Alien Breed: Impact

[piydek]

There's a topic going on C64/Amiga and those great. cool older machines. Well, i believe many of us have played Alien breed games (Alien breed; Alien breed: the horror continues; Alien breed: tower assault...and then later two AB 3D games which were something different and aren't important here) by Team 17 on the Amiga. Those were just great games with superb atmosphere, quite challenging.

Well, Team 17 had remade Alien breed - the oldschool 2D ones and presented them in unreal 3 engine with fixed camera (can be rotated in increments of 45°). It's called Alien breed: Impact and it's available on Steam for 11 Euro. T17 is, as far as I'm aware, an independent company now, they published this independently. AB:Impact is first part of a 3-part Alien breed game and has 5 large singleplayer missions tied into a story and an online multiplayer co-op.

I'm just playing it and I'm in the middle of the second mission. So far, it's managing to capture the old-school AB gameplay as far as I'm concerned, I'm enjoying it very much. It's very important to play it on the "elite" difficulty though. T17 have said themselves that it's the righte mode to play the game.

So, a heads-up on this one since i've found out about it pretty accidentally. Going to open another beer and back to playing it.

Game page

ABImpact: steam group

 

[SuicideBunny]

steam = no sale.
any other digital retailers that carry it?

 

[piydek]

I don't think so. I haven't seen any info on Team 17's website regarding other digital distribution sites. I think it's Steam only.

 

[asper]

WHOAH, Team17 still exists?? And they're RELEASING GAMES?

...

Chaos Engine remake... That has as sweet gameplay and music as the original... :cumsinpants:

 

[piydek]

WHOAH, Team17 still exists?? And they're RELEASING GAMES?

...

Chaos Engine remake... That has as sweet gameplay and music as the original... :cumsinpants:

Chaos engine was made by Bitmap brothers, if i remember correctly . Team 17 still exists as an independent developer for all these years, still Yorkshire-based, pretty much all the same people. They make digitial distribution only games, seems they don't have enough money to make physical copies and distribution of games.

This AB version really impresses me, it just feels right. I've just finished co-op session with some nice Czech guy and co-op is really mayhem. Single player story is more atmospheric, but very tight gameplay-wise as well. I didn't think they'll be able to pull off the feeling of old ABs in new engine, but they did, as far as I'm concerned. And actually it feels pretty old-school to me. On "elite", you just can't afford to waste any ammo at all, planning of weapon upgrading is important...very nice.

 

[piydek]

Shit, I've just realized you've actually said that there's a Chaos engine remake out there! Thanks for the heads-up, I've had no clue. That was a brilliant game...I sure will check out the remake.

 

[SuicideBunny]

This AB version really impresses me, it just feels right...very nice.

though the fact that you have a basic fallback weapon with unlimited ammo kinda feels like

 

[piydek]

Yeah, although not really because you can pretty much stick that fallback pistol up your ass if you end up with no ammo for other weapons and only on that . There's just no way you're going to survive more than a room or two on that weapon.

What i think is way more of a decline is the possibility to save game at intex terminals. It would be really good if you could only save at the end of each of those 5 big levels. Now THAT would be cool.

So you're playing it as well, SuicideBunny? How do you find the difficulty?

 

[SuicideBunny]

not playing it seriously atm, just briefly checked out the gameplay and mood on rookie.

i like how they managed to transfer the love of detail and neat graphics from the amiga games despite the change to 3d. heck, an rpg with that style would be fucking awesome.

 

[Old Degenerate Priest]

This looks like something I should like. Thank you for the heads up.

Acquiring right now.

 

[piydek]

Suicide, that's cool . I recommend strongly that when you play seriously - play on elite. T17 has suggested on numerous occasions that that is the mode for players who played originals and that it's "a completely different game" in that mode. That's the mode that captures that oldschool arcade feeling when you really need to be 100% alert all the time, watch every step and play really smart regarding movement, be REALLY fucking careful with ammo, but also with weapon upgrades...i have already started noticing that i wasn't upgrading my weapons enough and have been buying too many health packs instead and now alien swarms are starting to overwhelm me slowly (mid 2nd level). That all was a huge part of gameplay back in the day too.

I think they did a really good job with graphics too - 3D hasn't fucked this up and it's all very detailed and well done. Another thing that pleasantly surprised me is regarding perspective - camera is pretty zoomed in and that's the way original AB was - you couldn't see too far in the distance. Also, movement speed of your guy in AB and AB:Impact is similar, somewhat slow-ish. But the Aliens are quick little bitches.

Priest - glad you like it .

TBH, this is one of those rare cases when i wish this game wasn't cracked, and it was. T17 has made as oldschool game as they could these days and still be able to sell it. I hope they'll be able to put out episodes 2 and 3 and get some money for it all.

 

[reaven]

I tried to play the demo, but it didn't work

 

[piydek]

I have Win7 32bit, works perfect. I've read it works on Win7 64bit great too. That means Vista should be OK as well, and XP is surely OK. Have no clue why it doesn't work for you.

If you have an older Athlon CPU (prior to Athlon64), then you need one alternative .dll file to the one that comes with the game.

 

[Gerrard]

I played the demo, but seriously can't say it got me hooked. Seems kinda unpolished.
And that's really bad if you consider that this is the Enhanced Edition™ of the last year's release.

