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Alien Overkill – A killer game?
Tested version: 1.0.969
Latest version: 1.0.973
Requires Android: from 2.1
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Summary
Aliens: cuddly friends from outer space that really just want to be friends with little kids and occasionally phone home – or vicious creatures out to destroy the planet earth?
Alien Overkill adopts the latter hypothesis: in this game you slip into the role of a hero who sets out to wipe out an entire hoard of aliens.
Find out just how fun or ho-hum butchering extraterrestrials can be in today’s review.
Features & Use
Test device: HTC Desire Z / T-Mobile G2
Android-Version: 2.3.4
Mods: MIUI
Test device: LG Optimus Speed / 2x
Android version: 2.2
Mods: None
The main menu harbours the following options:
- Play
- Highscore
- Achievements
- Options
- Credits
Press play and a selection of different levels of difficulty pops up: there’s ‘casual’ and ‘normal’ but also ‘hardcore’, if you’re so inclined, though the latter has to be activated before you can dive into it.
Next comes a selection of possible settings (as in locations) and, again, each ‘arena’ has to be activated in sequence before you can explore them.
Let's move on to the game itself, shall we? It has two control elements: an analogue pad and a fire button.
Aliens always appear in waves, and the waves get stronger and stronger, meaning that with each new wave the challenge is greater.
You can only shoot in the direction that you’re looking in.
Collect helpful objects - such as weapons, first-aid packs and armoured protection - along the way. Special items can also be collected, including an item that gives you double the firepower you ordinarily have.
Your health status and armour are displayed at the top of the screen. A counter displaying your score is also shown. How many points you are awarded per alien-kill is contingent on the alien’s race.
Pause the game at any time by hitting the back button on your smartphone.
Return to the main menu in order to view your highscore, as well as compare it to the global score list – the OpenFeint alternative ScoreLoop is used. If you’re like me and are used to OpenFeint you may also be momentarily confused by ScoreLoop, but I was able to find my way around things after less than a minute.
Achievements are also shown via ScoreLoop, and there’s some pretty hot stuff to show off with, e.g. ‘Triple Kill’, should you manage to kill three aliens within less than one minute. Achievements can be published via Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
Go to ‘options’ in order to switch sound effects and/or music on/off; both effects and score are quite cool.
The zoom can also be adjusted.
Bottom line:
Alien Overkill is a fun game for whenever you’ve got nothing else to do, or want some distraction, but it isn’t diversified enough to capture your attention for hours on end.
Screen & Controls
Straight up: the game’s controls are not exactly the cat’s whiskers. There’s an analogue pad that lets you run backwards so that you can shoot at aliens and simultaneously keep a distance between you and them. Unfortunately, during our test run we found that the backwards-run function was somewhat moody, in the sense that sometimes you’d start running backwards when you hadn’t intended to, and other times you couldn't run backwards even though you wanted to. It would make more sense to have two analogue pads: one for firing, one for deciding which direction to run in.
I wasn’t blown away by Alien Overkill’s graphics, either. Design plays a big part in the kind of enjoyment one can get from this type of game, and I felt it fell a little flat. Both the characters and landscapes could’ve done with more effects and details. The game’s graphics are entirely 2D.
Speed & Stability
Alien Overkill runs really smoothly on the Desire Z / G2 and the maps take no time to load (i.e. less than one second).
The game wouldn’t play on the LG Optimus Speed / 2x; the developer’s logo flashed across the screen and then the game ended.
Price/Performance Ratio
At 2,96 € Alien Overkill is quite simply too costly. Users expect pretty sweet graphics when they shell out that kind of dough... And the game could also do with a bit more diversity.
It's available from the AndroidPIT App Center and the Google Market.
Comparable Apps
No comparable apps are currently known to us. If you happen to know one, it would be great if you could get in touch with us.
Report comparable or similar appsReviews of this app in other languages
Developer
Germany
Top App:
ALIEN OVERKILL puts you in the shoes of an action hero. Aliens are overrunning (...)
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