Diehard GameFAN: Alien Breed Review

DHGF: Alien Breed is a classic game for its time, but its port to the PSN ends up being a basic dual-stick shooter that’s too archaic, too limited and too simple to be entertaining for any long period of time. The mechanics are fundamentally easy to understand and work with, and the game generally looks and sounds adequate on the PS3 and PS Vita all in all. However, there’s almost no plot to speak of, the five different campaigns are functionally identical across the board, the game is rather short overall, and the experience is a repetitive blast through the same mazes against the same enemies as you collect the same pickups from start to finish. There’s no real tension or challenge here, between the Enhanced Mode addition of dual-stick shooting (which works, but takes getting used to) and the shop offering easy access to instant power-ups and health, and the game is designed in an archaic fashion that’s more annoying than anything else, either alone or with a friend. If you loved the original Amiga games you might find some redeeming value here, but Alien Breed on PSN isn’t a good first introduction to the series, as it’s really a product of its time that simply doesn’t hold up in general, let alone in this incarnation.