In the last couple of decades, science fiction is a genre that has taken a hit in cinematic terms. Now that our fears of technology and its development tend to focus on invasions of privacy rather than invasions of aliens, it's all about Google impanting cameras into our retinas and dictaphones is our brains rather than about the swooping arcs of galaxies.
Is this inward-looking perhaps a bit more sensible than scouting for little green men? Yes, probably, but now and again you can't help but hanker after something a little bit escapist that isnt simply an allegory for something positively everyday. Star Marine is indebted to those films of a few decades ago like Alien that place their 'other' firmly into outerspace, rather than seeing it in your next door neighbour's yard.
Your ship has been invaded up aliens, and it's up to you to fend them off and try to save the surviving members of your crew. You play from a top-down perspective, moving around 8-directionally with the keypad.
Although Star Marine markets itself as a blast-fest in its trailer, there's actually a surprising amount of strategy in the game. You get to use a number of guns and many are used differently. The less powerful fire automatically when in range and may even have unlimited ammo, but then later weapons such as the plasma gun require you to both aim your shots and manage your ammo supply. On top of this, you also get to use gun turrets that you can manually place in the level. Your enemies are varied in both their appearance and their movements. Where some run at you, forcing you to take immediate action, others trudge about slowly, meaning you can easily lure them into the firing path of your gun turrets as you cackle away at your own clever-ness. |
