Alien Region Demo

There are many stories of people who got lost in the wilderness because their cars stopped working in the middle of nowhere. Some of these are true stories, while others are myths created in order to sell books and movies. However, it’s quite easy to imagine why people would choose to believe almost all of them, since it’s creepy enough to drive through a dark forest at night, let alone break down near one.

Alien Region is a first-person exploration game in which you play the role of a guy trying to find help after his car breaks down in the middle of a forest. Obviously, things get rather creepy after a while, which is when the game turns into a survival flick. On the other hand, you also get to explore a beautiful forest while you’re at it, which is always relaxing.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the game is not very well designed when it comes to story and the map layout, which is a bit of a bummer. Everything seems thrown together in a rush, which hurts the overall atmosphere and makes the environments look very fake. It’s not a major issue, but the game could have been that much better if a bit more effort would have gone into the level design.

As for the actual gameplay, there’s not much you can do at the moment, given the fact that this is just a demo. Hence, you can walk around, zoom in to examine certain objects closer, as well as chat with other characters. The latter can turn out quite ugly, on the other hand, since it can even happen that the game freezes and you have to restart it. Naturally, there are no save games.

The graphics are quite nice, on the other hand, especially when it comes to colors and the post-processing effects used to accentuate the mood. It’s a shame that the level design is not more inspired, but maybe this could be fixed by the time the full version is released. A better soundtrack would work wonders as well.

When it’s all said and done, Alien Region could easily be improved and brought to a whole other level, but it needs more time in the shop. Other than that, the concept is pretty intriguing, even if it’s not at all original.