Title Alpha Prime Date 01.07.2008 Genre FPS Platform PC Developer Black Element Publisher Meridian 4

I'll start off by saying that this is a decent game. Nothing particularly innovative or ground-breaking, but its well put together overall.

The graphics are nice, and the engine is extremely well optimized-- I have only a Radeon X800 GTO and I was able to run everything on max settings at 1024x768. Sound also works decently-- music is pretty good; everything more or less sounds the way I'd expect it to. I do wish the soldiers wouldn't always say exactly the same thing when they die. Hearing "Ah, ah, ow!" gets a little old after the 12th time or so.

Weapons are fairly basic FPS fare. The flame-thrower is pretty average-- I kind of expected something that would actually ignite enemies. The assault rifle also is kind of gimpy; I spent most of the game using the shotgun.

Enemy AI is decent, though I note there does not seem to be locational damage except for ragdoll purposes (or if there is it's not enough to really make much of a difference). I was particularly impressed how enemies will try to run behind you and shoot you in the back sometimes.

Story is so-so. Not great, but not bad either. I really liked the effort the writers went into to try to keep you paranoid and wondering who to trust. Replayability, well... sadly, not much reason to. Once you've played all ten levels you've pretty much seen everything. And no multi either.

The RCON is a nice gimmick; I wish there were more ways to use it, i.e. taking over robots and so forth. The thing I liked most about Alpha Prime was its complicated and adult storyline, rarely seen in shooters these days. I also liked the music and ambient sounds. I felt the direct sounds such as weapons and AI noises were fairly basic however, but not too much so.

This game could have been so much more if it wasn't so mainstream. Hopefully, the creators can pull another game that rights all the wrongs in this game. I will be looking forward to their next publication. I recommend this game to another with an average system who wants to play on high settings or to someone who likes a good story.

Level design is decent, and for the most part laid out like one might expect a mining asteroid to be. I was pleased to see that the gravity, in keeping with one might expect on an asteroid, is lower than average. I would note that technically it should be even lower than it is, but it would be rather detrimental to gameplay if the player could jump outdoors and achieve escape velocity.

All in all, a solid title. I hope to see more from the same team, hopefully something longer and more involved.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Contributed