Alien Syndrome (Sony PSP)

Alien Syndrome PSP is one of the better titles for the platform, but only if you don't mind a game with a bit of tedium and repetitiveness.

I was expecting something like the remake on the Sega Arcade Classics disc for the PS2 (an excellent game in its own right) but this is a totally new game with only a few tie-ins with the original arcade version. You only see the worm creatures a few times, for example; most of the aliens and weapons are entirely new designs.

It strongly reminds me of Diablo in terms of overall design, though more complex and a lot more interesting. Gameplay is fast, smooth, and reasonably fun. Levels load quickly and it doesn't suffer from the typical PSP control issues.

I found the background story rather predictable, and much of the voice acting is not up to par--some places it's quite good, others it's laughably awful. And many times the dialog gets chopped off early, which just adds to the silliness. (The movies can be turned off, though.)

The first time I played it took me about 12 hours to finish, but I was exploring every area and taking lots of time to earn EXP. In most areas the monsters will only respawn a certain number of times so it's possible to clean out every area, but it's usually not necessary to do so to get through the level. I'd say an average player will need 4-5 hours.to get through all the levels.

Hard and Expert levels are challenging and I think it has a lot of replay value. You can create multiple starting characters and build them up, or just focus on maxing out one character. And levels and characters are loaded separately; the loaded level's difficulty and your character's abilities/equipment come from the loaded character. A very nice feature.

Recommended? While I've found there's enough variety to hold my interest for multiple plays, the game was meant to feel like "Is this ever going to end?" Some gamers will find that appealing, others will want something which plays more quickly and with more variety.

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This is sort of a rare style of game, a dungeon crawler with sci-fi flavors instead of the more traditional swords-and-sorcery feel. It features ad hoc multiplayer support, though I haven't had a chance to use that yet.* Characters and game states are saved separately, though they are paired in a single file. (I have two characters, and after loading one from either of two files, I am them prompted to load the game state from either file, or start a new game.)

The game provides a fair variety of weapon types to support different play styles, though the "classes" in the game are really the same character over and over, with a few advance points into certain skills. For example, the Tanker starts with a few points into some melee skills, while the Firebug starts with some points into the flamethrower skill. The different "classes" also start with a slightly different point spread on vital statistics, such as strength and dexterity. You cannot be a male character, and no matter what you name yourself, the game will still lead you through the story mode as Aileen Harding.

The controls are straightforward and the graphics are pleasant enough, though there can be some slowdown depending on how many enemies are on the screen at once. The music is unobtrusive, and the sound effects are fitting. The voice acting is lifeless and overwrought, though the cinemas have an interesting aesthetic, sort of cardboard cutout painting animations. The story is unremarkable and fails to surprise or engage.

For what it is, a Diablo clone with sci-fi trimmings, it's a decent game. The price is right, and the gameplay can be picked up or put down without a lot of investment. If you can't play it for a few months for some reason, but then come back and don't remember what was happening in the story, it's not going to really affect your game experience much.

* Update: I played around with the ad hoc multiplayer mode recently. It supports 2-4 players, though I only played with one other person. You can enter the game at any time, but you will only be able to watch the other player until they run over a checkpoint, at which time you appear and can assume control of your own character. You must remain within a certain distance of each other, i.e., if you run to NW and your teammate runs SE, before long, you'll both stop and be unable to proceed. You can also duplicate items by saving in one game, but not the other, then exiting and repeating the process. So if you find a really great helmet, for example, you can save your game, then give it away, then quit without saving, and restart or rejoin the game to find your killer gear is still... your killer gear.

Your multiplayer game save is separate from your single player game save, which itself is separate from your character save, as mentioned earlier. This means that if you get to, say, level 28 of the story in single player mode, then hook up with a buddy to play around in multiplayer, you will have to start a new multiplayer game, which would put you back to the first chapter of the story.

You could get around this by hosting a multiplayer game every time you played alone, but you would be draining your battery more quickly (I don't know how much more quickly) by leaving the WLAN switch on. On the other hand, you might consider just starting over with a new character and having your friend(s) do the same, since, at some undocumented point, if your levels are too different, the lower level character(s) will not get any experience for their efforts.

Some of these aspects of the multiplayer feature, along with the thin-to-nonexistent documentation, makes it feel more like an afterthought than a primary consideration.

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In a way, this is a typical dungeon crawl - start a level, kill everything, pick up loot. The difference is that you are on an alien-filled spaceship and your only companion is an indestructible floating robot that can shoot the creatures and (depending on what attachments you put on it) shoot them better, heal you or recharge your shield batteries. It can also destroy loot you don't want and manufacture stuff you do. (To replace the fact you can't go to the store to sell off stuff and buy more.)

There are 5 classes to choose from - 3 ranged (explosives, lasers, or fire) and 2 melee. All classes can wear basic armor and use basic melee skills. As you level up, you can choose to broaden your armor, melee, or ranged skills; self-heal or self-charge your batteries; increase your carrying capacity; or build your resistance to the 4 types of damage (fire, electricity, infection, or radiation). You receive 1 skill point per level, but as you get more points in a skill, the cost to raise that skill becomes higher, meaning you may need to save your skill points from level to level. You also receive 2 points per level to put into strength (increases melee damage and carrying capacity), dexterity (increases movement rate), accuracy (increases chance of critical hits and critical multiplier), and endurance (raises hit points as well as resistance to damage).

While most of the missions are hack-and-slash (a few timed), the layout of the floors vary, as do the monsters you meet. Add in a nice background story and this game will keep you playing well past your bedtime.

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Edit: I admit, I had not finished the game when I wrote the above review. The early part of the game is great, but once you get towards the end, it becomes very annoying. Ammo becomes a major issue, but there is no way to conserve ammo. (You can only produce so much before production goes into a "cooldown.") If you die, the game restarts at the last save point, meaning you have to fight the same monsters over and over in the hopes of beating them. (There is no option to go back to the checkpoint - minus ammo and healing spent - but with all killed monsters dead.)

I tried to get through the game, honest. But in the end, it was too frustrating.

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