Prime Mediocrity
Alpha Prime is a mediocre first-person shooter (FPS) that pulls a lot of elements from other games. You’ll see influences from Doom 3 (storyline and atmosphere) to Half-Life 2 (in-game physics) to Max Payne (bullet time), among some others. Unfortunately, a lot of the borrowed elements from other games are done half-heartedly or just used improperly and don’t work as well here. Fortunately, they work well enough to not be a deterrent and do enhance some of the gameplay experience. The game is pretty short, clocking in for most people at 5-6 hours, but, being a budget title, that is kind of expected. Honestly, there isn’t too much that stands out as good or bad about this game except...the dialogue and voice acting.
Credit: Black Element/IDEA GamesPrefer Bellini to Tortellini
The storyline to this game is a bit used, but isn’t that bad. You are Arnold Weiss and an old fling of yours, Livia, comes to you out of desperation. Her current boy toy, your ex-best friend, is stuck on Alpha Prime...an asteroid where hubbardium, the most valuable substance known to man, is mined. In the backdrop of this rescue mission are things like the evil “Company” that owns the hubbardium mining rights, and the myth of Glomar, who most miners believe to be connected to hubbardium. The single hero traveling to a Mars-like environment to save the derelict base is very Doom-esque...but it works.
What doesn’t work is the dialogue and voice acting used to carry out the story. “Prefer Bellini to Tortellini”...wait, what? That’s an actual line from the game. Some of the dialogue is so bad that it’s good. Most of it, however, is just flat out terrible. And by terrible I mean worse than B-movie quality. The voice acting behind the dialogue is even worse if you can believe it. It would probably have been better to have a robot read the dialogue for these guys. Some of the deliveries are just agonizing to sit through.
Credit: Black Element/IDEA GamesNot Bad
Alpha Prime meshes some different elements together but really ends up being nothing more than a mediocre shooter...but being mediocre is a lot better than being bad. I honestly enjoyed playing through this game. I found a lot of the dialogue and voice acting having the “so bad it’s good” effect...although I realize a lot of people would just find it painful. The storyline also kept me somewhat engaged. It wasn’t the strongest in the world, but the ending has a couple of twists at least. However, I did experience a couple of crashes or bugs while playing, especially using the quick save feature, which took away a bit from the game. Overall, Alpha Prime is a 5/10. It’s mediocre through and through. If you find this game on sale and like FPS’s (especially the sci-fi ones), you’ll enjoy grabbing this up for a quick playthrough.