 

[piydek]

Regular in-game levels seem much better designed than demo to me. Demo was very short and easy even on elite difficulty. It seems like the exact opposite to me - like a very polished game, every game aspect is as it should be and it works very well, even on old(er) hardware. There's only a slight problem with "achievements" on Steam at the moment, but leaderboards are fine and that's important for co-op.

 

[SuicideBunny]

TBH, this is one of those rare cases when i wish this game wasn't cracked, and it was.

no, it wasn't. the scene crack/release doesn't work past the first level.
and it's not like those pirates did any damage, considering that by the comments i've read nobody seemed to like the game and there was some bitching about how others did the concept way better (wtf?).

Seems kinda unpolished.

whut? the controls are very nice and intuitive (at least on an xbox gamepad), the graphics are pretty awesome, and the map design beats the crap out of all other games, especially games in the same genre.

 

[made]

Yea, the engine looks sweet in iso, wish more games used that (variable zoom would be nice though). Keyboard movement + mouse aim works nicely, certainly better than in the original AB games, especially the first couple that only let you fire in the direction you run.

Overall the game reminds me more of Deadspace tbh. AB was about blasting through hordes of (respawning) aliens and finding your way through mazes gauntlet-style. Here you never fight more than a handful enemies at a time that like to come out of walls one by one, while the GPS guides you from one objective to another.

Still, decent fun for 10 bucks.

 

[Orgasm]

Alien Shooter 2 is prolly better. Or Shadowgrounds. How does it compare?

 

[reaven]

Alien Shooter 2 is prolly better. Or Shadowrun. How does it compare?

I wish shadowrun had online coop

 

[aleph]

How does is it measured up compared to Shadowgrounds?

 

[Metro]

Looks fun but I wouldn't pay more than $5. Never played the original/older version but I'm guessing the gameplay is similar to Shadowgrounds.

 

[piydek]

People have asked how this game compares to shadowgrounds. Well, for me AB is quite a bit better, but i see how that's a matter of taste.

General differences are that AB feels more atmospheric, while shadowgrounds feels more "action-y". I mean, both games are clearly action in their main parts, but it's hard to explain. General art and design (I'm not talking about graphics engine) is by far better for me in AB.

Shadowgrounds feels alot more "popamole-ish" in it's controls and control-style to me. I have to say that AB is much better played on a dual analog stick gamepad than on M+K, while shadowgrounds feels better when played on M+K - at least to to me.

Alien shooter i don't really like, feels too rudimentary to me and just isn't a joy to play. If i wanted something with that kind of gameplay, I'd always prefer some top-down scroller like Banshee, Battle squadron or Swiv or whatever (amiga games).

But in general, all those games feel and play very differently one from another and i have to admit i often don't really see where all those constant comparisons are coming from. It's clear from this post i prefer AB to those games (by far, although i like shadowgrounds very much too) and while it's not without its faults, i've had great fun with it, both in SP and co-op with mates.

 

[Tails]

Steam = no sale, also requiment of NVIDIA PsychX means that I cannot play it at all on my Laptop. Anyway after long time ago I dig some info, gameplay videos plus other stuff and it seems really dumbed down Alien Breed in many aspects, plus many people said that this game doesn't feel like Alien Breed game at all. I just stick to Tower Assault & Alien Swarm for Multi. Thus I must admit, I really like how aliens try to circle the player, instead of rushing straight towards him.

 

[piydek]

Hm, TBH, i have no idea why Steam is so repulsive to some people. Besides that, isn't physx for this game run entirely by CPU? I'm quite certain it is.

I'd like to hear an explanation why it's dumbed-down AB, really would. I played and finished first (not that crappy 92' edition, the original one) and second ("the horror continues") AB and played but haven't finished tower assault, all on the Amiga back in the days. I also finished this new AB on hardest difficulty and the co-op maps as well. So, i know what I'm talking about.

Of course, it does feel different than original AB games - it's quite impossible for it to feel the same. But that's not necessarily bad at all. There's a couple of things i think original games did better and there's a couple of things i think this new version does better.

Thus I must admit, I really like how aliens try to circle the player, instead of rushing straight towards him.

Various alien types have various unique behaviours. But in general, AI is pretty good, yes.

 

[Tails]

Hm, TBH, i have no idea why Steam is so repulsive to some people.
Besides that, isn't physx for this game run entirely by CPU? I'm quite certain it is.

Steam = lending games, simple as that. When it all goes to hell, we see if you will be still able to play any of games. Anyway if Team 17 wants so really stick to digital distribution, why they don't take the same way as Frictional Games or put game on Direct2Drive? somehow other Indie groups didn't bankrupt from that.
I'm not sure but so far I didn't see a game that runs Nvidia PsychX by it's own, without demanding card that is able to support it.

I'd like to hear an explanation why it's dumbed-down AB, really would. I played and finished first (not that crappy 92' edition, the original one) and second ("the horror continues") AB and played but haven't finished tower assault, all on the Amiga back in the days.

In original games, (especially in the first ones) you really need to save keys, otherwise you could get stuck, same with ammo. In this game from what I head you don't need really worry about any of that in reality. Not many upgrades comparing to previous ones (in fact one per gun). My personal disappointment is that games stick to linear formula - they could really expand the awesome Tower Assault concept of free-play.

Really, if not the Steam and PsychX requirement I would already buy the game and give a proper, detailed report about the game.