In late 2023, The Behemoth released Alien Hominid Invasion, their long-awaited follow-up to Alien Hominid HD. Whereas the original game was a Metal Slug-like run-and-gun shooter with an unfortunately high difficulty level, Invasion introduces roguelite elements and adds online co-op. With the recent “Juicy Variety” update, it’s time for us to see how this unique spin-off turned out.
Invasion can be played in local or online co-op with up to four players. Each individual player can choose their own life insurance policy and personal difficulty level. Life insurance determines whether players keep the loot from the run upon death. The Mastery option has you lose everything picked up but gain more experience, whereas the Permakeep option allows players to keep most of their pickups (though some have to be banked at hideouts). As for difficulty, there are three levels, and if you pick anything but Friendly, the lowest one, you can expect to die fairly frequently. Friendly is actually forgiving enough that my team was able to beat the game, but some folks might want a greater challenge.
As with Alien Hominid HD, players control earthbound aliens who are pitted against Earth’s military forces and FBI agents. The object of each run is to proceed along the map, reach the military headquarters at the top, and destroy it. Between levels, the team will select the next stage from a handful of adjacent options. Some stages have special hazards or rewards, as indicated by icons below the stage. Hideout stages appear at certain points along the map. Within them, loot boxes that have been picked up along the way are banked, permanently adding the items to the player’s arsenal. Thus, charting courses to hideouts is important to avoid losing items.
The levels don’t play out like typical, linear run-and-gun levels. Instead, players are dropped into an environment with no fixed endpoints. As increasingly dangerous enemies spawn, the team must complete a random series of objectives. These include tasks like surviving a wave within an enclosed space, defeating a fixed number of purple enemies, delivering papers to a receptacle, returning stolen ice cream to a child, defeating bosses, and more. Once the team has completed enough objectives, they can head to the extraction point or risk staying in the level for longer in hopes of more money and loot.
The run-and-gun gameplay and controls have been refined from those of Alien Hominid HD. The players’ guns can still be fired rapidly or charged up for larger shots, but they now have to be reloaded periodically. This will happen automatically when a clip depletes, but players can also reload manually. The need to reload adds to the challenge, but it’s a minor nuisance in a fast-paced shooter like this. Players also have the option of turning on auto-fire, which is convenient given the constant need to shoot in this game. Rolling is now mapped to a single button, and it is essential for avoiding traps and dodging enemy fire. Holding the dodge button will allow players to dig into the ground for increased safety. You can still ride on enemies by jumping on them, and it’s as funny as ever. As for grenades, they’re now classified as “mutations,” and players can unlock additional mutations by completing runs of the game.
During levels, players will sometimes acquire new weapons that instantly become a part of their arsenals. Mostly, however, the team will encounter loot boxes that must be cashed in at a hideout. Within them, you’ll receive weapons and other equippable items. There are tons of short- and long-range weapons to find, as well as stat-affecting boosts, cosmetic heads (which also affect stats), and pigments for changing the alien’s color. The hunt for loot and raising the player’s experience level are the driving forces for replaying the game. That said, the game should really let players equip one head for its appearance and another for its stats. Right now, I have piles of cool-looking heads that I’ll never use because their stat bonuses are inferior to other heads.
Because of the randomized nature of the enemies and obstacles, Invasion is very chaotic. At first, the chaos can be off-putting and discouraging. Play with partners and on an appropriate difficulty level, however, and the chaos starts to become more manageable. That said, the level design here isn’t going to be for everybody. Levels start to feel very samey despite the different environments because you’re mostly doing the same thing every time. There actually are a few levels that break the mold, such as a wave survival level and a level where players flee from a boss, but these variations are few and far between. There's also too much waiting on timers to count down before every level starts. Timers are boring!
Speaking of repetition, the enemies and hazards rely way too much on energy beams fired from the sky, sort of like how Ori and the Blind Forest’s environments are ridiculously dense with spikes. Rolling through so many energy beams becomes tiresome after a while. Also, the camera is questionable at best. Because it doesn’t really center on the player, it’s possible to fall off-screen for short periods of time. The camera should lock to the player in online games. Also, there needs to be a button to create a highlight around your character (or even an option to toggle one on or off). The highlighting option would make it much easier to keep track of your position during the chaos.
The Behemoth takes commendable risks with its games, avoiding surefire hit sequels like Alien Hominid 2 and Castle Crashers 2 in favor of more experimental games like this one and Pit People. Alien Hominid Invasion has a great foundation of the Alien Hominid world, the core shooting gameplay, and robust co-op support. It’s just an acquired taste right now, the lack of variety and overabundance of chaos limiting the game’s appeal. If the developer can put out a steady stream of substantial updates to address these issues (at least two more updates in 2024 would be nice), Alien Hominid Invasion has a real chance at achieving mainstream success. In the meantime, it’s still worth playing through a few times with friends.
Alien Hominid Invasion sells for $19.99 on Xbox, Switch, and Steam. Invasion is also available in a bundle with Alien Hominid HD, recently remastered for modern platforms, for a grand total of $24.99.
An Xbox download code was provided by the publisher for this review.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Four-player co-op is supported in the game. Unlock and equip an arsenal of weapons and boosts, level up, and then beam down to invade Earth with up to three other friends.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.