copyright © Jedo Dre 2011

Alien Trilogy



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Impact: Memorable

Alien Trilogy is a dark game that is an obvious marketing decision following the movie trilogy. It's a standard first-person shooter with little original content in the gameplay. The first cutscene shows the marine team being wiped out and Ripley going in alone (yes that's what you do when a team of heavily armed marines gets slaughtered, you go and do their job alone with whatever you have on you). The old gameplay formula is simple: start with a weak weapon, kill a couple of enemies, find keys to open doors, find a better weapon, meet more and stronger enemies, find more keys, etc.


The game stays true to the movies, and a fan can recognize a lot of items and sounds. The trusty radar gives out a high frequency sound as it sends out impulses, the good old rail gun gives off the same flat rapid fire sound, and the hybernation pods open with the same humming noise. Standalone however, the gameplay is far from perfect. The mentioned above radar doesn't actually work nearly as well as it does in the movies (remember boys, deffective equipment - soldier's enemy number one). It only reports enemies when they spawn and jump right in front of you. In fact, sometimes my have eyes already detected aliens in front of me while the radar was still blank. This is just one of the examples that reveals the unpolished overall look of the game. Developers just didn't bother too much.


Graphics


Speaking of looks, at the time of its release, Alien Trilogy doesn't shine with graphics. There aren't many 3D models. Most of the stuff is drawn and colors are dull. You can get tired after all those corridors. However, this somehow works into the game's advantage. The game has a very sinister and dark feel to it, just like the movies did. There are few cutscenes, but those that are there are well made indeed. Sound


Developers didn't bother putting more sounds in the game than it was necessary...actually they didn't do that quite well either. Sound scheme feels a bit primitive, but the same as with graphics, it manages to do its job. In fact sound is one thing I remeber about the game more than anything else. A constant pulsing sound of the radar combined with the alien voice and a dark soundtrack create quite an impression. Conclusion


AT allows you to kill a bunch of scary aliens from the Alien movie series. That's about it. It is not shining with anything in particular, but somehow this dark shooter tends to make you want to come back and play it again.