Line #5 VideoGame/AlienBreed


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-Alien_Breed_cover_art_8451.jpg]]
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3	''Alien Breed'' is a series of top-down {{Shoot Em Up}}s by Creator/Team17, perhaps better known as the creators of the ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' series. The original Alien Breed was released in 1991 for the Commodore Amiga and later in 1993 by [=MicroLeague=] for MS-DOS. The game was based heavily - [[{{Expy}} and unofficially]] - on the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' films, specifically ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', and also on the 8-bit-era games ''VideoGame/LaserSquad'' and ''VideoGame/{{Paradroid}}'' and was compared to ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlienSyndrome''. The formula was simple enough. The player(s) controlled a SpaceMarine on an alien-infested SpaceStation, attempting to locate elevators leading to lower levels while battling aliens, gathering ammo and money and buying things from store terminals. The style of gameplay, i.e. rampaging from point A to B, was considered a direct precursor to the FirstPersonShooter, namely VideoGame/{{Doom}}. It was followed by ''[[NumberedSequels Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues]]'' in 1993, ''[[OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo Alien Breed: Tower Assault]]'' in 1994 (the last 2D entry), ''Alien Breed 3D'' in 1995 (in conjuction with Creator/{{Ocean}}), ''Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds'' later that same year. All were highly praised. A PC/Dreamcast FirstPersonShooter sequel called ''Alien Breed: Conflict'' was planned, but was eventually canceled.
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5	Fast forward to December of 2009, with the release of the [[MediaNotes/GameEngine Unreal 3 engine-driven]] ''Alien Breed: Evolution'' on [[Platform/XboxLive Xbox Live Arcade]], later released as ''Alien Breed: Impact'' on Platform/{{Steam}} and the Platform/PlaystationNetwork in June of 2010. This reboot of the series stars [[Literature/HeartOfDarkness Joseph Conrad]], chief engineer aboard a diplomatic ship called the Leopold. After suddenly dropping out of {{Hyperspace}}, the Leopold impacts a far larger derelict spacecraft in a decaying orbit around an uninhabited [[SingleBiomePlanet ice world]]. With most of the crew dead, it's up to Conrad to find out what went wrong and attempt to rectify the situation. Reviewers praised the game's look but complained "ItsTheSameNowItSucks," stating it was no different than its Amiga predecessors. A sequel, ''Alien Breed 2: Assault'', was released in September, followed two months later by the final part of the trilogy, ''Descent''.
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7	Unrelated to ''VideoGame/{{Breed}}'', another game about killing aliens en masse.
8	----
9	!!'''The original series provides examples of:'''
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11	* AIIsACrapShoot: Why else are the facilities in the 2D games littered with turrets (and eventually combat drones) that are more interested in targetting you than the Aliens?
12	* AnnouncerChatter: The 2D games were noted for the sampled speech - voiced by Lynette Reade - that provided warnings and other messages.
13	--> ''Player one requires first aid.''
14	* ApocalypticLog: These were introduced in ''Tower Assault'', in the form of Smartcards and messages available within the terminals.
15	* BlackoutBasement: The dark levels, introduced in ''Special Edition'' and returning in ''Tower Assault''.
16	* BusCrash: Happens to Nash in ''Tower Assault'', unless you start a co-op game.
17	--> ''Nash is dead, you're on your own.''
18	* CaptainErsatz: One of the enemies in ''Alien Breed 3D'' and ''The Killing Grounds'' is a one-eyed floating alien that spits fire-balls at you, hmm... a lot like the [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Cacodemon]].
19	** Likewise, another one of the enemies in the 3D installments mentioned above is a crawling red-skinned alien, that is very clearly based on the Pinky demon (also from VideoGame/{{Doom}}).
20	* CriticalExistenceFailure: From ''The Horror Continues'' and onwards, player characters would ''explode'' upon death, just like with everything else.
21	* CollisionDamage: In the 2D games. Oddly enough [[TakingYouWithMe it also applies to the Aliens as well]]. Yes, you can walk onto the Aliens and they explode, at a cost of your own health.
22	* CompilationRerelease: The Platform/AmigaCD32 version of ''Tower Assault'' comes bundled together with ''The Horror Continues''.
23	* ContinuityReboot: Can be said about the FPS installments.
24	* FanRemake: ''Alien Breed: Obliteration'', based off the first game with some new assets.
25	** There's also ''[[https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666 Project Osiris]]'', a [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} GZDoom-powered]] remake of ''Alien Breed 3D''.
26	* FirstPersonShooter: ''Alien Breed 3D'' and ''The Killing Grounds''
27	* FriendlyFireproof: ''Averted''. Though it was optional in ''Tower Assault''.
