Alien Breed: Assault seems like an anachronism in today’s market, even by the standards of Live games. Its top-down camera, run-and-gun controls, minimal dialogue, and essentially four-direction movement all mark it as a throwback to simpler times.
The trouble is, Assault makes little-to-no effort to draw in anyone other than current fans of the series. It begins in media res, after an abrupt summary of the first game, and places the player in the midst of a rather interchangeable series of spaceship corridors we’ve been seeing on and off since the Alien films.
Despite its superficial influences from such recent titles as Dead Space (engineer ventures into derelict vessel, finds horrible offenses-against-nature, fights them all alone), Assault is really more of an old-school dungeon crawler. It bears the most resemblance to the old Gauntlet series; our hero (or heroes, for co-op mode) wanders through a series of corridors picking up money to use for powerups, ammunition for one’s weapons, or expendable items. The controls are workable enough, if slightly clunky, but the game’s combat is nothing special, and its cast of enemies is fairly ordinary.
Assault boasts multiple avenues of progression, including a survival and free play mode. The game tracks the player’s score and it boasts a variety of weapon upgrades and usable items. There’s also a series of logs to collect, some of which reveal some neat world-building (this is all the more annoying as many of the events they hint at are far more interesting than what’s going on in the game itself). However, the player character can only customize his arsenal; there aren’t the RPG elements common to most dungeon crawlers or any additional party members to make things interesting.
The real problem with Assault is its lack of a clear direction or thematic vibe. The game begins in the midst of events and continues with only a vague prompting of where to go. Winding, nigh-identical corridors and no real character interaction to speak of make the experience a slog. Its top-down presentation removes the player from much of the action. And lacking the puzzles or nonlinear progression of Metroid-style games or engaging setpieces and cutscenes, there’s little to set Assault above and beyond other dungeon crawlers for the casual player.