 |
| OVERALL RATING |
3.5 |
| Presentation |
 |
3.5 |
| Control |
|
3.5 |
| Gameplay |
|
3.5 |
| Fun factor |
 |
3.0 |
| User Rating |
 |
4.0 |
 |
Posted: November 30, 2006
In Men in Black: Alien Assault, aliens are running rampant through the city and have embarked on a hidden agenda to clone the Earth. As Agent Jay of the MiB, you are entrusted to keep this from happening while making sure that the population is none the wiser to this planetary takeover.
In the Story mode, there are 15 levels to undertake along the city streets, underground and the MiB headquarters. They mostly follow a linear progression but at times you are allowed to select from a couple of choices so that it provides a sense of freedom in getting through the game. It still ultimately arrives to the same conclusion.
Agent Jay has access to different weapons to waste the aliens along with the cleverly-employed Neuralizer that erases the memory of citizens. Some levels take place in plain site where ordinary people walk and if they catch a glimpse of an alien, they will panic. As they continue to run around in hysteria a panic gauge increases that, when reaching full, will end the mission in failure. You must therefore keep an eye on this gauge and wipe the memories of bystanders as necessary to continue with the mission at hand.
The levels are mazes that have dead ends and different paths to the exit. Included in most are moving platforms, exploding barrels, blocks to push and switches to hit, not to mention ever-present aliens that spawn looking to keep you from the objective. Some are tough, others are schmucks, but with plenty of health around they are hardly ever life threatening.
Once the alien plan has been thwarted you are given the option to replay each level for a better score or to play in the Arena mode. In this mode, three areas are available where the action doesn’t stop until you are wiped out. Two of them have continuously spawning aliens to combat while the third one also involves using the Neuralizer on the citizenry.
Men in Black: Alien Assault is a decent romp based on the hit movies that provides a few hours of distraction. The controls offer one-thumb play with auto targeting for simplification and the inclusion of the Neuralizer feature adds a different dynamic instead of just shooting. Still, the game lacks some originality in terms of action game play but, in general, should comfort gamers looking to play the role of the MiB.
