I’ve just finished work on my review for Aliens – Infestation, the new Nintendo DS game by WayForward Technologies and Sega:
“Infestation is a side scrolling action game, very similar in appearance to the old Alien 3 tie-ins on the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. It gave Infestation a very nice retro feeling. The environments and sprites are very nicely detailed and everything looked as if it’d fit well within the Aliens universe, just in portable form. The animations are all pretty smooth as well. It was a very nice game to look at.”
Be sure to read the entire review for my verdict. Thanks to WayForward and Sega for providing the review copy. And thanks to Ikarop for the great work as always. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on Aliens – Infestation in our forums.
There just seem to be sort of indentations on the side of the head.
Beat the game the other day, there were a few things I didn't like:
1. The ending was way, way too abrupt, and the game was too short. I wanted it to keep going
2. The different dialogue mechanic was really cool, but I wish I could have recruited more than 4 Marines and then just kept them in reserve at save points and rotate them into my squad whenever I wanted. I'd still have the same 4-man squad as "active", but I'd be able to go to a save point and swap out any of the other Marines into the active squad just so I could experience their dialogue. As it stands the only way for me to see some of the other dialogue changes is to strategically get some of my Marines killed so I can rotate in other Marines I've found, and that feels like a waste of time. Really the only time I got to experience different dialogue was against the final boss, as I had the forethought to start off with a different Marine for the fight each time I got completely wiped out and had to start over.
3. The boss fights were ridiculous and way, way harder than anything else in the game. It was hard to tell if I was even dealing effective damage against them sometimes, or how close I was to killing them. I lost 1 Marine fighting the Jockey-Alien, and then with my next Marine it took 2 bullets and the boss went down. I was pretty pissed that I was THAT close to winning before my Marine bought it, and had I known I likely would have played smarter in order to keep him alive.
4. The flamethrower was the best weapon, hands down. Infinite ammo, decent range, and pushes Aliens back? AND it opens hive-locked doors? It was my go-to weapon from the moment I found it right up to the final boss, there really wasn't any reason to use any other weapon. Not to mention I kept it on hand in case I encountered hive-locked doors, so that I didn't have to backtrack to a save point just to swap out my gun for the flamethrower and then backtrack back to the door and open it. Making it replace my primary weapon made me never want to put it down, and having it be so effective as a weapon was just a bonus. I guess what I'm saying is I wish the weapons were balanced better, or if the flamethrower had been an alternate "tool" you could carry in addition to the other weapons.
All in all I had a lot of fun with the game. It was flawed, but fun. I'm glad I bought it.
She ended up being mistaken. She also put everyone in cryosleep without checking the Sulaco to make sure there were no Aliens onboard, and look where that got everyone.
It was a non-issue, other EU sources establish that. Just because it wasn't destroyed in 'Aliens' doesn't mean it wasn't destroyed at some other point in the 200-year gap before Resurrection.
The Derelict already had a ton of eggs in it, it not being destroyed wouldn't have changed that.
None of this should be new material, it's all stuff that's been brought up in like 18 different threads before.
If the Derelict was a viable source of eggs, they wouldn't be fumbling around with 200 year old DNA.
Even if the nuke didn't take it out, Ripley's just going to up and leave without making sure? This coupled with the fact they never went back in the next two films would indicate it was a non-issue.
But on the other hand in this version of events - coupled with A:CM - the nuke didn't even destroy the AP Station let alone anything else. And since radiation made rhino Aliens - it also apparently restored the Derelict to it's former glory. With squillions of eggs.
Cue, the Defenders of the EU (TM).
I know it was damaged at the beginning in the SE, but were we ever given any indication that the nuke would have taken it out? It is, after all, a foreign material.
That being said it was a decent, very solid game, 7/10.
The Sulaco is found in the middle of bumf**k nowhere, way off course (though I can accept the UPP did this). The timeframe's not right. The UPP setting up a major base on LV-426 was dopey. The Derelict, supposedly destroyed at the end of Aliens, is in fact now completely repaired. Going all the way back to Phobos seemed a bit silly.
It really just jumped all over the place with little rhyme or reason.
But stories are well behind on gameplay for mine.
Also, instead of the Aliens simply trying to kill you, it would've been fun and tense if instead they attacked you, but tried more to pull you into a vent or something so you could go back and rescue that character. Also I think the 4 person squad is a bit weird. When someone dies I have to go back to where I know a live Marine is at so I can get them to join me. It just didn't feel right.
Overall really fun game though, damn challenging bosses and a pretty good story. The best part is I had a really good time and I really don't like side scrollers.
-Classic side-scrolling gameplay
-The weapons
-The nostalgic settings (the Sulaco, LV-426, the Derelict)
-The Aliens-The marines and their back stories and personalities
-The challenge
-Not a bad plot either
What I didn't like:
-Only five levels!? Come on, give me more!
4/5
Good:
+All of the classic weapons are there.
+The Power Loader scene was fun.
