ALIENATION
CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE SLAY.
This top-down shooter-cum-RPG sees you playing as one of three UNX soldier types tasked with heading into classi ed zones to eradicate an alien menace. Your choice of ability determines tactics: brutish Tanks have access to shields and ground-pounds, tricksy Saboteurs call down artillery strikes, and Bio-Specialists unleash poison clouds and flesh-eating nanobot swarms.
The moment-to-moment rhythm satis es. When your clip runs dry, by the time you’ve melee’d mobs so hard they bounce o the screen then rushed away to increase distance, you’ll likely have fresh ammo in your gun to repeat the cycle. Spinning with a flamethrower on blast, leading ‘Xenos’ down a corridor to pick them apart in bursts with a shotgun and leaving the floor strewn with twitching parts, or picking unwitting foes o from distance with a revolver – it’s all viable.
Missions all start with a friendly helicopter pilot dropping you o , then you secure perimeters for backup forces, hunt crashed dropships, destroy alien nests, hack into terminals, or fetch a trio of sci- macgu ns before the chopper comes back for you. The locations are large enough that you can, for instance, head o -track and hoover up XP, but it’s better to follow the waypoint and complete the assignment, as there are plenty of chances to pick maps clean. Not only do the locations lead to a great variety of encounters, but they’re awfully pretty, too, and it’s often hard to resist the pull of poking your head into all the dark corners.
Random events will keep you on your toes. Occasionally, you’ll get an ‘incoming horde’ warning on your screen as hundreds of aliens teleport in and give chase. The action alternates between moments of peaceful tranquility and sheer chaos.
What’s less well implemented is four-player online co-op, in which you choose from a list of potential hosts before each mission. You’re often dropped into games halfway through, with unbalanced enemies due to spotty levelmatching. But once you reach the summit of
Alienation’s learning curve, you’ll nd a compelling sci- shoot-and-loot with tremendous scope for expression.