28	* GameBreakingBug: ''Special Edition 92'' apparently had one.
29	* GenreShift: The series shifted from top-down shooter to FirstPersonShooter with ''Alien Breed 3D''.
30	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Aliens in the dark levels.
31	* IncrediblyDurableEnemies: The Xenomorphs can take quite a beating for a ZergRush type of mook. You'll be wearing your ammo down before long if you don't get a weapon that can beat them within two hits.
32	* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: Given the seemingly countless number of Aliens roaming around, subjecting the decks into self-destruct seems to be a common resort.
33	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Implied in ''Tower Assault'' with the backgrounds of the [[ApocalypticLog Smartcard Reader]] and Terminal screens having some Japanese writings in them.
34	* LateToTheTragedy: Especially ''Tower Assault'', which visibly shows the corpses of those unfortunate enough to be in a middle of an Alien infestation.
35	* LockAndLoadMontage: In ''Tower Assault'' live action intro, our heroes are shown suiting up for battle prior to taking off. Due to various shortcomings stemming from the development team's... lack of experience when it comes to making movies (takes are a bit too long, characters' movement a bit too slow and not really spontaneous, plus the sequence itself is full of ridiculous shots like one of soldiers fixing his hair, another one tucking a pistol behind his belt -- because, apparently, [=IPC=] troops are not provided with holsters -- and another one... simply fastening said belt), the final effect is less impressive than you might expect.
36	* MadeOfExplodium: The Aliens explode upon death. So do [[CriticalExistenceFailure you]] since ''The Horror Continues''.[[note]]In the original game the player sprite spins upon death instead.[[/note]]
37	* MovesetClone: Stone and Johnson in ''The Horror Continues'', who both start off with medium-powered machine guns, low-powered remote scanners, 5 keys and 5000 credits.[[note]]For comparsion, Ruffertoo starts out with a weaker machinegun but stronger remote scanner, 5 keys and no credits, while Zollux starts out with the tripple laser gun, 10 keys and no scanner nor credits.[[/note]]
38	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: If the character select screen in ''The Horror Continues'' is to believed, Stone -- one of the human characters -- looks suspiciously like [[Series/QuantumLeap Scott Bakula]].
39	* PasswordSave: The 1993 game provides a password at the end of each level. This may be entered onto the first intex terminal, which awards an amount of credits based on depth, and transports you to the new level once you leave the terminal. Also, the PC game can have a keybind conflict if the player chooses a fire button or quit command if the letter is also found in the password.
40	* RecycledINSPACE: The earlier games are basically ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}'' in SPACE!
41	* ReflectingLaser: Shots of the Refraction Lazer/Rebounder can bounce off walls and prove to be certainly useful within the more cramped levels, especially if you can afford to get their high-level variant.
42	* RespawningEnemies: There were no shortage of Aliens in the 2D games. They mostly do it off-screen, unless there is a hole on the floor in sight, through which you can certainly bet Aliens would come through it.
43	* SavePoint: In ''Alien Breed: Impact'', the vending machine terminals permit saving the game at no charge.
44	* SceneryGorn: ''Tower Assault'' goes this route, with the towers themselves being littered with corpses of unfortunate victims of the Alien infestation. [[WouldHurtAChild Not even the children were safe.]]
45	* SchrodingersPlayerCharacter: Especially notable in ''The Horror Continues'', the only entry in the series to have multiple selectable characters.
46	** ''Tower Assault'' has a way around this though, see BusCrash above.
47	* SequelEscalation: The 2D games go from a single space station (''[=Alien Breed/Special Edition=]'', 6-levels) through a colony with few bases (''The Horror Continues'', 17 levels) to a network of towers (''Tower Assault'', up to 50 levels).
48	* ShootOutTheLock: Don't have any keys but a lot of ammo to spare? Shoot the door until it breaks.
49	* ASpaceMarineIsYou: Unless you are one of these Lizard-like beings in ''The Horror Continues''.
50	* StandardFPSGuns: ''Alien Breed 3D'' gives you a machine gun, shotgun, plasma cannon, grenade launcher and a large rocket launcher. Melee weapons are absent until the ''Project Osiris'' remake introduced it.
51	* StealthyMook: ''Tower Assault'' introduces some camoflagued Aliens in few levels.
52	* StoryBranching: ''Tower Assault'' stands out in the series with the levels having multiple exits, leading onto different levels each. There are around 50-ish levels in total, and a single playthrough may not neccersairly has you progress through all of them.
