At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players
Andy Daniel	Xbox 360	Team 17	Team 17	1-2 (Share screen)
Requirements				Also on...
None.				PS3, PC

Alien Breed 3: Descent review

The final installment of the thrilling downloadable trilogy has arrived! Alien Breed 3: Descent brings the outer space horror shooter story to an end. How does it compare to the Impact of the colossus space ship collision with the Leopold or the Assault of the alien force unleashed from it? We take a look at the final game of Team17’s deviation from Worms, Alien Breed.

If you haven’t played any of the series yet, skip to the final chapter where I wrap up a conclusion of the series, spoiler-free. Otherwise go play the games, catch up, and read on to learn about the final chapter.

Previously on Alien Breed... Spaceship Leopold collides with an unknown ship, once human-led, now alien swarmed. Big, ugly and vicious aliens board the Leopold and begin devastating the ship and the humans on board. Protagonist Conrad blasted his way through the ship with the help of android Mia attempting to repair the ship, to break free. His only option was to board the ghost ship, attempt to start the engines and break apart from the Leopold. In their travels they happen upon the captain, Klein, who turned himself into AI to survive. Despite seeming friendly at first, the captain killed Mia, and is now after Conrad, who now has to repair the engines alone.

Let’s get this straight from the start: Alien Breed 3: Descent doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Alien Breed 2: Assault was a big step from episode 1 (known as Evolution on the 360, and Impact on the PS3 and PC), bringing improved visuals, audio and a more varied storyline and gameplay. This time around, for the third and final episode of the series brought back from the dead, Team17 worked on what they did so well with in the previous installment. The aliens are as gruesome and horrific as ever, and the ship is as chilling and brutal as your classic alien horror movies. The ghost ship that Conrad is aboard is dark and quiet, taking your senses for a spin as you turn and fire instinctively at just noisy broken doors.

Arriving a mere 57 days after the previous installment, one would be forgiven for expecting the limited development time to have had a negative impact, but fear not, the quality of the game is as high as it was in episode 2, if not higher. The narrative sequences between the five fresh, hour-long chapters told in a comic book manner make a welcome and updated return. Think Sin City’s grittiness meeting a space horror; it works extremely well. Also a few fresh weapons are thrown into the mix, such as the devilishly deviant Project X, which shoots a giant orb of destruction, and the electro link gun which when impacts your gruesome foe, starts linking and killing nearby enemies. As before, these weapons are brought into the mix at strategic moments, allowing you the minor advantage when the opposing force reaches critical mass, an often occurrence.

The final chapter brings the entire story to a climactic finish in the great and consistent style that Team 17 have done so well. Again, they did away with the repetitive back-and-forthing that I found so dire in episode 1, and the huge variety of episode 2 has remained intact. The settings change from dark, biomatter-splattered corridors to vast, deadly spaces outside of the ship, keeping the player on their toes every step of the way. The comedy element has been brought to center-stage, with the AI antagonist Klein mocking Conrad every step of his journey, throwing the xenomorph force in his way and then teasing self destruction. The story remains compelling and innovative, and will keep you gripped to the very end in the way that Team 17 has managed to fine tune.

The cooperative mode has made a return to the series, allowing you and a friend to navigate sections of the singe player campaign with limited resources. While this part of the game seems like it would be a lot of fun, I found it tedious and unbalanced. The enemy swarms were too frequent and overbearing while the limited resources were too challenging. This often ended as a gaming session write-off in frustration. Let’s move on to a better feature of the game.

Survivor rears its head again, matching the same settings you will see in the campaign. This feature is much more entertaining than cooperative campaign, and what’s more, you can do it with a friend too! Being 'what it says on the tin', Survivor is an enclosed portion of the campaign whereby the aim is to survive wave upon wave of xenomorph wrath. Items of aid are scattered around these arenas of inevitable doom and prove useful enough to keep you alive with the utmost pain and suffering before faltering. Survivor is quite fun and can sustain ones attention for a few hours of fun before getting too bored and moving back to the main campaign.

Because Alien Breed 3: Descent marks the end of the new series, it's best to think of the trilogy as a whole game. The three games span roughly 15 hours for about £21, which is plenty of time for such a low cost compared to standard retail games. If you are to try the game you have to play the entire series, not just one on its own, especially the first one. The quality of the visuals and some of the gameplay, in particular the side features like co-op, are not on par with your average blockbuster occupying your shelves, but at least it is much cheaper. This is what to keep in mind when playing this game; not quite a blockbuster, but very good value for money. The whole game is fairly compelling (after episode one) and will keep you hooked until you finally reach that tantalising conclusion. A must-play for all fans of space action game, especially space horror themed ones. The gameplay of a top-down isometric shooter is showcased well here, particularly with the clever comic-book style narrative and entertaining story. It may be a game that you play through only once, but it is a thrilling adventure and definitely worth playing.

Ratings

Overall	A thrilling end to a tantalising new series which suffered some poor performance at first. Refined from previous episodes to the point where it is the best as it can be, worth playing for the refreshing gameplay.	8/10

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