Alien Trilogy

The Good
It's a pretty standard FPS. You fight your way through mostly linear levels activating switches to open doors, working your way to the exit whilst blasting anything that moves with a variety of weapons. The levels get progressively harder with more Aliens, ending with boss battles before finishing a chapter. All these things are pretty standard for a mid-nineties shooter game, and normally add up to some mindless distraction but Alien Trilogy manages to take these ingredients and create a fun game.

It does this by being fun and scary. The basic Aliens storyline is well known, a species of acid-blooded xenomorphs which incubate their young in host victims before bursting and turning into vicious killers. Trilogy never veers from this, or even expand the mythos - there's no new strain of Alien not seen in the films and even the weapons are all from the films. Instead the variety comes in the level design and missions. Rather than simply reaching the end of the level, the missions have Ripley (you) complete a relatively simple task such as collecting id tags or destroying eggs. Sometimes the level exit is deceptively close, but use it before you've completed enough of the mission and you'll find yourself repeating the level, so you're forced to explore - which is the scary part. Let's face it Aliens are scary, they may be pixelly representations here but when they come screaming at you or pop up behind you, you're sure to be touchy. The save system only allows saving between levels so you must make sure you're not overwhelmed, leaving you creeping around every corner keeping an eye on your scanner. I found the game almost terrifying until I cracked the system of bug hunting, and how to spot potential health and ammo stores. Even then I was always cautious, spending ammunition carefully. Each of the levels are quite short though, about half and hour a piece, so you're never far from a respite.

The Bad
The storyline is patched together from the films of the (then) trilogy, which have been mangled together into one continuous narrative. It feels like the levels in each chapter (there are three) were made long before the over-arching story. The three chapters correspond roughly to the films, the Colony (Aliens), the Prison (Alien3) and the Alien ship (Alien) with key locations being reproduced in the levels, so you get to play around in the lead mould from Alien3 and see the famous dead space jockey from Alien. Your missions in each chapter are roughly similar and involve working your way to the heart of the brood and destroying the Alien Queen. Each chapter is linked by a cut-scene, plus an introduction and epilogue video. These make very little sense. They show Ripley's (you) arrival at the colony from Aliens along with a squad of marines, who subsequently get wiped out by the Aliens leaving you to defeat them and destroy the colony. So far so OK, at the end of chapter 1 you clean out the Colony and set it to auto destruct. Rather then just clear off you decide to visit another infestation in the prison section, which happens to contain a foundry just like in Alien3. Why you don't just wait for Bishop to arrive in the drop ship is a mystery, but once you clean out the Prison Ripley decides she's not had enough and takes on the Alien ship, despite no chance of rescuing anyone there. Then the ending left my head scratching as to the point of my missions!

The Bottom Line
A fun, frenetic and fairly short game that seems difficult until you crack the level design to find the hidden caches. Alien Trilogy is worth a blast through, if only for that reason, it doesn't elucidate anything new about the films, or even tell a cohesive story missing the potential for search and rescue missions, and generally drama. It does give suspense though, and a fair chill, especially when you get a Face-hugger attached to you!

The Good
In Alien Trilogy, you must complete a series of tasks, which are outlined to you doing your mission briefing. These tasks include restoring power to certain areas and collecting identity tags from dead scientists. The missions lay across ten or more levels. Oh, and you have to destroy several xenomorphs along the way. These include incubating eggs, face-huggers, crawlers, and dog aliens. Out of these enemies, the face-huggers are hell to kill since they run very fast and you have to follow them while you are shooting in an attempt to kill them.

The weapons include pistols, machine gun, flame throwers, pulse rifles, and smart bombs. You can only use a certain weapon to kill an xenomorph quickly without wasting any time. You can also pick up seismic charges, which are very useful as no matter what xenomorph you encounter, it will be blown to pieces in one shot.

Completing each mission takes roughly 30 minutes to complete, but it is worth while to explore each of the areas fully, and this will take you through alien nests, prisons, derelict spaceships, communication rooms, labs, and more. Each of these locales have advanced technology and other gadgets. During your travels, you can obtain various power-ups. The best one I was able to get is the auto mapper. If you get this, then you will be able to pick out any secret areas that can increase your kill count, as most of these areas can contain hordes of xenomorphs. If you don't do enough in your mission before you reach the exit doors, you have to restart the missions. But if you complete 100% of the mission, you'll be able to enter an area where you can stock up on ammunition.

