Sep 16, 2011
Isometric camera view + Dead Space = Alien Breed: Impact
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Pros:
+Good graphics and environments have depth
+Decent audio with a good soundtrack
+Co-op adds a bit of replay value
+Well done lighting effects
+Upgrades visibly show up on weapons
Cons:
-Special effects are more distracting than pleasing to the eye
-Presentation of cutscenes and menus are annoying
-Camera rotation is stiff and shaking detracts from gameplay/atmosphere
-No visible gauge for sprinting
-Clunky animation
-Framerate drops at times
-Odd control and design choices
-Enemies move a bit too quick to avoid successfully
-Mini-map is useless
-Hit detection is unbalanced
-Missions get repetitive quickly
-HUD is hard to see in some environments
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Team17’s series has come a long way from where it started, but not very far from its roots. It still retains a lot of what the old shooter was built upon and, at the same time, borrowed a lot from the likes of Dead Space.
Enter Conrad, the engineer that knows his way around the alien infested ship, lined with corpses, and can fix a number of things, as he fights off swarms of human dismembering hostiles in an attempt to save the day. I can’t say it had a very strong plot or story elements. Not once did I ever care about those I was saving or give a second thought about those I did.
You’re constantly in contact with Mia, however, who will be your guide and help you on your way mission to mission. And, outside of Conrad, she’s the only one that really has more than five lines of dialogue throughout the game.
At its core, Alien Breed: Impact is an arcade shooter, with a top-down camera view, that gives you generic weaponry and tosses tons of aliens at you with many different abilities. However, its plagued with many issues ranging from unintentional to just odd. To touch upon a few, enemy hit detection is unbalanced. Half your bullets will go to waste flying by enemies, while enemies themselves will hit you without any sort of attack animation. Melee strikes you input come off as clunky and getting caught on the scenery, debris and otherwise, is commonplace. You can also get stuck on enemies and, if they surround you, will keep you from moving and quickly cause your death.
Another annoyance is how you interact with objects. You’re tasked with holding down the X button until a gauge completely fills. It’s a braindead action that demands no skill or thought whatsoever and simply wastes time. If there was some sort of mini-game involved it would get you involved with the game’s tasks and events. Furthermore you have to do it with every single interactable item in the game including activating computers, searching lockers/dead bodies and even activating the store/save point. I still can’t figure out why I have to hold down the X button for 3 or 4 seconds to activate the store.
Missions are also a chore and a bore, almost exclusively following a formulaic trend. You have a primary objective, but usually when you go to do said objective, one or two things stand in your way. So you do those one or two things, then your primary object. Lather, rinse, repeat. And, almost every mission, save one escort mission, is a fetch quest of sorts.
Other than those gripes, the game controls well, but the lack of custom controls is a bit of a letdown.
For a downloadable title, the environments have a great amount of detail and, more importantly, depth. However character models are lazy and enemies uninspired. Its environments draw a lot from this to be very atmospheric, but again, there are issues with this. The game constantly has explosions triggering around the ship that are simply for effect, but they’re a major distraction when coupled with constant screen jerking. I found it hard to aim, at times, read a situation, or even look around for items. I even missed out on dialogue a few times due to the explosions and screen shaking.
Menus seem to suffer from this same dilemma. They utilize a stylish static effect to make it look like a computer that’s on the fritz, but its, again, more distracting than aesthetic. I found it hard to follow the action, navigate menus and sometimes even see the HUD in some environments.
Alien Breed also has co-op, both online and local, that allows two players to make their way through three levels featuring areas from the single player campaign. Its not much, but its fun. Besides this, there’s also leaderboards and plenty of trophies to unlock, including a platinum. But outside of those things, the game is still pretty short, clocking in at around 4 hours and spanning five stages with quite a bit of wandering about.
All in all, it’s a decent game, but a game I wouldn’t spend any more than $10 bucks to own. What it does, it does right, even if it’s a bit rough around the edges and you can almost swear Team17 was playing Dead Space while making the game. But if you’re lookin’ for a decent pick up and play shooter, you can’t go wrong with Alien Breed: Impact… you can, however, do better.
This review was based upon playing the entire single player campaign, with some light dilly dallying, obtaining nearly all trophies and playing a few co-op levels, clocking in at about 4 hours.
RATING: 6/10
Developer: Team17
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Platform: PS3
# of Players: 1-2
Online: Yes
Trophies: 27 Offline/0 Online
Install: 1.2GB