TGL’s Joseph Murphy grabs the closest gun to him and starts blasting

Alien Breed to some people is a classic game. With the news about the up-and-coming update to it, it sent chills down their doubtful spines. Thankfully this reincarnation does the name justice, and is suprisingly good. Not exactly “festive” but a solid game with some minor and forgiveable flaws. From the brains behind the famous Worms series comes a dark and welcomed arcade shooter.

You play as the character “Conrad” who, after a collision between your ship and the “ghost ship”, has to restore order after the emergence of monsters/aliens and beasts known as “Maulers”. Name them what you want, point is, all hell has broken lose and you are the man to fix it. The game runs on the all to familiar Unreal engine. This isn’t a bad thing at all as the graphics look incredible, but, i’m beginning to become a little frustrated at the never ending “plastic look” the Unreal engine offers. The lighting effects are sublime as your torch becomes your method for suvival. From fire to electricity, the atmosphere is something I didn’t expect from such a small game. Imagine a smaller version of Dead Space. That’s a good way to describe it.

The typical and somewhat jaded story involves you running around a ship as you mend, fix, destroy and connect items that will enable the ship to take off. The story is based also around some rather dodgy hand drawn “flash” sequences. The characters are sadly un-flattering and boring to an extent but this doesn’t take anything away from gameplay. The narration is recorded in a similar content to Max Payne with the protaganist voice sounding grungey and coarse.

The gameplay is a tremendous feat achieved as the gunplay works the same as such games like Zombie Apocalypse with the exception of pulling the right trigger to fire. Strafing is something I have always loved in games and AB compliments this love well as the strafing is smooth and slick. The controls are simple really. Melee, shoot, reload and action. That’s it, but, the clever layout set by Team 17 allows the player to pull off some nice moves and the whole ordeal feels comfortable and refreshing.

The game is based on an isometric angle which works very well here. The player can completely turn the camera around by using the RB and LB shoulder buttons. This is a great touch as you can turn the camera to suit your type of gameplay. No running into walls I hear you ask? Well, not exactly. Without spoiling much, there is a “boss battle” with a charging “mauler” and this can/could be as frustrating as it comes, depending on how quick you are to react. So this was the only real time the camera let me down.

The game also offers co-op action which as many people are aware adds to not only the enjoyment and longevity of the title but adds to the tension as your partner will surely end up needing your help at one stage. Couple this with the hardest setting and you have a tough yet rewardable experience. For those interested, the game offers co-op achievements, so there is no excuse for both you and your friend to get stuck into this.

The game is well-timed to coincide with the obvious rush some of us feel surrounding the Aliens vs Predator game. At 800MS points it’s a good purchase. If you plan to play co-op it’s well worth the points as you’ll get at least 2-3 good runs out of it on single player, so co-op will extend it twice over. An interesting and somewhat flawed experience, but worth the attention and time.

TGL SCORE [7/10]

Format: Xbox 360/PS3 (next year)

Release date: December 16th.

Publisher(s): Team 17

Developer(s): Team 17