Something Ate My Alien is a brand new digging and puzzle-solving game by Rokabium Games. The game is set in space where you an AI along with your cute little aliens are attacked by a pirate AI who takes over your ship and demands a ransom. However, this is no ordinary ransom. The pirate wants you to go down on different planets and collect a bunch of rare resources for him so it is now up to your little minion aliens to go down to harsh alien planets and dig out the resources required by the evil Ai pirate. This is our preview of Something Ate My Alien in which we put on our big boy pants and dig out some rare resources on alien planets while solving some puzzles and killing creatures.
The first thing that you notice right after booting the game is the hand-drawn visuals of the game which look amazing. Everything from the special effects to the levels to the flora and fauna that you encounter in the game, everything is brilliant to look at. I loved the visual design and probably it was one of the reasons why I kept playing the game for a long time during my very first play session. Visually, Something Ate My Alien is not going to disappoint you as every lava splash or acid splat burns through your little, tiny alien minions.
Something Ate My Alien is a game that is excellent for long gaming sessions. Its gameplay is really laid-back and does not want you to rush in any way. True, you have an Oxygen bar at the top dripping down continuously but you find plenty of sources to replenish it without the need to head back to your ship. Every enemy you kill in the game will give you either health, energy or oxygen. They might be little but there are enough to keep you going in the right direction. There is no rush in the game. True the pirate AI becomes annoying as he continues to taunt you every time for not working fast enough but the game is really good if you have around 3 or 4 hours free and need a good game to spend some time.
The gameplay is essentially a combination of three different things. There’s digging, fighting and then there is puzzle solving. Normally, you will create your paths by digging through the surface and collecting rare or common resources along the way. As you progress in the game, you will encounter some enemy creatures which you can fight with using your weapons. The third and the last aspect of the gameplay is puzzle solving. Although these are not too complex, still they play a vital role in the game. Puzzles are essentially pushing some colored blocks around and placing them in the right spots to unlock special loot chests.
Despite being a Development Build, the game ran exceptionally well for me. There were no stutters or gameplay glitches in the game. The game, however, did crash 2 times at me randomly while playing the game but that was it. During my complete gameplay of the game, these 2 or 3 crashes were the only ones that I experienced. Other than these, the game ran perfectly fine for me. The developers are regularly adding new features to the game as recently controller support and a lot of in-game features like world map for fast travel, AI speed and much more.
I tried to play the game with an Xbox One controller but I did not like the controls very much. Overall, the controller worked fine with the game however the aim is not really good at this point. It rolls back to front by default when you leave it instead of staying in place when you are using the mouse. Because of this hitting certain enemies which are shorter is a nightmare with the controller. Instead, if you are playing the game with a mouse and keyboard, you can aim around freely and it makes playing the game a lot easier. I would prefer if the full game comes with a free aim mechanic so that the cursor does not lock back in a place when you stop aiming with it.
The levels in Something Ate My Alien also are not procedurally-generated so your progress is saved after every run. You use teleporters located in random locations to transport back to your ship. This heals you as well as places all of the collected resources on the ship. The items required for the ransom are marked so you can use the spare ones for a plethora of upgrades. The customization system of the game is really good and it allows all aspects of your alien to be upgraded. You can increase the suit capabilities, craft new weapons and also upgrade your equipment to make them more effective while you are mining down on the planets.
The gameplay is all about digging and exploring the depths of the planets to find resources for your own self and the evil AI who is keeping your ship hostage back in space. As you move around on planets, you will find tons of resources that you can dig out. Progress is sometimes blocked by locked gates which require a switch to open before you can proceed further. These depths are also full of continuously respawning creatures that are sadly not that friendly to you. You have to fight your way through these creatures. The creatures range from armored enemies to charging enemies to flying enemies. Each of them is unique and poses a good enough threat to your cuddly aliens. Apart from the creatures, the planets’ flora is also out to kill you.
Each planet has its own unique creatures that attack you. These are extremely diversified and each specie will employ a different tactic to kill you. Apart from these creatures, the planets also have natural hazards such as toxic waters, bitter ice temperatures or lava. You can upgrade your suit to make yourself more resistant to these natural hazards. The ultimate challenge is, however, the biggest creature in the game which is simply called ‘Something’. The Something is not bound by any limitations of the map. It flies through walls, lava, toxic water or whatever thing is present in its way. It is also the deadliest of the enemies of the game and it can eat you as well. This makes things a little complicated while tackling it.
When you die in the game, your alien dies, however, you have plenty of aliens at your disposal in the game. You can come back to the planet instantly however; you must pick up the items dropped by the previous dead alien because they are lost forever if you die again. Normally, I did not really care about the stuff I had but if I had some fossils or relics with me, I always had to go back to the location because resources can be found easily, fossils and relics are extremely rare in the game to find. The game treats death pretty casually as long as you manage to get your things back.
Personally, I really liked Something Ate My Alien. It has been a really long time since I played a good digging game. Last one I played was SteamWorld Dig and it was a really long time ago. Something Ate My Alien is really good and I am really looking forward to the full release of the game. The developers are extremely active with the development of the game and they are adding more and more features regularly to the game. With a June 2020 release date, we can expect the game to be in an even better condition when it comes out. You can check out the Steam page of the game for more details of the title or jump in the free demo which is now available.
