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Genre: Arcade shooter/RPG
Format: Digital Download
Developer: Sigma Team
Mac Publisher: Virtual Programming
System Requirements: Intel Macintosh, Mac OS X v10.5, 512MB RAM, 3GB hard disk space, Internet connection for registration
Review Computer: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo aluminum MacBook, 2GB DDR3 memory, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Network Feature: Yes
Processor Compatibility: Intel only
Price: $19.95
ESRB Rating: M
Availability: Out now

Aside from perhaps Crazy Climber, Alien Shooter 2 may be the most accurately named title in the history of computer gaming. There are aliens, and you shoot them. Good Lord, are there a lot of aliens. You won’t be believe the number of aliens. You won’t believe the number that appear onscreen at a single time, and you won’t believe how many more are just an explosion away after you think you’ve finally finished a level. And, as I may have mentioned, you’ll have to shoot them. All.

Alien Shooter 2 (also known as Alien Shooter - Vengeance) is the sequel to the equally accurately named Alien Shooter, but never you mind about that. There’s no significant story you need to pick up on, you just need to be ready to kill stuff. Indeed, that’s how the game starts. After creating your character (which I’ll cover in a minute), you’re dropped outside an underground military base and basically told to blast your way in, kill whatever you see, and get down here to us so we can send you out to kill more stuff. And that’s what happens. To quote my good friend of Wallace, “There’s no use prevaricating about the bush.”

Before all of this, though, you get to select you character. Here’s where the RPG element of the alien shooting comes into play. You’re given a selection of male and female characters, each with certain skills preassigned. When you’ve made your selection, you can then assign another quality to him/her: skilled with big guns, skilled with energy weapons, quick learner, quick recovery, that sort of thing. It’s you’re typical RPG fare. You’re also given points you can assign to jack up certain skills. As you reach new levels throughout the game, you’re given more points to assign. It ends up being fairly organic, as it’s easy to see where you’re style of gameplay will help and hinder you. Plus, you can level up in mid-action, so it’s sometimes possible to assign your skills based on immediate (and by that, I mean immediate) need.

You’ll also discover numerous weapons along the way, as well as find cash you can use to buy new weapons. There are more than 50 types, although most of these are just variations of shotguns, energy rifles, etc. It’s unlikely you’ll use them all, as the RPG nature pushes you towards specializing in only a few, but it’s good to know they’re there. In addition to weapons you can carry, you’ll also find yourself manning turrets and shooting from the various vehicles scattered throughout the game.

The entire game is played from an isometric, top-down point of view. Rooms and corridors are revealed as you get there, giving the game a Fallout 2 sort of appearance, and that’s a wonderful thing. The graphics are detailed and the lighting is fantastic (although a bit out of whack at times), and this perspective offers the best take on the carnage. But it also presents some problems. The controls of Alien Shooter 2 pretty much require you to stick with the keyboard + mouse combo (a gamepad + mouse option is offered, but because I couldn’t get my Logitech gamepad to work with the game, I couldn’t test that awkward suggestion), so you’ll be moving with WASD and aiming/firing with the mouse. It plays very much like Robotron or Smash TV, but you’ll almost always be mashing two keys just to move in the diagonal direction of the hallways. That’s fine when exploring, but cumbersome in battle.

Another problem is that the hidden areas—which are sometimes required to complete secondary objectives—are randomly placed and difficult to find. They can be hidden behind walls that block your view, so there will be points in the game where you’re just running around looking for hidden rooms without any hints to guide you. It unnecessarily breaks up the gameplay.

And speaking of gameplay…well, live by intensity, die by intensity. Different game modes supply some depth, but gameplay remains the same through them all: relentless. That’s fine at first, but once the novelty of having 100 Starship Trooper style alien bugs charging you wears off, those alien bugs keep coming. Difficulty increases exponentially, so you really need to pay attention to how you’re leveling up and on what weapons you’re placing your skill points. Certain weapons are better at wiping out certain types of aliens, after all. There will be times when you’re sent out on a mission with some support, but by and large, you’re on your own here. It doesn’t make sense that an army trying to bring an alien infested base back up to operation would ever send someone out alone, but I guess that’s the game, right?

Where your comrades fail you (or you fail them, depending upon your locus of control), turrets and vehicles likely won’t. They offer much more firepower and protection, but they hurt the game in two ways. First, they’re even more awkward to control. And second, they bring the action to a screeching halt. When in them, it makes more sense to creep along, trigger some aliens, and stop to shoot them. Cleared of that wave, you creep along again, trigger some more, and stop to shoot them. These levels can be quite large, and playing the game this way can take a very long time.

Which brings me to my final complaint, and it’s the biggest of them all; you can’t save the game mid-level. This isn’t a problem early on when you’re finishing them in 10 minutes, but the first time you run out of lives after playing for nearly an hour, it’s difficult to get up the desire to go back and try it all again. This game needs checkpoints, and it needs them badly.

Yet, I’ll happily recommend this game to fans of arcade action titles for three reasons. First, at only $20, you’re paying a shareware price for an A-level game. It’s a great deal. Second, because you’ve never played anything like this on the Mac before. The battles are violent and insane, but in a cartoonish way. Again, I’ll compare it to the Starship Troopers movie in that regard. And third, what else are you going to be playing on the Mac? Another pie serving game? Spore? I don’t think so.

Yeah, go ahead and download Alien Shooter 2. I’ll beat you down relentlessly, but you likely deserve it.