Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 20, 2022

  This game was part of my childhood back in the 1990s. Ah, the good memories with my brother. Memories that will never return.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 22, 2023

  Surprisingly good. Got it out of Duke Nukem curiosity. If you don't know the history Duke Forever was first a side scroller before they decided to go FPS and sold their work to another company, eventually ending up in Alien Rampage. Has some flaws but the same stuff you see in most action platformers on computers back then. It's best aspect is it's personality. Graphics are great, goes for a style and it all came together. Smooth animations, nice detailed sprites and backgrounds, only issue is its hard to see when things get kinetic. There're tons of enemies around every corner, which can lead to cheap deaths due to the sprites being huge. That's part of the appeal in a way, these giant sprites packing a lot of character. The gore is more than just an edgy detail: the humongous splats of blood make it clear that you killed an enemy. Gameplay is super flawed but, again, if you like computer platformers of the time you'll be able to forgive some shortcomings. Its like a mix of contra and cinematic platformers (Prince of Persia, Blackthorne): tight 8 direction shooting and platforming of contra with ledge grabs and climbing like cinematic platformers. Like I said it's easy to get killed by enemies you didn't see coming, especially when they start shooting off screen. It's hard to dodge shots since crouching doesn't protect you. You have to time your jumps over the shots while shooting back or find a safe place to camp and shoot from. Killing enemies is satisfying cus of the gore effects and sound design. It's exploratory elements are the strongest aspect of gameplay: You'll go from hitting switches to finding keys to saving enslaved aliens that help you up until you get to the stage exit. Something good is instead of lives you just lose some money when you respawn. Alleviates the frustration of game overs. There're checkpoints but they're pretty spaced out. Oh yeah money- there're shops in the stages that sell you ammo for one of various weapons you can switch between. There's a ton of weapons and you have to cycle through them all in one go till you select the one you want, which sucks but each of the weapons has it's unique usage in combat. With homing missiles you could find a place to sit and clear out the area before moving forward. The spread allows better ranged and crowd control options. Default weapon gets the job done, straight shots and unlimited ammo that has to refresh after firing. It's a tug of war: Graphics are great and add character but the sprites are so big you get hit too easily. Explorations enjoyable but there're cheap traps and enemy placements. There's a ton of weapon variety but switching between them is cumbersome. Overall, though? It's still fun and has charming presentation. That alone is enough for me to enjoy myself, even if it's not the best game ever. If you enjoyed Duke 1 and 2 you'll enjoy this but it's not as good as them. If you enjoy this kinda game from the DOS and Amiga era you'll get a kick outta this. Pick it up on sale if you can.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 22, 2018

  Tags: Sidescroll Shooter Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: DOS-Era Contra style. Limited vield of vision. Camera does not follow while jumping causing delays and disorientation. No music. No Xbox360 pad support. The sprites are fairly authentic and nice looking. The FX for the sounds is not grating at all. The guts and gore animations were a nice touch. The world is filled with stuff to shoot at and represent an acceptable challenge. The lack of Xbox360 pad support was annoying. Manually configuring did not work. The only option left would be Joy2Key but I promised myself I would not bust that software out anymore given the saturation of feature rich titles on Steam nowadays. The lack of music is also a disappointment. The game is sort of approximative. Allowing you to tank a ton of damage on lower difficulties and foes are fairly bullet sponges as well. That means that you just sort of rambo through, an deal with the jank because of the charm. That only lasts so long however until you are left feeling a bit cramped and suffocated by the game's limitations. If this game was cleaned up with a newer field of vision, gave Xbox360 pad support out of box, gave modern resolutions I am sure it would have a chance to sell a bit of copies if given a low enough price. The prince of persia style animations are nice and the Alien thematic reminds of a predator movie, which fits the jungle theme. Firing lasers is always fun. Conclusion: Suffers too much from its age. Without a remaster it is probably best avoided. Still arguably a smidge more engaging than the Bio Menace, Commander Keens and other such competitors this game was facing back in the day with its more mature approach.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 30, 2018

  This is a game that I used to play when I was a child. I've managed to pass through all 21 levels only today and it felt great. The last part feels shorter and rushed out, you can tell the devs were running out of time. I've found a couple of sprite glitches that weren't present in the original disc, which I still own and checked. Still, this is a great piece. There's platforming, shooting, plenty of gore, unexpected elements but most of all smart puzzles. If you're not progressing it means you're not using your brain. There are many hidden clues and hints that will reward you greatly if you follow their lead. You can pass through this game without getting hurt if you study its architecture. I love it. The more you play it, the more you realize they did a great job at designing it, despite its clunkiness there's always a way around. This is a work of art, a piece of software that respects the player. There's even a secret at the end which prompts to an URL; unfortunately the site doesn't exist anymore, I'd love to know what it was about. PS: To the ones saying they can't get past the first mission, I am able to finish it in less than 2 minutes. Don't give up and keep playing, you will feel good when you get how to pass an obstacle.