Alien Breed: Impact is apparently a remake of a very old Amiga game, which is impressive. It probably takes nothing but a theme from the game, but it's great to see an old game get a remake.

Unfortunately, that's the last time I'll probably use the word great for Alien Breed: Impact, or really anything in this series.

It's not that these are awful games. They are technically good games, and functional. It's just the games themselves do nothing interesting or impressive in the least. The player goes between waypoints, presses A for a few seconds and then goes somewhere else. The whole time alien bugs are trying to kill him. He does this for five levels and there's a boss fight (A boss fight that was easy to not get hit during) and then the game is over.

While the game lasts 5 hours, I don't even know if I was truly interested in a full hour of the gameplay in total. The multiplayer is dead, but if you're not playing with someone I'm not sure if there's much reason to even play this game. The game is just doesn't do anything interesting after a level. You get more weapons but nothing even worth spoiler. They all operate about the same, and none feel that powerful.

The levels mostly start, to go to point A, get blocked, sidetrack to open a door, then go back, then get blocked again and sidetrack again, then come back. It's repetitive, but it's mostly just wave after wave of the same enemy. There are at least 6 or seven enemies in the game, but I really only remember 3 that constantly harass the player, and there's not much to tell there.

Is it a bad game? No, but it's not a good game. I don't know who I'd recommend this game to. Maybe someone who REALLY loves twin-stick shooters wants to shoot a lot of bugs over and over and has a lot of time on their hands. But really, I'm sure there are a few games that do it better than Alien Breed: Impact. Personally, I'd recommend Geometry wars, Everday Shooter, Beat Hazard, or HellDivers.

Note: I got this in a humble bundle I bought to get the Worm games which are also from Team 17, which I enjoy. This was an add-in that I was not planning on buying.

I can't seem to get on with this game. The controls were good, the graphics are okay, the overall feel is good.. It's just the huge amount of backtracking I've had to do so far that puts me off massively. I've completed the first mission and I just felt like it could have been around a 5 minute completion time if it wasn't for the fact that every time I would progress, the game would send me back a few minutes to activate something I've already passed previously.
Is it just a technique to make a small map feel bigger? Probably. But it got very boring very quickly.
I'm going to keep going at it, and if my feelings change I'll update this review accordingly. But for now I'll stick with changing the game's name to "Alien Breed: Backtrack".

I know it's been 7 years since the release but after buying the whole trilogy mostly out of nostalgia I had to write a review even after all these years. This review goes for all three games despite that initially I only played ep2 (check it in my library if you don't believe me). I upgraded the whole trilogy recently because of the cheap price and because of the name.

I am a huge fan of the original Amiga games. I played the floppy disc versions so much that my discs stopped working and I had to get replacements from the store (yes - floppys could malfunction after being used a lot). I was hyped when a new one was announced finally but unfortunately it disappoints. Not because of core gameplay - that is okay. nothing exceptional but very solid. It disappoints because of lack of polish:

1. Sound and Music.

This is my biggest gripe with the game. Everything feels like it's placeholder for an unfinished product. Speech is emotionless and is queued in game (and cutscenes) without any sense for timing or drama, whatsoever. Some effects are over the top while others are way too quiet. All the sounds are super minimal. Music is completely absent. It feels like there was no budget left so things were handeled as cheap as possible.
This is the thing that keeps the player distanced the most because it never pulls you into the game into the first place.

2. Muddy to no accentuation in the environment

The art in general is absolutely fine. Animations are smooth, environment (especially for a low budget 7 year old title) are very detailed. The Unreal Engine 3 renders as crisp an with nice effects as one expects.
What doesn't work at all is that gameplay targets can't be made out in the environment without referring to the minimap. Terminals and interaction points blend into the uniform environemt so good that you have no choice but to walk near with help of the minimap and wait for the interaction text to appear when you get close to the target. This is no fun and it's bad design.
Gunshots feel solid until you shoot aliens. Then it feels like the shots are fired in the general direction and the enemies (like B-movie actors) just drop dead when they think they should be dead. Gunplay feels like it has no impact.
You shoot in a general direction while the laser pointer even shines ABOVE the aliens. So you actually feel like you shoot the air above small enemies. Still they just drop at some point.

3. Minor gameplay decissions that interrupt the flow.

Nearly all interactions need 1 or 2 seconds. You can't just explore and grab stuff. you need to stop to interact for everything that doesn't lie around in the open. And each interaction takes time. It's like the game couldn't decide if it wants to be a tactical game or an arcade shooter. Ultimately it fails at both.
Also there's only checkpoint/terminal savepoints.


On the other hand there are a lot of good things to be said as well:
1. Art and details
The art is really detailed. The environments are fleshed out and look superb for a 7 year old low budget title. The artists gave everything it seems.
2. controls are fluent and snappy. No sloppy, sliding things. Everything that needs to snap at angles snaps and everything that needs precission has enough precission. Switch between gamepad and mouse/keyboard works without any problems.
3. Local 2 Player coop. Not many games still have that today.
4. The levels are not only linear corridor runners like so many newer games. They are in a very similar style of the other games from the 90s even though the environment types aren't as varied.
5. It's a new and official Alien Breed! The core gameplay stays intact. Find money, shoot aliens, buy upgrades, search for keycards.


Ultimately the lack of polish drags the game down and keeps it from being fun.
I love you Team17 and I hope you do manage to release another one without these problems.
Ultimately I still cannot recommend it except for hardcore fans.

