Alien Space: It's Heeeerrrrrre!

Published at 12:11 PM in $3.99, DSS's, Games, iPhone, iPod, Reviews, Shooters

Earlier this year we did a preview of the game Alien Space, from developer Owens Rodriguez. The one man team that has spent nearly a year putting together this space themed dual stick shooter. The game has finally been released and our initial impressions are bittersweet.

The game offers a good amount of re-playability and fun. Couple this with great graphics, and even greater controls, and you've got a great shooter on your hands. The part that makes this bitter is the price point. Set at $3.99 USD the game does not seem to live up to that amount. The lack of content is a big factor here. Offering only 2 game modes, and a scarce UI, Alien Space is a title that has a lot of potential but is being held back by the price.

The game has two modes, campaign, and survival. Campaign sees you fighting through many levels killing all the aliens that spawn within the level. A great upgrade system has been put in place but is a tad difficult to upgrade in. We have yet to figure it out, but during a level you earn a certain amount of credits. That amount seems to vary from level to level and can become a nuisance. (We thought that credits should be awarded based on how much damaged you incurred vs. the amount of enemies destroyed, a suggestion to the developer)

The other game mode is survival. Like the name suggests you need to survive for as long as possible. From what we experienced its not possible to upgrade your ship, the only available option(s)is to choose your light and heavy weapons.

There are 8 possible weapon choices. 3 light weapon choices and 5 heavy weapon choices. The light weapon choices offer up an auto cannon, a 3 shot blaster, and a laser. The heavy weapon class offers a photon torpedo, rockets, guided missiles, cluster missiles (1 main missile explodes into 3 guided missiles), and a cutter (The cutter shoots a horizontal lazer beam in the direction you choose, causing the things it passes through to blow up).
The game comes with Open Feint, and allows you to track your score, and compare it to online leader boards. There is also a generous amount of achievements, including a few secret ones.

We would love to put our vote behind this app 100%, but due to the small amount of content, and the high price point. We can only give about 65%. Its a great game, but wait for an update adding more content, or a sale.

Alien Space on the AppStore