The first-person shooter genre
certainly seems to be bursting at the seams with AAA games that push the FPS
genre forward. Practically every year a new game comes out that becomes the
standard bearer for all future FPS games. One day your game might be the
genre-defining example of innovative gameplay but within a week the game is old
hat because something new came out. What about the FPS games that fall below the
radar of the hype train that is the mainstream gaming press? Alpha Prime is one
of those games since it doesn’t try to offer a genre-breaking gameplay
experience yet still packs plenty of firepower.
The story is your basic
science-fiction story; the plot centers upon hubbardium, an element that powers
space travel and is highly desired by race of man. A huge asteroid was soon
discovered with a huge abundance of hubbardium and a mining facility was built
on the asteroid by the Corporation. However the hubbardium soon started to cause
insanity among the miners and the Corporation was forced to seal off the mine.
The asteroid was named Alpha Prime and workers soon started to spread tales that
the hubbardium was actually part of a living creature on asteroid. It didn’t
take long before illegal traders and miners tried to exploit Alpha Prime for its
hubbardium. You play the role of Arnold who has been persuaded by his former
friend Warren and his old girlfriend Livia to help find out what’s wrong with
Alpha Prime.
Tried-and-true gameplay elements
make up the majority of Alpha Prime. You get the typical ‘shoot as many people
as possible and solve a few puzzles’ element that we’ve seen in other games. You
also get a large assortment of guns and a slow-motion effect that we’ve seen
become popular over the past few years. Alpha Prime doesn’t try to reinvent the
wheel, so to speak; instead it offers a straight forward FPS game.
The basic gameplay centers upon you,
Arnold, as he tries to find Warren in the mines of Alpha Prime. The enemies are
a mixture of crazed workers from the mines and military units sent in by the
Corporation to stop you. Almost right at the beginning of the game you will
probably notice that the A.I. of the enemies is lacking. I would often stand
next to an enemy who wouldn’t do anything. Other times the enemies would keep
running into walls to get away from me when I chased after them. No matter how
questionable the enemies’ intelligence was looking at me, their aim was always
accurate. The only time an enemy missed me was when they would run away, which
wasn’t that often. This made the difficulty challenging whenever you entered a
room with more than two enemies at a time. No amount of cover or slow motion
could compensate for five or six enemies with deadly accuracy.
Probably the best parts of the game
are the visuals and story. Graphically the game reminded me of Doom 3 even
though the game doesn’t use the Doom 3 engine. The character models and stages
looked very similar to Doom 3. The framerate was consistent and rock solid
regardless of the action on the screen. The story of the game unfolds nicely as
you meet various characters in the game and find out more about Arnold and his
relationship with his ex-girlfriend Livia. The voice acting in the game was well
done which helped in making the story more believable regardless of the
science-fiction setting.
The big issues for Alpha Prime are
the A.I and gameplay. The A.I. is so inconsistent that you can never tell how
each stage will play out. One minute the game is clipping along at a nice pace
with some great encounters. The next minute you’re watching enemies run into
walls or stand next to you without any action. But then you run into a room
filled with enemies with pinpoint accuracy that causes you to replay the stage
five or six times before finishing it. The gameplay itself is the tried-and-true
experience we’ve already had in other games; nothing really stands out as new or
exciting, especially for a FPS game.
Review Scoring Details for Alpha Prime |
Gameplay 6.5
The game is a typical FPS game you’ve probably already experienced a 100 times
already. There is nothing really new or exciting but nothing majorly wrong that
should keep you away.
Graphics 7.4
Visually the graphics are the one of the best portions of the game. This might
not be a graphic tour de force compared to other new FPS games but the graphics
are still solid.
Sound 7.6
The voice acting in the game does a great job of keeping the story going and
believable. The music and sound effects in the game do a good job of setting the
mood of each stage and setting.
Difficulty Medium/Hard
The hardest part of the game is getting past the accuracy of the enemy
characters. Sometimes running into a room filled with enemies was a no-win
situation because the enemy would never miss.
Concept 6.0
Alpha Prime doesn’t offer anything new that we haven’t seen before in previous
FPS games.
Overall 6.9
Alpha Prime is a commendable game that offers a solid FPS gaming experience but
lacks the innovation some might expect with a new game.
