Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Alien Shooter is a twin-stick isometric action adventure shooting game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita. The long running series began in 2003 when Alien Shooter originally launched on Windows platforms and has proved successful since having spawned sequels and spin-offs.

The story revolves around hordes of bloodthirsty aliens invading Earth with evil intentions as a soldier sets out to end the invasion by heading to a secret military laboratory in order to deploy a virus in an attempt to wipe out the aliens before any further death and destruction occurs at the hands of the alien invasion.

The story campaign allows players to experience the story in a mission based format in order to achieve all objectives along the way to the secret military laboratory with the ultimate objective of course being to rid the Earth of aliens, while the survival mode tasks the player to last as long as possible.

The character design is pretty good as there are two characters to choose from, a male and female, with both having their own perks such as the male character having more health and stamina, while the female character has more speed in her movement and more accuracy in her shooting. The enemy design is just as good as the character design as there are four enemy types including mutant frogs, multi-armed bipeds, giant spiders and rhinos with each enemy type coming in four colours to represent how weak or strong they are with green enemies representing weak attacks, slow speed and low health, while yellow enemies have a moderate attack, normal speed and normal health. Red enemies are more dangerous as they have strong attacks, fast speed and moderate health and alongside blue enemies who are the most dangerous enemies of all as they have the strongest attacks, fast speed and the strongest health.

The environment design is not as inspired as the character design or enemy design as other than occasional outdoor areas, it usually involves navigating through a series of conjoined small rooms and narrow corridors situated throughout research laboratories which consist of barrels, crates and some furniture.

In-game currency can be found when money drops from killed aliens or is found throughout levels and in secret areas which is important to actively collect as it can be utilised to purchase weapons, ammo, upgrades and equipment before starting or after completing a level. There are nine weapons to choose from, these are dual wielding pistols, a shotgun, grenade launcher, minigun, rocket launcher, freeze rifle, plasma rifle, flamethrower and magma minigun in which players can collect the majority of weapons as progression is made through the story campaign or purchase from a shotgun for $200 to a magma minigun for $25,400, although the player will start out with dual wielding pistols prior to earning in-game currency to purchase new weaponry with. It must be said that the auto-aim is not always accurate as it will usually end up aiming for enemies on the other side of walls, rather than an enemy straight in front of the character, so it is best to switch off the auto-aim and aim manually instead.

Upgrades are referred to as bio-mechanical implants which serve the purpose of increasing their fighting capabilities to a super human status such as a red implant costing $1,900 to increase the maximum amount of health, while a yellow implant costs $1,200 to increase speed of movement, alongside a blue implant which costs $1,800 to increase stamina and allow the ability to carry more ammo with a green implant costing $1,300 to increase the accuracy and power of all weapons. There is also a range of equipment to purchase such as a flashlight costing $20 which produces limited vision in dark areas, night vision goggles cost $150 to see through darkness using infrared sensors, a drone for $1,000 which targets and shoots at any moving object and alongside standard, improved and advanced armour for between $200 and $1,500.

There is some downloadable content available including A Fight for Life and The Experiment which both comprise of five additional levels each to conclude the story of the original Alien Shooter for quite a fair price of just £3.29* each.

The controls are well mapped to the Vita with the control scheme consisting of pressing L or R to change weapons; changing the direction of the left analogue stick or pressing up, down, left or right on the d-pad to move the character, changing the direction of the right analogue stick to fire weaponry and pressing start to display the pause menu. Tapping the arrows on the top right of the touch screen to change weapon, tapping the flashlight icon beneath the arrows on the top right of the touch screen to turn on the flashlight or night vision system and tapping the pause icon on the bottom left of the touch screen displays the pause menu.

Graphically, Alien Shooter looks pretty much the same as it did upon its original Windows release in 2003, although that should not deter from the game as long as it is approached as more of a retro experience with older graphics and animations rather than a modern game.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great touch screen based user interface across various menus such as the player select, mission select and upgrades and options menu, although there is no support for navigation via the left or right analogue sticks, directional pad and face buttons. The background of the main menu consists of the lead character taking cover behind a wall with his pistols drawn and ready to fire on the countless aliens who are waiting for him.

The audio consists of sound effects such as weapons being fired at enemies, explosions, aliens clawing aggressively and aliens screaming as they have been killed accompanied by atmospheric sci-fi music.

The trophy list includes 12 trophies with 7 bronze, 4 silver and 1 gold trophy. The easier trophies include the Claws Up bronze trophy for completing a level without taking damage which can be achieved on the tutorial level; the Found You bronze trophy for finding a secret area such as a crack in the wall; and providing you complete the game on any difficulty level, then there are at least a further two naturally earned trophies including the Two of Every Beast bronze trophy for killing one monster of every type and the Soul Survivor bronze trophy for completing the first episode on any difficulty. The hardest trophies include the Favourite Pair silver trophy for surviving 5 minutes in survival mode using pistols only; the Expert Technician silver trophy for surviving 15 minutes in survival mode; and the hardest trophy has to be the Brutality silver trophy for killing 1,000,000 monsters due to it being the most time consuming trophy of all which will potentially add hundreds of hours to the length of the trophy list. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 300 to 500 hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are four difficulty levels including casual, easy, normal and hard with the major differences between casual and each step up being an increase in the amount of damage received from enemies, a reduction in the damage dealt from weaponry fired at enemies and an increase in the amount of damage received from explosions and acid, therefore making it progressively harder to survive throughout each level particularly when faced with a horde of aliens headed directly for your location.

There is no local ad-hoc or online multiplayer which could have been perfect for co-operative multiplayer in the story campaign or even a co-operative survival mode, while competitive multiplayer could have seen a player take control of the lead character and a second player as the enemy in a fight to destroy each other, alongside the lack of online leaderboards which would been a great addition to the story campaign and would have especially suited the survival mode in regards to how long players could stay alive in the survival mode.

The replayability of Alien Shooter stems from the story campaign and survival modes, while the 4 difficulty levels provide a differing degree of challenge, while the great enemy design, alongside the various customisation elements from weapons, upgrades and equipment which compliment each other to supply hours of replay value.

Overall, if you are a fan of isometric, twin-stick shooters, action, adventure or retro games, then Alien Shooter is a game you should try as it is still a pretty good and enjoyable game which is an appropriate fit for the Vita and has a lot to offer anyone willing to give it a chance, despite its faults.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Alien Shooter
• Developer: Sigma Team
• Publisher: 8 Floor Games
• System: PS Vita
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1
• Memory Card Space Required: 113MB
• *Correct at time of publication