Game #933: Roswell Conspiracies - Aliens, Myths & Legends

 Tonight we present: The mystery of the PS1 game nobody seems to know about.

 I think that Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths & Legends is one of the most underrated TV Series ever made. I tend to hate IPs that contain aliens, and this series made it so that every monster was actually an alien. And I loved it. While most of the show followed the typical monster of the week formula it actually had an overarching plot that had a proper beginning, middle and end. Anyways, I love this show, and I think it's incredibly underrated, so I had to get the game, y'know, a little piece of memorabilia to remember the show by that's tied to my biggest hobby.

 Well... it's kind of a mixed bag. It's a very rudimentary third-person shooter, you can aim in first-person, although it's barely required, you can strafe and you get a small assortment of weapons with limitless ammunition, however, you're usually limited to up to two different guns per stage. Heck, all the medikits you collect? They are gone by the next stage, so just use them freely.... provided you need them, because Nick will regenerate a large portion of the damage he incurs. It's surprisingly decent, y'know, for a licensed game of the PS1/N64 era.

 You won't be just shooting your way through the game, sometimes you have to find items in order to operate certain mechanisms, or complete very simple puzzles. At most the game will require you to go into your inventory and 'Combine' two key items. At most. You can't jump and you take fall damage, so taking a page from Tomb Raider, you have to slowly inch towards the edge of a ledge and press the action button to slowly climb down. Taking a page from nowhere, because it's a dumb idea, defeated enemies are only 'incapacitated', you actually have to press the action button over their collapsed body to capture them, else they'll get up again after a short while. It's not TOO annoying, and the game is easy enough so that you can simply 'capture' an enemy while another one is shooting at you, but it's a needless inconvenience. As easy as it is, don't get too cocky, as there are no checkpoints and death means restarting the entire stage.

 The game really falls apart in its presentation and use of license. What little music there is is usually kept for bosses or cutscenes, as most of the game you'll be hearing ambience noises. It seems they had trouble programming voices into cutscenes, because the only dialogue you ever get is inside the inventory, going into your 'messages' which are just small voice notes of Nick talking to.... himself? Not only is there no dialogue, what little story there is is kept to the mission briefings, which are small text-boxes giving you some context on what you're doing. That's it. The series had an endearing cast of characters, but we only get Nick, and Sh'lainn, who should have been playable only appears on about three missions. Of course, she doesn't even talk, so it's just her 3-D model doing stuff. Lame.

 I love the show. I wanted to have a little bit of the show within this game. And sure, I'm playing as a fairly acceptable rendition of Nick Logan, and sure, I'm fighting lycanthropes and banshees... but that's not enough. Why not splice in some animated scenes from the show? Since the mechanics are so simple, why isn't Sh'lainn playable? Why not at least have other allies showing up? Why not have a proper story? It's not an awfully terrible game, but as a fan of the show... it does nothing for me.

 On another note, the back cover promises a firing range and a training level... but those don't exist. The game also starts getting a bit wonky by end, there's an AWFUL turret section in which you must defend Sh'lainne, but controls aren't precise enough and you need pinpoint accuracy and good memory to shoot everyone down before Sh'lainn goes down, it's downright unfair. The game doesn't have good bosses, but the final boss takes the cake. You get a super powered armor, and you'd think it will be a fun fight, but said powered armor is as tough as paper, the best strategy is running around in circles hoping that the energy beams that appear from above hit it enough times. Lame.

 Y'know, as baby's first third person shooter... it's serviceable. There's nothing particularly broken about the game, sans for a few sloppy stages by the end of the game. However, I adore the show. I wanted a game based on the show, but you could change the graphics without altering anything else and nobody would know on which show it was based on, because there's not a story to be told here, there are no fun character interactions here, there's nothing but a barebones third person shooter that wasted a fantastic license.

 5.5