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Aliens: Unleashed -Sorrent (2003) -played on a Sanyo 8200
Summary Everything else has been unleashed, so how about aliens, too?
A nameless marine begins his day by practicing his shooting skills on “synths,” synthetic aliens. For no apparent reason the synths start attacking everyone in the base and it’s the marine’s job to take care of the things. Someone called a synth advisor divulges the lacking story and tells the marine where to go next. During his battles he finds out that a company with the most uninspired name ever, “The Company,” manufactured the synths and has to go shut down the factory. Your marine has a little PDA display that tells him, in text form, what is in the room. On top of the list are whatever aliens are lurking in the shadows, what is on the ground and the game options. When the marine has chosen to fight an alien the alien appears on screen. The alien will move into three positions during the battle, far, near and attack. Unlike the movies, you can’t just unload your arsenal on the alien. You have to see what number, 1, 2 or 3, pops up over the alien’s head. When a number comes up you press the same number on your key pad. If you pressed the key in time then you may or may not hit the alien. This is a simplistic and archaic way to play a game where you’re shooting things and lends absolutely no excitement to the game.
Your marine will find a fine assortment of weapons scattered throughout the labs and factories around the planet. He’ll start with a pistol and pulse guns, and find shotguns, scope rifles, smart guns, RPGs, bazookas, and plasma guns. Some weapons are said to be better at close or far range, but it never seemed to matter which position the alien was in when I fired any of the weapons. I always chose the most powerful weapon I had at the time and got through the game fine.
The aliens look nice and all, but al they are is a series of three still pictures. The backgrounds of the locales all look the pretty much the same wherever you may be with the only main difference being the color of the lighting. Although the game has aliens in it, Aliens: Unleashed is a lackluster game full of unexciting gameplay. Score: 4.5 -Shawn |
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My
Thoughts
Your marine can’t do
much for avoiding alien attacks, so you just hope that the alien misses.
Eventually REAL aliens make an appearance which at first seems to compromise
your battle tactics. Unlike synthetic aliens, real aliens spray acid blood every
time they’re shot, sending a run off of acid heading your way. You try to hold
off on just blasting away when the little number pops up, but you soon learn
that there is no need to alter your tactics. You can just keep on doing what
you’ve been doing. In the end your little marine will still have more energy
than the aliens. Plus, he’ll still probably have a bunch of med kits in his pack
or more will be found mysteriously lying around, just like all those weapons.
The aliens are all
the basic and familiar ones from the movies. You have your drones, runners (not
much different than drones), face huggers and chest busters. At the end of the
game you fight a queen alien because there is always a queen alien. Aliens
aren’t all you’ll face in your attempts to shut down The Company’s factory,
though. You’ll also fight rouge guards working for The Company and those milky
white fluid spewing androids. I was amazed when shotgun blast to the face was
but shrugged off by the guards. 