53	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Nobody's sure if ''Tower Assault's'' Jordan and Nash are the same Stone and Jonshon from the earlier entries, just renamed.
54	* TacticalWithdrawal: Sort of. ''Tower Assault'' introduced "Retreat Mode" which allows you to shoot while walking backwards, done by either holding the fire button and then holding the direction opposite of where you are facing, or toggled with one of the Shift keys. As the game came out before twin-stick shooters became common-place, the mechanic was a bit of a big deal at the time.
55	* TakeThat: Few of the jokey cheat codes - to be inputed on any of the Terminals - in the first game were this, including "US GOLD" which resets the score to zero, "[[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC EMULATOR]]" which disables all terminals and [[Platform/AtariST ST EMULATOR]] which downgrades the graphics.
56	* TechDemoGame: Exemplified by ''Alien Breed 3D 2: The Killing Grounds''. While the first ''Alien Breed 3D'' boasted a number of features the original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' engine wasn't capable of (like translucent water and room-over-room), it also made a number of concessions to make it more feasable for stock Amiga 1200s (like a lower screen resolution). Meanwhile, ''The Killing Grounds'' was Creator/Team17 pulling all of the stops on crafing an engine meant to be on par with ''VideoGame/QuakeI'', with dynamic lightning, bump mapping, lightmapped sprites and weapons and larger enemies being rendered with models rather than sprites. This ended up resultinng in a game so taxing on hardware that even the beefiest Amiga at the time struggled to run it smoothly with all of the graphical settings maxed out, and it took an advent of emulation that allowed people to experience the game at much smoother framerate. The game ended up proving the superiority the IBM PC had at the time over the Amiga, as it was much easier to get ahold of the PC that could run ''Quake'' smoothly (especially after ''[=GLQuake=]'' came out).
57	* TimedMission: Every time you activate the self-destruct sequence in the earlier games.
58	* TooDumbToLive: If ''Tower Assault'' intro is to be believed, the only reason your character (and Nash, if you play in co-op with your friend) ends up as the sole survivor of the assault team is that the rest of said team have spent most of their time upon arrival just flying around titular towers and letting themselves be killed one by one by automated sentry guns like utter idiots.
59	* UpdatedRerelease: In the form of ''Alien Breed:Special Edition 1992''.
60	* UniversalAmmunition: All of the weapons feed off the same ammunition pool, regardless of whenever would it be a machinegun, a laser rebounder of a homing missile launcher.
61	* UnwinnableByDesign: In the '92 special edition, the [[http://hol.abime.net/hol_popup_picture.php?url=pic_full/gamemap/3201-3300/3232_gamemap5.png&width=1920&height=1536&zoom=1&title=Alien%20Breed%20Special%20Edition%2092%20-%20Game%20map%20n%B05 third level's layout]] makes it possible to seal yourself on the western part of the map, with no route to the exit. The mission briefing warns this is possible, and recommands passing through a fire door your about to close to avoid that situation.
62	* WeakTurretGun: Subverted, these could either withstand quite a lot of punishment or are outright invulnerable.
63	* AWinnerIsYou: [[LampshadeHanging Hung a lampshade on]] ''[[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/amiga/a/abre92.htm Special Edition 1992]]''
64	* XenomorphXerox: The aliens in the first game strongly resemble Xenomorphs. ''The Horror Continues'' even throws in face huggers at you in some levels!
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66	----
67	!!'''The new series provides examples of:'''
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69	* AIIsACrapshoot: Conrad's log mentions an android uprising, in which he lost his second wife and daughter. [[spoiler: And then there's Klein...]]
70	* AlienBlood: Green, natch.
71	* ApocalypticLog: The logs found in ''Impact'' are just descriptions of the different types of aliens, but several logs found aboard the derelict in ''Assault'' play this straight. ''Descent'' has a mixture of both.
72	* BadassBoast: Conrad gives one in ''Assault'''s intro.
73	* {{BFG}}: The Ion Spike, essentially a LightningGun, found in ''Impact.'' It's actually not all that large, but it packs a hell of a punch. More to the spirit of the trope, the Hyper Blaster and Rocket Launcher in ''Assault'' are both fairly sizable.
74	** ''Descent'' adds "Project X", which pretty much shoots a huge burst of lighting forward that kills anything in it's path.
75	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Klein, who's responsible for everything bad that has happened, from creating the breed to crashing the derelict.]]
76	* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Breed, of course. The logs often describe how their physical features and abilities are [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke not likely to have developed naturally.]]
