Alien Deathstorm Is Not the Sci-Fi Horror I Expected

Directive: investigate and survive

by Aaron Bayne
37 mins ago

Alien Deathstorm isn’t what I expected.

I assumed that the latest from Rebellion was a linear sci-fi shooter that had you blasting aliens in a cool setting. That’s partly true, I suppose, but as I start playing my brief 20-minute demo during Gamescom, I am surprised to find that this is a much less directed experience – and a lot scarier too.

I make my way towards a dilapidated station which is currently being torn apart by a massive storm. Parts of the pathways crumble before me as lights, pipes, and tarps are violently shaken by the winds. Visually, it’s quite impressive.

My directive is to repair a reactor, but other than a vague marker on my compass, I’m left to explore. It actually takes me a second to acclimatise to the hands-off approach of Alien Deathstorm, which I’m later told is inspired by a previous Rebellion title, Atomfall.

However, I don’t have too much time to think as the Aliens-like scanner informs me that something is heading towards me. A handful of spider-like creatures attack me, and I start spraying and praying with my SMG.

I manage to take down two, but a third explodes some form of excrement across my visor, rendering me blind. I continue to spray hopelessly until a tap of the D-Pad wipes the goo from my visor. I manage to finish the job with a swipe of my melee weapon.

I’m a little on edge at this point as I make my way inside, with the sounds of the storm becoming muted as I close the door behind me. Unceremoniously, though, I’m assaulted by a massive nine-foot alien, delivering one of the first proper jump scares of my demo. What’s even better is that it isn’t scripted. In fact, it’s claimed that 90% of your interactions with the aliens are dynamic, based upon how much attention you are drawing to yourself.

I make my way into the Reactor Core and hear over the speaker system that engineers should report to the Control Room. Once you’re inside the building you need to visit, the HUD marker disappears, so I really enjoy this not-so-subtle yet in-game way of telling me where to go.

It’s in my search for the Control Room that I find a workbench that allows me to customise my weapons. I currently have a shotgun, SMG, and pistol, and each can have elements like barrels, ammo, and chassis customised – although I’ll need to find the blueprints first before being able to print them.

After fiddling with some switches in the Control Room, I’m sent to rectify some kind of fault. Following a power cable with flashing red lights, I make my way underground to an area clearly taken over by the aliens. My flashlight flickers on, and I’m taken aback by the detailed environment, which melds metal corridors with stalagmites of alien growth and interesting pangs of colour.

It’s here that the horror aspects come to fruition. Alien Deathstorm is a much scarier game than I anticipated, but in a playful sort of way. This certainly isn’t Alien Isolation 2, but my short demo is speckled with tiny jump scares, from ceiling panels falling to something the team refer to as the “terror broom” which comedically falls out of some searchable cabinets. Each jump scare and pop of action is accompanied by an over-the-top horror score, which can actually be quite effective.

In this section, as I power up a cable, switch by switch, I’m attacked once more by the spider aliens, and it’s quite intense as you try to single them out amidst all the alien growth – made all the more difficult since they also scale the ceiling above you.

This skirmish highlights the tight controls of the guns in Alien Deathstorm, as you’re constantly pivoting as the aliens attack from all angles. Adding in mechanics like the wipeable visor, which is once again covered in alien goop, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. In fact, I die a couple of times during this encounter.

Despite snappy controls, I would like a tad more weightiness to the weapons, especially the shotgun. You don’t really feel the power of these weapons, especially when they tear through those nine-foot aliens I mentioned in just a few shots. And throughout the whole demo, I struggle to come to grips with weapon swapping being mapped to the D-Pad. It never comes naturally to me.

That being said, action still has a very frenetic energy to it, and of course, weapon upgrades may bring that heft that I'm looking for. The aliens do not mess about, and just barrel straight towards you. During exploration, you typically only have a second or two before they are slashing you to bits or spraying goop on your visor.

I eventually emerge from the alien den, and it’s here I encounter my biggest potential pain point of the game. Like Atomfall, the game wants you to pay attention to the details, and I do really like that interactable elements in the environment are only really subtly highlighted - there’s no yellow paint here.

However, as I venture back into the storm with the wind blowing a gale, the environment reacting to it, the horror music going wild, and giant aliens coming at me from every direction, I start to get a little flustered and turned around.

After taking a beat, I do eventually figure out where I’m going and what I’m doing, but I wonder how Rebellion is going to balance scares with this hands-off design. When speaking with producer Martin Willingham, he simply states, “We put a lot of trust in the players.”

While I have my concerns, I do think ultimately it’ll balance out in the full game. Alien Deathstorm is not an open world game like Atomfall, instead having open levels, and it’s a lot more focused, with Martin stating that the game is about 10-12 hours long.

As I wrap up my demo, I’m a little surprised that Alien Deathstorm isn’t the simple yet classic sci-fi romp I was expecting. It’s a far more detailed game that requires more of your attention. But importantly, I think it still has a fun, playful side to it – a couple of its jump scares made me laugh.

How it manages to balance those scares and the investigative side of its game design is yet to be seen, but I’m looking forward to finding out.