Earth Taken
Earth Taken is an action platformer by SeethingSwarm that casts you as the desperate measures that the desperate needs of an alien menace require. It's a mishmash of run-and-gun and survival horror tropes, but an entertaining one, with some very cool (and toxic looking) environmental design.
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Controls are TERRIBLE! Could they not have mouse aim & left click to shoot with space to jump and CTRL to use?
Seriously, wow, that's awesome. It took me a long, long time to get used to the mapped controls. Once there, twas satisfying, like my staple favorite Zombies Took My Daughter except with a more complex landscape. Narrative drives forward, the levels are interesting, the escort mission isn't *too* bad, despite the walking into mines deal. I mean, you can heal your little followers, sweet.
Apparently the magic restroom fountains are just for you? Not any roadside restroom I've ever seen... maybe the next chapter will be dysentry...?
Aiming is probably the most challenging control, if there were a quicker way to set aim before firing that would save a lot of ammo. I'm not too fussed with the control system, as it introduces a touch of realism in that your multitasking won't benefit from mouse clicks in the apocalypse. No, not even Will Smith.
I am terrible at boss fights, though, so if anyone's gotten that far, I'd appreciate some pointers.
Oh, key survival tip which I elect not to put in spoiler tags:
Some dead alien suits will explode.
Documented somewhere on an alien blog called Bug or Feature.
Can't decide whether it is worth trying to finish the boss fight or not.
Hints for the boss fight:
Don't waste bullets on aliens - I think they just keep coming. If you manage to get on the platform with one or two aliens below you, don't kill them. Two aliens seems to be the most that ever come at once. So stay on the platform with the alien(s) below you, and move around to avoid the UFO's killer blue beam. Keep jumping to empty all your clips into the UFO. I guess that's the solution that's required but can quite decide if I want to play through the last level again to try it out. (I ran out of bullets figuring this out first time around. Low attention span and all that.)
Ok. I did get around to repeating the last scene, and the above strategy worked. I had to buy maximum bullets from the shopkeeper just before the last boss screen and pretty much empty three whole weapons and a bit of the fourth into the UFO before it crashes. (I think I killed about two aliens along the way - so some wasted bullets.) You definitely start wondering if you're doing the right thing after a long period of shooting with no obvious effect however! I started wondering if there was some trick I was missing, but no. Just brute force is required. And patience.
I do wonder if it is possible to get through the last screen with two survivors. Anyone done this? For 'survivors' they seem to have little survival instinct. They just run straight into any battle (or straight into large obvious landmines), never mind the odds, guns ablazing, with no thought to their own personal safety. I think the alien apocalypse must be getting to them. Getting those dudes through the last boss level must be impossible.
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