The game starts where the previous games left off. Or at least that’s what the cheap looking cut-scene at the beginning would have us believe. I say cut-scene, but it would be better described as a series of stills accompanied by some mediocre voice acting. The story starts of with our limply characterised hero, Conrad, as he attempts to escape from a ship that has been taken over by a rogue AI and a series of aliens. Does it sound like every sci-fi horror cliché ever? Well that’s because it probably is.

The main gameplay is easy to pick up and pointless to master

If it wasn’t bad enough that the plot is fairly mindless and hard to get to grips with if you’re a newcomer to the series, the gameplay is equally mind-numbing. It feels pretty much like a standard two stick top down shooter, but with the survival horror elements of limited ammo and health pickups being brought into the equation. There are several problems to, what should be a fairly simple game engine, however. The first big one is the weapons arsenal. There just aren’t that many guns. As nice as it is to be able to upgrade your weapons and equipment throughout your adventure, the upgrades are all ridiculously by the book and the handful of weapons means the action gets pretty dull pretty quickly. Compounding this is some appallingly linear level design, with some really backward objectives to complete. So much back and forth goes on in Descent, that I started to feel like a lap dog playing fetch. And I didn’t like it.

There are also several elements that just make the game plain awkward. During the course of your Alien Breed play through you’ll acquire a variety of items, from grenades to armour and health packs. The problem is that the inventory management is needlessly frustrating when you’re trying to access items on the fly. You can only cycle through items one at a time and, often, during the intense fire fights you’ll be launching grenades instead of healing yourself and vice versa with irritating regularity.

There are also camera issues that impede your progress. You are given control of the camera via the L1 and R1 buttons but, putting the liability upon the player makes combat sections in the game annoying. No matter how you point the camera, you constantly feel you can’t quite see the whole picture. But not in the “oooh what’s coming next” sort of survival horror way, but more in the “oh crap I died again” vein. Boy, does it get old fast.

The camera is more annoying than it looks

In general, the frightening elements of Alien Breed are relatively well complemented by the game’s comparatively high production values. The graphics are generally solid for a downloadable title. They are marginally let down by some drab level textures, though going outside the ship for the first time in the series was a novel highlight. The sparse soundtrack also ups the game’s tension, with the familiar assault rifle sound effects actually sounding pretty satisfying. The problem is with the voice acting for, even though it is rather unimpressive during the game’s “cut-scenes,” the fact that it just drops out mid-game seemed cheap. The problem with the game’s immersion is little to do with poor production values, and more to do with poor gameplay pacing.

If you do happen to fall for the frustratingly old school charm of Alien Breed 3, you’ll be pleased with the amount of content on offer. For your paltry $9.99 you get your relatively long single player campaign, a series of survivor missions and an accompanying set of co-op levels as well. The co-op can be played online (more hassle than it’s worth) or locally, provided you are on the 360 or PS3 versions. The co-op is generally poor with frustrating split camera issues, but it is a pleasant addition all the same. There are also a copious amount of achievements/trophies to go through, which will increase your playtime invariably if you attempt to hit up that elusive platinum.

Getting away from enclosed corridors was a short lived, but enjoyable, novelty

Alien Breed 3 does have its good qualities. Sadly though, there is nothing gripping or original about the game to keep playing. Ten years ago this may have been standard, but nowadays we have so much choice and quality within our industry that lacklustre titles like Descent just can’t compete any more. Descent is not a terrible title and is not entirely without merit, but there are other games out there far more deserving of your time and money.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

Alien Breed 3: Descent is the last installment in the Alien Breed series.  You don’t have to play the previous ones to enjoy this game, but with the little story there is in the game it would help to understand it more.  The main jist of the story is that Theodore J. Conrad, whom you play as, has his ship crash into another ship that happens to be controlled by an A.I. computer that is ..well ..a lunatic, if that possible.  Oh yeah and the ship is also infested with alien of all sorts that are just plain and simple, not happy that you are there.  The A.I. computer has a voice of its own telling you to leave and you’re going die, you know the usual.  This adds to the classic sci-fi nature of the game.

