're on a space station that is exploding)....but it ends up being incredibly boring and frustrating. Can you imagine if real life was like this on Thanksgiving day?

"You need to turn the oven on. Go to the living room to get the key".
"Got it? Good. Now, go back to the kitchen and use the key to turn on the oven."
"Good. Next, you'll need to open the fridge and take out the thawed turkey. To do that, you'll need a passcode for the fridge. That's in the garage".

Etc, etc, etc. You get the picture. I swear, this is just laziness from game developers who only want to design 8 screens, but also want you to feel like you've walked through 24 of them. It frustrates me to no end.

When you're not running back and forth doing mindless errands, you can mow enemies down, and I suppose that's ok...but there's no soul whatsoever to this game. The combat is just "there", you're not engaged or anything. It feels like something you might play on your phone or perhaps as a free download. Run, gather, shoot. I didn't know my character's name, I didn't know what the aliens were called...and I didn't really remember why my stupid space station was blowing up. I just wanted to beat the level and call it a day.

Overall? 4/10. Below average...there are much better arcade games out today, and I think you should go play one of those.

Achievements? I got two:

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