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The Alien Trilogy. A great movie series, and a great premise for a game. That's what I thought after hearing about this game. However, when I found out it was an Acclaim movie game, I thought, "NO! A great movie series being trashed by the likes of Acclaim?"

I guess I should have had more faith. Alien Trilogy is a good, solid game, and one of the few games I've played to actually make good use of the movie license. Probe has taken many of the elements of the movie series and rolled it into a good, solid first-person shooter.

Alien Trilogy is divided into three separate episodes, each based on one of the three movies. At the conclusion of each level, you face a Queen Alien. The first episode is relatively easy at first, but with some well-designed levels. The second episode is undoubtedly the highlight of the game, with some excellent level ideas. Unfortunately, the game hits a downward stride in the third episode, with most of the levels looking the same and being difficult to navigate because of the sameness of the textures.

You get the usual array of weapons to battle the aliens-- a pistol, shotgun, flamethrower, pulse rifle, smart gun, and grenades. Besides the various aliens, you will also face some human adversaries. The game's puzzles are a good mix, as the game isn't afraid to stray from the cliche "key puzzle" objectives of most first-person games.

The graphics are good, with some occasional pixilation. The animation is decent, and the graphics do a lot to set the mood of the game. I jumped out of my seat more than once while playing. The textures lend a convincing atmosphere to the surroundings, and add a lot to the "mood" factor of the game. The music is very moody, as well, but I tended to turn off the music anyway (as I do with most first-person games.) The sound effects, especially of the aliens, are well done and add a lot to the game.

Play control is decent. Occasionally you will have a few problems with sluggishness, but it never becomes overbearing. The game's smart level design and varied mission objectives will keep you playing-- that is, until you reach the redundant mazes of the final episode. The game has only a few flaws, the most flagrant being the forced restart of each level upon death-- no mid-level save points here. A few other nitpicks-- the gun's firing rate seems WAY too fast, especially with the shotgun (how in the world do you reload it that fast?) and the fact that you can get too close to some objects, making them appear gigantic. However, these small nitpicks don't really detract from the gameplay.

Overall, Alien Trilogy is a fun, solid, first person shooter, ranking just behind Powerslave as the best on Saturn. Finally, Acclaim (really Probe) has done justice to a great movie series and made a solid game in the process. Let's hope this happens more often.

Rating (out of ten):

Graphics: 7.5
Sound/Music: 8.0
Play Control: 7.5
Replay Value: 7.0

OVERALL: 7.5