Alien Front Online for Dreamcast
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- ESRB Descriptor: Cartoon Violence
- ESRB Rating: T - (Teen)
- Publisher: Sega
- Genre: Shooter / FPS
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Best online game since Phantasy Star!
Pros
Fun, addictive gameplay. Voice chat!
Cons
Unreliable servers, somewhat unbalanced teams
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Very fun netplay, hardly any lag, lots of one player stuff too. What more do you want?
I've been itching for a good shooter for some time now. I tried Outtrigger but it turned out to be awful, or at the very least, not for me. I had all but forgotten about Alien Front Online (AFO) while waiting for Outtrigger but all of a sudden I see the release info online. Oh yes, I remember that one! I didn't really read any of the reviews or anything, I just wanted the game. It turned out be a great choice.
Gameplay
9/10
You play as either one of three Army tanks or one of three Alien vehicles. There are 3 modes of play; Arcade, Tactics and Online. Each are basically the same in that you must shoot many, many things repeatedly. Each has it's own unique twist though.
Arcade involves playing through various stages where you must destroy 15 of the opposing vehicles within a given amount of time. Your time is cumulative so if you take a long time on one stage you'll have less time on the next. You get bonus time for each 3 enemies you knock off and also for various things at the end of each stage. You are rewarded for your contribution percentage (how many you killed compared to your computer controlled team mates), how few times you died, etc. You get only 2 continues to get the highest score possible. Each time you go online with the game your high score is uploaded and the world high scores are downloaded to your VMU so you can compare your skills with everyone else, very cool.
The tactics mode is basically a mission mode. Each stage has individual goals. The first, for example, requires you drive over a certain number of targets. In the second you must shoot those targets, etc. The Aliens and Army each have their own missions but they prove to be very similar. The stories are pretty cool though as they intertwine very well. On one Army stage your goal is to destroy an Alien plant on the corresponding Alien stage you have to protect it. Neat. Some of these, ok, most of these, missions are downright frustrating due to their difficulty. Maybe I just haven't tried hard enough but after losing the 10th time I was ready to go back to Arcade mode.
The online play is superb for the most part. There are 3 gameplay modes online; deathmatch, capture the flag and fortress. DM and CTF are simple enough and follow the same rules as every other DM and CTF game to date. The fortress mode has one team defending a fort while the other tries to destroy it. Hardly anyone plays this so I can't really say much about it. At the end of each match you may gain stars which add to your rank. Your rank doesn't do anything but it is great for bragging rights. You also get a handicap either up or down depending on winning or losing. Also, if you end up in a match where you are outnumbered there will be a huge handicap change at the end of the match. The handicaps assure that most games are really close but I wish there was a way to turn it off.
The online play also offers the first real time voice chat on a console game. You can speak messages (up to 5 seconds long) to just your team mates or to the whole group (great for talking smack). Sometimes the sound comes across garbled but for the most part it is very clear. This is really an awesome technology in my opinion. It really adds to the game. However, I do wish people would get more creative that saying "waaasssssup" 80 times a match. Oh well.
The only negative on the online play is the unreliable servers. I have to admit first that there is virtually zero lag. Even in games with 8 people playing (yes, all at once) the lag is neglible at worst. However, after about 3 or 4 games the server starts going wacky. Often you will get dropped from games and disconnected entirely. The solution is to quit the game you're in when you first get the "experiencing communction trouble" message. This will at least save your network connection and let you join the game again immediately without dialing up again. I contacted Sega in regards to this and they said they were working on updating and adding more servers. Sounds good to me.
One other complaint is the small number of arenas. There are only 5 stages. The stages themselves are great but there just aren't enough. There are rumors of one or more secret stages but nobody has unlocked them yet so either they are time released or non-existant. Each stage can be blasted to pieces which is really cool. If you shoot a building it will fall. If you run it over, yep, same thing. This allows you to open some pretty nice passages in walls and things. Plus, its just dang fun to blow up stuff.
