Alien Breed 3: Descent Steam – Review – PC

The epic final chapter to the Alien Breed series is finally here. Fight your way through hordes of enemies with new weapons, bosses and gameplay elements as you finish the fight and escape vessel alive.

Story: In this epic final chapter, descend to the frozen bottom of the vessel to destroy the massive alien infested vessel once and for all.

Gameplay: Just like in the previous game, changes have been made to the environment; new weapons and enemies have been introduced as well. Aside from that, the gameplay has remained the same. At first it was fun, but now it feels kind of boring and repetitive because it maintains the same gameplay mechanic from the previous games. Keeping the gameplay consistent throughout the series, especially for an episodic release, was great, but nothing really felt any different. A lot of backtracking is involved as you must still discover this, go open this, backtrack to find this, enemies, boss, repeat. The third person sections were a welcomed addition though, and definitely provided something new. It was actually something I was going to recommend as it would be interesting to see an isometric/FPS or TPS hybrid. However, instead of having an option to switch on the fly allowing you to play the entire game in one or the other, it was automatically turned on during a few sections. The camera is still really annoying; you can turn 360 degrees around you, but it is done in 45 degree increments. Many times I was not sure if a door was open or why an enemy was attacking me because it was hidden behind a wall.

Having played the previous two episodes on the Xbox 360, I was happy that it fully supported a wired Xbox 360 gamepad. For players who like typical PC shooters though, the keyboard and mouse controls are fluent and easy to understand.

Multiplayer: Co-op modes such as survival and scoring missions are available for local and online friends. It is a great extension, but again, repetitive and short with probably little desire to return.

Graphics/Audio: The environments, for the most part, still look the same – dark, metal walls and floors, and a feeling that aliens are in the area. Atmospherically, with the sounds of aliens scurrying under the floors and other random sounds in the distance, the game continues to provide that chilling feeling as you progress through the game. Not too many games can pull that off too well. Apart from the introduction and cut-scenes, dialog is subtitled without voice-overs. This is kind of annoying because it is mixed in with the text of actions and overlapping background sounds or voices.

Overall: From a story standpoint, Alien Breed 3: Descent is a great final chapter. However, the gameplay remains the same providing a repetitive and boring gameplay experience. Sure, there are some new additions, but as a whole, it is the same game as the previous two. If you have been following the story, love the dual stick shooter gameplay, you’ll enjoy this epic final chapter right to the end.

Pros:
-Great recap of previous games
-Very atmospheric game

Cons:
-Repetitive
-Clunky camera
-Bad placement of dialog

Overall score: 6/10

A Steam copy of this game was provided from the publisher for reviewing purposes.

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