The movie trilogy that put face huggers in the dictionary gives gamers another go at the aliens in the 32-bit arena. In Alien Trilogy, you play as Ripley in a first-person trek across 18 Doom-like levels packed with face huggers, chest bursters, guards, and soldiers smuggling aliens off the planet. The game has over thirty levels ( I mean long levels ) and hours and hours of top notch blood pumping game play. If your a Sega Saturn junky like me, ( and you know who you are ) you got to get this game, you won't be sorry! ' Happy Alien Hunting!
To quote Bob 'Company Synthetic' Dole: Just don't do it.
By Stephen Poole on
All right, you really like the Alien movies (except you didn't dig the last one nearly as much as the first two). You love first-person shooters like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. You walk into your local software store and spot Alien Trilogy, Acclaim's new first-person shooter based on the movies you love. It's like a dream come true, right? Right - if the dream were a nightmare.
Actually, that's a little bit harsh. Alien Trilogy isn't a horrible game; in fact, if it had been released two years ago I'd probably be inclined to give it a fair rating. But hey, it's 1997 - and after seeing what can be done with first-person shooters on the PC, Alien Trilogy looks like a real trip back in time.
There's no doubt that this game has problems, nearly all of which can be traced back to two things: It's a video game port, and the video game that's being ported is already a year old. I don't mean to imply that all video game ports are sub-par, but when little or no effort is made to take advantage of the PC's capabilities - such as saving during levels, changing options during gameplay, and more - then you're off to a bad start. And while a year may not seem like that long of a time, anyone who knows anything about gaming technology will assure you that it is.
One thing AT does have going for it is a great setting. I don't think I've met an action-game fan who wasn't into Aliens, and that's where Alien Trilogy begins: You play as Ripley entering the colony complex on LV426, armed only with a 9mm pistol. Following the tried-and-true formula for first-person shooters, you explore each level in search of weapons and power-ups, and of course blasting everything that moves.
But a great setting alone does not a great game make, and in nearly every feature Alien Trilogy falls far short of the standards set by classy products like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. Hey, the annoyances crop up even before you begin play. When you install the game, AT offers you the choice of 256-color (8-bit) or 16-bit (64K-color) display. But the 16-bit version provides a color palette with only 40 or so more colors than the 8-bit version; why bother someone with this decision when there's no discernible difference?
Once you launch the game, be ready for a wait - a long wait. The credit sequences for Fox Interactive, Acclaim, and Probe Entertainment are interminable - nearly a minute and a half on a P-133 with 32MB RAM - and there's no way to bypass them. That's right, you gotta watch 'em every time. Excusable? Not in my book. When you do get into the game, you'll find all the usual ingredients of a shooter, but executed so nonchalantly that it seems the designers just whipped this thing out by rote: kill an enemy, find a weapon, open a door, exit the level. Yee-haw.
Of the seven weapons here, only the flamethrower is unique - and with several of them (shotgun, pistol, seismic charges), you have to press the fire button for every single shot. Given the number of aliens you're facing and how many shots it takes to waste each one, gamer's cramp is always looming on the horizon. Three of the six alien enemies - the Young Dog Alien, Warrior, and Adult Dog Alien - are so similar in appearance that they all might as well be the same critter, and except for the Alien Handler the “Company Enemies” are run-of-the-mill employees who were unlucky to become host to the alien - in short, they're just people. You'd probably offer them a sandwich if they weren't shooting at you.
There's no jumping or crouching here, and the motion tracker - that way-cool device that's supposed to tell you if anything's getting ready to jump your butt - is pretty much useless. It doesn't even tell you if creatures are in a room you're about to enter even when you're standing at the doorway.
The sound effects are mostly adequate, but uninspired. Shoot a Young Dog Alien, for example, and after the acid has splattered you hear a wheezing noise that sounds like the Three Stooges snoring. Your character seems to revel in taking damage, hissing out 'Come on!' and taunting 'Is that all you've got?' whenever you take damage. That's not what I call talking the talk AND walking the walk.
Besides being unable to change options during play or save a game in mid-level, Alien Trilogy's video game heritage is revealed by the fact that you can't play separate sections a la Duke or Quake unless you use cheat codes (which I haven't been able to find yet) - you have to play this thing straight through from start to finish.