In case you have not played any of the other Alien Breed games, this one like the others is a top down shooter that can be compared to Zombie Apocalypse (XBLA) or Dead Ops in Call of Duty: Black Ops as far as the mechanics go.  Speaking of mechanics, they are pretty much identical to the last games mechanics.  You aim with the joystick and fire with the right trigger on the Xbox 360 version, while you move around with the other joystick.  You can get a whole assortment of weapons as you progress through the campaign, like flamethrowers, shotguns, electro-link gun and the mighty Project X that annihilates all the aliens nearby.  There are also grenades, stuns, and medikits that are extremely awkward to use especially when you are begin attacked by hordes of aliens.  You will run down hallways killing aliens while you find ways to unlock doors to progress through the level.  Checking bodies for ammo and picking up credits as you go is almost necessary to survive.  Eventually you will come to save points where you can upgrade weapons and buy items with the credits you have attained.

Co-op

The game has some pretty visually epic boss fights.  Alien Breed 3: Descent is also pretty freaky as it’s dark where ever you are not shining your flashlight an alien can be creeping anywhere.  Noises will freak you out to because you really don’t know what the hell the noise is half the time.. maybe nothing.. maybe an evolved looking alien that shoots electric balls of death at you.  Every time you beat a level, a comic book kind of sketch comes up one after the other explaining some story to the game but I can tell you right now, the story is not one of the stronger points in the game.  There are floods in the ship at some points and for the first time in the series, you step outside of the ship and walk along the hull of the ship in the open outer space which was pretty cool, until an alien killed me from behind cause you can’t hear anything in space.  Sometimes running through hallways can get boring but the boss fights are worth it just for the unique visual style of them.

Other than singleplayer, there is Survival Mode which is like horde mode where waves of aliens come after you and you will inevitably die.  This can be played by yourself or in co-op which is much more fun.  The only problem is it was hard to find a community playing the game online, which could be due to a number of things with all the games that have been released for the holiday season.  So co-op would be best to get a buddy to download the game with you or you can play it local as well.  You can also play 3 levels in co-op where you are scored.  Freeplay mode lets you choose any level and start from the beginning in case you just want to beat the last level and see the end.

Not looking good from over there.

Overall the game is a fun sci-fi, top down shooter that is definitely worth the money, but if you played the previous games you are going to be playing a very similar game with Descent.  You don’t see enough good sci-fi games out there, I think the last one I played was Dead Space.  The Xbox 360 version has unlockable avatar rewards that don’t seem to work once you have unlocked them.  Hopefully this is something Team 17 will fix.  If you are looking for a good arcade shooter, I’d say pick this up, but if you have played the previous games in the Alien Breed series you won’t be missing anything.  The game is available for the Xbox Live Arcade, PC and Steam for $10.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Team 17’s has announced that the final game in the Alien Breed series, Alien Breed 3: Descent, will be released on November 17.  The game will be available for 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA and $10 on Steam.  Here is the press release:

London, UK- November 12^th, 2010 – Throughout 2010, the Alien Breed™ series has delivered tense moments, frenetic firefights and co-op carnage to gamers across the world. The opening title, Alien Breed™: Impact/Evolution introduced players to the plight of Theodore Conrad, chief engineer aboard the doomed ship Leopold, struggling to regain control of his ship after a collision with a mysterious foreign vessel. Alien Breed™ 2: Assault saw Conrad fighting back, boarding the newly conjoined ship and delivering doses of old-fashioned revenge on its inhabitants. Now, with Alien Breed™ 3: Descent gamers can fight to the stunning conclusion of the latest trilogy from legendary developer/publisher Team17’s Alien Breed™ canon, with the official release date being confirmed as Wednesday 17^th November 2010 on Xbox ^TM LIVE Arcade and for PC, via Steam.

With the Leopold and its unwanted attachment breaching the surface of an imposing ice planet, you have only a few hours to wade your way through flooded corridors and locate the origin of the threat that has so far laid waste to your once proud space ship. For the first time Conrad can venture outside of the ship in the breathtaking hull walk set pieces, and for those trigger-happy shooter fans there are vicious new enemies to fight, including the Electro-Shocker alien and the awe-inspiring final bosses. New armaments are also available in Descent, with the Electro-Link gun allowing for shockingly good crowd control whilst the formidable Project X weapon will tear through anything in its path.