- Joined
- Jan 29, 2004
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OK, my first time reviewing anything, so let's see how it turns out. I'm not gonna get all professional on this, I just wanna share some info in a very laidback manner. Hopefully it will help some folks out 'cause for me this is a game you don't want to miss.
I saw this game on the shelf at a gamestop and wasn't sure what to think of it until someone here recommended it while talking about Turrican and games like it.
Where to begin? Well the game is published by Sega and developed by Wayfoward and Gearbox, it's 2D and it's kinda of a Metroidvania style game, not as outlandish as Castlevania 'cause it's a shorter game and not as involved as Metroid 'cause there's not a ton of itema nd upgrades to work with, however I feel this game has a perfect mix of exploration and action/survival that keeps you engaged for a pretty cool ride.
This game has a tremendous atmosphere, in truth that's what kept me interested most of the time. They kept the game enviroment very close to the ALIENS saga, lots of fan service including music, sound FX, weapons and gear.
Aside from that there's a very interesting way of presenting the story, it cuts to the chase very nicely but it adds variety to the dialogue depending on your current character, let me elaborate a bit; The Colonial Marines are all over the place and so you have a squad compossed of 4 members at your disposal, they are all basicaly identical in gameplay, however during the short dialogue passages they all have very distinctive personalities making them somewhat unique aside from the pallete swap on the gameplay sprite. The cool thing about this is that is not horribly intrusive with the gameplay, if you're doing a re-run you can skip all the talk by pressing start, that's pretty cool, I'm not a play for the story type of gamer, so it's a welcome feature for me.
Talking about the characters and all, not only are do they have different personalities, their protraits during dialogue are done by Chris Bachalo (Comic penciller @ MARVEL) and it brings a lot to the table 'cause the spites are basic and the dialogue seems more lively this way, I feel he did an outstanding job at keeping everyone very different, as much as different can go with a bunch of Colonial Marines that share the same type of gear.
So, as far as presentation this game has it in spades, not too much, not too little, it's just right.
The gameplay it's the meat of this game, it's great. You control one Colonial Marine and can switch to any of your squad members at any given save point. Save points are what you expect; Restore your ammo and health, save and move along. One of the unique features about this game is the fact that you only have 4 memers at all times, if one dies they are gone for the rest of the game, no more comebacks, however if you find yourself short a member and happen to run into one of the other COlonial Marines they'll join you, it's kinda like getting a life in a way. If you approach another sColonial Marine while you have all 4 members he won't join your squad.
OK moving on to the heart of the gameplay. This is a full 2D title with the Metroidvania formula however it's all about survival. You can't go head on 'cause you can die real fast. Your marine controls like you would expect. Here is the control set up.
Y: Fire (Hold Fire for locking fire direction while walking back and forth)
B: Jump
X: Alternate Fire (Grenades, Rockets and C4)
A: Roll (Stamina Bar consumption), Take Cover
L: 8-Way Aim, cannot walk or run during aiming.
R: Run (Stamina Bar consumption)
Stamina Bar: This bar depletes when you run and when you roll. I think the purpose of having a limited ability to run and roll is too keep the game fair and "scary".
Even though this is a Metroidvania game, the gameplay is pretty stright foward and you'll know where you can't go at certain points. In a way it's like Metroid where you need the boots to get to certain places and so on.
The best part about the game are the controls, the combat is good, at first it feels a bit odd but once you get the concept of the survival you begin to understand that each enemy must be killed with strategy and caution.
Sound, well...let's just say it follows the ALIENS saga score very closely so don't expect a superb OST but more like an atmospherical OST that fits the game pace nicely.
The game can be beaten fairly quick, perhaps not the first time around as you are new to the game, but once you beat it once you'll want to beat it again, I dunno, it happened to me and on my 3rd run and I'm loving it.
There are some aspects that I found lacking, specially on the replay department, but all in all this is a game that gamers that enjoy 2D and the Metroidvania games would like.
Here's the Official website with lots of info.
http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-infestation/
If I had to give this a score from 1 to 10, I'd say this is a solid 8. Where 10 is Super Metroid and 1 is Phantom 2040.
I'm hoping to keep doing more simple reviews liek this in the future so I hope this helps anyone interested and if you'd like to add something, please by all means.
Thanks for reading.
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