The entertainment value is the only thing hidden in this budget beat ‘em’ up.
The year: 2027. Alpha City. The assignment that you are assigned is simple: Assassinate the leader of a terrorist group holding a hospital hostage. For either Shadowforce agent, Dean Travis or Karen Bride this seems like a particularly simple assignment. Their employer generally only dealing with major crisis. Terrorists holding a hospital hostage is apparently no big deal in 2027. Something the police should be able to handle easily. But something is different about this mission and they will find out shortly that this particular assignment is out of this world.
I hate timers. I hate being timed. In real life, in video games, just about anywhere I hate racing against a clock. So, immediately when the very first mission begins and I saw a timer at the top of the screen I was a bit discouraged. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt, your first task is to disarm four bombs terrorists have planted around a hospital. But even upon bomb disarmament the timer remained and I realized what time of game this was going to be.
Hidden Invasion is a very fast paced, Arcade Beat Em’ Up. You have a certain time limit to complete each stage, dashing your way through button mashing Karate kicks and blowing terrorists away with shotguns while looking for keycards to access the next level. Each time limit is different on every stage but I have yet to really come close to not beating a level in time. You are supplied three lives but even if you go through those (which you will occasionally – trapped in a corner by a hoard of enemies with no means to defend yourself) it just begins where you left off anyways which certainly makes the game a bit more accessible if not, very quick and easy.
Hidden Invasion has about seven stages and right around the fourth one (maybe a half an hour in) you realize that these are no regular terrorists. These terrorists are from space. No bueno, friends.
So naturally our fearless protagonist runs through the sewers to the White House to warn the President that not only have packs of terrorists descended upon the city but they’re also from Outer Space. But before you can even give the dude a heads up he gets kidnapped (of course).
The music is okay. The controls are stupid simple – and at times even a little frustrating – as you have to desperately push every button to try to figure out how to pull your gun out. The camera angles regularly work against you – especially when you’re searching for something which is incredibly frustrating when working against waves of never ending enemies and a timer. All in all it’s not a bad game – but between how bad the voice acting, story, controls and and graphics are it’s entirely not worth ever playing.
Only pick it up if you absolutely must for your collection.
Overall: 49%
