Alpha Prime, the new game from Black Element Software, sets out to be a hard core First Person Shooter, but does it stack up to the hype?
Black Element Software is a Czech based games company, having only previously released one other game, Shade: Wrath of Angels, and currently working on an expansion for ArmA (Armed Assualt) called Queens Gambit, due out later this year. The story for Alpha Prime was written by the science fiction writer Ondrej Neff.
The game starts out with two drunks discussing Hubbardium
The game starts out with two drunks discussing Hubbardium
The game starts out with two drunks discussing Hubbardium, a very valuable raw mineral. However it seems this mineral has a dark side, with prolonged exposure causing some undesirable side effects. Your ex girlfriend, Livia (theres something about a woman in Leather that always goes down well), approaches you in the bar and tells you about an illegal mining facility on Alpha Prime. Something has gone wrong and the mining company is trying to cover their tracks. Unfortunately her boyfriend is stuck on the asteroid and needs your help to rescue him. You agree and the game begins.
You awaken from your deep space sleep to learn that your ship has hit a mine and in a bad way. This level serves as your tutorial and takes you through the very basics of how to play, crouch, jump etc. The controls are the standard fair found in most FPS, but are configurable through the options.
theres something about a woman in Leather that always goes down well
theres something about a woman in Leather that always goes down well
Once you make it off the ship however you find yourself on the surface of the planet and have to find a way into the base as quick as possible as oxygen is limited. Inside you find your first adversaries. Some poor saps adversely affected by their years of dealing with Hubbardium close up.
Throughout the game you stay in touch with Liviar, the ex and come across a few helpful survivors, who accompany you through some levels, however most of the game is played solo.
Alpha Prime has the now quite common Bullet time, which comes from shots of Hubbardium, but where this game attempts to stand out, its hook as such, is that you soon gain a Hacking tool, the RHD (Remote Hacking Device). Pressing the Hack button (TAB by default) reveals interactive devices such as cameras and valves that can be used to your advantage. This does add something new to the FPS genre but to be honest not enough to make the game stand out in my opinion.
Some poor saps adversely affected by their years of dealing with Hubbardium
Some poor saps adversely affected by their years of dealing with Hubbardium
Graphically the game is quite stunning, using an inhouse game engine called Enforce2. Enforce2 takes full advantage of all the mod cons, including Dynamic Lighting, Specular Lighting and Physics. Most of the environment is interactive and destructible. When it comes to the AI however it is fairly unimaginative, they generally run out to take pot shots at you and then run back for cover, a few seconds later rinse and repeat. A few times I saved before a major fight to check and it seemed the AI behaved exactly the same each time. None of them ever tried to sneak behind me or decide to take a different path then the last time.
Weapons so far mostly appear to be standard run of the mill with a Futuristic slant. The first weapon you find is a Hatchet, however you have no need to use it as you find a pistol before you encounter your first enemy. Next up is a shotgun then an automatic rifle, followed by a sniper rifle, with more to follow. Grenades also play their part and come in very handy. Some rooms hold many Enemies and there is nothing more satisfying then lobbing a Nade into the midst of them, sitting back and watching bodies fly across the room.
Alpha Prime lacks any Multiplayer modes concentrating entirely on a Single Player campaign, a pity as I believe this may have given it an edge that it appears to lack. Around 10 levels are offered, which I don’t think would take all that long to complete.
All in all it’s a fairly solid FPS experience but just lacks something ‘special’
All in all it’s a fairly solid FPS experience but just lacks something ‘special’
All in all it’s a fairly solid FPS experience but just lacks something ‘special’ to make it stand out amongst the crowd of ever growing FPS games currently on the market. With big names like Crysis and Bioshock on the horizon I can’t see this game selling very well and can see it becoming more of an advertisement for Black Elements Enforce2 Engine then a major hit. With little replay value it will fast find its way to the back of your games shelf and never see the light of day again.
With all that said it must be noted that I am only part way through the game with the promise of vehicles and more weapons to come, so we will see what is in store.
Features:
* Strong Sci-Fi story written by O. Neff
* Bullet-time
* Real time physics
* 10 levels full of action
* 5 non-playable characters to help you
* 14 different enemies including Special Forces soldiers, robots and crazy miners
* 8 futuristic weapons including pistol, shotgun, machine gun, grenades etc.
* Devices to hack - including a variety of robots and manipulators, surveillance cameras, security systems, doors, etc.
* Compatible with Matrox TripleHead2Go™, enabling gamers to connect 3 screens with a maximum resolution of up to 3840x1024.
Requirements: Minimum requirements:
Operating system: Windows XP, 2000
Processor: Intel Pentium® IV 2 GHz or compatible
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphic card: GeForce FX/ATI 9600 or compatible
Sound card: DirectX compatible
Hard disc: 3 GB free Hard Drive space
Direct X: 9.0c driver
Recommended requirements:
Operating system: Windows XP
Processor: Intel Pentium® IV 2 GHz or compatible
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphic card: Nvidia Geforce FX 5950 Ultra or compatible
Sound card: Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series
The game starts out with two drunks discussing Hubbardium 
