Alien Trilogy

"Mindless Fun"

****May Contain Some Spoilers****

I have always been a fan of the Alien movies (well, the first two anyway), and such, a Video Game of course would be much-wanted by the fans. There have been a lot of Games based on the Alien films, and I have only played about two or three of them (so far). However, Alien Trilogy is a very pleasant surprise.

For a movie-licensed Video Game, Alien Trilogy is pretty decent. Most of the time, Games that have a movie license tend to suck, but this Game is well worth a purchase and is surprisingly fun, despite a few problems.

The Story is nothing to write home about; It involves you playing Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, the Heroine of the four Alien films (or shall I say three, because AT was produced a couple of years before the fourth film, Alien Resurrection, was released).

The intro is very good, and while I'm not exactly sure what AT's story is all about, I would *assume* it involves Ripley trying the eliminate the Alien Creatures (known as Xenomorphs) after a Platoon of Marines have been literally wiped out by extremely powerful Hordes of the Xenomorphs. Along the way, Ripley has to exterminate the Acid-Spewing Monsters with all sorts of destructive Weaponry, such as Pulse Rifles, Flamethrowers, SmartGuns, and more. Not exactly a ground-shaking story, but the game has a lot going for it.

While the graphics have definitely aged, they are still decent; Levels are well-designed and are pretty creepy. The LV-426 Colony looks very nerve-racking and it gives you a sense of fear and dread that something evil is with you. The Steam effects are also somewhat freaky, many Levels are dark, and a lot of the music and sound effects are quite spooky;

The sound of your Motion Detector when an Enemy is nearby is captured perfectly, the hissing and screeching of the Xenomorphs is extremely creepy, and the Gun sounds are terrific. The Flamethrower really sounds like it's throwing a powerful Flame Stream, the SmartGun rapid-fire sound is excellent, and the Shotgun blast sounds very devastating. The music has a pretty eerie tone and aura to it, which adds to the uncomfortable atmosphere and feel of many of the levels.

The Characters Designs have showed their age, but are still top-notch; The Warrior Xenomorph looks very menacing and has a look to him that says ''Don't Mess With Me'', the Dog Xenomorphs are disgusting and are gory, the FaceHuggers and ChestBursters look quite freaky (man is it scary to have those FaceHuggers hug your face and block your view! Especially in the dark!), and the Alien Queen looks absolutely fantastic. She is enormous, her body is accurate to the Alien Queen from Aliens, and she is quite the Monster indeed.

Xenomorphs aren't the only Enemies in the game though; we get Company Soldiers, who wield Pulse Rifles and can wreak some serious havoc when given a chance, and we get very nasty Synthetic Soldiers, who brandish extremely devastating SmartGuns that give the M-60 Machine Gun a run for it's money. Fortunately, the Synthetic Soldiers are only in a couple of levels and are very rare, but are still very dangerous. There are a few other Human Enemies as well (Security Guards that have gone mad and the White-Coated Company Soldiers from Alien 3).

As with the movies, there is a lot of blood and gore in Alien Trilogy; a very nasty geyser of blood emits after wiping out a Human with a Seismic Survey Charge, dead Humans lie on the ground covered in a ton of blood, and there is a lot of Acid and green Slime. Did I mention that the infected Scientists and FaceHugger Eggs are also gross? The Dog Aliens are also a very disgusting sight to see (as I said earlier); their bodies are red-orange, they look somewhat bloody, and their just... gross.

Gameplay is good; you use a lot of cool and fun Weapons (my personal fave is the Flamethrower), you exterminate Xenomorphs and Company Soldiers in all sorts of different and cool levels, and the game has a whole lot of ''Run For Your Life'' moments. The Controls are also simple and are easy to use and really aren't much of a problem.

However, the Gameplay gets extremely repetitive after the first several levels, because all it really consists of is you blasting Xenomorphs and other Enemies with all sorts of Weapons and in every level, you have to search for a Battery to activate the Door that can take you to your next Mission. Many of the levels are also very big and are extremely easy to get lost (especially the last few levels, expect to spend a long time trying to find a way out of there!).

There is also some slowdown when there is a little too much action on-screen, there isn't much variety, and sadly there are no MultiPlayer modes and no co-op Modes neither (wouldn't it have been awesome to kick some Xenomorph butt with a friend helping you at the same time? There were a lot of levels, such as the Garage (which is my personal favorite level out of the entire game) where co-opertive play would've been really cool and fun).

I would still recommend Alien Trilogy. Although it gets highly repetitive and quite boring after a while, for the first few levels, the game is a lot of mindless and gory fun with plenty of scares to make you shiver. Basically, AT is Doom meets the Alien films. It is a great way to kill time and is an essential for when your really bored.

Buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/01, Updated 06/11/01