Alien Trilogy runs at 640x480, but the graphics for enemies and backgrounds are so ho-hum and chunky that I could have sworn it was running at standard 320x200. These graphics are straight out of the Doom era - good enough if you haven't seen any recent first-person shooters, but disappointing for everyone else. Acclaim boasts of using 'motion-capture technology' to create the game, but I guess you'd have to be a programmer to see any difference between this high-end technology and other first-person games that eschew motion capture.
The last insult is the game's network play features. The box copy boasts that AT is 'fully loaded for real-time multi-player action over a network' - not much to brag about, since I've never seen a first-person shooter on a network that didn't play in real time. What's more, the network game doesn't have you shooting other players, but company synthetics; whoever kills the most company enemies wins. Now THAT'S the kind of action you'll hang around after work to enjoy! The crowning touch? No modem support - despite the 'ad' on Acclaim's hot line that says the game has this feature.
So what have we got? Great setting. Dated graphics. Dated gameplay. Mediocre sound effects. Sub-par multiplayer options. Those might be enough for a die-hard Alien fan who wants to make sure her collection of memorabilia is complete, but for the rest of us - even those of us who love the movies - it's not enough to make this game worth buying. To quote Bob 'Company Synthetic' Dole: Just don't do it.
Alien Trilogy
Developer(s)
Probe Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Acclaim Entertainment
Series
Alien
Platform(s)
PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Windows
Release
PlayStation
JP: May 31, 1996
Sega Saturn
JP: August 30, 1996
EU: September 4, 1996
Windows
Genre(s)
First-person shooter
Mode(s)
Single-player
Trilogy Video Wedding
Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter video game developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Windows platforms in 1996. The game is based on the first three movies in the Alien film series.
Gameplay[edit]
Alien Trilogy takes many elements from Alien film series, such as facehuggers, chestbursters, dog aliens, adult aliens, and Queen aliens. The video game consists of 30 levels and 3 Queen alien bosses. It features several weapons, including the pulse rifle from Aliens, and other equipment, such as a shoulder lamp, which can be used by the player.[1] The console versions only have a single player campaign whereas the DOS version also features deathmatch network multiplayer.
Plot[edit]
In the role of Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, the player experiences a story loosely derived from the first three films of the Alien franchise.
Aside from occasional CGIcut scenes, the plot is told through text-based mission briefings that guide the player through an expanded, action-oriented story, drawing upon the settings and characters of the franchise rather than through the specific plots of the films themselves.
The game begins in essentially the same manner as Aliens, as Ripley—here a marine herself—travels to LV426 to restore contact with the colony there.[2]
The other marines are wiped out, so Ripley must then travel through the infested colony and prison facility, and finally the crashed alien ship itself, to destroy the aliens and escape.
Development[edit]
In early 1994, Acclaim announced that Alien Trilogy would be the first game to use the 3D motion capture technology created by their engineering team Advanced Technologies Group.[3] The aliens' movements were created using this technology.[4]
Many of the game's sound effects, such as the cocooned colonists whispering 'Kill me' and the alien screeches, were sampled from the films.[1]
Reception[edit]
Reception
Aggregate score
Aggregator
Score
GameRankings
(PS) 77.50%[5] (SAT) 77.00%[6] (PC) 43.00%[7]
Review scores
Publication
Score
EGM
8.875/10 (PS1)[8]
Game Revolution
B+[9]
GameSpot
7.7/10 (SAT)[10]
IGN
8/10 (PS1)[11]
Next Generation
(PS1, SAT)[13][14]
Maximum
(PS1)[12]
Sega Saturn Magazine
89% (SAT)[15]
Alien Trilogy received generally positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the PlayStation version 77.50% based on 5 reviews,[5] the Sega Saturn version 77.00% based on 1 review,[6] and the PC version 43.00% based on 3 reviews.[7] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the PlayStation version their 'Game of the Month' award, concurring it to be the best video game based on the Alien franchise yet, chiefly due to the graphics and sound effects authentically recreating the style of the films. Two of the reviewers also commented that the use of mission objectives gives the game more depth than the average first person shooter.[8] Scary Larry of GamePro also commented positively on the sound effects but was not impressed by the graphics, remarking that though they are faithful to the films, they are overly monochrome and suffer from extreme pixelation. He also complained of targeting problems but gave the game a strong recommendation due to 'the fun of cruising the halls, wiping out aliens, and torching and detonating the area.'