Skip to main content

Housemarque: Alienation is more than just a re-skinned Dead Nation

I’ve been following Housemarque’s upcoming twin-stick shooter Alienation from the second it got announced, primarily because of my love for one of the developer’s previous games,
Recommended Videos
Dead Nation. But while the sci-fi shooter bears quite a resemblance to the latter game — to the point of Housemarque calling it a “spiritual successor” — there are a few new features that help to set it apart.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, community manager Tommas De Benetti details one particularly important change: how you acquire weapons. While Dead Nation cut up each chapter with several gate-barricaded checkpoints, where you could refill ammunition and purchase new guns, Alienation gives you weapons from fallen enemies and boxes scattered throughout the game.

If you want a little more RPG in your shooter, Alienation looks like it will provide that, as well. Four types of “Alien Cores” will allow you to upgrade your weapons, and looted metals will allow you to further customize individual weapon attributes.

A new trailer also offers a more extended look at the game’s character classes, and given Alienation‘s focus on cooperative play, knowing how to use them will be especially important.

The Bio-Chemist class, which Benetti says is actually a good option for solo players, can dispense a poisonous gas to damage attacking aliens, and she can also summon a little personal army of robots to help her defend against larger waves of enemies. The Tank, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like: a heavily armored, slow, and extremely powerful unit that you want leading the charge.

If you want to mix some stealth and melee into your shooting, then the Saboteur

is for you, offering a plasma sword for devastating up-close attacks, as well as the ability to turn temporarily invisible.

Do you plan on picking up Alienation when it launches for PlayStation 4 later this month? Which class will you pick? Let us know in the comments!

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Goodbye Volcano High’s dinosaur drama is more enticing than its rhythm interludes
Fang, Trish, and Reed playing in Worm Drama band

Teen dramas are all the rage, but society is running out of ideas. How many ways can you spin the same coming of age story? Developer KO_OP has risen to that challenge with its upcoming narrative rhythm game, Goodbye Volcano High, by daring to make something new: a high school dinosaur simulator.

Goodbye Volcano High - Story, Gameplay & Release Date | PS5 & PS4 Games

Read more
Aliens: Dark Descent: release date, trailers, gameplay, and more
Alien screaming close-up.

In space, no one can hear you scream. While the Alien franchise has been hit-and-miss when it comes to video games, the good ones have been great. Alien: Isolation is the most recent example of a game absolutely nailing the tone, atmosphere, and sense of dread of what it would be like to be trapped on a ship with the most dangerous hunter in the universe. Just like the jump from the first film to the second, though, our next Alien game to look forward to appears to be less about the horror and intends to mix in a healthy dose of action.

Aliens: Dark Descent is the newest game to drop us into the nests of the Xenomorphs. However, unlike most other games that used this license, it isn't a straight-up horror game, nor is it a first-person shooter.  This is one of the most beloved franchises in film history, so if you're at all curious about diving into Aliens: Dark Descent, we'll use our motion tracker to guide you along safely.
Release date

Read more
PS Plus adds Evil Dead, OlliOlli World, and more in February
A still from Evil Dead: The Game showing a man holding a gun in a supermarket.

PlayStation Plus Essential's February game lineup was announced today, and it consists of four titles: OlliOlli World, Evil Dead: The Game, Mafia: Definitive Edition, and Destiny 2: Beyond Light. These games will be available to download starting February 7. Overall, this is a really solid batch of games.

OlliOlli World was one of my personal favorite games of 2022 because of its amazing level design and 2D skateboarding gameplay that only becomes more fun as you get better with the game. "Like the best games of the genre, it knows that easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master mechanics, rewarding obstacles, and high speeds that test one’s reaction time are the hallmarks of a great platformer," I wrote in a four-and-a-half star review of the game last February.

Read more