I thought you said we had no weapons? (Alien 3)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Alien 3
Date:	17/08/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice visuals, Innovative controls

Disadvantages: Dull repetitive gameplay, gets boring very fast

Alien 3 is a nice-looking but rather dull platform game that bears next to no resemblance to the film of the same name- whereas the film makes a big deal of the fact that there are no weapons around, Alien 3 the game sees you playing as a skinhead Ripley fully tooled up with a pulse rifle, grenade launcher a flamethrower and handgrenades, wiping out Giger's nightmarish creations left, right and centre as you try and rescue all the prisoners that are stuck to the walls with alien goo before the timer runs out and they fall foul of the alien babies that are waiting patiently to burst out of their chests on cue. Quite how Ripley stops this from happening at all is not explained, but never mind, this is a platform game after all.

Alien 3 looks great for the time- the levels are highly polished and atmospheric and the aliens have a wicked, chrome-like shine to them, and the animation is convincing too, whilst blasting away at your insectile foes is hugely satisfying. The settings reflect the locations of second and third films, as you crawl through air-vents, climb ladders and run around huge industrial complexes and futuristic living quarters in your attempt to rescue the prisoners. Unfortunately, the gameplay is liner, repetitive and dull, and can be immensely frustrating when you end up going round in circles looking for an elusive prisoner as your timer slowly ticks down to zero.

You do have a rather nicely implemented motion sensor to help you, and you can also blast above and below you on ladders and diagonally up and down to kill aliens that are crawling along the ceiling or the floor, but all the same the gameplay is nothing special, with lots of dull moments of leaping from moving platform to moving platform not helping things either. Ammo, health and extra time can be collected along the way but the game still remains quite difficult, and on later levels you must learn the required movement pattern to reach all the prisoners in time via trial and error. The tinkly midi music can be rather annoying and incongruous with the game's setting too. Alien 3 is a game that looks great and is good for a very quick blast, but ultimately won't hold your attention for very long.

Summary: An uninspired platformer with a film licence tacked on