Xenopurge Turns Aliens Into A Stressful Desk Job And Somehow...
I got too greedy. My clone marines had purged the xeno hive, taking minimal damage, and were ready to extract. But as a faceless desk jockey working for a corporation in a grim capitalist retro-future, I wouldn't let them. No, not when there was more loot to be found.
On the bulbous screen of my monitor, I could see some supplies that had gone unpilfered. I sent Hicks—yes, Xenopurge wears its love of Aliens proudly—inside the small room to snatch it, while Morse provided cover, tapping away at my hotkeys to swiftly give them their orders.
But the next xeno wave was coming. I'd destroyed the hive, but there were still a couple of locations where aliens from outside could get in. I needed to get my brave lads outta there. I panicked. I fired off the extract command, overriding their programmed logic so that they'd head straight home without getting distracted.
Morse got to the door outside the extraction point. Then the red dot appeared. Suddenly it launched itself at Morse—just a subtle movement and change in speed, but somehow still so evocative.
For a few seconds, the little red dot and Morse, represented by "M1" on my screen, tangoed, chipping away at each other's health bars. From the comm, I could hear the screams and grunts of a dying soldier. And then there was no more Morse. Hicks was still kicking, though, and made quick work of his fallen comrade's killer. A moment of celebration! And then more death, as two xenos cornered the poor clone.
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Without a license, without any flash, with only basic but surprisingly effective art, Traptics' Xenopurge cuts to the heart of Aliens. It's tense, claustrophobic and everyone is probably going to die. It's great!
Rather than being in direct control of a squad of Colonial Marines, à la Aliens: Dark Descent, you are an operator nestled away in some secret location, watching events play out on your retro-futuristic hardware, where buildings are just simple lines, your troops are letters and numbers, and the aliens are wee dots.
Each member of your squad has a simple set of behaviours, which can be upgraded for a cost, determining how they'll act in combat. Maybe they'll shoot at the nearest enemy, locking it down so a tankier comrade can charge in and start dealing melee damage; maybe they'll focus on keeping distance between them and the threat, backing away while filling them with hot lead.
They will do thi
Source: PC Gamer
