Alienation brings an interesting game to PlayStation 4. It comes at a cheaper price but it never feels like a low-budget game. Thanks to the new realistic fluid mechanism and the big explosions, this game feels right at home on the PlayStation 4. Call in some friends and prepare to take back what belongs to us!
Pick your class
Before you enter the game, you’re able to pick one of the three available classes. First of all, there’s a Tank, a character with more firepower and shields to take down the enemy. The Bio-Specialist, armed with deadly poison and healing powers and finally, the Saboteur. The Saboteur uses alien technology to become invisible and is able to teleport over the battlefield. Picking a character is crucial since you’ll play with it most of the time, we advise you to try them all out before you make a decision. After some messing around with them, I went for the Bio-Specialist due to its speed and healing abilities. If you like a more brutal approach, the Tank will fit you just fine. Like to sneak your way around enemies? Go with the Saboteur.
The origin story of these three classes isn’t that special. Earth has been under alien attack for a while now and humanity is about the fail, until the army came up with these super soldiers. Thanks to their exoskeletons, they gain superhuman skills, able to take down the aliens once and for all. Alienation is light on story but that’s not the most important part of the game anyway. Time to jump into the action!
A new type of twin-stick shooter
At its core, Alienation plays as a twin-stick shooter. Meaning you’ll see everything in top-down view and you control your character by mainly using your thumbsticks. The left stick makes you move while the right stick is your aim. The controls are very precise so you’ll have no trouble at all killing those enemies. Besides the two sticks, the game also uses almost every other button. The shoulder button is used to throw grenades or fire your gun while the action buttons are used to enable your special abilities like the poisonous cloud of the Bio-Specialist. Even the D-pad is used to communicate with other players, more about that later.
Find some online friends and take back Earth
The best part about Alienation is that it doesn’t feel like a twin-stick shooter, it feels more like an Action Role Playing Game. The more missions you succeed, the higher your level becomes. If you gain a higher level, you’re able to unlock more powerful weapons and abilities. Thanks to this, the game will stay enjoyable until the very end since there’s always some new tech to mess around with.
Besides leveling, you can also collect orbs and other resources to give you some advantages in the next battle. Alienation is filled with content to make your character stronger and that’s without a doubt one of the strengths the game has to offer.
Wave after wave
But don’t be mistaken; this extra power is needed to take out the aliens. The game is filled with deadly aliens and almost every new level introduces a new type of alien. It all starts off rather innocent with multiple mutants running straight at you, these aren’t hard to kill. The more you advance, however, the more deadly the aliens become. It didn’t take us that long in the game before we faced more powerful aliens, covered with shields.
Alienation is the king of pressure and manages to constantly create a feeling of fear. You’re never truly safe until the helicopter comes for you. At first, the game can be overwhelming due to the multiple enemies that are running towards you, but you have some handy tricks to take them out. The first thing you’ll need to master is the quick reload, a system that was introduced in Gears of War. If you manage to push the button at the right time, while reloading, you’ll be able to reload a lot faster. If you fail to hit the button, reloading might take a bit too long. Besides that it’s also crucial to master your sprint technique, this can take you away from the enemies in seconds. You can’t use it all the time so be careful where and when you use it! The last thing you’ll need to master is your melee attack, a short but powerful attack that can truly inflict some heavy damage to your opponents.
If you master these three techniques, you’ll be able to survive a lot longer! Surviving is definitely worth it since the environments all look incredible. The creators really went all out to create one of the most colorful and yet deadly environments we ever witnessed in games like this. One final hint, shoot the cars to create massive explosions.
You’re not alone
A world like this is best enjoyed with others and that’s where Alienation really shines. At any time, you can jump into a game of another player, transforming the solo experience to a co-op experience. At the start of a mission, you’ll see others playing it as well and you’re able to join them with just one push of the button. This online co-op worked incredibly well and we never encountered lag during the co-op missions. That’s rather impressive, especially when you take note of the amount of enemies that are being spawned.
One thing players won’t like that much however is that you can’t really communicate with the others. You can’t use your headset to talk to the other player. Instead, you can yell basic commands as ‘Nice’, ‘Wait,’ or ‘Get over here’ using the D-pad. The communication works most of the time but it would work even better if you can truly speak to the other player. Due to the high pace of action, it’s not always possible to send a message using the D-pad.
That being said, Alienation is the perfect co-op game that supports up to four players at once. You can play with your online friends but local co-op isn’t supported just yet. We do hope this will be added to the game later on since it’s a game worthy of a great local co-op mode. Most of the times, you’ll play as a team during the online co-op but sometimes, other players will become your enemies in PvP matches.
Alienation is created with online co-op mode in the back of its head but that doesn’t mean it’s an online game only. You can play the entire campaign on your own if you want, but do take in mind that it won’t be an easy run. Some levels really demand a second player to distract or flank the waves of enemies. It’s possible to complete the game on your own of course, but you’ll have to work for it.
Conclusion:
Alienation is a very fun and beautiful game to play. The amount of enemies is truly impressive and so are the environments and explosions. Alienation is at its best when you play it with others online but can also be enjoyed as a solo experience. It’s a shame there isn’t any local co-op at this point and communication with other players isn’t as easy, but all in all, you’ll have a blast playing it. Want to play on of the most impressive twin stick shooters on the market? Go get Alienation, it’s definitely worth its price!
