Title Alien Shooter: Vengeance Date 06.07.2007 Genre Top-down Shooter Platform Wii Developer Nautilus Publisher CDV

Alien Shooter: Vengeance is a surprise low profile hit from the not-so-famous developer Sigma Team and publisher CDV Software. At least I myself hadn't heard about these people until I picked up this strange looking, retro inspired shooter with little pinches of RPG-like character management. I obliged myself to try something different and give this one a try and boy am I glad I did! Here’s a quick review for those of you who have seen this little gem on the shelves but still can't decide.

GRAPHICS
In this day and age of Unreal Engine powered games and unbelievably realistic shooters, Alien Shooter: Vengeance hasn't got much to say. Now don't get me wrong because for a top-down shooter game with tons (and I mean TONS!) of aliens attacking you all at the same time, this one manages not only to look absolutely great in an old school way but also keep up a steady frame-rate even though you are literally shooting, blowing up, burning and vaporizing sometimes up to 200 aliens on-screen at once! The environments (especially the outdoor ones) look absolutely stunning for such a low-budget game. The lighting effects are also top notch and although almost 80% of the game takes place in the dark with only your trusty pocket flash light on your side, the graphics engine manages to pull out one heck of a great-looking, Doom inspired look for itself.

Just look at some screen shots and you're sure to notice all that blood all over the levels. That's because every alien you kill, leaves a huge amount of blood and guts pouring unto the ground and once you finish with a level, you'll see nothing but the color red everywhere around you. simply outstanding and satisfying after a hard battle with hundreds of aliens. The explosion effects are also good looking. You can also turn the blood color to green if it annoys you for some strange reason. My only gripe from the graphics is the characters and aliens themselves. Although they look decent but they animate very stiffly and it's like they've got only 5 frames for their whole animations. I guess the developers spent all the time on making the environments and the action look good.

SOUND
Since the game is a throwback to the good old top-down shooter days, there's not much to the music but a few heavy sounding, techno-like rhythms which play whenever the action heats up and quiets down whenever the game wants to give you that quiet, calm feeling before throwing another alien army at you in the next room. I don't think the music really plays any role in this game since all you'll hear is "bang bang boom boom ratatatatatata". The voice acting is done few and far between but it does a fine job and doesn't sound cheesy at all.

The only problem with the sound is the sound effects themselves. 90% of the aliens sound the same and the weapon sounds are also highly muffled. I don't know whether the developers did this to cut short on the CPU usage so they could deliver a steady frame rate with all that shooting going down. on the whole, the game sounds decent and it shall not annoy you.

STORY
Errr... not much of a story here (like you really need one to be able to blast away millions of Aliens). You work as a newly-hired mercenary for a company called MAGMA Energy Corp. And it's your duty to kill the alien beings which have taken over some kind of a secret facility. And you know what? You’ll be saying "whatever" to the story by the time the shooting begins.

CONTROLS
Nothing you can't manage here. You run around with the W,A,S and D keys and you aim and face the direction where your mouse points. If you've played a First person shooter before, this is exactly the same; only from the top down view of the action. Flawless.

GAMEPLAY
Alien Shooter: Vengeance makes games like Serious Sam I & II look like barren, deserted islands with nothing to do in them. Yes it's that intense. As I mentioned before, you'll be fighting off against hundreds and hundreds of alien creatures at the same time. The action is hard-boiled and satisfying. Although it does get a little old after 5 or 6 hours but even then you'll be coming back to get rid of some more alien infestation every once in a while. And I should also mention the light hearted RPG-like character development system which allows you level up your character's status (including life, strength, weapon expertise, speed, and etc.) and also choose a special ability for the character you choose. For example, you can choose your character to see in the dark without needing any flashlights or have super strength or accuracy and some other powers.

This really expands the game to a higher level of variety. You can also buy weapons and ammo which are several types like pistols, shotguns, automatics, exploding and rocket launchers and energy guns and the more money you collect, the better weapons you can buy. Sadly, you don't have any grenades which could have been very useful in tight situations. You can also buy better flashlights, drones (which hover around you and help you even the odds by shooting the aliens automatically) and some other items. It is certainly a nice and easy-to-use system which deepens the game's "just run and kill anything that moves" attitude. The missions are all about going somewhere in a complex (or outside it) to fetch something, activate a computer and kill all the aliens which lurk there on the way. Pretty standard excuses for blowing some more aliens up. You'll also get to drive vehicles with mounted machine guns which spice up the game.

To sum up the gameplay, you have to like these kinds of games to fully enjoy it. The almost dead-brain "kill everything that moves" gameplay may prove to frustrate people who like to do something different every once in a while but I promise you the action is so satisfying that you'll love it anyway.

LONGEVITY
With 3 kinds of gameplay modes and the RPG elements found plus up to 8 characters to play as each with different stats, this one will stay on your computer for quite some time because it really works as a great stress relieve! You can choose a level to jump in and play if you've finished it before on the campaign will tons of hidden areas to find. You can also play the survival mode in which, as the name illuminates, you have to survive as long as you can against armies and armies of vicious aliens trying to kill you. Oh and the multiplayer which supports LAN only, is a great addition and a reason to team up with your buddies to kill some ugly aliens and have infinite fun while doing it.

LAST WORD
The love that has been put in this budget game can almost be felt. Sigma Games have made a retro shooter which stays strongly true to its roots. It all depends on the person who wants to buy.

If you're the kind of gamer who likes to think and use your brain in a game or solve puzzles or make complex decisions and character updating then stay away from this game unless you can accept it for what it is and not be disappointed that the RPG elements are too easy and only skin-deep.

But if you're the kind of gamer who enjoys killing lots and lots and LOTS of alien creatures in a variety of ways without doing much else while drowning in waves and waves of excellent looking and feeling nostalgia, then this is the exact game you've been waiting for; an excellent reminder of the good old days.

Game Score

B+

Reviewed By: Contributed