Alpha Prime Review

Introduction

Alpha Prime hasn’t really got too much attention from the English press. It’s been mentioned and screenshots have appeared, plus a few demo previews but very little of any substance. I was lucky enough to receive a review copy and the game itself is due for release 1st May 2007.

At the time of writing, that’s tomorrow. It will be released through Sprocket which is an online distribution system. I was hoping to have this review finished weeks ago but for circumstances beyond my control I played the game in more or less two halves. In the past I have found that such a long delay between playing a game reduces the enjoyment. Some games you have to have the momentum going and a break can ruin it, fortunately that is not true in this case

I was very pleased to hear that this game wouldn’t have any multiplyer elements, it was and is going to be Single Player all the way baby! The developers have attempted to weave a story that tries to keep you guessing with plenty of character development. Ultimately I felt that story was a little cliched. The story was written by Ondřej Neff, but he didn’t write the scripts!

The script was perhaps the weakest part of the whole game with the voice actors working hard to put feelings and emotions into what were ill-thought out lines. There’s quite a bit of swearing, which generally I don’t mind but it rarely seems natural.

It’s mostly an action shooter with a few very simple puzles to solve. At least a few times you have to think before you run and shoot and that was certainly the best part. You collect Hubbardium which allows you to employ a bullet-time feature. Common in too many games but at least it’s included in the story.

Another gameplay feature I liked was the outside sequences where you need to replenish your oxygen levels. Oxygen supply units are freely available but this small idea adds something to the already present health and ammo concerns.

The last thing to tell you about is the Hacker unit. Mostly useful but occasionally vital, this piece of equipment allows you to hack into cameras, security doors etc. Make sure you don’t make the same mistake!

Communication between the main protagonists is usually between radio transmission and the game has quite a few cut scenes. My only problem is that at one point a cut scene started and I still hadn’t killed all the enemies in that area and they continued to shoot me. Fortunately a cut scene can be cut short (Pun intended!) by pressing “esc”

Alpha Prime uses the Path Engine and has been developed by Black Element Software. Based on the end credits, the dev team was quite small, in fact smaller than some current mods!, and as such they deserve congratulations. Their previous game: Shade: Wrath of Angels, seems to have been well-enjoyed.

The whole game has a Doom3, Prey and Pariah look to it and there’s no complaining about that. The more technical reviewers will no doubt explain all the features and benefits but overall I wanted it to be brighter in feel. In that aspect it was perhaps too close to a doom 3 atmosphere for me.

The weapons are definitely nothing to write home about, the game contains the usual standard assortment of Hammer, Pistol, Machine Gun, Shotgun, Rocket launcher etc etc. I can’t blame the developers for this because sometimes it’s better to just stick with what you know players want and spend time of other aspects of the game. However, if you are going to do that you should try and give a few of them something special for the players to remember.

In a complete departure for me I actually preferred the rocket launcher. The rockets seemed to move so slowly that when facing them it was fun to try and shoot them down. I actually think I managed to do it a few times but can’t be certain.

There’s only one vehicle in Alpha Prime and its use seems to be two-fold. Firstly to provide a break from the monotony of indoor corridor-based levels and also to allow the story to move to a new location. I say there is only one vehicle but in reality there are two. The other one is a tram that you simply start and stop. Nothing too spectacular.

Almost all enemies are humanoid-based and too be honest I struggled to tell the difference between them In a game like Half-Life 2 it was much clearer and this game would have benefited from separating their visual appearance as well as their weapons etc. Beside the Rocket guys and the Flamethrowers, which were pretty cool by the way, the rest could have been exactly the same. There were also a few types of automated sentries plus a cool type of mine that I don’t want to spoil for you!

The enemy A.I. ranged from standing still to pretty cool movement and hiding. There are some good modeled motions when the enemy run away but continue to shoot at you, also some nice shoot-and-hide set pieces. The body movements are quite realistic especially during the cut scenes.

Without doubt the level design was the best part of the game for me. There were some truly awesome levels and I enjoyed having to replay them - mainly due to only being an average player. Most of the levels are linear but don’t let this put you off. In reality most levels are and this game tends to be a little more obvious than others. There are plenty of direction to worry about the enemy coming from but also plenty of pausing places.

This game felt too formulaic. Almost as if the developers had sat down and had a shopping list of features that they included. The weapons and vehicle are perfect examples. For sure, it must be very difficult to create a shooter that stands out from the crowd but perhaps you shouldn’t try unless you have something special to offer. There’s also a regular Boss level to beat, which is no bad thing, if you like boss levels!

I would certainly not rate this games as highly as Chaser or Return to Castle Wolfenstein but I finished it, which is actually high praise from me. There are plenty of negative aspects to this game but overall I enjoyed it. Would I recommend you buy it? Maybe, but I feel that at 25.00 Euros it’s a little expensive for what you get. A 14.99 price point would have been much more realistic.

I’m disappointed that an editor was not included because I feel that the modding community may have picked this one up and actually made it more successful through the release of SP levels. Oh, well, another Petition perhaps?!

What I can say it that you should definitely try the demo because this game has plenty to offer.

There are some superb levels and the layouts are great and this is perhaps the redeeming feature of the game. It’s a slick piece of work and I suppose the greatest compliant I could give it is that I chose to finish it. That may not sound much of a compliment but when you consider I finish about 25% of the games and mods I actually start it’s pretty good.

There will be two chances to win this game in May, so stay tuned for a competition announcement.

Lastly don’t forget to view the full collection of Alpha Prime Screenshots on the PlanetPhillip Gallery. Also visit the homepage: Alpha Prime for more details on the weapons, characters and graphics.