Aliens: Thanatos Encounter

Imagine it: You’re travelling back home to Earth. You’re part of a group of marines who, finally, are getting to see their families and friends. Before you know it, you pick up a distress call from a spaceship not too far away. It seems that your duties are far from over and as you head towards the craft your heart fills with dread. Something is not quite right. Your ship docks and you and your fellow marines board the seemingly empty vessel. As you venture through the darkness, you could swear that there is something lurking in the shadows, so you nervously tighten your grip on your pulse rifle. Behind you a scream rings out that stops just as quickly as it began, and it’s then you notice that you are all alone. Or are you? Emerging from the darkness an even blacker form begins to take shape, accompanied by a nerve-shredding hissing sound. And unfortunately for you, it’s the last sound you ever hear. Welcome to Aliens: Thanatos Encounter...

Gut Buster

If all that sounds familiar and yet strangely inviting, then Aliens: Thanatos Encounter should be just the cup of acid you need! The game is viewed from a top-down angle (imagine Grand Theft Auto, but with people rather than cars) and it sticks you in a maze of metal corridors teeming with acid-spitting aliens. Your quest is to hunt down and eradicate the aliens while searching for survivors and rescuing your own team-mates before the big showdown with the Alien Queen.

When the game starts you have a number of members from your team to chose from. If one of them dies then you simply move on to another team member. However, if one of them gets captured you are given an allotted time period within which to rescue them. This means if you stay alert, you can constantly keep your team alive. Each level is designed with an objective in mind and you must search every area to eradicate the threat and find the exit. Along the way you can collect all kinds of power-ups and various assorted weapons to help you complete your task.

Acid Trip

Throughout the game there are tons of familiar elements from the movie series to keep fans of the franchise happy. There are face-huggers galore, aliens to blast and even the Power Loader that Sigourney Weaver demonstrated so well in the motion picture. Considering that the graphics aren’t all that astounding, they still look extremely crisp and smooth with plenty of detail capturing that mock James Cameron look and therefore creating a perfect Aliens-style environment.

There are a few downsides to the game. For starters the actual shooting element doesn’t feel quite right. Even though you may be firing off a few rounds at those pesky aliens, none of your ammunition seems to be making any contact and it isn’t until the creature eventually evaporates that you realise that you have, in fact, been hitting your target. The other major flaw is a problem Croc 2 (also reviewed in this issue) suffers from, namely, a ridiculous password system. Each password is far too long and a game like this would really benefit from a battery back-up save system instead. Although you can tolerate the reasonably annoying shooting element (which gets better as the weapons gradually improve) the password system is a bit of a joke. And not a very funny one at that!

Despite its minor flaws, Aliens: Thanatos Encounter is still a very entertaining action adventure that involves a little bit more strategy than you’d expect and far more action than you deserve. It might not sustain your interest for long, but it will, for that short time, excite your senses!