After playing through Alien Breed: Impact on the PlayStation 3 just recently, it worked as an appetiser to get my gastric gaming juices flowing and to pave the way for a bigger and hopefully more satisfying course.

Alien Breed: Assault gives the players another top-down view of adventure with alien slaughtering hero Conrad as he explores the mysterious ship the Leopold crashed into. This is part of the storyline that breaks up the arcade style play, but it's incredibly thin and is clearly only present to provide the player with a couple of minutes respite between each level.

People that have played Alien Breed: Evolution or the updated PS3 and PC versions, Alien Breed: Impact, will already be acclimatised to the often frantic gameplay that resides. It's not rare to be cornered by aliens approaching from all directions, whilst explosions bellow through the tiny steel corridors and the camera shakes like it's being held by an Arctic explorer that's forgotten his coat. It creates drama and tension in a classic but hugely effective way.

Although being far from generous with it's gun selection, there are more than in the previous games, including the most welcome rocket launcher. Upgrades can be purchased for each of the guns, as well as extra ammo and medical provisions.

As with it's older brothers, Impact's missions rapidly become a chore as the repetitive and grinding nature of having to travel from point-to-point just to flick switches begins to take its toll. It simply doesn't help that the surroundings are incredibly similar throughout and virtually no different to the older games.

Multiplayer is an option as co-op to the main story, whilst a survival mode provides players with hordes of enemies that get progressively tougher.

Despite its scratched vinyl style objectives, Alien Breed: Assault is a fun, mindless action game that doesn't stretch itself in terms of narrative but excels at old-school gameplay.

SCORE: 6 / 10