Alien Resurrection

"Worst.Controls.Ever."

INTRO: Being a diehard fan of the Alien franchise I thought a FPS could be a relatively safe bet to try out. The available content for this type of game and premise is overwhelming. So I went home with A:R excited to try it out only to be.... utterly pissed off. Really there is no excuse what so ever for these controls. This is game is hard, but not because of the gameplay. A:R is hard because it is hard to point yourself in the right direction. Overall Alien: Resurrection turns out to be a huge disappointment.

GRAPHICS: For the most this category does fairly well. The character models are good representation of their movie counter parts. The framerate will hiccup every once and again though. The backgrounds are also subpar. They all look the same, which in turn look like they could be pulled out of any sci-fi FPS game.
Score 5

SOUND: The sound effects are probably the best part of the game. The music is alright but does suit the game well. Character voices do sound appropriate especially the computer.
Score 6

CONTROLS: Similar to most FPS games in that you must use both joysticks to move around. This has been pulled off before quite well. The Medal of Honor series has made their own unique FPS setup that this game could have benefited from. But what should be a simple system to implement fails horribly. Cursor movement is erratic but slow at the same time. Aiming and moving are nearly impossible, which is a must in any FPS.
Score 1

STORY: Completely ripped from the movie in its entirety. But done so in a crappy way to make a crappy plot even worse. Because lets not kid ourselves, Alien: Resurrection was by far the worst movie of the series. The plot is not a very dominant presence in the game either, further detracting from it.
Score 2

REPLAY: None. Nada. That is what you are going to get here. No multiplayer what so ever. No unlockables that I know of. But unlockables would require actually finishing the game. Which besides being nearly impossible, would be cruel and unusual torture.
Score 1

GAMEPLAY: Now besides being terrible or mediocre in nearly every field, the gameplay does have some good concepts. But that does not mean I recommend A:R in any fashion, it merely means it has potential (wasted at that). One good concept is the multiple characters you will play as. Depending on the level you will be able to choose different characters. The characters do have a slightly differing arsenal, but that is as far as their differences go. There is also a chestburster meter. When you get impregnated by a facehugger you will have meter showing time until birth unless proper action is taken. The shooting though is lackluster. This is compounded by repetitiveness and the extreme difficulty (solely because of the movement issues). I could not bring myself to finish Alien: Resurrection because of the frustration level.
Score 6

BOTTOM LINE: Do not even look any further into this game. Unless you are looking for an extreme and frustrating challenge steer clear of this one.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/05