Alien Hominid Invasion Review

Alien Hominid Invasion tells the story of a group aliens that decided to invade planet Earth, with the help of the Mothership. You and up to three friends, local or online, will blast your way through a handful of levels and cause chaos.

Alien Hominid Invasion is a hectic 2D action platformer where you’ll need to complete a specific set of objectives before being able to exit a level. You’ll either have to collect a handful of documents that you’ll need to fax (!) back to the Mothership, deliver a package to your human pal or eliminate a set amount of purple enemies. Secret agents looking to end your alien threat will be gunning for you with everything but the kitchen sink.

While there are a cronies that can easily die, you’ll also encounter shield enemies that require a bit of additional punch to take down (more on that below), small flying robots dropping down traps; just to name a few threats. But thankfully, our little alien army does have a few trick up their sleeves. Once objectives are completed, you can remain in the level, but things will get progressively harder the longer you stay.

On the defensive side of things, you’ll be able to jump, double jump, dash and air dash to avoid enemy projectiles. Whereas on the offensive side of things, you’ll start off with a default pistol and you’ll also be able to pick up grenades (Mutations). Holding down the attack button allows you to fire a powered up shot to take down some bulkier enemies. As revealed below, additional Mutations, such as a protective shield or increased fired rate for example can be unlocked through progression.

As you level up by completing levels, objectives and killing enemies, you’ll unlock new weapons, mutations (secondary weapons), perks and customization items. This gives a bit of a leg up in terms of gameplay variety as you can swap your loadout or simply change your style before heading into your next mission. Passive perks includes boosts such as increased range, jump height or critical hit%; just to name a few. You can also ride your A.I. companions (or they can ride you) and temporarily ride enemies. Once you’re done with them, simply throw them.

Additionally, the game isn’t as linear as Alien Hominid HD. In between levels, you’ll navigate an overworld with diverging paths. While not as extensive as an RPG for example, you can choose the levels you want to complete as you reach enemy headquarter than needs to be eradicated at the end of each mission.

The game looks great. It retains the same cartoon-ish and colorful style as The Behemoth’s other games. Enemy designs does leave a lot to be desired as it takes a while to see some variety and during Purple objectives, it’s just the same ones but with a purple color palette. Level design looks decent as well, albeit some areas repeat but with added obstacles. The soundtrack is a cutesy score that’s does match the game’s colorful style and will remain embedded in your head even after you’ve stopped playing.

There’s nothing majorly wrong, but there are some annoying quirks that holds this game back from greatness. Objectives are timed; meaning if for example your objective is to destroy a purple helicopter, you’ll have a set amount of seconds to destroy it, but enemies will constantly get in your way. Also, if you’re poorly prepared, you’re sure to fail. Also the fact that some weapon need a reload period, such as the shotgun, it makes for a problematic weapon when the game is filled with enemies.

Speaking of which, the game gets chaotic at times, but sometimes *too* chaotic that you can’t even see your character until you get a giant red X indicating your death. While you’re given an amount of lives to survive on, if you game over at the Enemy Headquarter, which is technically the mission boss, you’re booted back at the start of the mission. Having the wrong loadout can have frustrating consequences.

Alien Hominid Invasion is one of the surprise gem to come out over the last five years. It has addictive gameplay where just one more level turns into five more levels. The ability to unlock through progression is also an incentive to keep playing in order to discover what new weapon or head can be unlock to style your little cute alien. Sure it’s not perfect, but once the game sets its teeth into you, you’ll be hooked for hours on end. Don’t sleep on Alien Hominid Invasion.