The WASD 2024 flame burns strong, as a full seven days after the event, we have an Alien Hominid Invasion review. Wait, didn’t this come out a while ago? Don’t ask me. I cocked up a bit when I spoke to The Behemoth at the event as I thought it was still in development and missed the release date last year.
Forgiving my ignorance, they invited me and my daughter to have a go. As stated in the WASD round-up, after an impatient wait for her to configure her character, we were doing something in the game. What that was, I wasn’t sure. Objectives were faster and more furious than Vin Diesel’s hair loss, but like I previously said, I liked it.
Kudos to The Behemoth, they provided me with a keycode (but no hookers, so don’t assume there’s any bias here) so that I could cover the game. That seemed fair in my biased opinion; I’d written about Alien Hominid Invasion in 2020 and was keen and appreciative to play it.
Alien Hominid Invasion Review: Take Us To Your Leader
The first point of call with the review was to see if it would work on the Steam Deck. Bada bing, bada ka-boom: it worked perfectly. Alien Hominid Invasion played so well that it has been my go-to title on Valve’s bulky rectangle for the past week. It’s nippy, intuitive, and has an abundance of features to keep you in that rogue-like loop.
Now that I’ve played it, I can give a more definitive assessment. You play as the aliens of the title, raiding the Earth by stealing intel, killing agents, and causing absolute mayhem. You can go solo (with a little help from some AI now and again) or co-op with three other players locally or online. As an Anthony Social type, I opted to play alone for the majority of the time as it was too intense for my sexy retinas.
From a world map, you choose your path as if playing Out-Run, stomp through a series of stages of chaos, and then take out the boss of that area. Alien Hominid Invasion has three different difficulty levels and a toggle where you can have higher risks for better rewards or a dip in loot and XP but get to keep it all after death.
Invaders With The Personal Touch
I opted to play the normal mode and with the option of keeping everything. Why work my socks off to lose it all? Earth wasn’t conquered in one day. Well, it would be if you recruit the right aliens. Besides IRL co-op players, one of the ways to increase your odds in the game, like any rogue-like, is repeating runs and unlocking new gear.
The more you play Alien Hominid Invasion, the more you’ll access. This can be anything from appearances that feature buffs to numerous grenade choices that present anything from explosions to agility. Still, it’s not just for aesthetics—new guns, variations of the same guns with more power or increased fire rates, and numerous grenade choices that present anything from explosions to agility.
Alien Hominid Invasion plays like any side-scrolling twin-stick shooter in that you move with one stick and aim with another. Holding down the shoot button will unleash a charged shot, which is perfect for shredding armoured enemies. There’s also a dash move—ideal for escaping or avoiding swarms.
An Appetite For Destruction
Before you can leave a stage, you must complete a handful of required objectives, and then a tractor beam will take you back to the mothership. For completionists and those wanting to earn more coins to buy upgrades, it’s possible to hang around and do optional objectives. Naturally, the risk is losing lives and all your gear, depending on your settings.
Alien Hominid Invasion is otherworldly in terms of fun, mayhem, and customisations
The longer you play, the stronger the enemies will become, and though your gear genuinely gets better with each play, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When in doubt, jump on an enemy and piggyback/take control of them. Perfect for running through waves or unlocking mechs to shred through your foes.
It only took a couple of runs in Alien Hominid Invasion to ‘get it’. The gameplay certainly wasn’t as overwhelming as when first experiencing it at WASD, but that thirst for playing repeatedly increased. Other than unlocking new gear, one of the many incentives is playing with others and climbing the ranks in the online leaderboards. Bear in mind that the nature of the genre means repetition, and once you’ve gone through one world, it’s very much a rinse and repeat.
Alien Hominid Invasion Review Summary
Alien Hominid Invasion is otherworldly in terms of fun, mayhem, and customisations. Never have I rooted for alien invaders as much as I have in this rogue-like. Sure, it’s somewhat repetitive, but if that’s a surprise, you’re new to the genre. The gameplay is tight, the visuals are brilliant, and the volume of customisation is insane. Definitely one of the best games to play on the Steam Deck, too.
