This semi-sequel to the Flash classic brings us back to Earth, not as a single crash-landed little green man, but as an entire invading force, who seem to be having the time of their lives as they cause mayhem and help kids get their yummy ice cream. The world of Alien Hominid has been remade with a beautiful clean, modern, and charming look that is filled with personality, without forgetting Behemoth's signature humour which can always be seen in the backgrounds and animations, and takes centre stage during cutscenes.
I have not played Alien Hominid for over a decade, but it's a blast to jump back in with Invasion, which swaps out the old stage structure for a more non-linear and random structure, where you plan out your path through cities in order to destroy the enemy headquarters. Outside the special stages, each stage consists of two or three objectives you have to complete after collecting intel, and the longer you stick around, the more resistance you face, but with the difficulty, the amount of loot you secure increases as well.
I really like the game, and I really wish I could [i]love[/i] it, but there're some issues that hinder my experience a tad. I will be thorough and relatively negative as I explain myself, but rest assured, overall my time spent with the game has been great, and I think it's worth checking out.
First, as much as I appreciate the way the levels have been constructed, I feel like there ends up being a slightly surprising lack of variety to them once you have played a couple runs, as while the contents do get shuffled, the actual level layouts start to recycle quicker than I would have anticipated.
Additionally, the game has a bigger problem too...
I admit that it could be that what I say is exclusively because I have played the game single player, I am because I am missing something, or it's just a skill issue and nothing else, but I find the difficulty and balance of the game to be a bit iffy at times, where the game feels sometimes exceptionally hard and punishing at the very start with the base gear, but also simultaneously can become almost laughably easy once you have either gear from a previous run, or manage to hit a hideout with a bunch of cash to spend.
The base weapons you start with are, well, basic. You end up upgrading out of them as soon as you can, adding stat boosters to yourself, and the same goes for the heads or outfits of the characters (Not sure what to call them exactly), which will make the game a piece of cake. These items will also carry over to subsequent runs along with your remaining cash, and extra lives, which you can hold a maximum of three.
The issue is, if you get a game over by losing all of your extra lives and dying, you lose [b]everything[/b], except for the cosmetic character colour and the "mothership memory" currency you have acquired, which can add buffs on your runs. This sounds like a good punishment for failure in theory, but I have managed to get the achievements for clearing an entire run in under 20 minutes, and beating bosses in under 45 seconds without really even trying, but simultaneously if I have had a game over and have to start from a scratch, I may be stuck on a several attempts long loop of a game over after a game over even on the very first stage of a run due to how the objectives and stage modifiers are randomised. If you are unlucky, you can get absolutely steamrolled right away, at which point one failure turns into a feeling of just being kicked when you're down.
