Regardless of how good the actual game is, the title of the game is muck. “Alien Breed” reminds me of a farm that reproduces ET-like creatures and sells them on. Now I don’t mean to use a generic phrase, but first impressions count, right? I definitely think that Alien Breed could do with a better title. Considering that the original is many years old, and calling it something different in its Xbox Live Arcade resurrection would be nothing short of disrespect.
Let’s look past the title, as that has nothing to do with the game, nor does the title reflect on the actual quality of the game. Right now, I’ve just finished playing Alien Breed and I’m nothing short of impressed. The first time I played this, I was put off for one main reason: The first ten minutes of this game is an entertainment car crash–it’s just so boring. It teaches you nothing beneficial about the game, but at the same time feels like a long tutorial.
Once you get past that–and sometimes if you get past that–stage, then it’s plain sailing; this is where the game really delivers. The story, albeit a good one, gets off to a jumpy start. There isn’t much information, but once you play through the game a bit, it starts to become a little bit more obvious. What you patch together at the start is that the protagonist’s–Leopold’s–ship collided with another ship in which aliens came aboard Leopold’s ship and killed everyone. Remember when I said the story gets off to a jumpy start? Anyway, it’s your job to take over these pesky little aliens and save your ship.
Rare occasions like this show off the games beautiful visuals.
You start off on your own, in a very dark part of the ship. The darkness level was intended by the developer to set the mood, but I must say it borders on irritating. You’ll keep walking into things, you won’t be able to make out much and you’ll probably stop playing in annoyance. Once you start playing, you’ll realise one of your recurring tasks is to fix anything electrical that the aliens have sabotaged. This may become quite boring, as you’ll have to fix these things a lot: consider yourself warned.
If you’re this far into the review, you’re probably thinking, “Wow, this game must be really bad.” Well, you’d be quite wrong; the game isn’t all that bad, and while there seems like a lot of negatives, there are a lot of upsides too.
The biggest upside of all is the gameplay aspect. If you were to root out your old copy of the original Alien Breed and play it, the gameplay would feel comparatively bad and dated; Team17 have done a marvelous job at recreating the top-down shooter formula for today’s gamers. Not only does it have the same spark as the original, but it also adds a whirl to the mix to make the game work.
The weapons are definitely an improvement. I personally love the flamethrower; I will even go out on a limb and say it’s the best weapon in the game. It’s visually beautiful when in use and has some amazing effects. As you progress through the game, you’ll be introduced to some new and–I won’t go as far as saying exciting–interesting new enemies.
The original wasn’t exactly a classic. I won’t do the used-way-too-often quote that goes something like “The original was a drop dead amazing game!” because it isn’t true; it wasn’t a great game. However, this one is much better. It isn’t exactly hard to be better but there we go–Team17 did come back, and remake their classic top down shooter that fans have been crying out to have for years.
[review pros="Great visuals, improved weapons" cons="Too many errands" score="78"]
