Aliens
Electric Dreams, 1987
Written by Chris Owen, HTML'd by Arnt Gulbrandsen.
Controls
Keyboard, Kempston, Cursor
Aim of the game
Ripley returns to the Aliens' planet with a squad of crack
Colonial Marines in order to find out what's happened to the colonists
sent there. It's your task to control her and the squad to penetrate
the Acheron base and rescue the survivors - if there are any...
Game play
The action takes place in first-person perspective, with
you seeing the view though the helmet camera of Ripley and the five
Marines. You can move the sights of your Pulse Rifle to track the aliens
or to turn around in the room - the camera follows the gunsight.
As well as the main display, the console below displays the status of
the six team members. This monitors the life status of the members -
as they near exhaustion, the status bar flashes and if an Alien is in
the room with them it changes colour. The number of the room occupied
by that character is also given. In the centre of the console is the
current character, with a bio-functions trace on the left and the
remaining ammunition on the right.
You can move around by using the doors - move the gunsight over the
doorway and press fire to pass through. Rapid movement can be made by
ordering the character to move up to nine room to the North, South,
East or West. Drawing a map is obviously a good idea here!
If an Alien comes out of hiding or enters the current room, a
proximity alarm sounds a warning. You have only a few seconds to shoot
the Alien before it makes a meal of your forehead... When this happens,
the viewscreen dissolves into static as your character dies. If a
team member is not under your direct control when he or she meets an
Alien, he/she is captured by the Alien and impregnated - the status
bar turns yellow. If the character is not rescued quickly, he/she will
soon die as a chestburster hatches.
Ultimately, in the depths of the base, you may meet the Alien Queen
in her brood chamber. She will be well guarded...
Comments
"It is just very compelling."
Rating
84% (CRASH #37, February 1987)
Now
Not a bad game, but it does get a bit repetitive after a time...
Some of the graphic effects are quite neat, such as the Aliens' heads
exploding (shades of DOOM here?).
Keys
Up }
Down }
Left } Cursor keys
Right }
Fire }
Ripley R
Gorman G
Hicks H
Bishop I
Vasquez V
Burke B
Nettverksgruppa, 10/9-94, sinclair@nvg.ntnu.no