Enemy Infestation

Enemy Infestation is an interesting and enjoyable squad-based RTS.

The action takes place on a human colony of Redavi, where an alien spaceship has crash-landed. The ship is actually one of many colonizing pods sent out from the dying alien home planet, in an attempt to preserve their species. However that little tidbit of the alien's history has little to with the game, as the rest of the story is the standard 'aliens invade planet, humans stop aliens' fare.

However, the game itself is quite intriguing. The game is set over 27 missions, and includes a good tutorial that explains the basics of the game very well. Each mission has a large variety of tasks to complete ranging from rescuing fellow colonists to exterminating all the aliens. A nice thing about the mission structure, is that you will always have at least three missions available to choose from, allowing you to go on with the game if any level gets too tough (and trust me, they will). The interface is simple and easy to use, anyone who is familiar with RTS games can skip the tutorial entirely.

Enemy Infestation plays like other squad-based strategy games. You lead your troops around discovering the map, killing enemies and completing tasks. What makes this game unique from other games of its genre is its weapons system. When you begin a mission, the effect of the weapons you will find is unknown. You have to experiment with the weapons you find to see what effect they have on the aliens. The effects can be beneficial, such as shrink, kill, freeze, or detrimental: multiply, grow, attract. These effects change each time you play, so a gun that may have been useful for killing aliens in the last mission may cause them to multiply in the next mission. Its is not all trial and error though, as there are a few weapons with consistent effects. Some of the missions even allow you to research and modify a weapon to become more useful to you.

Unfortunately, there are only five maps over which the missions take place. Later missions just re-use the same map, with different object placement and different locked doors. But the designers have done a good job of making sure each mission plays differently from other missions using the same map. The graphics are quite nice. The five maps are all drawn with good detail and the aliens are somewhat convincing. The only gripes I have are that the colonists all look too similar and that certain objects can be hard to find as they blend in with the background. The voice acting ranges from good to corny (I personally find the mission narrator rather irritating). There isn't much music, but what is there is appropriate.

A more interesting story and cast would have made this game a winner. The plot, as already mentioned is quite generic and there are no real sunrises to keep it interesting. Characters in the game are too stereotypical and boring. There are also a few plot holes in the game, for example, in one mission your task is to capture a traitor, but in the next mission, the traitor is a good guy again!

Overall, Enemy Infestation is a fun game. There is even a multi-player option, with 10 multiplayer specific maps or you can play the single player missions co-operatively. Recommended!

Review By HOTUD