A Review: Alien Breed, Amiga 1991
Alien Breed is a top-down 3rd-person horror shooter, developed and published by Team 17. This is the second ever title to come from the developers at Team 17, with the first being a game called Full Contact. The themes and looks for Alien Breed are heavily based on the Alien films, as well as the games Laser Squad and Paradroid from the 8-bit era of arcade games. The player is tasked with taking a marine and trying to discover why communications with a starbase have ceased, much like in the plot of Alien. Collecting credits and weapons upgrades along the way, so that they can deal with the increasingly powerful hordes of alien creatures.
When released, this game caused quite a lot of controversy due to some of the themes and, more specifically, the cheat codes that could be typed into in-game 'Intex' consoles. Such as 'I EAT PITBULLS FOR FUCKING BREAKFAST MATE' which would give the player seven additional lives. These codes only got worse and caused quite a stir among censorship and anti-game groups of the time, stating that there was no reason a game should ever have such foul language in it. Alien Breed received a makeover in a 1992 special edition that had expanded levels and better graphics, which became wildly popular and stayed in the UK software charts for more than a year.
I found that my experience with alien breeds was mixed at best. I loved the nostalgia and found the harsh gameplay to be both fun and rewarding, but there were issues for me that I couldn't ignore. The game would bug visually, with sections of some of the levels stuttering and jittering before the game crashed out to DOS completely. There was also a bug that stopped the player from being able to buy items from the 'Intex' consoles, no matter how much money they had. There were random crashes and game breaks for seemingly no reason sometimes, which was annoying and frustrating. There was also a complete lack of checkpoints or a save feature too; this was the icing on the rage cake for me and had me constantly worrying as to when the next crash or break would occur. As can be guessed, this tension spoiled the gameplay for me and turned completing Alien Breed into something of a chore rather than an enjoyable experience. The AI was a little too simple, with me being able to outsmart the enemy's by simply hugging walls. While it might have been funny to watch an alien lick walls for a few minutes, it quickly got old. The novelty also soon wore off when you'd get attacked by a group of them that had all mushed into one sprite tile without you realizing it. I also found that there was a problem maintaining stable frames when there were more than five aliens on screen at once. This problem also grew to an almost game-breaking point when fighting the bosses, reducing play to a stuttering mess. The dark/blackout sections of the game were horrid, and I quit playing due to not being able to progress more than once for my own sanity. It's a shame, as the bugs and general gameplay issues sucked the fun out of this game for me. Alien Breed had all the components of a really addictive and engaging game there; it is just that Team 17 couldn't quite get everything to gel quite right, in my opinion.
Visually, this is where Alien Breed saved some face (ha, visual pun funny!). The levels were attractive, and the industrial, dark vibe was atmospheric and well portrayed. I liked the sprites for in-game objects, and the gloom and shadowing were very nicely done, if not rage-inducing from a play point of view. The ship that the player arrived in looked cool, and the end-of-stage explosions were pretty awesome for such an old game. I did find it all too easy to miss the 'Intex' consoles come the later levels and would have liked them to 'pop' a bit more. The bosses were cool, though, and you could see that a lot of effort went into their drawing. The props and objects around the levels looked awesome, and I really liked the blood splatters and smears here and there. I felt this really added to the dark, desperate feel of the game.
Overall, an okay-looking game, but one that suffered from numerous gameplay faults, bugs, and issues.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
When released, this game caused quite a lot of controversy due to some of the themes and, more specifically, the cheat codes that could be typed into in-game 'Intex' consoles. Such as 'I EAT PITBULLS FOR FUCKING BREAKFAST MATE' which would give the player seven additional lives. These codes only got worse and caused quite a stir among censorship and anti-game groups of the time, stating that there was no reason a game should ever have such foul language in it. Alien Breed received a makeover in a 1992 special edition that had expanded levels and better graphics, which became wildly popular and stayed in the UK software charts for more than a year.
I found that my experience with alien breeds was mixed at best. I loved the nostalgia and found the harsh gameplay to be both fun and rewarding, but there were issues for me that I couldn't ignore. The game would bug visually, with sections of some of the levels stuttering and jittering before the game crashed out to DOS completely. There was also a bug that stopped the player from being able to buy items from the 'Intex' consoles, no matter how much money they had. There were random crashes and game breaks for seemingly no reason sometimes, which was annoying and frustrating. There was also a complete lack of checkpoints or a save feature too; this was the icing on the rage cake for me and had me constantly worrying as to when the next crash or break would occur. As can be guessed, this tension spoiled the gameplay for me and turned completing Alien Breed into something of a chore rather than an enjoyable experience. The AI was a little too simple, with me being able to outsmart the enemy's by simply hugging walls. While it might have been funny to watch an alien lick walls for a few minutes, it quickly got old. The novelty also soon wore off when you'd get attacked by a group of them that had all mushed into one sprite tile without you realizing it. I also found that there was a problem maintaining stable frames when there were more than five aliens on screen at once. This problem also grew to an almost game-breaking point when fighting the bosses, reducing play to a stuttering mess. The dark/blackout sections of the game were horrid, and I quit playing due to not being able to progress more than once for my own sanity. It's a shame, as the bugs and general gameplay issues sucked the fun out of this game for me. Alien Breed had all the components of a really addictive and engaging game there; it is just that Team 17 couldn't quite get everything to gel quite right, in my opinion.
Visually, this is where Alien Breed saved some face (ha, visual pun funny!). The levels were attractive, and the industrial, dark vibe was atmospheric and well portrayed. I liked the sprites for in-game objects, and the gloom and shadowing were very nicely done, if not rage-inducing from a play point of view. The ship that the player arrived in looked cool, and the end-of-stage explosions were pretty awesome for such an old game. I did find it all too easy to miss the 'Intex' consoles come the later levels and would have liked them to 'pop' a bit more. The bosses were cool, though, and you could see that a lot of effort went into their drawing. The props and objects around the levels looked awesome, and I really liked the blood splatters and smears here and there. I felt this really added to the dark, desperate feel of the game.
Overall, an okay-looking game, but one that suffered from numerous gameplay faults, bugs, and issues.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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