Let’s get it out of the way – this is one of the worst game names since, well, since CDV’s other shooter – UberSoldier. Ok, that’s now said and done, so let’s move on, shall we?
Alien Shooter 2 is based on an online (web-based, not MMO) title from a few years back called Alien Shooter. Clever? Not really, but the game itself was pretty fun, and did rather well by all account. Take the basic dungeon-crawl, but put it in a sci-fi environment replete with modern weaponry, and youv’e got the basis for a nice little shooter. Bringing it to retail as not only a full-fledged game and a sequel, well that’s gutsy. Fortunately for the publisher (CDV), Alien Shooter 2 looks to be shaping up quite nicely for fans of the dungeon-crawl.
AS2 is pretty simple at the core – just roam through room after room of a military base, picking up weapons and blowing away waves of aliens as you go. There’s plenty of objective-based gameplay to give you a reason to continue past the first few missions, and it generally does the job of being a shooter quite nicely. There’s a bit of RPG play involved as you choose from character archetypes and build up their skills, and the developer even included vehicluar combat to really spice things up.
From what we’ve seen thus far, this game won’t win any graphic design awards, but it doesn’t fail miserably either. When you put on your “it’s a $20 game” blinders, you can certainly live with the basic character models, stiff animations and overly-dark graphics (whatcha trying to hide in there Sigma Team?), it’s just fine. The rest of the production – the audio, is ok and inoffensive, actually, it’s barely noticeable.
The team behind AS2 is obviously not trying to create the next Halo or even Diablo, rather, it seems like they’re trying to bring casual gamers something different than Digby’s Donuts and Bejeweled. In the end, there’s plenty of bang, boom, and blasting for the buck, along with nonstop alien-shredding action. Frankly, that’s sometimes all you need, and AS2 looks like it might fit that need nicely when it ships.