Earlier in the week, we took a first look at Alien Breed: Impact, the soon to come "enhanced" version of last year's Alien Breed: Evolution, the latest isometric shooting installment in the classic series.
Following up on that, today a demo has been released, along with the ability to pre-order -- both on Steam. Having given the demo a shot for you, I'm still not convinced the game has gone from "good to great" as some have been hoping -- it feels more like mediocre to good...maybe. Don't let that get you down though, as it definitely shows potential.
The demo consists of a brief level section in which you wander the halls of a darkened ship blasting a few kinds of aliens with an assault gun, pistol or flamethrower. As promised, there's looting to be had, and with your acquired credits, weapon upgrades too. Unfortunately, at least at this stage, the upgrades seem to be generic across all weapons (faster reloads, rapid fire, etc). The rapid fire upgrade for the assault gun proved satsifying, anyway, giving it that extra punch.
On Veteran difficulty, the brief demo proved far too easy -- Elite felt more like Normal, or at least circa 1990 Normal, by which I mean there's a real chance of dying if you don't watch yourself. Enemies are more aggressive, seem to deal more damage and have more health. On Veteran, they more or less just stand there like fodder.
While it seems it could be easy to write the game off and just go play something else, there was a sequence near the end where you're running across a bridge that proved thrilling, and what I hope the full game is about. So you're running across it, aliens pop out, parts of the bridge explode with some beautiful graphical effects, and the music is pumping. Other parts of the game felt kind of like a generic blastfest, while this felt like an action game, if you get my meaning.
Also worth noting is similar to The Scourge Project, co-op could be where the real fun is, as noted in our review. It's said the levels are specially designed and balanced so you will "definitely have to work together."
Anyway, it's $13.50 to pre-order (slight discount), so give the demo a shot if all this intrigues you. We should have the first review up next week ahead of the June 3 launch, if you're undecided.
Source:Press release
Alternate Source:Alien Breed: Impact on Steam
Sections:Console Games, PC Games, Sony Consoles
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