When talking about gaming’s legacy horror titles, you’ve got the usual suspects like Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and even Parasite Eve if you’re feeling adventurous. On the spectrum of horror-themed action games, people will eat your ear out talking about DOOM, Blood, and AVP. Poor Alien Breed never got the retrospective glory it rightfully deserves, and the blame does not entirely fall on the gaming crowd. For a large part of its life, most of the games in the series were either stuck on a long-obsolete system (the Amiga) or outclassed and outmarketed by bigger, and sometimes, better games.
That being said, you can still find people talking about the series in reverence and wish for a modern remake. Someone must have been listening because, 35 years after the release of the original Alien Breed, the first 6 games (the memorable ones) got re-released in new packaging. Titled Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection, the package collects Alien Breed (1991), Alien Breed Special Edition ’92 (1992), Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues (1993), Alien Breed: Tower Assault (1994), Alien Breed 3D (1995), and Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds, all of which were only playable via emulation or via DOSBox up until now.
But first, let’s address the extraterrestrial in the room. This is not a remake or even a remaster or even HD ports for that reason. These are the same games directly wrapped from their original versions. If you were expecting 4K resolution, widescreen support, enhanced audio, or restored cut content, prepare to be disappointed. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any QoL additions.
The top-down shooters in the collection, namely Alien Breed (1991), Alien Breed Special Edition ’92 (1992), Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues (1993), and Alien Breed: Tower Assault (1994), come with twin-stick controller support, save states, and a new unlockable Horde Mode with p2p co-op support as well as a vault containing BTS stuff, interviews, concept art, etc. The first-person shooters, on the other hand feel like they got the short end of the stick.
The Doom-clones in this collection are not bad games per se, nor are they inaccurate ports/emulations. The problem is that they’re too accurate. At a time when 1440p is the average resolution, Alien Breed 3D and The Killing Grounds run at their original resolution and framerate (although the Steam page says the framerate is improved). Thus, you end up two sluggishly running first-person shooters where it’s hard to make out anything 5 feet in front of you. I’m a strong advocate for preserving the original look and feel of games, but come on, at least make what’s on screen readable.
The top-down shooters fare much better and are still fun to play. Just be warned that they’re very hard games that require skill, memory, and effort. If you’re new to the series, I highly suggest looking up a FAQ because this game does not hold your hand at all. You move from level to level, killing constantly respawning aliens while searching for ammo, currency, and 90s sensation—keycards! Local co-op works flawlessly as well, and I highly suggest you play the games that way for the best experience.
I’m just not a fan of the default keyboard control scheme (you can’t change it for some reason), as movement is on the arrow keys and you shoot by pressing WASD for the respective direction. I have a 60% keyboard, and this made playing the game a bit of a pain in the ass. Thankfully, twin-stick controller support works well. I also dislike the lack of proper widescreen support, because if you select 16:9 aspect ratio option, it just stretches out the image.
At the end of the day, would I suggest the Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection to everyone? That would be a no. This is a collection made for those who grew up with the game and requires a heavy dose of nostalgia to down it smoothly. Maybe if Antstream looked up to Contra or Castlevania anniversary collections, then it could have been more presentable to newcomers. Still, from the POV of game preservation, this is a nice win.