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You just have to respect a game that calls itself Alien Shooter. It’s the sort of no nonsense no fuss title that shows a strong sense of purpose and a lack of pretense. However, it’s also the kind of name you might be inclined to ignore, and that’d be a shame, because this game is full of everything you look for in a budget title: simplicity, addictiveness, and fun factor.

Bring On the Aliens

There’s a storyline here that has something to do with aliens, as well as some vague allusions at a romantic interest and of course the whole macho notion of saving the world single handedly. It’s the typical stuff and frankly it’s all unimportant. The story is told through some mostly terrible and generally nonsensical voiceovers that are better skipped. All you need to know is this: kill everything that moves.

Alien Shooter: Vengence is best described as Diablo with high-tech weaponry. It’s a dungeon crawler at heart, though here the dungeons are high-tech underground research facilities and the like. You start off dealing with a minor alien menace; little creepy-crawlies easily dispatched with your sidearm. But, after a few hours of gameplay you’ll be facing squads of rocket launcher wielding theoropods that require rather more firepower to put down.

It’s the eternal progression of experience earned leading to better skills leading to better toys leading to more powerful enemies. Here you’ll gain experience that earns you skill points to spend on common attributes like strength, stamina, and intelligence. However, you can also spend them on improving your proficiency with certain types of weapons. So, whereas in Diablo you chose between classes like Warrior or Rogue, here you’ll effectively choose between being an up close and dirty shotgun guy or someone who sits back and sprays with an automatic.

You’re not necessarily locked into any of these classes and you’re free to play around with whatever class you like, but you’re better off picking one or two specialties and sticking with them, because the most advanced weapons require high skill levels to equip and you’ll surely want to be playing with those when the time comes.

A Man and His Toys

Just like in most RPGs you’ll find and purchase a whole raft of goodies to equip and use throughout the course of this game. Most important of course are the weapons, which range from flare guns all the way up to rocket launchers, chain guns, and some rather more exotic energy-based stuff. Armor, of course, also is of a huge importance, because despite being able to turn yourself into a one man arsenal, there will be times when you’re swarmed by so many critters no amount of firepower will keep you clear.

As you progress through the game you’ll earn the money and rights to wear more and more powerful armor that will stave off more and more damage. Plus, you’ll be able to purchase medkits and the like to refill your health. Then there are gradually more powerful flashlights to illuminate the darkness, a radar system to tell you where the critters are, and even floating robotic droids that will cover your back when you’re busy covering your front.

All these items become unlocked as your skills increase throughout the game’s campaign. While it’s not an incredibly long one (most will clear it in under 10 hours), the gameplay here is so surprisingly addicting this is one of those games that you will honestly want to play twice. Additionally there is a survival gameplay mode that throws you into a confined space and asks you to survive for as long as you can while gradually being given more and more powerful guns. Typically this sort of mode is entirely forgettable, but here it’s fun, playing almost like Robotron as you face off against wave after wave of enemies. Finally, there is a multiplayer mode, but with nary a soul online to play against, this one will almost certainly be a solo experience.

Simple Look and Feel

Despite its addictive gameplay this game will always take the time to remind you that it is indeed a budget title. The menus, while functional, are a little gritty. The voiceover work is passable but the dialog is awful and the storyline meaningless anyhow. The game has a sort of Doom-esque shareware sound to it, with a number of sound effects familiar from other similarly low budget games, and everything wrapped in some predictable heavy metal riffs.

If there’s one thing that will impress it’s the graphics. They’re far from Half-Life 2 territory and won’t awe anyone, but with all the sliders turned to the max (sadly resulting in a mediocre 1024x768 maximum resolution) it is a good looking game with large explosions and nice dynamic lighting effects. Best of all, though, are its low system demands. With a screenful of critters and a dozen rockets in the air the frame rates never drop, even on somewhat tired old hardware.

Incredible Bang for the Buck

In terms of fun factor, it doesn’t get much better than this. The game is definitely rough around the edges in a number of places and its slim production values often show through the seams of the otherwise lovely game engine, but none of that really matters. If you like shooting stuff, you will love this game.

Article by: Tim Stevens
Video produced by: Rob Manuel