Alien Shooter: Vengeance



Alien Shooter: Vengeance (also known as Alien Shooter 2) is an top-down shooter video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Sigma Team. It is a large-scale sequel to Alien Shooter, and combines elements of arcade action. An improved version called Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded was released, featuring changed game mechanics and few new levels.

Story
In the year 2030, the M.A.G.M.A. Energy Corporation sends its mercenaries to a top secret object. Awful and dangerous experiments were held there and now they are beyond control. The player must complete a series of tasks, destroying anything and anyone in his path.

The game starts with the player arriving at the on-site M.A.G.M.A facility. After meeting with the local commander, General Baker, the player goes on his first mission: searching for survivors within the facility while fending off waves of aliens. Non-player characters in this mission include Nicholas the engineer, a M.A.G.M.A. employee who provides rewards if the player fulfills his requests, and Kate Lia, a mercenary hired by M.A.G.M.A. who is abducted by the aliens when the player becomes trapped in the facility's computer room. While at the facility the player is also asked to disable a self-destruct program that threatens the facility. Once the program has been shut down, General Baker concludes that the aliens must have a leader, and it is the leader who activated the self-destruct program. The player also discoveres that the M.A.G.M.A. Energy Corporation has made a deal with General Baker, asking him and the rest of the mercenaries to shut the entire base down in return for a large amount of money. The player is the sent to the next facility, the ME2 Base.

After battling through hordes of aliens, the player finally manages to enter the ME2 Base. While clearing still more aliens from the base, the player is able to download data that reveals that M.A.G.M.A. has been researching ways to control the alien army, but an accident caused them to rampage throughout the facility. General Baker asks the player to rescue Kate after M.A.G.M.A.'s research is destroyed. He has located an alien breeding ground deep within a coalmine nearby and sends the player and a couple of soldiers to eliminate the aliens once and for all.

At this point the player has a choice. If he chooses to follow Baker's orders and destroy the breeding ground, the game reveals that the General has realized that the downloaded data contains information on how to control the aliens, and he plans to use it. In a confrontation with the player, Baker is killed. On his way to save Kate, the player engages the aliens, leading to a final battle in which the player kills the alien leader. After defeating the leader, the player discovers that Lia is dead by the time the player reaches her. The disk containing the data on controlling the aliens and the portals is destroyed. Factions in the alien army have begun fighting each other instead of attacking humans. The game ends as cities suffering from alien invasions begin to recover.

However, if the player decides to go back to General Baker instead of rescuing Kate, the alien leader will send teleporting minions to attack him. If the player gives Baker the disk, he will teleport away, and M.A.G.M.A. will order the player to find General Baker as quickly as possible. After the player finds bits of Baker strewn throughout a M.A.G.M.A. base, the game ends with most of human population dead, the Earth Government using nuclear weapons to destroy cities overrun with aliens, and M.A.G.M.A. still trying to recover its experimental energy weapons, all these events being described in the final journal entry of the last human on earth.

Gameplay
Alien Shooter: Vengeance's gameplay contains many improvements over its predecessor. It is the sequel to Alien Shooter. Players now have a selection of 8 characters to choose from, each character's stats and starting equipment being different from one another. These stats have an impact on, for example, the type of weapons the player may use and as how effective they are, or the maximum number of hitpoints a player can have. Players can earn experience points for killing enemies and completing objectives. After earning enough experience points, the player gains a new level and is allowed to increase their stats.

Items may be bought from shop terminals scattered throughout the levels. Players can visit these stations to purchase weapons, implants (which act to increase a player's stats but are not permanent and can be removed), armor, ammunition and miscellaneous items, such as flashlights or medkits, with money found in the levels or earned from completing objectives. Some items and weapons require certain status levels to use it. For example, to use more lethal weapons, players must meet the weapon's minimum skill requirement in its respective skill in order to use it.

Players are also allowed to pick from a list of perks during the initial character creation. There are total of 8 perks for player to choose from - such as health regeneration, thievery, and hypnotism - and once chosen, the player may not change their perk. It then becomes one of the character's stats and can be upgraded as such during the game.

Once the game is finished, players may upload their scores to a global scoreboard. If the player used any cheats during the game, they are labeled as such in the board.

Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded
An expanded version of the game was released, titled Alien Shooter: Reloaded which featured the addition of few new levels, simplified role-playing system and a several minor changes. This version was created in order to make the game more suitable for shareware distribution (with the size of only 400 Mb). Voice-overs were, however, cut from this release (but still could be restored if the folder "speech" is moved into the game's directory from the original Alien Shooter: Vengeance).

Alien Shooter 2: Conscription
A stand-alone add-on was released in 2010, titled Alien Shooter 2: Conscription. It features a new campaign, a few new weapons, several new types of monsters, and a new mode "Career" with five long levels of intense action. The story is a spin-off to original game, telling the story of a new recruit of the M.A.G.M.A. corporation, who is stationed on one of the military bases. Suddenly, the base is attacked and the protagonist is forced to fight for his life. Later, he is assigned by the General to assist Officer Donaldson and his squad in the protection of a secret bunker. The mission is a failure, all the squad is killed by aliens, and the recruit heads to the evacuation site, where he is ambushed by his own troops. Surviving the ambush, he heads to the bunker in order to find out what dark secret the General was trying to hide. After discovering that the General was trying to breed his own version of aliens, the recruit, allying himself with Corporal Jane who was also betrayed by the General, destroys the facility and travels to the General's headquarters using the teleporter. Even though Jane is killed, the recruit succeeds in defeating hordes of escaped aliens and the General's personal army. The recruit confronts the General, who is piloting a giant mech-suit, and kills him, ending his scheme.

Reviews
GameSpot gave it a rating of 7.5 out of 10, concluding that "Retro shooters don't get any bloodier or more intense than this. William Usher of Gaming Blend calls it "an adrenaline-pumping experience that has non-stop thrills and top-notch action," giving it a 4.5 out of 5. Dominic Dansin of Game Industry News notes that with this game, "you know what you are going to get" and while it will likely not win any awards, it is still "a lot of fun."