Alien Trilogy

Developer - Fox
Publisher - Acclaim
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card

The bit on the box

"Haunted by memories, you hope there is just some small oversight...some simple communications problem, but you know, deep down, in the back of your mind...THEY'RE BACK!!!...Face huggers, chest bursters, dog aliens, adult aliens, ruthless corporate schills, and...3 Queen aliens!!!...Over 30 acid encrusted levels, an arsenal of lethal weapons, and you! All the gut-churning 3D action of the complete Alien trilogy in one black-death, white-knuckle nightmare."

Graphics

Alien Trilogy is a Doom clone, plain and simple. It's graphics aren't that much of an improvement over Doom but this means for extremely smooth action as you trot through dark gloomy corridors blowing away all manner of aliens. All the various types of aliens that were in the trilogy of movies are represented well and are easily recognisable, with a few extra ones thrown in to keep you on your toes, although they could have been better animated. Most of the areas to explore are dark and poorly lit, which at times feels like an excuse to have a short horizon so that there is no slow-down or noticable polygon pop up. All in all, solid graphics, but nothing special.

Sounds

The weapons sound effects have been sampled well from the movies and do create that feeling that most of us Aliens fans have of weilding a pulse rifle and blasting our way to survival. The sounds of the aliens themselves are another matter entirely. They don't really sound much like those of the film and you can hear them moving about in adjacent rooms, which for certain games is a good advantage but in a game of this sort which should be building up tension it spoils the feeling of not knowing what is around the next corner. The only creature that sounds remotely like it's movie counterpart is the chest burster, which squeals and shoots about manically, but also takes you by surprised by springing out of crates and pods.

Gameplay

Doom fans should enjoy this blaster as it uses a control system that is now very familiar for first person shooters. The protagonist (Ripley) is easy to control, although I thought that the left and right turning could have been made faster than it is, considering the high speed many of the aliens move at. Also, one key point to the second film was the motion trackers, that gave the marines one of their few advantages over the attacking hordes, but here it is virtually useless. By the time a blip comes up warning you of an approaching creature it is almost upon you anyway and generally already in sight. This is just another thing that ruins the possible tension building in the game, which was what the films were all about.

I feel a verdict coming on

I'm not saying that Alien Trilogy is a bad game by any means, in fact it is rather good. It is definitely one of the best Doom clones out there and there are plenty of levels to keep you occupied for some time (though a better save feature could have been used, but then this is a first generation title). Fans of the second Aliens film should enjoy the fast paced shooting action, but those who like the scares and tension of the first and third movies may be a little disappointed that none of the same has been included here. If they had got this game even half as frightening as the Resident Evil games then Alien Trilogy could have been classed as a playstation classic. As it stands it is just a very good first person shooter.

Review by D.R.T.Barrett