Atmospheric and brutal! Great work, you guys!
This is a really cool game, and a treat to sci-fi horror fans everywhere. While it's a little bit Space Hulk, a little bit Dead Space with Ripley "Aliens", it takes many clear references to it's appropriate genre, but maintains it's own identity pretty efficiently.
The art is fantastic. Little details everywhere that pop out and paint the environment really well, without repeating itself too much at all. It's ABUNDANTLY clear a lot of effort was put into this baby. It even has one of the coolest game over screens I've ever seen when you run out of lives. Little effects like the occasional lens flare or the amazing night vision level succeed in dazzling an already lively game.
The SOUND is top-notch. There's some REALLY cool monster noises. The first time we encounter the red kind was actually pretty exciting, that excitement doubled with the loud bark of the assault rifle. The gun sound effects lend empowering immersion to the game, right down to the "Aliens" pulse rifle (I always loved how that thing sounded) to the Valve Minigun.
Basically in the story, some shit went down on this thing in space, it's overrun with bug monsters, and you're a SPESS MEHREN, OORAH! Kill stuff! Something about bio-engineered species, and for some reason they're called Owlmen, even though they hardly look like Owls OR men, and all of this chaos was essentially orchestrated by some psychotic asshole who eventually mutated into becoming the final boss fight. The Doom 3-like PDA's you pick up along the way do little to advance the plot, and there's not many opportunities to explore around the facility.
It's paced well and thankfully in the later levels, creatures can spawn behind you so it doesn't feel like you're emptying the place dry. What disrupts the pace is everything you use has to start up for some reason. The PDA's boot up every time they're whipped out, why doesn't he just leave it on? Weapon selection has to load out the display for each gun one at a time. At least the computer, while sounding nice, can be skipped.
All you really need for the campaign is the Assault Rifle and SMG, both with Full Metal Jacket and Rapid Fire. They're powerful, they chew 'em up quick, reload quick, and stretch out ammo pretty nicely. The laser sight is useless since you already have a red dot to indicate your mouse. For Swarm, same thing, maybe also a Bazooka and Pulse Rifle. The other guns seem to have a negligible power difference, but they aren't as efficient as those two. The Vulcan is just bad; (not PISTOL bad, but it ain't good) you can't just spin the barrel to keep it ready to fire, so every time you stop (in a futile attempt at preserving the ammo it dumps freely) you have to WAIT for it to start back up. It empties itself into these things with no real indication that it's more powerful or efficient at killing as the most expensive gun in the game. It looks like the same size as the Assault rifle (though I guess every gun looks the same from above. Even the bazooka), but it makes no sense for the spin time to be that long.
Swarm seems to be aware of where the player is, and has a tendency to not spawn at distant points. 9 lives is WAY too much for a survival mode, especially with access to supplies and medkits abound. It also makes it clear that there are only four aliens: roaches, lurkers, spitters, and reds. In the future, more variety would be welcome. Spitters are hardly a threat at all. The boss fights are easy, just moving out of range from their acid and emptying clips into them from afar does the job. Even the final boss fight, though he took a while to take down, was pretty much killed offscreen as I fired from the doorway.
It's difficult to tell where walls and doors are at a few parts. Maybe if the flashlight shines against the wall surface like a thin, realistic highlight. Casting shadows from boxes and objects. The light bouncing around as you run. A lighting mechanic could only add to the intense atmosphere this game provides, and adds potential for cool effects from muzzle flashes, explosions, and fire.
GG thanks! :D