As I said earlier, most of the missions require you to restore power to certain areas. This requires you to find a panel and activate it. Doing so will operate a lift or power-up a door. Some panels will require you to collect one or two batteries and use it on the panel. Again, it is necessary to search every nook and cranny, and possible use the seismic charges to blow up crates and other things.

Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter, and I like FPSes, since I like to explore areas more than just finding somebody to shoot. As you would expect, there are bosses at the end of each of the three areas in the game. You defeat the Alien Queen not once, but thrice. Cut-scenes of Ripley getting inside of a vehicle is shown right after one of the Alien Queens gets defeated.

Now let's talk about the interface, which is well designed. Rather than having the main indicators (health and ammo) listed as percentages, the indicators are represented with green lines that gradually increase or decrease. The health indicator is slightly different as it goes in a somewhat wavy pattern, and it is interesting just to see it move downward or upward if you lose or earn health. These indicators sit inside a black area that is well suited to the game. Other information is displayed right below the health indicator and not scattered all over the place. They are in one area only.

The weapons themselves look good, and they function correctly as you would expect. The locales, as well as the xenomorphs who inhabit it, look like they can do a lot of damage to you, especially if the same group of them is ganging up on you. The sound effects are the exact sounds from the Alien movies. For example, the motion tracker exactly sounds like the one in Aliens, with the faint sound meaning that there is an alien nearby. That faint sound gets louder as the alien is close to you.

The music consists of CD-Audio tracks, and some of the tracks sound futuristic. There are heaps of tracks to listen to as you play the game, and the track that I enjoyed most was the adrenaline-pumping track that portrays the battle of the Alien Queen.

The Bad
Some of the backgrounds are a bit blocky, and the Alien Queen doesn't look exactly like the one in the movies. The cut-scenes are also short.

The Bottom Line
Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter where you have to destroy xenomorphs that get in your way using a series of weapons, and complete missions in the process. The game has you exploring interesting locales, and there are a ton of secret areas in each area, which can be revealed if you have the auto mapper. The sound effects are the same sound effects that you hear from the Alien movies. The graphics, as well as the interface, are well designed but can be crap at all times. This game is worth playing, especially if you like Alien-licensed games and FPSes.

The Good
Alien Trilogy is a game that is fun to play. Especially, if you feel that there are not enough FPSs on Sega Saturn. The game starts you off in great atmosphere of darkness which can make you jump at certain points, no kidding. The game basically asks you to handle simple objectives and find your way to the exit. but you must watch out for those aliens. I am enjoying this game as a recent buy, and it is good for those people who need to have at least a decent shooter to play if its hard for them to find Saturn games. Enemies are plentiful in the levels, which is really good. The overall graphics are nice and the controls are manageable but may time to get used especially if you play new gen systems.

The Bad
What I didn't like was, though the graphics were nice, they could have polished it more. Gameplay levels can be more dynamic and larger. The controls for movement aren't changeable, which I would like to have fixed. Besides those nothing much else to dislike.

The Bottom Line
It is an eerie environment encrusted game of aliens, infected humans, and lunatics. Enjoy.

The Good
While visiting a recently discovered treasure trove of classic gaming goodness I found 'Alien Trilogy' in its original long-box sitting unassumingly on a shelf. I picked it up for 10 bucks and brought it home...

I was surprised at the production values at first...because they're quite good! The 3D engine is similar to the one found in PO'ed, in that it is fully three-dimensional. The characters are standard sprites but for some reason I have always found graphics like these to be more compelling than their 3D counterparts of the era.

The weapons are nicely detailed and shells spill forth after dropping some aliens or an infected human or two. The game is quite bloody which I absolutely love! If you're blowing away an infected colonist with a shotty or dousing an alien in flames blood flows profusely...sweet death...Oh, how I embrace you...

The Bad
My one and only gripe is the password system...my god haven't we moved away from elongated super passwords? Didn't we leave that back in the 80's with Metroid? Apparently not. Beware...if you die you're going to be entering a massive password, that is of course if you were intelligent enough to save when you were fully geared up.

The Bottom Line
A worthy FPS for the PSX! If you find it...get it! You will not regret the purchase - at 10 bucks how could you? Plus the long-box is hilariously over-sized it makes the purchase a no-brainer!