While I make no bones about wanting to see a little more game design innovation from developers these days, sometimes it is the simplest of games that wind up hooking me more than anything else. Case in point: CDV's and Sigma Team's new arcade shooter/action RPG Alien Shooter: Vengeance is probably the most downright entertaining game I've played this year so far and it does nothing that even an older classic like Diablo didn't do. But that's the beauty here; Alien Shooter revels in its identity as a straightforward guns blazing action-fest without care of pushing any design boundaries to their breaking point, and because of that it's easy to dive in for some serious alien ass-kicking fun.

For everything Alien Shooter: Vengeance gets right, its only real weak point would have to be its largely forgettable plot, although with this type of game it's not like some epic story is to be expected anyway. As the game starts, you get to choose from one of eight different characters hired as a mercenary by the M.A.G.M.A Energy Corporation and you're immediately called into one of their facilities that has been overrun by an invasion of aliens after some experimenting with fusion power goes terribly awry. From there the mission, simply put, is to survive the assigned task and cash in on your contract, and in order to survive you have to delve into dark underground facilities, dank sewers and brooding forested environments, all infested with hordes and hordes of aliens seeking to rip you limb from limb.

But certainly you don't just stand by and let the aliens have their way with you; what would be the fun in that? Instead you shred through the alien swarms using a diverse arsenal of high-powered weaponry, from traditional firearms like handguns, shotguns, rocket launchers and machine guns in various makes and models to more advanced weapons like flamethrowers, freeze guns and laser rifles - you even get to spend select moments plowing over the alien scourge in a few vehicles. Controlling all of this frantic dungeon-crawling action, which unfolds from a top down isometric viewpoint similar to games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate, couldn't be easier to control either, with the usual WASD keyboard controls handling character movement (although you can also use the right mouse button if you prefer the point-and-click method), the left mouse button being your trigger finger and the mouse wheel your all-encompassing holster for swapping weapons on the fly.

Don't let the simplistic play structure fool you though, because this game hearkens back to the old-school days when games actually put up a hardcore challenge. Although the alien AI is rather rudimentary, their myriad forces swarming at you from all sides in never-ending waves are enough to overwhelm your puny little mercenary if you should so much as blink. Compounding the difficulty is the lack of mid-mission checkpoints or the option to save game progress, so if you run through all your allotted lives before completing a mission, it's back to the very beginning for you. This system may be a little too unforgiving for the casual player, but the game does offer a variety of difficulty settings to choose from and on the easier settings the degree of challenge is noticeably subdued for those who may not be hardcore masochistic gamers.

In an effort to introduce at least some form of depth to the gameplay, Sigma Team has added a basic RPG levelling system to Alien Shooter: Vengeance. Via the time tested, gamer approved flow of killing creatures, gaining experience and increasing in level, you can customize your virtual alien-slaughtering avatar by building up various weapon skills and physical attributes over time, gaining access to more powerful weapons and equipment in the process. By smashing crates and uncovering hidden secret areas, you also build up a heaping pile of cash to finance the purchase of new weapons, equipment and ammo at shop terminals, which normally appear at the beginning of each mission.

Containing a prolonged string of fifteen tough missions, Alien Shooter's story mode lasts a good long while before it comes to an end too, with optional side objectives and hidden areas to uncover adding more to the replay value. But once the campaign has concluded, there's still so much more fun to be had; two survival mode variants are offered to seriously test your abilities at surviving the alien opposition for high score bragging rights in retro arcade style. After completing these different modes you can upload your scores to an online leaderboard to compare skills with other players, and even though there is no support for full online play you can prolong the fun even more in some competitive and cooperative multiplayer action for up to six players via LAN and/or direct IP.

As intense and long lasting as Alien Shooter is, it's the outstanding atmosphere, both in graphics and audio, which help it to work so well. From strictly a technical perspective, there is no denying that this game is dated when compared to any of the current cutting-edge PC titles, featuring low resolution settings and some awkward character animations, but to me there is so much more to great graphics than polygon counts, bump-mapped textures and other graphical mumbo jumbo. For one, the art direction is perfect for its subject matter, with insect-like alien designs that are both creepy and cheesy at the same time, like a B-movie sci-fi action flick. What's even better is how these aliens explode into satisfying chunks and splatter all over the environments' floors and walls, in a fireworks display of gore (yes, this is rated "M", so parents keep this one away from the kiddies!). And on top of that, the 3D special effects truly cap everything off with flashy explosions and dynamic lighting effects that generate a feeling of frightful seclusion as you walk down tight corridors with only the glowing cone of a flashlight guiding the way. On the downside, small blips of slowdown do crop up from time to time when screen activity is in full force, but when you see how many aliens the game engine can render on-screen at once you'll hardly care.

Rounding out the other half of the atmosphere is an incredible overall audio package. Despite lousy voice acting, Alien Shooter: Vengeance is packed with rich sound effects and superb ambiance. A sinister musical score flows in the background as you quietly trudge along, waiting for a batch of aliens to pop up behind you, at which point the music kicks into gear with heavy rock riffs and techno tunes blaring as the action intensity rises. Resounding over the music to even more satisfaction are high-impact weapon blasts that thud and explode with each tap of the mouse, all pulling you into the action that much more.

In the current era of big-budget, hype-driven game productions, it's always a joy to see a game sneak onto the market under the mainstream's radar that unabashedly embraces its hardcore old-school roots and unexpectedly dishes out a comprehensively fulfilling play experience, and Alien Shooter: Vengeance is 2007's best early example of this type of sleeper hit. As a no-frills action RPG, this game knows what it is and does what it does exceptionally well in all areas - and I for one couldn't be any more ecstatic over how it turned out. And better yet, it only costs a mere 20 bucks to get in on the fun, so what in the hell are you waiting for? Killing aliens has never been so satisfying (or affordable)!

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).