resurrect this game by buying it (Alien Resurrection (PS))

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Product:	Alien Resurrection (PS)
Date:	18/06/01 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good copy of the film

Disadvantages: not the best

In space, no one can hear you scream. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of where I live. As a result, many neighbors complained about the expletive-laden screeching I let out while trying to play Alien Resurrection. This brutal first-person shooter from Fox Interactive is a perfect example of how attention to balance can make the difference between a potentially great game and a virtually unplayable one.

Like in the movie, your job is to get the hell off a floating space station that's crawling with a bunch of incredibly pissed-off monsters. You start the game as Ripley, the Sigourney Weaver character. She's a clone of her original self, and sort of the mother of the nasties aboard the ship. Eventually, you'll also shoot away as Call, the robot played by Winona Ryder, as well as two other members of their doomed space party.

Playing as different characters breaks the game up and gives it more of a team feel. You get the sense of working toward a common goal. Ripley has to do one thing, Christie has to do something else, Call has her own separate mission, etc. (Not for nothing, but didn't Winona Ryder used to be cuter? She was pretty, and then all of a sudden she became sort of ho-hum. Meanwhile, Christina Ricci was cute, then she got sort of ho-hum, but then she got cute again. I realize this has nothing to do with the review, but I think you should know where I stand on things such as this.)

Alien Resurrection, developed by Argonaut, definitely cranks the creepy knob. Both the manual and one of the opening screens say that it should be played in the dark. There are even instructions on how low to set the brightness level on your TV for optimal eeriness. Usually, that would send up a red flag. It's like a girl telling you she looks best under insufficient lighting, but here, the effect works. The darkness not only softens some of the harsher PSX textures, but it sends you immediately into that "code
red" state of mind. It perfectly captures the nail-biting tension of the movie.

While the mood and ambiance of the game are great, that sound you hear in the background is the wheels getting ready to fall off.

First off, the controller setups are wacked. The default is possibly the least intuitive of the lot. Moving and strafing with the left stick and looking and turning with the right stick feels about as natural as dating your uncle. But none of the six options are particularly good. Too many buttons are wasted. Being able to scroll forward and backward through your inventory and weapons is needless. And the quick-turn button, which whips you 180-degrees in the opposite direction, is more of a nuisance than a help. Oh, and is there a run button? Nope. But then again, who'd want to run while being chased by a ten-foot-tall, drooling, razor-toothed alien?

I'm no FPS slouch. I cut my teeth on Wolfenstein and the original DOOM, and have tackled just about everything else since. Even when I'm not playing, I keep my right hand way up in front of my face to simulate the experience 24-7. Some games are hard, but the challenge is fun and intense. Alien Resurrection is just hard--bordering on the impossible. You're just not given enough to work with. There's not enough firepower to deal with the enemies, and the enemies mete out too much damage. I generally start a game on the default normal setting, and get a feel for it from there. With AR, I was getting my ass kicked on the easy setting. Mercilessly.

There's absolutely no evidence that anyone did any balancing on this title. A well-balanced game has survivable ammo-to-enemy and health-boost-to-damage-point ratios. This has neither. The only real way to make it through is to remember, area by area, what jumps out at you and when. You end up dying a lot, and then retracing your steps through the same tunnels and corridors over and over. This tedium is m
ade all the more enjoyable since you don't have the run option--thanks, Argonaut.

As if the numbers weren't already stacked against you, the less-than-precise PSX aiming is another frustrating handicap. Heck, the game's AI isn't even that bright. The evil marines practically jump in front of your bullets, and a lot of the aliens will come straight at you. Even so, you're either so outnumbered or so taken by surprise that the pinpoint accuracy you need is impossible to achieve. All it takes is one alien to get close to you, and you're gone. It's like if every time you got sacked in NFL Blitz, the game was over. On the gore level, the game is more gruesome than any late hit in NFL Blitz. Bodies and parts fly through the air, and most of the corpses lying around the space station have had their chests ripped open. AR has a mature rating, which means it's for adults. Masochistic, hair-shirt-wearing adults.

This could have been a terrific game. The Alien movies are a claustrophobic thrill ride, and this game simulates that atmosphere perfectly. The controls, though, are a joke. Let me run. Give me a high-powered secondary feature for every weapon. And given the sheer number of things I have to shoot at and the limits of the PSX controller, some aim assistance wouldn't be too bad. I like a tough game, but this is ridiculous. Not enough ammo. Not enough health. Not enough fun. This is about as close to a joyless gaming experience as I can remember. Alien Resurrection's official website teases you with the line, "You'll pray it's only a game." Truth be told, it should say, "You'll pray it's only a rental."

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