Invasion From Beyond

The latest PlayStation space shooter. Invasion From Beyond slyly mixes the gameplay of StarFox with the campy atmosphere of B-movies like Mars Attacks. While it's too early to tell if this 3D shooter can even remotely achieve the resounding success of StarFox on the Nintendo 64, the early signs are somewhat promising: the game delivers eye-catching graphics, more than 30 missions, and arcade-style action with just a touch of strategy. GT also reports that the game will run at approximately 50 frames per second, and if that's true, Invasion will--at a minimum--be a wickedly fast fragfest.

Based on the alien-menace themes of movies, Invasion From Beyond challenges you to defend your country from attacking Martians by using a variety of fighter planes armed with the latest weapons. Your missions range from normal blast-em-up mayhem to "suck-o-matic" transportation of helpless civilians to safe houses. In this early version, you could choose from only one view and flew in areas that were too small. This Invasion will need to be stronger at its release--or the battle may be over before it begins.

Remember the movie Independence Day? Well, if the game by the same name didn't do much for you, it's time to gear up for Invasion From Beyond developed by U.K.-based King of the Jungle, published by GT Interactive. The game puts you behind the controls of a series of craft, while you must save the Earth from an onslaught of aliens in a somewhat 1950s B-movie fashion.

After starting the game, the first thing you'll notice is the speedy frame-rate. We're talking fast here--at least 50 frames per second, usually around 60 fps. This is a good thing when you're in the heat of battle since it makes the action seem that much more intense. You may think graphics would suffer with such a fast frame-rate, but you would be wrong. Invasion From Beyond has great graphics and little pop-up. And the pop-up that does exist is done in a friendly way, so clumps of mountain don't appear out of nowhere. In addition, there are plenty of snazzy effects--lots of flashes, explosions, weapon trails and starbursts. So how'd King of the Jungle do all of this and keep the frame-rate high? Basically they built the engine and graphics library from the ground up. "We chucked the Sony graphics libraries as we need to do things our way to keep the speed at maximum," said Stephane Koenig of King of the Jungle, producer for Invasion, "Generalized graphics libraries just don't cut it."

Once you play into the game a bit, you realize the action is only part of the fun and plenty of mission objectives await. Some missions will have you escorting allies around town while they gather info from various sources on how to destroy the aliens, while other missions put you in a Defender-esque situation where you must rescue humans and transport them to a safe location.

There are a large number of craft that you can control, some of which are unlocked after playing through the game or by killing a large number of alien ships. Some of the ships resemble those in Battlestar Galactica or Star Wars, while others look like something from a cheesy 1950s sci-fi flick. Each of the ships can be outfitted with different weaponry--more than 60 of them--ranging from standard laser-types all the way to heatseeking missiles and beyond. One weapon in particular looks like one of those cool rail guns from Eraser.

There are a huge number of alien craft to destroy in the game, which usually come in waves as mission objectives are sent to you via an in-game transmission. By the end of the third mission or so you'll swear you've killed the entire alien race. You'd be swearing in vain, though, because there would still be some 15 more missions to play through, all of which have more alien ships (of all shapes and sizes) in them. In between killing aliens, rescuing humans and completing mission objectives, you'll have to stop by your base to recharge.