Another day, another rogue-lite. It’s a tough genre to impress me with, especially since I already have others to return to, so Super Mutant Alien Assault has a hard battle from the get-go. As always I’ve given a fair shot though, and while it’s not necessarily my thing, I can definitely see the appeal.
As with most rogue-lites, the story is bare-bones and more just framing for the gameplay. Aliens are attacking an escaping human fleet, as a lone robot you have to fight them, yada yada, you get the gist. So in each run, you travel through small sections of the ship, combating the enemies there and completing objectives.
While the variety in level design is lacking (you will see repeats of the same layouts often) everything else is mixed up enough to keep every level fresh. One thing I especially liked is the varying mission objectives. While the typical “survive the wave” goal is here, there’s also moving fuel to engines, preventing pressure build-up, and difficult boss battles. It helps a lot to keep you on your toes.
The weapon variety is fantastic as well. From the start you have a range of primary weapons (guns) and secondary weapons (bombs) that may be dropped from weapon machines, on top of different defense and special moves. And simply by playing you’ll be rewarded with more and more variety in the item pool. You’ll even unlock starting items, so you can secure your favourite side-arm or defensive move from the beginning of a run. Beating a boss also allows you to skip ahead in future runs, at the cost of it being harder due to the items you’ve skipped.
The downside of the vast array of weapons and abilities at your disposal is of course, the vast array of buttons you have to get used to. It took me several runs for the controls to “click” and even then, I’d forget to use certain abilities cause of the sheer amount to keep track of. The constant shifting of the items tied to each button due to limited ammo, made it even harder to figure things out in the heat of the moment.
To put it simply, it’s difficult. Not unfairly so though. Learning the game and its items is a test of patience, while the combat itself is a test of quick-thinking and skill. It makes for a rewarding combination when you finally have that successful run or clear a whole level unharmed.
When you finally beat Super Mutant Alien Assault for the first time, it then makes things even more intense by unlocking a further difficulty, with I’ve been unable to beat. And there’s another one past that as well! I found it pretty intense already, so I can only imagine what it’s like if you reach the final difficulty and introduce a friend into the mix. I only wish a I had a friend to play this with, cause if the game throws even more at you, the adrenaline would jump up significantly.
Overall, I genuinely enjoyed my time with Super Mutant Alien Assault. It took a while to get to grips with, but I warmed up to it in time. It starts slowly, but adds new things into the mix to make each run even more frantic, and the steady increase in challenge and constant introduction of new gear helps it stay interesting. If you’re in the mood for a difficult rogue-lite that will put you through your paces, then Super Mutant Alien Assault may just be it.
A digital copy of Super Mutant Alien Assault for Switch was provided by the developer.
Find Super Mutant Alien Assault on Switch here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/super-mutant-alien-assault-switch/