Written by: Alex

 

 

 

I never owned the original Alien Breed. I remember enviously eyeing those with Amigas who were able to play it as I sat with my Atari ST. In retrospect it was really just a top down shooter inhabited by enemies reminiscent of the H.G. Giger’s Alien.

 

Yet despite its cookie cutter gameplay it managed to rise above the crowd thanks to its level design and dark atmosphere. 

 

Upon the announcement of "Alien Breed Evolution" (a remake to the 1990 classic) using the Unreal 3 engine I was instantly reminded of the fantastic Shadow Complex, a game that took classic game design and recreated with a modern gloss. I was excited to see what this new realization of the Amiga classic would bring, especially in the hand of it original designers Team 17.

 

If you have played Dead Space the Alien Breed Evolution will seem familiar. I took the role of a really heavily armed engineer, trapped on a starship that was overrun by hostile aliens with a thirst for my blood. Initially all I knew was that the ship had collided with something and my job was to get the power systems under control to prevent the whole ship destroying self-destructing. In the process of these repairs it became apparent that something wrong as aliens start to pour throughout the ship.

 

Slowly I learnt more of what was happening around me, but all that ever really mattered was that I either mend part of the ship or rescue survivors, while swarms of aliens try and stop me. New information was usually imparted through comic book cut scenes, but a good portion also unfurled through small in game text that was coloured in way that made it near invisible. Luckily the vapid plot did little to grab my interests so I end up skipping the majority of this near unreadable text.

 

By virtue of the 360 platform, Alien Breed Evolution’s control mechanics have changed somewhat since the original game. With nothing but an 8-way joystick in the Amiga days players were forced to only shoot in the direction they were facing, a mechanic that resulted players either rushing recklessly towards an intended target or routed in place like a turret. With the dual analogue sticks 360 I however was given total freedom of movement and targeting with either stick.

 

 

As I moved through levels I was impressed by the way Alien Breed Evolution managed to spawn enemies from all around by creating new holes in the environment to justify the appearance of previously unseen aliens. Coming in numerous shapes and sizes these creatures were typically not that hard to see off. Problems only really arose (on the easier difficulties at least) when I tried to perform a non-combat action. Be it opening lockers or activating consoles, I was forced to constantly wait as my action bar slowly filled. Any damage while engaged in such a task results in it resetting. Initially I though this would prove to form a balance between safety and speed, with a trade off having to be made. In actuality this resulted in me simply having to annihilate all opposition before trying to achieve the task at hand. Once this realisation was made, the tension was instantly relieved.

 

Alien Breed Evolution’s reliance on its objectives is its downfall. Team 17’s designers set about constructing tasks in which they are constantly the goal posts and expecting the player to run over excitedly from one to the next. I understand their reason for doing so, by following the waypoints I was able to see every corner of the beautiful ship, but for me despite eventually reaching new areas the retreading of old ground in the middle fast became tiresome. It feels like the designers sacrificed straightforward gameplay in favour of showing off how impressive their creation was, a choice that ultimately harms the game.

 

 

Taking me on a merry dance around the objectives was a problem compounded by a lack of visual cues to the next objective. With very little onscreen to prompt me, I became reliant on my tiny HUD radar. Without this I would have been lost for the majority of the game, but the downside was that I spent most of my time with my eyes locked on the tiny radar. This HUD prompt didn’t only offer me a route to my next objective though; it also served as an alien sensor, forewarning me of any unwanted visitor. By adding an early warning to aliens presence, the huge bug like monsters were robbed of any ability to sneak up on me, and thus any chance to capitalise on the frightening atmosphere the environments created.