Previews// Alien Breed Evolution

Weapons I came across included the likes of your standard shotgun and flamethrower (everyone should set dirty alien bastards on fire at least once in their life), a laser gun, an electro-gun and the Ion Spike – a weapon reminiscent of the rail gun in Quake. Ammo is fairly plentiful so you should make no mistake – this a shooter, not a survival horror a la Dead Space.

Is it as hard as the first Alien Breed? Well, I hear that was hard like Grant Mitchell, but I didn't find myself trying to smash anything out of frustration. That said, I was playing alongside the game's producer, so I guess I had some expert help.

What really elevates Evolution is the look and feel of the whole thing. It was built using Unreal 3, and it looks glorious. The aliens retain the the Giger look seen in the older games, but also come across as decidedly insectoid. It's not the nasties that stand out in the graphics department, however. Firstly, there's the level design. Pegging it around corridors and rooms in the dark can get decidedly dull for your eyeballs, but Team17 has done an awesome job of keeping it interesting. While the first level I played had the functional, slightly run down look of a space ship that Dave Lister would feel at home on, the luminous Mainframe level I saw cast an eerie blue light over everything that was disturbingly beautiful, while the Hydroponics level teemed with vividly-rendered plant life.

Then you add into these environments your one little guy running around with his torch in the gloom and you can feel atmosphere oozing out of your console's unused hard drive. The aesthetics of Evolution take a slick shooter and elevate it into a rich and deeply (I'm going to say it) immersive experience.

The other thing that's worth noting is the scope of Evolution. At its peak there have been thirty people working on it, and I was told that that will pay off with at least seven or eight hours of play to be had for your average alien killer, with three episodes planned. Content-wise, that's a cut above your average downloadable title on console.

There's no fixed release date yet, but Team17 is aiming to get it onto Xbox Live before Thanksgiving (November 26th) hits over in America. PS3 and PC versions will follow, but expect to wait at least six months before it stops being an Xbox exclusive.

It might be best to keep 300MB of your hard disc to one side...