Heart of the Alien - Out of This World Parts I and II
The OG cinematic platformerGenre: adventure - platform
Publisher: Virgin
Year: 1994
System: Sega CD
Gameplay Score: 3
Gameplay Notes:
Wow this is a different experience. Easily the most playable version of this game from this generation. Movement and animations are far more fluid and snappy than the SNES or Genesis could muster. It's still 100% trial-and-error, die-to-win gameplay but at least the slowdown is gone. Controls are still laggy and imprecise. I've got way too much nostalgia for this game, because it really is a horrible game to play. Really bad controls. Luckily they're nice and simple. The gunplay is clunky at best but plays a huge part in the progression.
Level Design Score: 4
Level Design Notes:
If you've got them memorized there's only about 30 minutes of gameplay between the two games. But hey, two games for the price of one, as compared to the SNES and Genesis versions. Puzzles are decent, but you can soft lock quite often. The "levels" are far too long. In other words, checkpoints are sparse. Scripted events are often tense, exciting, and quite memorable. Props for etching the entire game into my long term memory.
Theme Score: 4
Theme Notes:
The setting of a scientist's experiment gone wrong is a trope at this point. It takes liberal inspiration from Frankenstein and Tron and has since inspired the likes of Half-Life and Axiom Verge. So yeah, good job for continuing a trend.
Art Style Score: 4
Art Style Notes:
It hasn't aged well, but animations are greatly improved over the other 16-bit versions. Extremely low-poly artwork and sprites are charming, I suppose. The black bars from the Genesis version are also gone.
Audio Score: 4
Audio Notes:
Atmospheric sounds and scene-specfic tunes make for a cinematic experience. It takes the excellent SNES soundtrack and ramps it up with CD-quality excellence.
Overall Score: 70
Review ID: 12049
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