Alien Rage
Gameplay - 7
Presentaion - 6
Story/Creativity - 5
Lifespan - 6
6
I'm not sure where I stand with Alien Rage. I really enjoyed parts of it but I cant ignore some of its more glaring flaws. The story campaign was a blast to play but the narrative its self was generic and weak.
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The gameplay in Alien Rage is actually quite fun. I enjoyed the run and gun style of gameplay and was the biggest factor that kept me coming back. However this run and gun feel is only really present on the lowest difficulty. I began the game on the middle difficulty setting and found I was spending most of my time playing in cover. I caved and switched the difficulty to the lowest setting, and gosh that was a good choice. Before I knew it I was having a great time charging into rooms and blowing all the aliens to pieces. It’s not like I just ploughed through the rest of the game either, I still died a far bit. This however was from me approaching the enemies the wrong may by being to forceful and flirting with death a bit too much, as opposed to me being in the open for a second too long. Instead of getting frustrated when I died multiple times, I just grit my teeth and went again adapting to the situation. This change meant that my play sessions lasted a lot longer that before.
In prior session I’d play for maybe 30 minutes, get frustrated, then turn off, however on this time I played for hours. When played on this difficulty, Alien Rage is very addictive and enjoyable. There is also a point system from performing special kills like explosion kills and headshots. You can spend these points on getting upgrades that improve your health ammo etc. These upgrades help on the higher difficulties especially so you can stay alive longer.
One big part of Alien Rage’s story campaign is boss fights. There is one at the end of nearly every level and at the beginning of the game they all have the same run and gun feel as the levels (granted you’re on the right difficulty). A lot of intense circle strafing, spraying bullets and picking up on the bosses pattern is the main way you beat these bosses. The only thing is due to the lower difficulty the bosses were too easy especially some towards the end of the game. This is so annoying to me, the lower difficulty makes the main parts of the levels really fun but the boss fights too easy. On the higher difficulties the game is boring and reminded me of Call of Duty on veteran difficulty. You’re constantly in cover and if you come out for a second you get practically insta-killed.
Otherwise, Alien Rages gameplay shows a lot of potential but the style of gameplay the easiest difficulty brings is so much more fun than the one the middle difficulties bring.There is a multiplayer mode in Alien Rage, but it is very generic and bland. It’s very standard and generic if there is anyone playing it. Sure few people playing can be solved, but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to pursue it any further.
Alien Rage presents itself very well. The graphics are extremely well and run incredibly smoothly. There is some minor texture pop-in at the beginning of the levels but this goes away very quickly and the textures remain smooth for the rest of the level. The aliens you fight throughout the game, the Vorus, look very cool.
There are 5 different types of Vorus and they all look very unique and interesting. The Music in Alien Rage however, is very forgettable. The music is somewhat scarce during gameplay and the themes that do play have nothing to make them memorable or add to the atmosphere at all.
The story is so generic it’s actually funny. The basic premise is that, Prometheum, a valuable ore is being mined on a meteorite by the human race. Then the alien race known as the Vorus show up and begin mining too. Initially the two races play nice until inevitably a fight breaks out that results in full scale war. The humans get completely smashed by the Vorus, and as a last ditch effort, the humans send in Jack a space marine who for some profound reason is ten times more skilled than any other soldier. This really was odd to me. I understand that a soldier can be better than other soldiers, but you see dead human soldiers all around the levels for the games entirety, and I can’t help but wonder, why was Jack sent in alone and why can he seem to handle all these aliens when his fellow soldiers were dying like flies. Either the whole human army had IQ’s lower than their ages or Jack is way too good for the rank he is in.
To top it off you of course have 2 other people talking in your ear who make witty remarks during gameplay. Most of the humour falls flat and just takes away from the experience.
Alien Rage has a somewhat short lifespan. The point system I mentioned earlier gives the levels replayability, so you can go for higher scores. The main lifespan is found in the story mode as the multiplayer gets old fast. Since there are only so many times someone will replay the story before it gets boring, Alien Rages Lifespan isn’t too long.
Alien Rage shows so much potential but just falls flat of a higher rating. I enjoyed the singleplayer so much and I just wanted more of it to play. This section of the game is what CI Games needs to focus on. If they make the story better, add even more enemies and weapons and make it longer, Alien Rage could be a standout shooter.
Alien Rage is available on Steam for PC and will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3 in the coming weeks.