Alien Breed (video game)

Alien Breed is a top-down run and gun game, first released in 1991 for the Amiga by Team17, with an MS-DOS port following in 1992 from MicroLeague. It launched the Alien Breed series, taking cues from the *Alien* movies—especially *Aliens*—as well as the 8-bit titles *Laser Squad* and *Paradroid*, and the arcade game *Gauntlet*.

In gameplay, players must locate an elevator to descend to the next level, sometimes activating a self-destruct sequence to destroy the floor above. Weapons and upgrades are bought or collected from the station’s computer terminals, called Intex terminals. In some versions, these terminals also offer extras like a playable clone of *Pong*. Credits found on the ground are needed to purchase gear, which helps against increasingly tough alien enemies. Later levels occasionally trap players in small rooms with large boss aliens.

The story is set in 2191, after humanity has spread into space from an overcrowded Earth, kept in fragile peace by the Inter-Planetary Corps (IPC). The research station ISRC-4, orbiting the gas giant Gianor, goes silent. Command suspects a local colonist uprising. Two IPC officers, Johnson and Stone, return from a routine patrol and are sent to investigate. Docking at the station, they find it overrun by hostile alien creatures, not human rebels.

For release, Team17 produced an "intro disk" with a short animated sequence and narration leading into the game. After it plays, the player is prompted for disk one, making the intro disk effectively "disk zero." A similar intro disk was made for *Superfrog*, animated by Eric W. Schwartz, though that one came with the retail version.

Reception varied by platform. On the Amiga, *Alien Breed* earned generally favorable reviews, with *CU Amiga* calling it a winner. The MS-DOS port received mixed feedback. *PC Gamer US* noted a lack of gameplay variety and described the sound as "shallow and tinny," with potential issues using the Pro Audio Spectrum sound card, but still compared it favorably to Sega Genesis games, calling it a "solid shooter" with "high-octane fun." *Computer Gaming World* criticized the "asinine" copy protection but deemed it a good action title for quick, simple play. In a later issue, the same magazine said the DOS version had "fallen behind in the tech race," citing "European" mission codes instead of save games and "pretty" but shallow gameplay.