Imagine living in a “quiet and peaceful” world, with a normal life and your brain safely inside your head as all should be. Now imagine that “quiet and peaceful” lifestyle being abruptly put on hold, or in the worst case brought to an end, as an insatiable horde of aliens begins their invasion of Earth. Strange blocky blobs of luminescent pink have come to take the appetizing brains of humanity. What do you do in this situation? Well, according to It came from space and ate our brains, you take to the streets for dimly lit combat against the unyielding waves of strange creatures until you either drive them out or fall victim to their hunger. So, what is this top-down arcade shooter play like? Let us break it down into sections.
Graphics/Sound
Minimalistic is the chosen art direction here. The players, as well as the alien bodies, are mainly cubic in shape and any environmental pieces are a composition of different simple geometric shapes in most cases. Few surfaces have any detail, spare a few signs or store-window televisions that display warnings of your impending doom. The world is dark and gloomy, as a result, players rely on their trusty flashlight to light their path and any targets in front of them. A few natural light sources may help your spot oncoming enemies, but your only other option is to either squint into the black or notice the gaping pink mouths of hungry aliens approaching from the dark. Different weapons have different effects on their blasts, such as the plasma gun firing green cubes of energy that glow within the darkness and enemies burst into pink bits on death. As for a soundtrack, the electronic beats, and synth of the background music help to keep the tension and chaos of each game steadily in your mind. However, amidst all this carnage and musical accompaniment, it became very easy to lose track of what is occurring on-screen.
Levels/Level Design
Every level brings players to a new location, each with a unique environment. Everything is laid out with branching or interconnecting pathways. Players can use their winding paths and the different debris spread throughout each level to “kite” their pursuers or to escape a dire situation. Just be careful not to get your foot caught in those obstacles instead. Small details throughout the environment such as signs, crash vehicles, buildings, or other architecture and the titles for each area give context to the overall loose story that guides the game forward. “Block Countryside” is the only disappointing level at the early stage of the game. This location feels largely too claustrophobic and the numerous enemy spawn locations often result in players getting surrounded with no escape.
Gameplay
Players have 6 weapons to choose from, with the starting pistol included. These are the pistol, shotgun, machine gun, plasma gun, laser gun, and rocket launcher. All the weapons have different stats under the categories of damage, spread, range, and ammo (which should be labeled as fire rate but we can let that slide). Each weapon has its upgrade path which can be purchased using money gained by killing aliens, the shotgun and rocket launcher cost more to upgrade than the other weapons. The pistol can slowly become a high-power revolver, the shotgun increases its fire rate and damage, the machine gun becomes a minigun, the plasma gun fires its orbs in several straight lines rather than one, the laser gun becomes a steady beam of death, and the rocket launcher increases its damage and blast radius. Each weapon feels unique and powerful, except for the rocket launcher due to its higher pricing and therefore longer time to upgrade as well as its lackluster blast radius, slow fire rate, and necessary accuracy. The other weapons can kill much more effectively with much less effort.
On top of this array of weapons, there are also equipment items provided by a very helpful person in a hovering S.W.A.T vehicle as it moves between set points on each level. These items include a medkit, beams, shield, mines, and turret. Each item occupies a secondary slot next to your weapon that will be consumed on use by the player. The medkit restores 1 heart of health and “beams” surrounds the player with several lights that encircle them while damaging any aliens unfortunate enough to make contact with the beam. Shield makes the player invulnerable to any damage and will kill aliens who attack them (however the player does not earn points from these kills). Mines gives the player 3 explosives to place on the ground that will explode after a short delay when any aliens get a little too close. Turret will place down an automated sentry gun that will fire at the closest alien creature until it kills all the enemies or runs out of ammo and explodes. These items can also be purchased through the player’s shop.
The S.W.A.T vehicle also drops two other items. One gives the player temporary access to a random weapon upgraded one tier above (or if their weapon is maxed out then on that same tier) their current weapon. For that limited time, the weapon is available to the player to continue their massacre of the aliens. The other is a small surplus of money for the player to spend on weapons or items in the shop.
As for enemy variety, there are 6 types of alien. First are the small ones with flailing arms, or tendrils, I am not sure. These creatures will simply pursue the player and attempt to get close enough to hurt them but are easily dispatched. The second type is larger variations of the first but they can take just a bit more damage. The third is the twin-headed alien, which is very similar in function to the first type but when fired at they tend to very quickly (and frustratingly) teleport out of harm’s way. Next is the alien that appears to lack a mouth and functions as a sort of shield for its allies since it can take more damage than the others to protect anyone behind it, provided the player doesn’t fire a shotgun, the fully powered laser gun, or a rocket launcher at them. The fifth type of alien is similar in appearance and attack method to a frog, following the player until it is within a range where it will stand still and flash for a moment before leaping at the player and inflicting damage. The final type of alien is the boss-type, hulking behemoths of ravenous alien but have no fear, other than having higher HP they don’t pose much more of a threat than the standard alien. From this summary alone, anyone can probably tell there isn’t much strategy to dispatch of these creatures. The only real exception is the third type since it’s movement can be exploited in enclosed paths to force it against a wall where it can’t avoid your fire. It all leaves a bit much to be desired. Keep throwing the hurt at them, and sooner or later all of them should die.
Difficulty
Explaining the difference in difficulty is pretty simple. Each difficulty influences the speed, health, and population of aliens. On easy the enemy is slow, few, and swiftly brought to an end. However, cranking it up to insane will summon a much larger alien swarm that refuses to die too easily and a penchant for breaking into a sudden dash directly towards the player. Stay alive as long as you can or take as many with you before you go.
Conclusion
It came from space and ate our brains is a simplistic game at its core. Destroying the mass of relentless aliens with different weapons, utilizing special equipment in a close-shave situation and ultimately reaching the finish line or dying, in the end, is a fun time. The multiplayer aspect of this game should provide for greater entertainment. However, the gameplay loop is only so satisfying for so long and minor issues such as the rocket launchers underwhelming power or the enemy types being too similar in behavior bring the experience down. It’s still a solid experience but it could use some expansion or improvement, which if a sequel is ever created, Triangle Studios surely has the opportunity to address.