I really wanted to like this game and have played it for a few hours. However, I think this is it for me, I am just not enjoying it. Here are my issues with Alien Breed:
- The camera angles are terrible. If you like to play a game where you have to continuously adjust the camera all the while moving about, this is for you then.
- The action itself is terrible. The guns and alien creatures (so far there are only 4-5 types I have encountered, actually only 3, the 2 new ones only just appeared 5 hours into the game.
- The boring missions made me care not one bit about the story. They are all the same, go through lengthy corridors & rooms to find the switch, then its on to the next switch...
- The bloody explosions! Argh! Constant screen shakes got annoying very fast.
So that is it. I cant be bothered with this game or its sequels which are meant to be more of the same.

It might be cuz I'm unfamiliar with third person shooter, but the camera movement gave me a headache..everytime I've opened up this game, also there's no setting for it, to adjust and make it more playable.

I think I can make this game 30% better in 10 seconds. By NOT shaking the entire screen with explosion every 5 seconds. This has to be the most obnoxious *special* effect that I can remember. I get it, you're proud of it - and it's great. For the first 3 times. But when it goes on and on and on and on, it just made me nauseous and really difficult to enjoy what is a great looking game. Even the menu just keeps shaking and distorting as if to induce seizure.

Second thing is that the missions are most mundane of its kind, consist of the following:
1. Shut down the engine
2. Put the control 1
3. Find the key
4. Confirm the control 1 was done - I am not kidding, you need to confirm your action you did 15 seconds ago
5. Put the control 2
6. Find the key 2
7. Put the fire by going another place
8. you get the idea.

Between these steps you get to shoot some aliens

Another issue is that it's difficult to know where to go - because there is no map. There is a vague indicator to your next objective but the level design makes no sense and you have to go around in many instances. Who designed this place - the entire place is OHS nightmare. No voice dialogue or reasoning why you're doing this - you just keep doing the next thing.

Although it sounds harsh, I am frustrated because it was recommended by Metal Jesus and I know there is a great game underneath - it really does need some serious polish that we know will never come.

Alien Breed: Impact is the first entry of the franchise and it's a top-down shoot'em-up game that follows the adventure of a chief engineer trying to take control of a spaceship that seems to be swarmed by aliens. It's your job to destroy everything that stand in your way and recover the space station.

Rate: ★☆☆☆☆

Like many shoot'em-up games, you are given a target and required to blaze though swarms of aliens to get from terminal to terminal.

Looting and interacting with several terminals is what the game is all about. Survival is the only main objective in this game and the game can be tough on harder difficulties unless you have a party of friends to aid you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946646279

Rate: ★☆☆☆☆

I felt this game was rather a drag than anything else. I can't say I've enjoyed much about the game, but curious to see what the story was sharing, although I've understood little who the characters were and what was it all about.

Rate: ★★☆☆☆

Judging this game by the time it came out, back in December 2009, this game isn't the best-looking one. With repetitive alien and interior designs, it requires little effort to just dismiss this game and focus on other games of this genre and appreciate their visuals.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946200970

Rate: ★★☆☆☆

The weapons don't sound anything special, while the monster sound and behave pretty predictable once you've encountered the small pool variety. Voice acting is performed poorly in some places and only the main protagonists feels competent and believable in my opinion.

Rate: ★☆☆☆☆

The story of the game is very simple, yet narrated and explain really poorly. You are on a space ship and you're invaded by aliens. Your objective is to try to take control of the space ship that is slowly falling apart as aliens torn through the ship.

It's difficult to determine who you are, and what your back story behind the characters as there's not much explained in the main story except the logs that you collect throughout the game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946646393


☑️ Short (1-8h)
🔲 Medium (8-15h)
🔲 Long (15-25h)
🔲 Very Long (25h+)
🔲 Unlimited

The main campaign takes around 5-6 hours to finish. Getting all achievements in one go is not possible as you're required to play this game both single player and co-op.


☑️ Easy
☑️ Normal
☑️ Hard
🔲 Brutally Hard
🔲 Impossible

The game can be sometimes difficult and frustrating as higher difficulty make the waves of the aliens a lot more prominent and difficult to kill. Some weapons are more useful than others but bullets and resources can become more spare, so being careful with your ammunition is important as well.

Alien Breed: Impact is a game that I was hoping to enjoy, although it falls to feel entertaining and different in many areas. Going from terminal to terminal, clearing out monsters seems to be the deal for this. Playing this with friends might be the most fun out of it all, but the single player aspect becomes a complete drag.

Originally posted by TalePlay:

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So much screen shake which can't be turned off.

Finished it. This game has a lot of potential with its weapons and atmosphere. Overall it's very disappointing. In isometric shooters the last thing you want is to constrain the movement of the character. In many ways it felt like an on rails shooter with the illusion of character control. It didn't matter what I did in each room. The aliens would spawn predictably. Start the routine for alien control: go for a corner where you can't be flanked, kite, run around in circles, save ammo with infinite pistol ammo, so on and so forth. It's tedious, and it's the type of tedium that ruins whatever tension the game is desperately trying to create. I had the most fun when there were more open areas with many different aliens running around, then it felt like a good shooter. The uninspired key cards and missions make you feel ineffectual, like there's no agency in this character. It's sad when you can predict that the computer console will malfunction... Because on the map screen there's an area that you haven't explored yet. At least it had secrets. Overall, not worth it, but at least it didn't take too long to finish.