The other problem the game has is the apparent imbalance betweens the teams. The aliens truly seem to have the advantage over the army. The aliens have the strongest unit (the 4L walker), the fastest unit (the hov craft) and arguably the most easily defensible unit (the 2L walker). The army has 3 tanks which vary only in speed and strenth. The fastest tank is slightly smaller, and therefore easier to dodge with, than the other two so most people who play army use it.
Even if the vehicles can be argued equal the special weapon imbalance is tremendous. The Army special weapons are pretty weak. The nuke is awesome to see but is easily dodged. The only truly great weapon they have is a homing missile. They also have a machine gun, flamethrower, etc, but none are very powerful. The Aliens, on the other hand, have incredible weapons. They have the most useful item in the game in the cloaking spores. You become completely invisible, even to radar, unless you fire. You can easily sneak up behind a poor tank and unload on it. The aliens also have the ridiculously powerful gravity ball (and you get 3 per pick up which is nuts). This picks the tank up in the air where you are free to blast it while it can do NOTHING. If you don't blast it it will still fall on its own and receive massive damage.
Maybe this imbalance is why Sega decided to put in the handicap. Either way, its kind of a shame, I would have liked to have seen more balance. Note that it is not impossible to win with the Army. A good army player will still beat a less good alien player but I truly feel that if two equally skilled people play, the alien team will win.
Despite the few complaints they are all minor and the game is just dang fun.
Graphics
8/10
Everything is pretty low resolution and there is some pixelization. I haven't noticed much slowdown though so thats good. The alien vehicles looks really good and the tanks look like tanks. The most impressive aspect is the falling buildings. It just looks dang cool to see. There is some load time before each match but its really not as bad as I expected. I would think synching up 8 connections would take a good long while but it all happens pretty fast.
Sound
9/10
Am I the only one who thinks the victory music sounds like Schism by Tool? Maybe I am, but it does. Either way, it sounds cool. The explosions are great, the voice chat is great. The only complaint I have is that the sounds skips sometimes when loading, thats annoying. Also, the periodic skips in the voice chat make for a less-than-perfect rating.
Rent/Buy?
Buy this game. Its only $30 and it comes with a microphone. The netplay is incredibly fun, almost as addictive as Phantasy Star Online. If Sega can clean up the servers they'll have a perfect game on their hands. Even if you aren't into playing online this game may be worth your buck. The one player mode is still lots of fun. There is no mistaking the point of this game though, the online play, and in that respect in comes off great. Sega, thank you again for setting the standard in games that is sure to be copied repeatedly down the line. Innovation is king.
Gameplay
9/10
You play as either one of three Army tanks or one of three Alien vehicles. There are 3 modes of play; Arcade, Tactics and Online. Each are basically the same in that you must shoot many, many things repeatedly. Each has it's own unique twist though.
Arcade involves playing through various stages where you must destroy 15 of the opposing vehicles within a given amount of time. Your time is cumulative so if you take a long time on one stage you'll have less time on the next. You get bonus time for each 3 enemies you knock off and also for various things at the end of each stage. You are rewarded for your contribution percentage (how many you killed compared to your computer controlled team mates), how few times you died, etc. You get only 2 continues to get the highest score possible. Each time you go online with the game your high score is uploaded and the world high scores are downloaded to your VMU so you can compare your skills with everyone else, very cool.
The tactics mode is basically a mission mode. Each stage has individual goals. The first, for example, requires you drive over a certain number of targets. In the second you must shoot those targets, etc. The Aliens and Army each have their own missions but they prove to be very similar. The stories are pretty cool though as they intertwine very well. On one Army stage your goal is to destroy an Alien plant on the corresponding Alien stage you have to protect it. Neat. Some of these, ok, most of these, missions are downright frustrating due to their difficulty. Maybe I just haven't tried hard enough but after losing the 10th time I was ready to go back to Arcade mode.
The online play is superb for the most part. There are 3 gameplay modes online; deathmatch, capture the flag and fortress. DM and CTF are simple enough and follow the same rules as every other DM and CTF game to date. The fortress mode has one team defending a fort while the other tries to destroy it. Hardly anyone plays this so I can't really say much about it. At the end of each match you may gain stars which add to your rank. Your rank doesn't do anything but it is great for bragging rights. You also get a handicap either up or down depending on winning or losing. Also, if you end up in a match where you are outnumbered there will be a huge handicap change at the end of the match. The handicaps assure that most games are really close but I wish there was a way to turn it off.