+Every character has their own personality. This goes a long way to "Saving" your favorite characters. My favorites was the "Southern Charm Guy", "Goth Chick", and really "Perky Valley Girl".
+The level design was top notch.
+I LOVED the new xenomorph types. The Gorilla Alien looked like the Kenner figure, the Space Jocky Alien was neat, so was the Super Queen, and Rhino.
+The aliens were fast too.
+I liked combination of motion tracker/mini-map.
+Movement and aiming was precise.
+The story is actually good! Way better than what I was expecting.
Bad
-It was so short! I beat it in less than a day, and it doesn't have much replay value.
Overall I would give this a 4.5/5 and recommend it to fans and those who just like a Castlevania style platform game.
That shat me too. Mind you in that last level with tromping stem to stern in the Sulaco often crawling endlessly through airducts, I would've loved to shoot some respawned Aliens.
Minor Ones:
-The weapons. For the most part they are fine and all, but the upgrades are, well, don't seem to do much outside of increased range and to a VERY small extent damage. I don't mind this too much, but then you have the shotgun. Only time I've lost a marine and had to rescue him from a hive in actual level game play is when I decided to give the weapon a run. The acid spray going all over and the reload time.... Just not worth it.
-The explosives. Basically comes down to two things: 1. Why so little ammunition? 2. Why not set it as default? Why have to select it every time you leave your save point?
-The stamina meter. For the most part I have nothing against it and is only bad in the fourth boss fight (see below). This also brings up a pet peeve I occasionally encounter where you have to hold another button to go faster. I understand marines being just human and all, but good lord they are slow without it. It's probably just me though.
-The L Button for "halting". Why? It's the same as not pressing down on a directional pad except you can't move out of the way.
-There could have been more variety outside of riding the tank and the zero-g suit (BTW I'm not counting the knife trick because it isn't in-game).
Major Ones:
-Too dang short. Do I need to explain? Really?
-Respawning enemies. This has officially become my new video gaming pet peeve. Why have them come back alive so many times? I don't mind the item respawning even if I found a lot of them useless, but every time you change a level through a tall elevator or get to a save point they come back. It's a waste of ammo and possibly health depending if them managed to land a hit or not.
-The Super Xenomorph Gorilla/Gorilla Alien/Ape Alien/Alien Ape/whatever you want to call it and no I'm not using "Rhino" because it isn't. This has to be one of the most frustrating bosses I've ever had to fight right up there with the Scorpion King (The Mummy Returns), Mr. Big (Narc), Shao Kahn (Mortal Kombat 3), and Henry Touchdown (No More Heroes). Everything you imagine bad goes wrong here:
-Save point is too far away
-Too much health
-Attacks too fast and strong
-You can't outrun/dodge this guy (stamina meter limits! Gah!)
-No health or ammunition boxes
To put it bluntly: You are f**ked. No way around it. It's a boss from hell plain and simple. You can't beat it without losing a marine or two. Sonic bosses aren't this cheap! Well okay, maybe Egg Viper from the first Sonic Adventures and every boss after Sand Scorpion in The Seven Secret Rings are more cheap, but the Super Gorilla isn't exactly far behind on that scale.
Thanks, that would be great. I'm a huge Bachalo fan and love the artwork they've released so far.
Edit- The remainders were released in the diary today. SO awesome.
I may ask once the last dev diary is published.
Ikarop- any chance of getting the other Marine art profiles like the ones in the Developer Diary?
And to think it really should be completely destroyed by this point.
Another continuity nitpick, in the first line of the intro text. Bishop (341-B) apparently sent a transmission just before leaving LV-426, saying that 11 marines were killed. He says the Sulaco left six weeks earlier. Make that three weeks methinks... And it's confused even further by him saying their ETA at Gateway is 498 hours, which is almost exactly three weeks, and therefore correct.
derp...
EDIT- Forgot to mention - really love the original chestburster sound effect they use.
ANOTHER EDIT - Finished. Pretty pissweak ending I thought. In fact the entire last level was disappointing.
Spoiler
There's been a lot of chit chat about the length of the game but if anything, I felt it was too long. Most likely because I was tired of roaming around similar environments and the bosses being really difficult and drawn out. I was racing to finish it as quickly as possible. Hence, I never really paid attention to the text or the story, if there was one. Don't get me wrong, length is very important. The last DS game I played was Pokemon White and I spent 40 hours on that. Advance Wars Dual Strike, I spent over 170 hours playing. I guess it depends on how much you enjoy the game. This isn't really my cup of tea. And I only played it because it's an Aliens game. It's similar to the Metroid GBA games which I enjoyed back then but now, the game feels really dated. The graphics aren't anything special. The gameplay is what you'd expect. As I said before, you've got games on the iphone like Angry Birds costing a $1 and they're charging £25 for this? It's not wayforward's fault. I just wish they'd have developed it for a current system instead of one that came out 6 years ago. I'd give it 3/5 and that's been generous.
3/5
Spoiler
I lost everyone except Paulson.
I suck.