The game has pretty nice graphics and incredible atmosphere for a PS1 game, the survival-horror aspect is interesting, and Alien creatures are a real threat. Also, that one GameSpot review. However, I cannot in good conscience call this a good game.
My biggest gripe with the game is it's difficulty and trial and error aspect. I probably made a mistake by selecting normal difficutly, but according to other reviews and sources, easy isn't that easy either. As I said, Alien are a real threat, which is good! But they're also a threat for wrong reasons. Mostly because of their positioning. At times, they can jump at you from around a corner or when opening a door or swarm you. Maybe that's supposed to be scary, but to me, that comes off as cheap and unfair. Instead, what is scary in this game is losing progress. The save points are pretty far apart. This wouldn't be so bad if the game wasn't reliant of trial and error, not to mention that this game is on a slower pace. I swear, you can't get past any of the game's sections without dying, you have to memorize enemy placements and everything. If you find a save spot, abuse it as much as you can, and keep multiple saves handy. I had to reload prior save a couple of times because I missed something important (in the case of Level 6 - Maximum Security, which is a somewhat more open level and I missed one of the keycards at the beginning) or to retry a section so I could save more precious resources for the tougher sections.
Let's talk about controls. As we all know, "The game's control setup is its most terrifying element.". But for real, the game was the first, or at least one of the earliest games to utilize dual stick control scheme which has become a standard in modern gaming. I only really decided to play this game just to pay respects for it's innovative controls. It's implementation isn't there yet, there's no aim assist, which makes aiming clunky. The stick just isn't as precise as using motion controls/gyro, or a mouse. Speaking of, there's a Playstation Mouse support, which I did try... and it only helps ever so slightly. It does increase presicion and moving the camera around is better, but the camera bop when moving doesn't help when shooting at smaller targets, and I mean facehuggers. I actually planned to give this game a big treatment, not as big as Star Wars: Dark Forces, since it's a PS1 exclusive (though there are prototypes from when it was a third person shooter), but, basically, I wanted to do two playthroughs, one solely with dual stick controls, and one with PS Mouse and compare the experience, but since I couldn't even finish my first playthrough...
The game is just so incredibly frustrating and little fun to play. I'm convinced playing this was a medieval torture. Bonus points if played on a standard PS1 controller. I was very tempted to start using savestates, as I reached level 7, but a realization came to me, that it's probably not worth it, I mean what to expect from Alien Resurrection going forward? More trial and error and rage inducing deaths? No thanks. It's a shame really, as I said, it has excellent presentation and a potential for a decent experience, but the game pretty much fights me every step of the way, as if it doesn't want me to have any fun. I heard that this game is actually better than the movie, then it must be a very bad movie. I can only really recommend checking it out for its novelty, but I don't recommend it as a game that you should play.
My biggest gripe with the game is it's difficulty and trial and error aspect. I probably made a mistake by selecting normal difficutly, but according to other reviews and sources, easy isn't that easy either. As I said, Alien are a real threat, which is good! But they're also a threat for wrong reasons. Mostly because of their positioning. At times, they can jump at you from around a corner or when opening a door or swarm you. Maybe that's supposed to be scary, but to me, that comes off as cheap and unfair. Instead, what is scary in this game is losing progress. The save points are pretty far apart. This wouldn't be so bad if the game wasn't reliant of trial and error, not to mention that this game is on a slower pace. I swear, you can't get past any of the game's sections without dying, you have to memorize enemy placements and everything. If you find a save spot, abuse it as much as you can, and keep multiple saves handy. I had to reload prior save a couple of times because I missed something important (in the case of Level 6 - Maximum Security, which is a somewhat more open level and I missed one of the keycards at the beginning) or to retry a section so I could save more precious resources for the tougher sections.
Let's talk about controls. As we all know, "The game's control setup is its most terrifying element.". But for real, the game was the first, or at least one of the earliest games to utilize dual stick control scheme which has become a standard in modern gaming. I only really decided to play this game just to pay respects for it's innovative controls. It's implementation isn't there yet, there's no aim assist, which makes aiming clunky. The stick just isn't as precise as using motion controls/gyro, or a mouse. Speaking of, there's a Playstation Mouse support, which I did try... and it only helps ever so slightly. It does increase presicion and moving the camera around is better, but the camera bop when moving doesn't help when shooting at smaller targets, and I mean facehuggers. I actually planned to give this game a big treatment, not as big as Star Wars: Dark Forces, since it's a PS1 exclusive (though there are prototypes from when it was a third person shooter), but, basically, I wanted to do two playthroughs, one solely with dual stick controls, and one with PS Mouse and compare the experience, but since I couldn't even finish my first playthrough...
The game is just so incredibly frustrating and little fun to play. I'm convinced playing this was a medieval torture. Bonus points if played on a standard PS1 controller. I was very tempted to start using savestates, as I reached level 7, but a realization came to me, that it's probably not worth it, I mean what to expect from Alien Resurrection going forward? More trial and error and rage inducing deaths? No thanks. It's a shame really, as I said, it has excellent presentation and a potential for a decent experience, but the game pretty much fights me every step of the way, as if it doesn't want me to have any fun. I heard that this game is actually better than the movie, then it must be a very bad movie. I can only really recommend checking it out for its novelty, but I don't recommend it as a game that you should play.