The online play also offers the first real time voice chat on a console game. You can speak messages (up to 5 seconds long) to just your team mates or to the whole group (great for talking smack). Sometimes the sound comes across garbled but for the most part it is very clear. This is really an awesome technology in my opinion. It really adds to the game. However, I do wish people would get more creative that saying "waaasssssup" 80 times a match. Oh well.
The only negative on the online play is the unreliable servers. I have to admit first that there is virtually zero lag. Even in games with 8 people playing (yes, all at once) the lag is neglible at worst. However, after about 3 or 4 games the server starts going wacky. Often you will get dropped from games and disconnected entirely. The solution is to quit the game you're in when you first get the "experiencing communction trouble" message. This will at least save your network connection and let you join the game again immediately without dialing up again. I contacted Sega in regards to this and they said they were working on updating and adding more servers. Sounds good to me.
One other complaint is the small number of arenas. There are only 5 stages. The stages themselves are great but there just aren't enough. There are rumors of one or more secret stages but nobody has unlocked them yet so either they are time released or non-existant. Each stage can be blasted to pieces which is really cool. If you shoot a building it will fall. If you run it over, yep, same thing. This allows you to open some pretty nice passages in walls and things. Plus, its just dang fun to blow up stuff.
The other problem the game has is the apparent imbalance betweens the teams. The aliens truly seem to have the advantage over the army. The aliens have the strongest unit (the 4L walker), the fastest unit (the hov craft) and arguably the most easily defensible unit (the 2L walker). The army has 3 tanks which vary only in speed and strenth. The fastest tank is slightly smaller, and therefore easier to dodge with, than the other two so most people who play army use it.
Even if the vehicles can be argued equal the special weapon imbalance is tremendous. The Army special weapons are pretty weak. The nuke is awesome to see but is easily dodged. The only truly great weapon they have is a homing missile. They also have a machine gun, flamethrower, etc, but none are very powerful. The Aliens, on the other hand, have incredible weapons. They have the most useful item in the game in the cloaking spores. You become completely invisible, even to radar, unless you fire. You can easily sneak up behind a poor tank and unload on it. The aliens also have the ridiculously powerful gravity ball (and you get 3 per pick up which is nuts). This picks the tank up in the air where you are free to blast it while it can do NOTHING. If you don't blast it it will still fall on its own and receive massive damage.
Maybe this imbalance is why Sega decided to put in the handicap. Either way, its kind of a shame, I would have liked to have seen more balance. Note that it is not impossible to win with the Army. A good army player will still beat a less good alien player but I truly feel that if two equally skilled people play, the alien team will win.
Despite the few complaints they are all minor and the game is just dang fun.
Graphics
8/10
Everything is pretty low resolution and there is some pixelization. I haven't noticed much slowdown though so thats good. The alien vehicles looks really good and the tanks look like tanks. The most impressive aspect is the falling buildings. It just looks dang cool to see. There is some load time before each match but its really not as bad as I expected. I would think synching up 8 connections would take a good long while but it all happens pretty fast.
Sound
9/10
Am I the only one who thinks the victory music sounds like Schism by Tool? Maybe I am, but it does. Either way, it sounds cool. The explosions are great, the voice chat is great. The only complaint I have is that the sounds skips sometimes when loading, thats annoying. Also, the periodic skips in the voice chat make for a less-than-perfect rating.
Rent/Buy?
Buy this game. Its only $30 and it comes with a microphone. The netplay is incredibly fun, almost as addictive as Phantasy Star Online. If Sega can clean up the servers they'll have a perfect game on their hands. Even if you aren't into playing online this game may be worth your buck. The one player mode is still lots of fun. There is no mistaking the point of this game though, the online play, and in that respect in comes off great. Sega, thank you again for setting the standard in games that is sure to be copied repeatedly down the line. Innovation is king.