77	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: It can be assumed that [[spoiler:Vance and Barnes]] both get killed around the same time, but since it happens off screen you don't know who dies first. You do find both their bodies, [[spoiler:Vance's before Barnes']], but it doesn't hint to who actually died first. It could be subverted if we're going by when the bodies are found though, as it actually makes the black dude last to die.
78	* BodyArmorAsHitPoints: The "Hardened Armor" item is this.
79	* BoringButPractical: The Assault Rifle is rapid fire, has ''two-hundred'' round magazines, ammo for it is easy to find and cheap to purchase, and it has inexpensive upgrades. You begin the game with it, and it is useful throughout all three episodes, barring some hairier segments in ''Assault'' better addressed with the Flame Thrower or Hyper Blaster.
80	* BugWar: The implied result were the Breed to escape their confinement aboard the derelict.
81	* CartwrightCurse: Conrad has been widowed ''twice.'' The second time, he lost a daughter, too.
82	* CoopMultiplayer: Two players can control Vance and Barnes, other survivors of the Leopold's crew, in a [[GaidenGame side-story]] to the single-player campaign. They meet up with Conrad on occasion.
83	* DarkAndTroubledPast: For some reason, ''Descent'' decides to give every single character a dark and ambiguous past.
84	** Conrad [[spoiler: had his first wife killed by radiation poisoning, and his second wife and daughter killed in a war, leading to his hatred of synthetics. To be fair, this past was being hinted at since ''Impact'']]
85	** Mia [[spoiler: may or may not have hijacked several ships to cause them to self destruct, after her commander died so she could secure the position]]
86	** Vance [[spoiler: may have killed his twin brother when they were 5 to secure the family fortune for himself]]
87	** Barnes [[spoiler: was possibly a high leveled criminal]]
88	** Klein [[spoiler: constructed the aliens of course. And pretty much killed the entirety of the second ship.]]
89	* DisasterDominoes: As if crashing into the derelict wasn't bad enough, things get worse and worse as Conrad goes along, and ''nothing'' seems to work right.
90	* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Mia, in the first level of ''Descent.'']]
91	* EmergencyWeapon: You have a semi-automatic pistol for backup, with unlimited reloads. It packs a surprising punch.
92	* EnergyWeapon: Courtesy of ''Impact'''s [[EnergyWeapon Laser Rifle]]. It's essentially the series' SniperRifle, though it does not reappear in later episodes- justifiable, given their more intense, close-range fights.
93	* TheEngineer: Conrad. This is shown in game by his ability to effortlessly manipulate critical systems of both ships.
94	* EverybodysDeadDave: Virtually everyone besides Conrad, Mia, and the Co-op characters Vance and Barnes is dead. In ''Impact'' Conrad meets some medics and wounded soldiers, but beyond that the few [=NPCs=] encountered get munched by aliens before Conrad can even see them. And Mia [[RobotGirl isn't even alive, per se.]]
95	* ExplodingBarrels: All over the place. Some are conveniently placed to blow open new pathways.
96	* ExplosiveInstrumentation: If you think the Leopold has this bad, wait 'till you see the derelict.
97	* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Mia gets hijacked by Klein.]]
98	* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Klein]] claims to grow quite fond of Conrad over the course of ''Descent'' in particular, claiming that he'll miss him [[ImpliedDeathThreat once he's gone]]. Given how long he's been all alone, he ''might'' actually mean it- but he also never stops mocking and taunting you.
99	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a rather dull example of the trope, you will always find a log detailing a boss creature before you fight it, [[AvertedTrope thus averting]] GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere.
100	* GatlingGood: ''Assault'' introduces the Hyper Blaster, a man-portable gatling gun that fires [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill acid-tipped rounds]].
101	* GiantSquid: ''Assault'''s first boss is this. It uses it's CombatTentacles to shake the girders and make scrap metal fall on Conrad, and to chuck ExplodingBarrels at him. [[BizarreAlienBiology And it happens to live in the derelict's reactor coolant.]]
102	* GhostShip: The derelict, later identified as the UCS Aguire.
103	* GogglesDoNothing: Conrad has these, presumably due to being an engineer. He's never seen actually wearing them over his eyes, of course.
104	* HealThyself: Conrad can pick up both small and large health kits. An upgrade can be purchased that increases their effect and halves the time needed to use them.
105	* HordeOfAlienLocusts: Given the series' origins as an {{Expy}} of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', this shouldn't come as a surprise.
106	* {{Jerkass}}: Conrad, Vance and [[spoiler: Klein]]. Conrad shows himself to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold in ''Assault'', though.
107	* LostTechnology: That derelict ship? [[spoiler: It's actually a two-hundred-year-old human-built research vessel. And the Breed? genetically engineered from harmless microbes from the ice planet below, as part of a project GoneHorriblyRight.]]
