Alien Rage - Unlimited

The Defence
The Prosecution
AMD equivalent
AMD equivalent
The Case
Alien Rage - Unlimited is described as being an old school Sci-Fi FPS. Let’s be honest, since Battlefield and Call of Duty released, the genre has been pretty much dead. CI Games, creators of the Sniper - Ghost Warrior series, have made a bold move to try to revive this style of shooter. Will Alien Rage be the FPS shooter that old school gamers want to play? Let’s find out..
The Trial
When you start playing Alien Rage, the first thing you will notice is that it looks very generic. Using the Unreal 3 Engine, there is a similar look and feel here to that of Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament 3. The game offers fast paced, arcade-style action with lots of shooting and explosions. The story is pretty much your standard sci-fi affair: Humanity had an energy crisis and an asteroid which would solve the problem was discovered, so a mining facility is setup. Then alien, the Vorus, arrive with the same idea and both factions try to work side by side. But, as always, things go down the drain and the aliens decides to take over the facility, killing all the humans and making a mockery out of the original deal.
Anyway, this is where you enter the action as Jack, the space marine. His mission is a simple one: infiltrate the facility, kill the aliens, and blow the place up. Jack is such a badass; he goes in with no backup, other than his female A.I partner, and someone that sounds like an old marine buddy communicating with him over the radio. There are some witty one-liners from our hero and a good deal of friendly banter between the three characters which, even though the chitchat gets annoying after a while, really makes them feel like they are a team. Gameplay is quite...standard. At the start of each level you carry a pistol, which is useless, and an assault rifle. The other weapons you found previously? Nope, those got lost somewhere in transit. Why? Because frack you, that’s why. Other firearms can be taken from the bodies of dead aliens. Ten weapons are available, some useful and others not so much, with each gun having alternative fire. You’ve got the standard human rifle, shotgun, and a few other weapons. Then you’ve got the alien rifle, shotgun, and few other unique weapons. The difference you ask? The latter overheat. That's it. To make matters worse, shotguns are not much help as you have to get up close and personal, which generally ends with your death. Combat is not the greatest because all the aliens carry grenade launchers and one or two hits from these can spell the end for you. The cover system doesn’t work well either and you will find that if you are hiding behind something when a projectile is fired and explodes, you usually end up dead. Cover or no cover. You will be attacked by swarms of enemies and more often than not you’ll end up dead. But hey, for every kill and combo you will be awarded points so I guess there is some reward attached to the whole gung-ho approach. In addition to this, the more varied shots you use to kill, the more bonus you get, which makes kicking alien ass rather fun. Though being an old school shooter, the health regeneration is based on the modern “rest and heal” system, rather than through the use of health packs, which was a bit of a disappointment and annoying as you’re given hardly any time to heal. Checkpoints send you a good way back from where you died and make you just want to throw your mouse across the room. The levels offer no real variation in terms of visuals. Use of colours is very limited, and the textures don’t appear to change from level to level, giving a sense of déjà vu. More annoying is the dropping frame rate, which at times makes the game unplayable as it chugs along, even on a high end gaming PC. This was addressed with a patch, which improved the game in that regard as the stuttering gameplay was fixed. However, there remain some inexplicable frame rate drops. Most of the glitches were also fixed where there would be problems with certain events being triggered, which often lead to having to restart the game to advance to the next part. The level design does not appear to be created with much thought, with layouts tending to be fairly generic, which is a shame as the graphics are otherwise decent for a budget title. This and the fact that the story is only told through hidden logs makes for a rather subpar experience with little immersion or apparent sense. The voice acting is good, with the characters sounding like normal people. Sound effects are good too, with the guns making a satisfying noise when you are shooting and alien heads popping like ripe melons. One feature which could have been fun is the multiplayer, but the online mode is dead. Which is a shame as the Unreal Engine is made for this sort of thing. Alien Rage is an extremely frustrating shooter. I found the game difficult at times, and I lost count of how often I died. While I’m a fan of old school FPS's, this one left me wanting to give up after the first level. A patch was released which did help with the glitches and the bugs, but there was still some graphical issues left. Overall, for the price, the game is a very polished, entertaining game but it just feels too generic and lacking any identity of its own. Just prepare to feel angry and frustrated as you die for the eighth time in ten minutes. Alien Rage got the right title, as you will feel rage. Just not against the aliens, but against the game.
The Verdict
Case Review
- Non-Stop Action: Always someone to shoot or something to blow up
- Kill Bonus: Points are awarded for kill combos and style.
- Looking Good: Graphics are nice for a budget title.
- Story Time: The story is there for the taking. If you want that is.
- Firepower: Some of the guns are useless or just more of the same.
- Blending In: Everything is generic and nothing stands out.
- Difficulty: The game is frustratingly hard, even on the easiest setting.
Appeal
The energy crisis on earth deepened. We went to space. Scientists found Deimos 875, an asteroid with the ultimate source of power – Promethium. We claimed the asteroid and started mining. Then the Aliens came. War ensued... And that’s basically the story of Alien Rage, at least, on the surface. There are deeper layers to it but you have to dig deep in order to find them. The backstory of the first contact and why the war with the Vorus started, which is a real treat, is scattered around the game in the form of collectables. It’s unfortunate that these are a pain in the arse to find as the backstory is unique and quite interesting.
If you saw any media from this game the word “generic” is probably the first thought that came to your mind. And you’d be justified in thinking that because this game is incredibly generic; the enemies, dialogue, level design and art style are all things that will make you think “been there, done that”. This, combined with stupid AI, floaty controls, punishing difficulty (even on the lowest setting) and loads of other minor buggy, broken or annoying things, don’t exactly make Alien Rage look good.
Fortunately for the game, none of those things are game breaking, just annoying. For some strange reason even though the game is generic, it’s still loads of fun. You’ll get to shoot aliens to pieces (literally) in a rather good looking game. That, combined with a sensible asking price, makes for an appealing offer, especially considering that Alien Rage still has a longer campaign than Call of Duty...
Appeal
A story driven arcade action shooter. Just let that sink in for a moment because, somehow, it works. It sounds like it should be an ugly, trainwreck of a concept, I know. In fact, I've been covering the game, highly critically, since its arrival on the Pixel Judge radar. But, despite all the criticism, I can't deny it has a certain appeal. Something about it just...called to me. So, when it came time to review it, there I was right at the front putting my name forward. Now here I am to tell you...it's actually a really bloody good game.
The story is a lot deeper, and much better thought out, than you would expect. But as it is told almost entirely through in game audio logs, which make no difference to the progression of the game itself, you have the interesting choice between tracking them down or just ignoring them completely and cracking on with murdering everything in the face. Something which is incredibly satisfying, and brutally difficult. Especially during boss fights.
The game is ludicrously tricky, including the very worst examples of cheap game design tricks that up the difficulty such as nasty “weak points” and pattern memorisation. But it seeps into your brain, compelling you to return time and time again. You rage, but you must push forward. The game is so self aware that I am certain the title is nothing to do with the plot. Instead, it is merely telling you there are aliens that will make you rage. But you will never surrender!
Posted 18-10-2013, 18:18
That last image (in the review body) is freaking classic! XD