One of the long line of console-to-PC ports Acclaim produced in 1996, Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter akin to Doom. Players assume the role of a space marine trapped on a spaceship filled with deadly aliens. In order to escape, the player must blast through the vicious creatures.
Multiple weapons, including pistols and shotguns, can be collected to help exterminate the alien menace. A radar shows the distance between the player and the aliens. The game is also divided into stages. In order to proceed through the game, switches must be tripped, doors opened, and, at occasional points, a boss must be killed.
Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter based on the first three Alien movies. You control Lt. Ripley in three sections, each based on one film: The colony complex on LV426 (from Aliens), the prison planet (from Alien³) and the derelict spaceship (from Alien). Each section consists of about 10 missions. In every mission, certain goals must be accomplished to continue. These include killing a certain number of enemies, finding items or activating switches.
Enemies include everything the alien life cycle provides: facehuggers, chestbursters, warrior aliens, dog aliens (from Alien³) and alien queens, one of which waits in the final mission of every section. In addition to the Aliens, you also have to fight employees of the Company, who have either been infected by the aliens and are beyond saving or who actively want to obstruct your mission.
Weapons to be used include pistol, shotgun, pulse rifle, flame thrower and smart gun. Ammunition, health upgrades and other useful items are scattered throughout the levels. Hidden areas may be uncovered by using explosives like grenades and seismic charges. An auto mapping system helps in not getting lost, night goggles and shoulder lamps (running on battery power) allow you to see in the dark and the motion tracker tells you where your enemies are - but only if they are moving.
Alien Trilogy is a somewhat underrated shooter. Many of you won't agree with the 4 mark that I granted to this game, but you should give it a second chance in order to get a glimpse of its better side.
Alien Trilogy is best described as a straightforward shooter. Despite the objectives that the game presents, there is no need to actually accomplish them. Just like in Doom, all you need to do is get to the exit point. This isn't exactly a bad thing, as those that wish to blow some enemies away and carry on to the next level will be satisfied. Weapons are pretty nice, especially for those alien fans that always wanted a smart gun of their own. I quite enjoyed the simple gameplay myself, but others (looking for a deeper experience) will be disappointed.
Alien Trilogy does present some nice change of scenery every now and then, ranging from cargo holds, a cryogenic chamber, and the alien nest itself. There is little variety in the locals. Enemies look well enough to please you, but up close they become horribly pixilated, turning into some form of black and white mush. Explosions are quite nice and a joy to look at, but nothing special is overall present by the graphic quality.
Sound is suitable, but not amazing. The sound or music won't amaze you, but they'll be adequate for your game playing experience.
The storyline is standard, you are lieutenant Ellen Ripley, your object is to kill the alien queens and save your human friends from extinction. Quite frankly, this game doesn't need a good story, as most of the time you'll be blowing things away.
There you have it, Alien Trilogy in my honest opinion is a great shooter that will satisfy your mindless cravings for violence against aliens. Enjoy blowing things up and wreaking havoc, because if you're looking for a deep and plot oriented adventure, you'll be disappointed.
Alien Trilogy is a lackluster first-person shoot 'em up that is a disappointing waste of the blockbuster license. Very loosely based on the three existing Alien movies, the game casts you as Ripley, space marine heroine who is sent with fellow marines into the colony on planet LV246 to discover why communication has been lost. Of course, the menacing Aliens are behind it, but the story thankfully takes a few twists and turns along the way - albeit not in unexpected directions. Alien Trilogy offers about 25 levels, split into 3 parts similar to DOOM episodes. The first part take place in the colony from the movie, the second in the prison colony taken from Alien 3, and the third and final part takes place in the alien ship filled with nasty eggs that we all remember so well from the first movie.
Although released a few years after DOOM, Alien Trilogy looks and plays much more like DOOM than contemporary games like Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. The graphics are only passable - the aliens and wall textures become horrendously pixellated when you get too close, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish scenery from objects you can interact with. You are given an objective at the beginning of each level. These range from killing all Aliens in sight, to collecting identity tags, activating lifts, and others. However, you can finish the levels without finishing any of these objectives - just make your way to the exit and hop into the lift. This makes objectives redundant... I suppose they are there only as "additional challenges" to die-hard action gamers.
Even die-hard movie fans will find Alien Trilogy thoroughly boring. Even the Alien DOOM .WAD some fan created years ago plays much better than this average game. Acclaim could have done a much better job. If you want a fun and appropriately scary Alien game, play Sierra's superb Aliens vs. Predator series instead and leave this one alone.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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