The level you are talking about is not the "refinery". It's the atmospheric processor. I played this game since day 1 and I still play it today occasionally, even though I kind of "role play" it to enjoy its atmosphere. Let me explain... unlike what the (to the best of my knowledge) totality of reviews say, this game is not difficult at all. Sure, you need to have an overall strategy and decent combat tactics or you will get overwhelmed, but it is also so unbalanced that you can play it the easy way. Some stuff are totally OP and others are useless. The RPG, for example, is useless. Mines and snipers (the sniper class) are OP. Medics are useful in theory, but in practice you shouldn't take damage if you play at the hardest difficulty settings. So, useless. Just have one sniper and the rest sergeants and you will be fine. A tech if you like to scout ahead and attract the aliens to your mines, but the game is sometimes bugged and you might get found anyway. Ah and of course... turrets. Get four asap and you will steamroll trough the first levels. Just have each marine carry a turret and have a tech with the scout drone. Then just lure all the aliens (including the queens) to your turrets and mines. Easy win. So, there is no shortage of cheesy strategies that will grant you victory. As long as you play a game of stealth, you are invincible. So, let's give a brief but informed and honest review. The atmosphere of this game is impeccable. The sound, the colors, the overall feeling screams "Aliens". Yet, this game is far from being perfect. This is no Alien Isolation. The story is senseless and lacks any input from the player. The ending is a slap on the player's face. The pacing is all over the place as you are supposed to deploy multiple times, but the cutscenes seem to imply that you did the level in one deployment. The doomsday clock is totally unnecessary as the game can be easily completed within the time limit. Random events are not exciting, and annoying at best. How difficult would have been to implement random missions taking place in known locations popping up between turns? That would, at least, have given some kind of re-playability. The game+ mode they added is a joke. Basically, it allows you to play the game from the beginning with a bunch of lvl 10 marines. Trust me, it's just boring as the game starts getting almost trivial when you get the plasma gun and super powerful marines. And what about the items? By the last third of the game you will have so many resources that you can easily build whatever you want. But you only need the plasma gun. The game has no steam workshop and the producers just ignored modders. There are a few mods, but limited to QoL fixes. I could continue forever, but I stop here. I like this game, but I wouldn't recommend it. Overall, this game could have been much better. It should have been much better, it just required a little more love from the produces. Such a shame.
I finished a year ago, it was amazing then. Now playing again, NG+ and still amazing. Very few modern games I reinstalled to play again
Was not expecting this game to be as good as this very underrated game
Great video!! Thanks battle
Now the game is free on PlayStation network if you have the PS Plus subscription
Thanks for the review, will give this a go later this month now it's coming to GP. Looks solid.
love this game hope they do more with it.
Good review man, thanks!
The level you are talking about is not the "refinery". It's the atmospheric processor.
I played this game since day 1 and I still play it today occasionally, even though I kind of "role play" it to enjoy its atmosphere. Let me explain... unlike what the (to the best of my knowledge) totality of reviews say, this game is not difficult at all. Sure, you need to have an overall strategy and decent combat tactics or you will get overwhelmed, but it is also so unbalanced that you can play it the easy way. Some stuff are totally OP and others are useless. The RPG, for example, is useless. Mines and snipers (the sniper class) are OP. Medics are useful in theory, but in practice you shouldn't take damage if you play at the hardest difficulty settings. So, useless. Just have one sniper and the rest sergeants and you will be fine. A tech if you like to scout ahead and attract the aliens to your mines, but the game is sometimes bugged and you might get found anyway. Ah and of course... turrets. Get four asap and you will steamroll trough the first levels. Just have each marine carry a turret and have a tech with the scout drone. Then just lure all the aliens (including the queens) to your turrets and mines. Easy win. So, there is no shortage of cheesy strategies that will grant you victory. As long as you play a game of stealth, you are invincible.
So, let's give a brief but informed and honest review. The atmosphere of this game is impeccable. The sound, the colors, the overall feeling screams "Aliens". Yet, this game is far from being perfect. This is no Alien Isolation. The story is senseless and lacks any input from the player. The ending is a slap on the player's face. The pacing is all over the place as you are supposed to deploy multiple times, but the cutscenes seem to imply that you did the level in one deployment. The doomsday clock is totally unnecessary as the game can be easily completed within the time limit. Random events are not exciting, and annoying at best. How difficult would have been to implement random missions taking place in known locations popping up between turns? That would, at least, have given some kind of re-playability. The game+ mode they added is a joke. Basically, it allows you to play the game from the beginning with a bunch of lvl 10 marines. Trust me, it's just boring as the game starts getting almost trivial when you get the plasma gun and super powerful marines. And what about the items? By the last third of the game you will have so many resources that you can easily build whatever you want. But you only need the plasma gun. The game has no steam workshop and the producers just ignored modders. There are a few mods, but limited to QoL fixes. I could continue forever, but I stop here. I like this game, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Overall, this game could have been much better. It should have been much better, it just required a little more love from the produces. Such a shame.
The game would've been 10× better without Hayes, but the game was fantastic