Alien Syndrome (PSP) Review
Posted by Andrew Mellick on 09.21.2007
An abandoned space station in the middle of nowhere, a sexy soldier sent to investigate, and a bevy of weapons at her disposal. Sounds great right? Well, hold on there buddy. Lets take a closer look and see if Alien Syndrome can break the monotony syndrome.
Alien Syndrome
If there is one thing that video games have taught us its that if you are several thousand years in the future and you lose contact with some space station way out in the middle of no where, its best to just assume them dead. Seriously, they never send in a unit of soldiers to find the reason nobody is responding is because they’re too busy eating cotton candy and getting laid.
Despite this obvious realization Sega still holds out hope for a small space station on the outer limits of the galaxy. Enter Alien Syndrome and its female protagonist, Aileen Harding. Harding is the best in her class blah blah blah, has a spotty past blah blah blah. We’ve all heard it before. The only question that remains is can Sega take this tired story line and make it worth playing?
Graphics:
Graphically this game looks decent. The cutscenes are pretty stylish and go far to give a sense of urgency in the story. It really does make you want to find out what happens. Also, the characters look sharp and realistic, displaying their emotions prominently on their face. It really draws you into these characters, especially Aileen Harding.
Then the game starts. Gone are the crisp visuals replaces with washed out colors and repetitive level design. I understand that cutscenes and in game graphics never match up, but when you go from such stylish looking cut scenes to what looks like a sub par SNES title, it really hurts the game.
I don’t know how long it will take developers to realize that the PSP has a small screen, so you need to make stuff look sharp and stick out. They tell me I’m fighting vicious looking aliens but it looks like I’m shooting a big pile of dog feces. Seriously, very washed out, uninspired, repetitive graphics. The whole thing needs to be overhauled.
Gameplay:
Control wise this game is a button masher. Get used to hit, hit, hit, hit, and move on. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but with the graphical mess discussed earlier, there really is no desire to go on mashing.
The game does have some nice RPG elements in it to keep it interesting. Although it is the normal RPG fair (choosing character types, leveling up abilities, etc) it does actually give you a reason to push on despite the games repetitive design.
In the end it’s a hack and slash with nothing worth hacking and slashing. The whole game play experience comes off as an afterthought. It’s just plain ugly. Too bad because a decent hack and slash title would be a perfect fit for the PSP.
Sound:
The sound in this game is minimal. Expect a lot of futuristic laser sounds and canned explosions. Alien monsters emit the usual hisses and growls. It all feels very repetitive and uninspired. It’s as if developers didn’t want to have the sound effects overshadow the dismal graphics. It really just feels like a B movie only without the unintentional humor.
Soundtrack wise it doesn’t get better. Get ready for futuristic electronica beats heard barely above a whisper. Sure you can turn up the music, but there is a reason it defaults to being so quiet; its shit. This musical score would have been mundane on the Sega Genesis, let alone the most powerful hand held on the planet.
The only saving grace comes again in the cut scenes. The voice acting is great and coupled with a score that inspires a sense of both urgency and purpose. It’s too bad once the game actually begins all that falls away and your left with a title that would have served better on a cell phone.
Lasting Appeal
The whole upgrade system is in place in an attempt to keep you playing. Unfortunately it’s nothing new and the little joys of upgrading are far outshined by the mind numbing gameplay. I know this game boils down to a simple hack and slash title, but I’ve played plenty of fun hack and slashers and this is by no means fun.
It really is too bad, I mean the cut scenes are beautiful and the story really is quite engaging. But sorry to say that all the story in the world can’t pull this game. Hell, a Halle Berry vs Natalie Portmann pillow fight story couldn’t pull this game.
So what would have fixed this game? How about some inspired monsters? Slugs crawling around leaving a slime trail don’t exactly get people jumping out of their chairs like they used to. Put some time into your enemies. These things are supposed to be monsters so make them monsters. The key to any good hack and slash is creating good enemies you actually want to hack and slash for hours on end. Killing big worms in the same olive green hallways isn’t going to burn out any PSP batteries.
Fun Factor
What is fun here? The story; the story is engrossing and intriguing. I still wonder what will happen. It’s too bad I’ll never find out, because the gameplay is pure garbage. When will developers realize that each genre works for a reason? Hack and slash titles work because of a solid upgrade system and hordes of badass enemies. You can’t take the simplistic gameplay and combine that with bad graphics and bug monsters and call it a day. Well…you can but then you get this straight to bargain bin failure.
There really is nothing fun about this game. I cannot think of any sub group of gamers who would enjoy this. Ok, if you’re a hardcore hack and slash guy who loves olive green and has a disturbing hatred for oversized worms than I just found your Citizen Kane. To all other gamers run and don’t look back.
The 411
What else can be said? This game is trash! I’m surprised you’re still reading this! But I appreciate your loyalty so I’ll go on. This game really sums up what is wrong with gaming in general. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating but follow me on this.
You take a genre that is easy to develop controls wise (i.e. hack and slash) and you half ass the rest (i.e. canned sounds, and piss poor graphics), finally you finish it off with something to hang your hat on so people can say this game has a good… (In this case it’s the story) and bingo! It’ll make millions. No, no it will not.
So to sum up (as if I haven’t already done so) the story is good, the graphics are terrible, the sound is terrible, the game is terrible. End of story.
Graphics
2.0
Repetitive, dull, and disgusting
Gameplay
4.0
The only saving grace here is the RPG elements, the rest is crap
Sound
2.5
Totally canned sound effects and a crappy electronic soundtrack
Lasting Appeal
3.0
The RPG elements and the story will keep you playing for 11 minutes, thats it