[16] A reviewer for Maximum likewise was pleased with the sound effects but felt the graphics to be authentic to the films yet unimpressive, remarking that the animation on the aliens is a severe disappointment after Acclaim's considerable boasting about their new motion capture technology. He also criticized the slow pace and weak weapons, but praised the game's limited field of vision for creating a claustrophobic, suspenseful atmosphere and concluded that Alien Trilogy 'is far more impressive than the mediocre offerings PlayStation owners have had to put up with over the last few months, with a depth of gameplay and audio-visual quality which is sure to impress just about everyone who buys it.'[12] A Next Generation critic hailed the game as both a strong first-person shooter and an excellent adaptation of the film series, and said the opening full motion video 'is one of the best intros we've seen.' While citing minor issues with confusing level designs, he emphasized that 'The details, however, are what make this come alive: face huggers scuttle away, full grown aliens drop down from above, alien queens are not easy to kill, glass shatters, barrels explode, and, for the most part, the way it controls is so smooth and intuitive that the experience is very close to finding yourself in the middle of the film.'[13]IGN criticized the confusing level layout but praised the intuitive controls, interactive environment, and generally strong film-to-video-game translation.[11]
The Saturn port was also positively received. A Next Generation critic hailed it as a rare example of a PlayStation-to-Saturn port which is just as good as the PlayStation original.[14] However, Hugh Sterbakov of GameSpot and Scary Larry said the graphics are not as 'crisp' as the PlayStation version, though still good in absolute terms.[10][17]Sega Saturn Magazine's Rad Automatic did not mention the PlayStation version at all.[15] Both he and Sterbakov focused their praises on the game's effective use of sound to create atmosphere and clue the player in to the close proximity of unseen enemies.[10][15] Despite their positive assessments, Scary Larry and Rad Automatic both said the game fell second to PowerSlave, another first-person shooter released for the Saturn at roughly the same time.[15][17]
Alien Trilogy was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 'Best Adaptation of Linear Media' Spotlight Award,[18] but lost the prize to I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.[19] It was awarded Electronic Gaming Monthly's Shooter Game of the Year.[20]
In a retrospective review, Irwin Fletcher of Game Revolution praised the high production values, commenting that 'Alien Trilogy is nothing revolutionary, but it's a damn good shooter.'[9]
The PlayStation version was a bestseller in the UK.[21]
References[edit]
^ ab'Alien Syndrome'. Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 10. Emap International Limited. August 1996. pp. 62–66.
^'Alien Trilogy: The Sci-Fi Saga Comes to the Saturn'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 87. Ziff Davis. October 1996. p. 138.
^'Dueling With Aliens'. GamePro (57). IDG. April 1994. p. 19.
^'Hooray for Hollywood! Acclaim Studios'. GamePro. IDG (82): 28–29. July 1995.
^ ab'Alien Trilogy for PlayStation'. GameRankings. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab'Alien Trilogy for Saturn'. GameRankings. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab'Alien Trilogy for PC'. GameRankings. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab'Review Crew: Alien Trilogy'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 81. Sendai Publishing. April 1996. p. 32.
^ abFletcher, Irwin (June 4, 2004). 'Alien Trilogy Review'. Game Revolution. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab'Alien Trilogy'. IGN. November 21, 1996. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ ab'Maximum Reviews: Alien Trilogy'. Maximum: The Video Game Magazine. No. 5. Emap International Limited. April 1996. pp. 152–3.
^ ab'Ripley, Believe it or Not...'. Next Generation. No. 18. Imagine Media. June 1996. p. 117.
^ ab'Alien Trilogy'. Next Generation. No. 23. Imagine Media. November 1996. p. 271.
^ abcdAutomatic, Rad (September 1996). 'Review: Alien Trilogy'. Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 11. Emap International Limited. pp. 64–65.
^'ProReview: Alien Trilogy'. GamePro. No. 92. IDG. May 1996. pp. 56–57.
^ ab'ProReview: Alien Trilogy'. GamePro. No. 98. IDG. November 1996. p. 122.
^Staff (April 15, 1997). 'And the Nominees Are...'Next Generation. Archived from the original on 1997-06-05. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
^'Spotlight Awards Winners Announced for Best Computer Games of 1996' (Press release). Santa Clara, California: Game Developers Conference. April 28, 1997. Archived from the original on July 3, 2011.
^'The Best of '96'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 92. Ziff Davis. March 1997. p. 90.
^Gallup UK Playstation sales chart, June 1996, published in Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue 7
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