Recent reviews by Badpappan

I bought the game even though I had read some less than stellar reviews and I am glad I did!

The biggest gripe I read from other reviews is that you cant individually control your party members and this is true. And at times its frustrating. You are preparing your squad for a coming event, perhaps a load of drones that will soon spawn, or worse, a special xeno is about to come tumbling down on you but you cant get your squad to split up and cover all the bases! This has lead to my entire squad being thrown on their asses by a charge which could have easily been avoided if you could split up your squad.

But! If you are aware of this flaw, and take it into account, the game is very fun! It does a very good job of building the tense Alien-atmosphere. The game has several mechanics in place to get you to fear the aliens. If you always seek confrontation, the aliens will become stronger, sending more and stronger opponents your way. Which means the game is trying to get you to hide from the Aliens, This in turn helps build tension as you hide in rooms, listening to the beep of the motion detector intensifying, knowing that if the alien takes the wrong turn, all hell will break loose.

Some mechanics are not my cup of tea, like the "death timer" mechanic of the world, where the infestation level of the planet rises over time, increasing difficulty and maybe game over? (Haven't played long enough to find out). But just cause its not my cup of tea, I can see that it might be something others enjoy, and thematically the mechanic fits and adds even more of that pressure you're supposed to feel.

Overall its a great game that does the Alien-franchise justice. Before playing this I didn't know that strategy games can be scary.