In this article, I will make a short review of this game and in my future article I will come back with some conclusions. The new series of this game is called Impact and is the continuation of Evolution. It seems that it became a habit that all producers of games to return to their days of glory, the new fashion in the industry being to produce and to relaunch new series of games because they had success in the past. Team17 (the parents of the Worms, very popular in the previous series) does not make an exception, focusing to a classic of the company – Alien Breed series.
For those who do not know the early ’90s, Alien Breed was a top-down shooter, first released for Amiga and then for PC, whose action was based on the Aliens movies, without using an official license. The recipe was a success, Alien Breed series on the platforms called Amiga continuing until mid last decade of the twentieth century. Recently, with the popularization of the current generation of consoles, and digital distribution systems, Team17 has focused their attention to Alien Breed, Xbox Live receiving in December of last year the first modern episode of the series, called Alien Breed: Evolution.
But the game had some problems, being criticised in this community by its fans. The manufacturers have taken these criticisms into account, designing Alien Breed: Impact as an improved version of Evolution, this time for PC and PlayStation 3 platforms. In what follows, we focus our attention on the PC version, which has appeared only via Steam on June.
In large part, Impact shows quite accurately the game mechanics that made popular the first series. It uses an isometric camera, which the player can rotate using the mouse or keys: Q and E. In the first stage, the camera orientation will be a very uncomfortable process, turning only when the mouse cursor is gone at the edges of the screen. After a short adjustment period, the control room with the mouse will become more comfortable and clearly superior to the limitations at 45 degrees, present when using the keyboard or the controller.
Using the classic WASD buttons, you can move the character through the game environment, the weapon being used with the help of the mouse cursor. Overall, the control system is ok, even if it requires a brief adjustment period. However, there are few options in the menu, such as alternate mouse aim, which does not work not even after the developing the first patch of the game.
The story of Alien Breed: Impact is very simple: the Leopold spaceship gets attached to a ghost ship, much larger, many being invaded by hostile alien creatures. The player enters the skin of engineer Conrad, who, together with the artificial intelligence on Leopold is trying to save as much as possible the situation. The narrative component of Impact is told through short movies between levels.
These sequences are made in the form of comic characters and the lines seem to be performed by experienced actors. Given the game genre, Impact offers thus a sufficient narrative motivation to convince the players to go through the entire single player campaign.
It consists of five missions, pretty consistent, each requiring at least an hour to complete. However, the levels of Alien Breed: Impact are not just linear, Conrad steps being carried through all the sectors of Leopold when trying to disable the various obstacles which stops his progress. The backtracking does not become boring, the sequences being scripted so that new hordes of aliens to attack at different times of the game.
The objectives range from repairing certain air purification systems, activating fire appliances to saving the greenhouse gas leak on Leopold. Conrad will be constantly attacked by various types of aliens, of almost all sizes, all reaching the highest point with the battle against the final boss, pretty simple once there are remembered the routines of this kind of attack. Too bad there were not placed more such bosses, enemies, Alien Breed: Impact becoming somewhat predictable after a few hours of gameplay.
Against them, Conrad may use a number of weapons, which start from a simple pistol, assault rifle and through shotgun get to something more exotic instruments such as laser guns or flame throwers. The ammunition for these weapons can be found either walking or digging in all the corners of the Leopold spaceship. Alternatively, there can be used some upgrade stations, which allow, in addition to acquiring more amunition, the application of certain upgrades for the weapons in the inventory.
Moreover, it is one of the obvious improvements made to Evolution, the Xbox 360 version of the game having some of these upgrades. They come in three variations: the increased power of fire, the reduction of the time required for recharging a weapon and speeding the fire. Beware, however, you cannot apply two or more upgrades to weapons simultaneously. If you install a second upgrade on the same weapon, the first will be lost forever. Besides weapons, Conrad has available a number of items, such as different types of grenades (STUN, fragmentation, etc..) portable weapons and first aid kits. Their effect can be improved using the upgrade stations, which are used to save the game.
