➤ Extraterrestrial go away 🎮

In the not too distant future, the Earth is invaded by a hostile alien race. At first, governments try to keep incidents involving extraterrestrial forces hidden, thinking they can stem the phenomenon, but soon the offensive becomes impossible to manage: within a few months, the planet is in check.

In a final, desperate attempt to repel the invasion, the Earth army develops an assault team equipped with powerful exoskeletons and a devastating arsenal, the only ones capable of liberating the cities under the control of the aliens and unleashing a attack on their bases to turn the tide of war. As one of these soldiers, our task will be to fight to save the world. Will we be capable of it? Spiritual sequel to Dead Nation, Alienation basically replaces zombies with aliens, keeping the original formula of the Housemarque twin stick shooter unchanged, but improving it from all points of view. In fact, three different classes for the characters are inserted (Bio-specialist, Tank and Saboteur), the cooperative multiplayer goes from two to four participants (unfortunately sacrificing the local co-op, which however could find a place in one of the future updates) and the combat system acquires further solidity and thickness.

Alienation is undoubtedly one of the best twin stick shooters ever made

Alien combat

Alienation encourages us to complete the campaign three times in a row, since each class has a different approach and it is not possible to change the parameters during construction. The Bio-Specialist represents the traditional support unit, thanks to the ability to heal their companions, but has an equally devastating repertoire of moves and excellent mobility. The Tank, which we favored during the tests, is instead the strongest and most resistant soldier of the lot, a real war machine that dispenses death and destruction, but can also offer shelter to allies thanks to the energy shield.

Finally, the Saboteur is a bit of the ninja of the situation, he can hit enemies with a blade and camouflage himself to proceed undisturbed in times of need, for example when you need to eliminate a target by bringing a surprise attack. In all cases, the combat system is particularly dense and coherent, with an alternation between main, secondary and heavy weapon (to be selected by a simple or prolonged press of the Triangle key), the possibility of performing melee attacks to remove off enemies in the event of an empty magazine, a Gears of War-style active reload system to halve the reload times and an excellent balance on the ammunition front, which often leads to experimenting with new tools and new approaches. The scenario also plays a fundamental role, with the various vehicles that we can detonate, involving nearby opponents, and a large number of ambushes that allow you to take cover from enemy fire. The controls are precise, reactive, completely customizable and in our specific case we wanted to make a single variation, assigning the reload button to the R1 backbone and the melee attack to the pressure of the right stick on its axis. In fact, leaving the recharge on R3 often happens to activate it inadvertently when aiming downwards or in the most excited situations, which can get us in serious trouble when the enemies are many or particularly tough. Speaking of enemies, the work done by Housemarque on the bestiary front is commendable: there are many different aliens, each with its own modus operandi, weaknesses and attacks to which to pay the utmost attention. Furthermore, depending on the scenario, further variants are introduced, such as the invisible assailants or the annoying "crawlers", swarms of spiders that emerge from monstrous broods. The variety of the arsenal is also excellent, which for example in the case of the Tank allows you to select the secondary and special weapon among many alternatives: a powerful shotgun, a devastating "one shot", a long-range revolver, a missile launcher. , a minigun, a flamethrower and so on. The loot represents one of the elements of main interest for the purpose of exploration and completion of challenges, and through this function you can find weapons of common, rare, special or legendary rank, with more or less high statistics and the further possibility of apply upgrade cores.

Better alone or badly accompanied?

The Alienation campaign consists of about twenty missions, divided into four different scenarios: Barrow (Alaska), Ashland (Nebraska), Pripyat (Ukraine) and Fort Itaipu (Brazil).

To these are added the training camp in Hawaii and two alien structures, visible however only during certain phases of the story mode. To complete all the internships you need a minimum of six to seven hours, although the duration of the experience is strongly influenced by the selected difficulty level, from the presence or absence of permanent death (which must be decided at the beginning of the game) and the desire to fully explore the locations, given their wealth in terms of collectibles, challenges and bosses to be found. It is possible to play alone without any problem, choosing one of the three available classes and completing the missions in sequence, but when you arrive at the last stage the presence of companions becomes practically mandatory: in that case there are no checkpoints, each game over implies the having to start the level all over again, unless you have a partner who can revive us when needed. So let's spend a few words on the cooperative, of the drop-in / drop-out type, therefore with the possibility of joining games in progress or opening your session to the participation of anyone, provided of course that you have a subscription to PlayStation Plus. matchmaking is very fast and we have not encountered problems with latency in the control of the characters or in the gunplay, although the aliens tend to collapse with a moment of delay compared to when the hits are hit. Clearly we will have to wait for the release of the game to verify that the system holds up, but the premises seemed excellent to us and we doubt there will be some flaw of particular importance. However, it is a pity that there is no local cooperative, at least for two participants, all the more so given the approach chosen by the developers for that last, problematic mission.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

The thirty-three Alienation Trophies are obtained by taking care of the enhancement of the characters to make them reach the maximum level possible, completing the various missions with all three classes and making a certain number of eliminations. Then there are some achievements based on dexterity, such as the one that is unlocked by completing a level without ever using your skills or without ever firing a shot.

Technique from another world

While having had to settle for 1080p at 30 frames per second instead of 60, The Alienation developers did an excellent job from a technical standpoint, optimizing the experience to deliver rock-solid performance, without ever a decline or an uncertainty, even when literally hundreds of characters move on the screen.

The solidity of the system is evident above all in the multiplayer sessions and is supported by a truly inspired level design, which sets aside the perennial darkness of the Dead Nation stages in favor of daytime locations, embellished with touches of class as regards the reflections on puddles, the quality of water near a river, the exquisite smoke effects following collapses or explosions, as well as a truly spectacular physical rendering of detonations, with aliens being shot at the camera and scattered around in a coherent. The very appearance of extraterrestrials leaves no room for doubt when approaching them, since each has specific physical characteristics that reflect their capabilities, from the most modest units to the bosses. Perhaps more could have been done on the human exoskeleton front, but it is the proverbial nit. The excellent graphics are supported by a valuable sound sector, which manages to enhance the sound of the weapons (the machine guns reverberate in "Aliens - Final Clash" style, and it is a great feeling) and to accompany certain sequences with epic music at the right point. The dialogues in English (subtitled in Spanish) discreetly perform their task, although on the narrative front we would have expected something more: the plot of Dead Nation, told through static images, managed to offer a much greater degree of involvement and original ideas. which, on the other hand, are completely missing here.

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Digital Delivery PlayStation Store Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

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7.7

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Alienation is undoubtedly one of the best twin stick shooters ever made, a product capable of taking the Dead Nation experience and improving it from all points of view, from the variety of the three character classes to the solidity of a combat system ever. so complete and multifaceted. The rich loot system, the ability to fully explore the levels, the exciting online cooperative and a valuable technical sector make the new Housemarque title an essential purchase for lovers of the genre.