Beat with auto aim on. None of the control schemes were acceptable so I switched a couple buttons in the emulator; R2 and triangle so I could aim with triangle, and square and X so I could more easily shoot with the thumb pressing triangle. The biggest problem I had with this game was the slow turning and movement speed, plus the low FOV. It made the game annoyingly sluggish and a little disorienting. There was no difficulty option, which was a major hit to replayability. The early levels were very simple while the 2nd half of the game was quite difficult, though no level took more than 5 or so attempts to beat. Most levels were fairly straightforward A to B kill all enemies, with short branches to find supplies. Though the game later said they had the tech to resurrect the killed aliens; lame. Violence lacks the same meaning when the consequences are not permanent. Slaughter the alien bastards. There was an escort mission, 2 defend a target while confined to a balcony, some time limits, some flee from invincible enemy and even some stealth. Other than health pickups, the map and the occasional energy shield, every item went into the weapon list and was used like a weapon; nightvision goggles, memory wipe stick, fire extinguisher, camera etc. All weapons used energy instead of ammo and could be recharged a limited amount at charging stations, which were unique to each weapon. I only ran out of energy once and it seemed like the pistol could still shoot but damage was reduced to 0. The pistol was accurate and easy to use with auto aim but did terrible damage. It was best against the little weak enemies. My favorite weapon was the deatomizer, which was accurate like the pistol with fast rate of fire and good damage output. The awful truth was the plasma rifle with great dps from projectiles that were slower than bullets. 2nd best weapon overall that struggled a bit against moving targets. The tickler was a lightning gun that pretty much instantly killed multiple enemies back to back. Too bad it was almost never present. All the other weapons lacked auto aim. The noisy cricket was tiny but functioned like a 50 caliber anti material rifle with explosive rounds. The pulse rifle was similar but with smaller area, faster rate of fire and lousy crosshair. I guess that made it kind of a sniper or battle rifle. The rocket launcher was probably the worst I have ever seen; terrible rate of fire, very slow projectile, minimal explosion, and unimpressive damage. The only good thing was zero friendly fire so it could be used like a shotgun. Grenades similarly lacked friendly fire and I had trouble throwing then far so I more often "punched" enemies with them. The last weapon was the carbonizer, which shot a big very slow moving ball that killed every enemy in its path. I hesitate to call it a BFG but it was the closest this game had. There was a decent variety of aliens all of which fired projectiles that varied in speed based on alien type. They all seemed to have melee attacks and could be a lot of trouble up close where I had to use the slow manual aim to look down before auto aim could hit them. After beating the final boss I noticed online a password for a secret level. It was very simple, not even showcasing anything more challenging or interesting.

I enjoyed this game well enough but it was sorely lacking compared to other shooters of the era. The production quality was good with movies and voice acting, even if the story was not very interesting. The slow controls were sometimes at odds with what the level designs demanded but the unusual guns and enemies helped keep it fun.

6.5/10