Alien Assault (Freeware)

​

Alien assault is a freeware game developed by the independent game development team Teardown.​

It was first released back in 2008, then under the name of Space Hulk. Due to licensing issues it had to be taken down. Teardown now went on trying to aquire a license in order to keep the name
from Games Workshop and THQ. After being rejected they rebranded the game and re-released it in 2009. Now going under the name Alien Assault.​

Quick about the game​

Alien Assault is a turn-based strategy game in which you take control over a squad of marines in their quest to hunt down slimy aliens in different various locations. Sounds like tons of fun, right?​

At the beginning of each turn your units get a set number of AP, action points for short. Everything your marines does, moving, opening door and even shooting will deplete their AP. You will also have a set number of CP, this stands for command points. Command points are universial, this means it will be shared and can be used by all soldiers. You will be given a random number of these at the start of every turn. To put it bluntly, it is rather reminiscent of games such as X-com.


"A group of four marines clearing a ship from an alien infestation." ​

The game doesn't give you the same amount of freedom as per say the above mentioned X-com. What it does however is offering a very good streamlined experienced. You have a limited amount of tools at your disposal, but this does not in any way dumb the game down. Instead it feels more focused.​

Missions range from cleansing all aliens in a certain area to sealing of a pair of doors preventing the spread of the aliens even further. I've found that the difficulty is sometimes a tad too unforgiving but a deafeat never leaves you with a sour aftertaste. Failure is all because of you, it never feels like the game has cheated on you by offering a cheap challange.

It is a very fun game that's easy to get into, you will know the mechanics by going through a tutorial that wont take you longer than 5 minutes. Play a mission or two and then sail away in your imaginary boat and do something else! Choice is yours.

​

"You will not spend all your time on a space ship. But also on the surface of a planet."​

The Sequel
Back in January 2011 Teardown made the announcment that they intended to make a sequel. The next game in the series would go under the name of Alien Assault 2 - The Return. There's yet not much known about the game and to quote a developer of the game it seems we will have to wait a while for the actual release:
"AA1 took 3 and 1/2 years, remember (admittedly with TDSH as a playable beta that only took 2 years).​

A reasonable guess would be somewhere between 2013 and 2014. It all depends on how much time we can devote to it." - the_Fifth_Horseman, Teardown developer.

Teardown's official homepage and download to Alien Assualt can be found here.


​

 

Will have to try this out, also gave you a like for the very nice write up.

 

X-com :D meets Space Marines? o.o is it multiplayer ? Can you play as aliens ?

 

Sadly I have to say no for both of those things. The game is rather limited in what there is to do. You have your campaign but besides that there's nothing else except for some scenarios. Those scenarios are however something that takes a long time to complete. So many marines died :(

Just something I would like to put out there in order to minimize disappointment. Allthough it does borrow some of the mechanics from games like X-com it doesn't exactly play out in the same way.

 

So... no mind controlling an alien and making him drop all his grenades and bombs at his feet set on a 1 second timer, surrounded by his alien buddies? awww ;__;

 

Sadly not! But now you gave me another idea on another topic here. I hope that will satisfy you more = ]

 

When I saw first first 2 pics I thought "Oh my God, PC clone of Space Hulk : OOOO".
Downloading now.

 

"FOR THE EMPERO...!"

"Ssssh! copyright, they might hear!"

"....Oh... sorry..."

EDIT: Game is ten grades of awesome... challenging as heck!