Alien Shooter: Vengeance

"Full Throttle Shooter Action!!"

When I play PC games, I usually stick to fps games, point and click RPGs, or MMOs, so I was not sure what to expect when I picked up Alien Shooter: Vengeance. I purchased it for pretty cheap online after reading some good reviews for the game. I was a huge fan of Smash TV in the arcade and on the SNES, so I'm familiar with the concept of masochistic shooters like this.

In Alien Shooter Vengeance, tons and tons of enemies are thrown at you, and you must survive. Sometimes it's not easy, and sometimes it's downright impossible, but you will keep trying anyway since the game is so much fun. Alien Shooter: Vengeance strikes a nice balance between difficulty and great gameplay that will urge you to keep playing, regardless of home dismal things may seem.

For those of you that don't know, Alien Shooter: Vengeance is a top down, old school shooter. You control the direction your character is facing with the mouse and make him or her move with a simple mouse click. Shooting is done with the other mouse button and weapon cycling is done with the mouse wheel as usual. So the blasting is easy to get into. The game controls pretty well, and it seems like a standard shooter at first, but Alien Shooter: Vengeance throws some RPG character growth elements into the mix which keep things fresh and it actually gives a purpose to slaying wave and wave of aliens.

From the start, you can select one of a few different characters who will have different starting stats. However, I really don't think the character choice makes much of a difference since they are just different character builds and nothing more. Next, you can pick a “special skill” that your character will have for the entire game. I chose the “vampire” skill, which supposedly gives you back some life when you kill enemies, but again, I didn't notice it at all. There are others too, some that give you increased intelligence, and close quarters skills, but most are pretty useless and the intense alien blasting is all that will matter.

After that, you start out the first level with a pistol and some ammo, but you will soon be finding bigger guns, including shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and energy guns. When you kill a certain number of aliens, you will level up, and be able to distribute some skill points to many different attributes. The RPG elements of the game come into affect for a short while, and then the madness continues.

That's pretty much it for the basics of the game. It's a fun time overall, but certain parts of it can get repetitive and downright frustrating to the point of wanting to throw stuff. Let's look at how the game scores.

Graphics 7/10

Don't let my 7/10 graphics score fool you, this game looks primitive. In fact, it looks like a Playstation game. It's a throwback to old school shooters similar to itself, and it's not really trying to be a graphical powerhouse. It's also a low budget (and cheap) game, which makes the graphics a little easier to swallow. In other words: Don't expect to be using Alien Shooter: Vengeance to show off your new video card.

Well if this is the case, why am I giving it a 7 for graphics? Simple, the game runs perfectly, without any graphical glitches. A game as intense as Alien Shooter: Vengeance would really get hurt by a choppy frame rate, so this is actually pretty important to the game. Oh yeah, the system requirements for Alien Shooter: Vengeance are pretty low, so most people should be able to play it.

When playing the game, Alien Shooter: Vengeance does a great job of giving you a large viewing area. This allows you to see the waves of aliens coming at you and take the appropriate actions. Most of the time it's shooting your gun, but sometimes you will need to retreat, or quickly switch weapons in order to dispatch the aliens.

There are quite a few different types of aliens, which keeps things fresh, and most of them are detailed enough so you can tell one from another, even when they are attacking in mobs.

Most of the “inside” environments look the same and they are nothing special to look at. There are a few outside missions which look a little better, but are pretty basic in design and graphical presentation. A few trees here, an un-passable fence there, it's nothing you haven't seen before, but again, it's not bad at all.

The weapons have some interesting effects. Fire will shoot from the end of your chain gun, and you can actually see where your shotgun blasts are headed, however, it's mostly, just point at the mob and start shooting.

Now for the best part of the graphics: the blood. Alien Shooter: Vengeance has this one unique thing about it that I absolutely loved. Pretty much every alien you kill, explodes in blood, and it remains, so after a huge fire fight with the aliens, sometimes the entire room is red with blood, giving you a huge feeling of accomplishment. Trust me, it's a lot cooler than it sounds.

Sounds and Music 9/10

One of the best parts of Alien Shooter: Vengeance is the music. It has hardcore rock/techno music pumping while you are blasting away at aliens, and quiets down to nothing when you are un-opposed. It really helps the mood of the game. You can usually tell when an alien mob is finished due to the music quieting down.

The sound effects are good too. All of the weapons sound convincing, and aliens will let out hisses and screams when attacking.

Story NA/10

Seriously, if you are playing this game for the story, you need to get some new games. I don't even think I paid attention to anything but the objectives. The back story has little to nothing to do with the playing and completion of the game. It's all about shooting aliens.

Gameplay 8/10

The reason that this game excels is the solid gameplay. I had a few small gripes with the game, but for the most part, it's great stuff, and a shooter fan's dream come true.

Aliens will be all over the place for most of the game, but you will get some downtime when you clear an area. During this time, you will have the ability to search for ammo, chests, and health packs. You will be killing a lot of aliens, so you will be getting a good amount of loot. This is where I came to my first problem with Alien Shooter: Vengeance. You have a very limited inventory at the beginning, and to make it larger, you have to waste skill points on “strength”, which allows you to carry more, but it just never seems like you have enough space throughout the entire game.

You can carry one of each type of weapon, one pistol, one shotgun, one machine gun and so on. You can upgrade them at item shops which you sometimes find at the start of levels. In order to use an upgraded weapon, you need to have enough skill points in that specific weapon……which leads to my next problem with Alien Shooter: Vengeance: you simply do not get enough skill points when you level up. There are 12 attributes that you can increase when you level up, but you get a measly 5 points per level. It just didn't seem like much to me, and I felt under-leveled for most of the game. Due to this, you will miss out on certain weapons and armor, which you would be able to use if your stats were higher.

Most of the areas that you will be fighting aliens in are dark, so you will be fighting them by shoulder mounted flashlight for most of the game. Later on you will be able to upgrade to night vision, but for the most part, you will be using the flashlight. The darkness and flashlight provide a little tension, but nothing fearful. You can still see most of the aliens coming from far away and get ready in plenty of time.

Seriously though, this game really has to be played to be appreciated. I highlighted some of the bad things above, but there is so much “good” in this game that I would have trouble listing it all. I could talk about the great controls, the endless blood splattering of the aliens, or the huge battles that just have to be seen to be believed, but it would take up too much of your time. If you like shooters, go buy this game, you can get it for extremely cheap.

Longevity and Re-playability 8/10

Alien Shooter: Vengeance has an incredibly challenging, 15 mission single player campaign, and 2 other modes which I didn't even try. There is plenty of game here to keep you busy for as long as you want it to. Throwing this game in and blasting some aliens away is always fun, and this game could easily be re-played for another run through of the single player campaign or one of the other modes.

Keep in mind, this game is brutally hard, and may not be for some. I'll be honest and say that I made it to the 12th mission without any cheats, but I used them for the rest of the game after that and I really don't think it ruined anything for me.


If you are a PC gamer of any kind, and you have any remote chance that you might like a “shooter” type game, I'd say get this game ASAP. I think it can be downloaded for $5 online. Seriously, you don't have much to lose.


<My review score 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/08, Updated 06/04/09

Game Release: Alien Shooter: Vengeance (US, 02/16/07)