108	* LockAndKeyPuzzle: Conrad often has to find certain objects to proceed, be it an actual key card or a missing valve or replacement circuit board or what have you. However, opening one door or fixing a piece of equipment [[DisasterDominoes often causes something else to break]], resulting in a chain of [[LockAndKeyPuzzle Lock And Key Puzzles.]]
109	* LocomotiveLevel: Level four, "Primed", of ''Assault'' culminates in a ride aboard the derelict's internal monorail system. The catch is, it's a BossFight against a GiantSpider [[FlunkyBoss with friends]] that keeps ripping pieces of the train off behind Conrad. It ends when he kicks an {{Exploding Barrel\|s}} at it, followed by a grenade.
110	** ''Decent'' has a level where you must fight an Alien Queen while going up an elevator, plus another level where you're riding on a monorail and sometimes get shot at by turrets.
111	* MadeOfExplodium: Both ships. The Breed run into as many hazards as you do.
112	* MadScientist: [[spoiler:Walter Klein, the creator of the Breed.]] Indirectly (in some cases directly) responsible for [[spoiler:the deaths of the Aguire's crew, among them his own pregnant wife.]] Is completely AxCrazy. Gives a "BreakThemByTalking" lecture in ''Assault'''s ending. [[BrainUploading Is currently spending time as an AI.]]
113	* MultiMookMelee: ''Assault'' becomes this as you near the end, [[spoiler: culminating in a HoldTheLine segment where you operate one of the derelict's point defense cannons, normally used to ''repel asteroids.'']]
114	* NoticeThis: Pickups have a visible sheen.
115	* OldSoldier: Conrad served a record ''seven'' tours of duty in the earth military prior to his career as an engineer.
116	* PlantAliens: The log describing ''Impact''s FinalBoss mentions that it is part plant, and apparently can transmute and reassemble itself anywhere that the bio-sludge present in the hydroponics sector crops up.
117	* RobotGirl: Lieutenant Mia, Conrad's VoiceWithAnInternetConnection. He briefly [[EscortMission escorts her]] in ''Assault.''
118	** [[spoiler: In ''Descent'' Mia gets corrupted by Klein and you have to kill her in a boss fight, though in doing so [[DyingAsYourself briefly reverts to being her own being]].]]
119	* SavePoint: Unusually for a game nowadays, you must find specific terminals at which to save, which also happen to be the stores. The game also auto saves at specific checkpoints.
120	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: In ''Impact'', the given dimensions of the derelict are in dozens of kilometres. The mass is given as a little over 100,000 tons. This would actually mean the derelict is millions of times less dense than a ''soap bubble''.
121	* SentryGun: Found as an inventory item, and must be installed on specific "power points"... conveniently located in areas that get a lot of Breed traffic.
122	** In the last level of ''Impact'', along with ''Assault'' and ''Descent'' sentry guns become enemies. The security system (Which has probably been hacked by Klein) really doesn't want you on that ship
123	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: The Shot Cannon is powerful enough that one need not buy the damage upgrade for it, its devastating throughout all three episodes. [[ShortRangeShotgun Don't expect to hit anything beyond point-blank range, however.]]
124	* ShutUpHannibal: In ''Assault'''s ending.
125	* StatusEffects: Conrad can toss stun grenades.
126	* TheStoic: Conrad. Especially in ''Impact'''s ending.
127	* StuffBlowingUp: Of all shapes and sizes, from the Leopold's computer mainframe down to [[ExplosiveInstrumentation individual consoles]].
128	* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: Ammunition and supplies are plentiful enough, but the game throws a whole pile of items at you before ''Assault'''s finale.
129	* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler: Mia's final act is to give Conrad her power cell, which could be used as an explosive to destroy Klein.]]
130	* TakeYourTime: There are specific sequences where you have limited time to escape an area, but you have all the time in the world before the derelict impacts the ice planet's surface. [[spoiler: Or after that, until it sinks into the icy depths in ''Descent''.]]
131	* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: ''Impact'''s final level takes place on the derelict, which, being over two hundred years old, is rusted, decayed, angular and [[MalevolentArchitecture not at all inviting in appearance]], in stark contrast to the Leopold's curves and bloom effects.
132	* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: [[AvertedTrope Mostly averted.]] This game's flamethrower is damaging, handles crowds better then any gun save the Hyper Blaster and is surprisingly ammo-efficient. It is however, painfully short-ranged.
133	* {{Wormsign}}: ''Impact'''s FinalBoss announces its appearance in this manner.

Context VideoGame / AlienBreed