Alien Earth

Alien Earth
Original box art
Developer(s)	Beam Software[1]
Publisher(s)	Playmates Interactive Entertainment, Inc (US), Funsoft (Germany)
Platform(s)	IBM PC Compatible
Release	NA July 21, 1998
Genre(s)	Action role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Alien Earth, set in a post-apocalyptic timeline, is an isometric pseudo-3D action-adventure game for Windows. It has RPG elements,^[2] including dialogue trees, so it can also be called an action role-playing game, but it uses resource management as puzzles, requiring the player to combine items in order to advance in the game.^[3] It was created by Krome Studios Melbourne, in 1998, when they were called Beam Software Pty. Ltd.

Plot[]

What remains of Earth and most of its inhabitants after a nuclear holocaust is dominated and enslaved by the insect-like humanoid Raksha, invaders from another planet.^[4] Many years later, only the Resistance remains free, in the sewers of a ruined city. The player takes control of Finn, a villager in a jungle that the Raksha use to hunt their slaves as prey. A Raksha hunting lord marks Finn as a troublemaker,^[4] and he must outwit the Raksha, and seek aid wherever he can find it, to survive. His nemesis vanquished, Finn searches for answers about the fate of his civilization in a wartorn city, despite the Scavengers hunting through the ruins for scraps of remaining technology...and intruders.

Gameplay[]

Resource management is a key part of the game; items are collected, as in most games, but also combined; the latter is crucial to completing the game. Combining a wooden pole with a metallic blade forms a Spear, for example, or an empty bottle, petrol and a rag cloth to form a molotov cocktail. Separate NPCs make scavenged Raksha weapons usable and sellable, and level up Finn's psionic abilities. Finn's fighting abilities use a skill levelling system; the more Finn uses a weapon, the better he gets at using it.

List of characters[]

• Finn: the playable character, and one of the few characters that have psionic abilities.
• Old Jack: Like Finn, once hunted by the Raksha, and from the same village. He aids Finn with his knowledge of the jungle, its inhabitants, and herb lore.
• Charlie: Crazy Charlie may be just crazy, or one of the test subjects the Raksha used to develop Psionic powers. Charlie is devoted to his plastic parrot...until Finn gives him a worn teddy bear.
• Rob: The chief in the village where Finn lived in. Believes the Raksha to be gods.
• Brock: Lives in an old movie theater. Pale and skinny and very frightened about most things, he tells Finn of The Resistance.
• Colonel: He stands guard over a bunker in the ruined city, as his parents did before him.
• Karl: The short tempered but strong willed leader of The Resistance, he gives missions to Finn so he can help The Resistance against the Raksha.
• Roscko: The Resistance weapons specialist. Removes the identity tags from Raksha weapons so that they can be used or sold.
• Harry: A fat junkman that works in the Resistance, and will buy items from Finn.
• Romuko: A young woman with psionic healing abilities that was found by The Resistance starved and weak. Now she works as a medic for The Resistance.

Reception[]

Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Well-designed and (mostly) well-implemented, it might not be flashy, but the game possesses a depth and quality that marks it as one of the brighter spots in the lineup this month."^[6]

Reviews[]

• PC Zone #65 (1998 July)
• Igromania #5, #8
• Power Unlimited (Jul, 1998)
• PC Player (Aug, 1998)
• PC Games (Aug 05, 1998)

References[]