Staying frosty or game over man?
Developer: WayForward Technologies | Gearbox Software
Publisher: SEGA
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Score: 4/5
Having watched the movies from the Aliens franchise, I wondered how well it would translate to a handheld game. Thankfully, the fine folks at WayForward and Gearbox have created a fun, challenging, romp into a sector infested with Xenomorphs.
The first thing you’ll notice upon firing up Aliens: Infestation is the fact the game only has one save slot. Although limiting, the save slot at least has the basic function of telling you the percentage of game you’ve completed. You can also delete this save, which allows for replaying. In the other portion of the menu are the extras with the Marine Roster, Knife Trick, Credits, and Controls. Throughout the game there will be other Marines you encounter and their profiles will be displayed in full here. Both Knife Trick and Credits are locked from the get go and can be unlocked by defeating a certain enemy and conquering the game. These remain unlocked even after you delete the save slot. Knife Trick is the only mini-game present and mimics the scene in Aliens where Bishop (an android) moves a knife between the open spaces of a spread hand. Once you finish playing, it also shows high scores. Lastly in the Extras menu are the controls which are self explanatory, but a decent addition for those who don’t bother to glance at the manual.
When starting a game, you’re given information about the Sulaco, the giant ship you’ll be exploring for the majority of the game. Communication with Sulaco has been cut off and you’re sent with four Marines to investigate. Once you land, you’ll be able to select a Marine to explore the ship with. Each Marine, male or female, has different speech patterns, but control identical. You’re given a standard issue Pulse Rifle to start the search for clues as to what happened. On the bottom screen is a map that can be moved around by touching and dragging. After a time, the map will return to your location from where you were browsing. This was a minor annoyance when I was attempting to mentally plot where I would run to next.
Aliens: Infestation plays as a blend of Contra and Metroid. You explore the vast spaces of the ship (along with other locations throughout the game) and have to fight off a number of enemies. These enemies aren’t just the Xenomorphs either; you’ll also be faced with humans, robots, and androids. If you’re expecting to waltz right through the first enemies, be warned, this game ramps up the difficulty from the start. All enemies seem to need at least a dozen shots loaded into them before they die, or a grenade to their face.
Controlling the game is simple. D-pad controls your movement, Y fires, B jumps, and A places or throws explosives. Running is done by holding down R, which comes in handy when trying to get through a long corridor. To avoid attacks, you can roll out of the way by pressing left or right with A. Perhaps the control I used the least was the L button which allows you to lock your feet to fire. This control was extremely useful when I was on top of a ladder and needed to fire down or at an angle.
For weapons, you’re given a selection to choose from, Pulse Rifle as I had already mentioned, shotgun, flame thrower, and Smart Gun. You also always have access to a pistol with unlimited ammunition. Only one weapon can be used at a time and can be switched at the various save rooms. This is both an annoyance and a fun challenge due to needing to switch out for particular situations at the drop of a hat. Throughout the game are upgrade boxes that allow you to make your weapons more effective. This doesn’t always mean more power however. In the case of the flame thrower for instance, you’re simply given more time before the counter runs to zero and needs to recharge.
Upgrades for your weapons aren’t the only important items you’ll need to find. Scattered throughout the game are pick ups that are important to continue. You’ll need to find a variety of keycards and equipment to successfully navigate through certain areas of Sulaco and other locations. At times the locations of these items are in vents, so you’ll have to do a bit of rolling and crawling around. When in these areas, you’ll occasionally encounter Xenomorph nests. These nests can contain fallen comrades cocooned and in need of saving, but only if they were taken to zero health by a Xenomorph.
If a Marine dies in the game, they’re gone for good, with the exception above. Scattered in random areas are other Marines that don’t have a squad of their own any longer. You can talk to them to add them to your roster in the Extras screen at the main menu. If you don’t have all four slots filled with various Marines, they’ll also decide to come with you to help.
Generally when I play a game, I don’t save too often. With Aliens: Infestation, it’s a good idea to visit the save rooms quite frequently. The save rooms are spaced at decent distances apart and somewhat near objectives. Another reason to visit the room is to fill up on health and ammo.
A huge part of what I remember when watching the Alien movies when I was younger was the horror aspect. With Infestation, they nailed the horror feeling. The atmosphere makes you feel tense and paranoid. Although the music wasn’t too memorable, it had me jumpy through several areas. Enemies would also pop out of nowhere to startle me which raised my heart rate a tad bit. The sound effects however were probably the best aspect of the overall listening in Infestation. When you switch to the map screen, you hear that iconic blip sound from the movies. Even the Xenomorphs had their cry when they appeared and started charging.
As for the ending, each Marine has a different dialog. This makes it slightly compelling to go back after the game is through to where you saved and do it again. I found that although it was fun to see what different Marines had to say, the ending was extremely abrupt. Still, considering the source material, it seems to fit.
The game wasn’t without fault however. I noticed a few glitches with sound when it came to switching between a male and female Marine. Also, even though the portraits have wonderfully unique art, the Marine sprites were virtually the same. All characters, regardless of sex, had big arms and the same sized chests. This was pretty glaring when switching from a female to a male character who could stand to lose about 100lbs from their portrait. Perhaps the most bothersome issue was trying to turn in a direction and fire in another. When Xenomorphs would attack and run across the screen, I’d want to quickly switch to that direction and begin firing. At times I wasn’t able to do this, which resulted in loss of health. The majority of these complaints were minor and didn’t have much of an impact, but were glaring in my eyes.
As for the game overall, this was one I actually managed to get 100% completion on. I found every Marine and weapon upgrade, which surprised me. It was a blast exploring every corridor and vent to see what it contained. Unfortunately though, the length was a bit disappointing. It took me approximately 4-5 hours to complete, spread out over the course of a week. Once I finished I was surprised I had done so, so quickly. Even so, it’s a solid game that has a challenging difficultly. It’ll keep your DS in your hands until you absolutely have to let go.
Thanks to SEGA for providing a copy of the game for review purposes!
