Alienation (video game)

Alienation is an isometric twin-stick shooter game set in a future in which aliens are invading Earth.^[1] After a large portion of the population has been murdered or mutated,^[2] humanity's fate rests with a group of four soldiers from UNX (a military group assembled to help prevent alien attacks).^[3] The game features a single-player mode, a local co-op mode, and a multiplayer mode that allows four people to play at once, with each player controlling a heavily modified soldier from one of three character classes: Bio-Specialist, Saboteur, and Tank. Each class has its own weapons, movement mechanics, and abilities,^[4] and can be "leveled up" to level thirty.^[5] The Bio-Specialist can heal other team members and create poisonous trails. The Tank is able to create a shield behind which players can stand and can "blow everything away", allowing players to maneuver more easily. The Saboteur has the ability to become invisible, and can call in airstrikes when needed.^[6] Players defend themselves against hordes of aliens through increasingly-difficult levels.^[2][3] In multiplayer mode, players can revive each other and use checkpoints in the levels to respawn if they die.^[4]

Players can find new weapons in random drops. Many weapons contain slots for the insertion of "upgrade cores"; depending on the core, upgrades can affect a weapon's rate of fire, clip size, damage, or other mechanics.^[7] Random items and loot, such as new (and more powerful) weapons and upgrade cores, drop at random intervals and when enemies are defeated.^[7] The class of a drop differs by rarity, ranging from "stock" to "legendary" class. Unwanted items can be converted into metal, which is then used to re-roll a weapon's statistics.^[8] Aiming is accomplished by targeting a blue laser in the direction a player wishes to shoot. Players can "dash and melee", knocking down many enemies at once to give themselves more space.^[8]

When a player accumulates enough experience, they "level up" and can spend points on three active and three passive abilities, chosen from several options on a trio of skill trees. Each ability has a cooldown timer, requiring players to use them strategically.^[9] Points may be switched from one skill tree to another at any time. When a player dies, their experience multiplier is reset.^[1] When Alienation's story mode is completed, the player unlocks missions with bounty-like assignments and quests with special items as rewards. The player unlocks more difficult enemies, more powerful weapons, and the ability to complete difficult, procedurally-generated, levels set in the alien's space craft.^[4] Two types of "keys" are unlocked at the end of the game. UFO keys are used for "loot runs",^[8] and ark keys are used for player-vs-player fights.^[8]

Alienation was developed by Finnish video game company Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released on April 26, 2016 exclusively for the PlayStation 4.^[3][11] The game, first hinted at in January 2014, was announced at the 2014 Sony Gamescom conference.^[12] In a question-and-answer article on the PlayStation Blog in April 2014, Mikael Haveri of Housemarque said that they are inspired for many of their games by other games. Haveri cited Dark Souls and Demon's Souls as examples, saying that they "take a concept [the developers] like and try and improve it or put a twist on it".^[10] According to Haveri, Alienation would have content (such as better explosion mechanics) which players had not seen before. He noted the chance of references to other Housemarque games, similar to how the incorporation of Resogun ships into Dead Nation.^[10]

In April 2015 the developers released details about Alienation's gameplay, saying that it would feature three character classes, and "plenty of loot and a ton of weapon customization".^[13] Details about enemies were also posted.^[13] The same day, Housemarque released a two-and-a-half-minute pre-alpha gameplay video demonstrating the cooperative gameplay feature.^[14] In early 2016, Alienation was showcased at Sony's PlayStation Digital Showcase.^[15]

Sony announced that Alienation would be released sometime in 2015.^[16] The game was later delayed until March 2, 2016, and further pushed back to March 23.^[12] Another delay postponed its release until April 26, when it was part of Sony's PlayStation Store Launch Party 2016 promotion: six games released over a seven-week period.^[17]

Since Alienation's release, Housemarque has updated and added downloadable content (DLC) to the game. Ranked leagues and a local co-op mode were introduced in early July 2016.^[18][19] Other customization options, including bullet colors, were added.^[18] Two new difficulty levels (master and expert) and new "hero levels" were also added.^[18] On July 5, a season pass and the first DLC (the Survivor's Pack) were introduced, along with a mention of upcoming DLC titled the Conqueror's Pack. On August 23, Housemarque introduced three new DLC: the Weapons Pack, the Armor Paint Pack and the Veteran Heroes pack, all of which (with the Survivor's Pack and the Conqueror's Pack) were included in the season pass.^[18][20] Weekly missions were introduced to give players an additional challenge, with another difficulty level also added.^[20]