Insanium

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"The last thing you hear before being exploded by an angry monkey? Ba-BOOM"
Some of you have never played Concept Software’s Alien which was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC in 1984. For the most part, I suspect most of you have not played Concept Software’s Alien directly because it was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC in 1984. But! Despite its near 40-year lifespan and the now-archaic hardware it calls home, I might offer the argument that you’ve been missing out. In fact, screw it, I will! It’s frankly amazing what that game manages to do with so little, and how hard it works on being an authentic companion piece to the seminal film it shares its name with.
Unlike the other Alien game which was just a badly reskinned Pac Man, Concept gave you complete control over the film’s original cast, trapped them in the wireframe guts of the Nostromo, lobbed a xenomorph in there, and then tasked you to help them survive. You would fail. Taking direct cues from the film, the game gave you a familiar set of limitations. For example, you couldn’t use firearms because the bastard alien had acid blood that would melt through the hull and kill you all. You couldn’t just jump in the lifecraft, because it could only house three people, so that only became an option once enough of the excess crew had been horrifically murdered. But, even when you meet this condition, you can’t just blast yourself off into safety because you’ll first need to find Jones the cat. Also, remember in the film where the ship’s android decided to screw over his meatbag crewmates because The Man saw the financial worth of the alien stowaway? The game replicates that, only it secretly randomises who the backstabbing robot is on your crew. You have to figure that out for yourself, while still offering poor (probably) innocent Ash all of your hate.
By this point, you may be wondering why I’m spending so much time talking about a completely different game to the one I’m supposed to be reviewing. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who was a huge fan of the little Alien game that could; for better and worse, so was the developer of Insanium, who has effectively remade the entire game with a slightly altered premises. What if, instead of a predatory alien, there was a space-mad homicidal ape rampaging around the ship.
To this end, both games share a lot of the same framework. You have a crew trapped on board a craft in the midst of space who need to survive the massive monster trying to pick them off one by one. Some aspects of the original game are kept by Insanium for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense beyond die-hard homage. For example, there’s still a randomised traitor on board who’ll screw you over because they’re a secret member of a society dedicated to the equality of space apes. Also for example! You still have to save a bloody cat. That ginger bastard, Jones, probably got me killed more times than the alien did in the original game. The adorably fluffy arsehole.
But that’s not to say it’s a straight copy and paste job. While it does an admirable job of recreating a more accessible version of the graphical era of the original, it also offers four different difficulty levels whereas Alien only had borderline impossible as an option. This means you can start yourself on the easier levels to build a better understanding of the game’s mechanics, dialing up the difficulty as you gain experience. It’s a lot more convenient, because it isn’t the type of game you just jump right into and start reaping glory. While you find yourself in control of the entire crew, you’re only able to move each crewmate one at a time. This gives things an almost board game feeling, as you slowly move your pieces into place to try and execute whatever grand plan you’ve been putting into place that will soon be destroyed by a flighty cat.
// Full Review

Steam User 8

Reviewed 04.2021

You can find hundreds of other reviews through our Curator page
"The last thing you hear before being exploded by an angry monkey? Ba-BOOM"
Some of you have never played Concept Software’s Alien which was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC in 1984. For the most part, I suspect most of you have not played Concept Software’s Alien directly because it was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC in 1984. But! Despite its near 40-year lifespan and the now-archaic hardware it calls home, I might offer the argument that you’ve been missing out. In fact, screw it, I will! It’s frankly amazing what that game manages to do with so little, and how hard it works on being an authentic companion piece to the seminal film it shares its name with.
Unlike the other Alien game which was just a badly reskinned Pac Man, Concept gave you complete control over the film’s original cast, trapped them in the wireframe guts of the Nostromo, lobbed a xenomorph in there, and then tasked you to help them survive. You would fail. Taking direct cues from the film, the game gave you a familiar set of limitations. For example, you couldn’t use firearms because the bastard alien had acid blood that would melt through the hull and kill you all. You couldn’t just jump in the lifecraft, because it could only house three people, so that only became an option once enough of the excess crew had been horrifically murdered. But, even when you meet this condition, you can’t just blast yourself off into safety because you’ll first need to find Jones the cat. Also, remember in the film where the ship’s android decided to screw over his meatbag crewmates because The Man saw the financial worth of the alien stowaway? The game replicates that, only it secretly randomises who the backstabbing robot is on your crew. You have to figure that out for yourself, while still offering poor (probably) innocent Ash all of your hate.
By this point, you may be wondering why I’m spending so much time talking about a completely different game to the one I’m supposed to be reviewing. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who was a huge fan of the little Alien game that could; for better and worse, so was the developer of Insanium, who has effectively remade the entire game with a slightly altered premises. What if, instead of a predatory alien, there was a space-mad homicidal ape rampaging around the ship.
To this end, both games share a lot of the same framework. You have a crew trapped on board a craft in the midst of space who need to survive the massive monster trying to pick them off one by one. Some aspects of the original game are kept by Insanium for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense beyond die-hard homage. For example, there’s still a randomised traitor on board who’ll screw you over because they’re a secret member of a society dedicated to the equality of space apes. Also for example! You still have to save a bloody cat. That ginger bastard, Jones, probably got me killed more times than the alien did in the original game. The adorably fluffy arsehole.
But that’s not to say it’s a straight copy and paste job. While it does an admirable job of recreating a more accessible version of the graphical era of the original, it also offers four different difficulty levels whereas Alien only had borderline impossible as an option. This means you can start yourself on the easier levels to build a better understanding of the game’s mechanics, dialing up the difficulty as you gain experience. It’s a lot more convenient, because it isn’t the type of game you just jump right into and start reaping glory. While you find yourself in control of the entire crew, you’re only able to move each crewmate one at a time. This gives things an almost board game feeling, as you slowly move your pieces into place to try and execute whatever grand plan you’ve been putting into place that will soon be destroyed by a flighty cat.
// Full Review
Steam User 1

Reviewed 12.2024

After playing a few rounds of this, I can safely say this is pretty awesome for the very low price.
It's almost feels like a single player Space Station 13.

I do wish there was a turn based mode or a way to pause and give everyone orders before the NPCs change rooms, but this is fantastic as is.

It does a great job of capturing the anxiety and pressure I would imagine having something awful loose on your ship would entice.

Insanium

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Steam User 8

Steam User 1