Action Alien

About

Action Alien is a single player casual shooter game. It was developed by Devdan Games and was released on June 26, 2015. It received neutral reviews from players.

Jump into the action and battle your way through hordes of aliens from canyon deserts to tropical islands inside fully destructible environments ! Complete the story-driven levels to unlock weapons and perks or play the survival mode and try to hold on for as long as possible !

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

57%

Audience ScoreBased on 220 reviews

humor10 positive mentions

story8 negative mentions

Simple and easy-to-pick-up gameplay with satisfying shooting mechanics for short, mindless fun sessions.
Includes destructible environments and a variety of weapons with upgrade and perk systems that provide some character progression.
Developer has been responsive with improvements and actively updated the game, adding new content and fixes.

Highly repetitive gameplay with limited enemy variety and bland story mode consisting mostly of back-and-forth fetch quests.
Poor optimization leading to performance issues even on decent PCs, along with buggy AI, broken controls, and technical flaws.
Basic and outdated graphics, awkward animations, and forgettable audio design that fail to engage or impress.

story
43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
74%
19%
The story mode is widely criticized for its lack of meaningful narrative, consisting mainly of repetitive fetch quests and back-and-forth objectives with minimal plot or world-building. Players find it tedious, poorly executed, and frequently buggy, with the game relying almost entirely on combat rather than engaging storytelling. A few reviews jokingly praise it, but overall, the story is seen as shallow, repetitive, and unengaging.
- “Its story mode consists of three maps with equally simplistic logic: the first two maps require players to escape via vehicles, but unfortunately, the vehicles run out of fuel.”
- “The gameplay has a lot of fetch quest minutiae that might turn off some, but the idea is straightforward enough - in the wasteland map, your goal is to load up a recovered car with gas, food, and water to escape the area.”
- “Story mode is just a series of like 20 fetch quests in a row (e.g., find keys, find water, find food, find gas, take back to car/plane one at a time).”
- “There's no deep setup, no real story to follow, it's just you, your weapons, and waves of enemies.”
- “As a 'story' mode, it's incredibly dull and poorly executed.”
- “Story mode is just a series of like 20 fetch quests in a row (ex: find keys, find water, find food, find gas, take back to car/plane one at a time).”
gameplay
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
49%
34%
The gameplay is generally criticized for being repetitive, lacking variety in enemies, environments, and mechanics, and feeling grindy and unfinished. While some praise its straightforward and fluid action with decent mechanics, most find it dull, buggy, and lacking depth or meaningful progression, making it only suitable for completionists or short play sessions.
- “The developer was capable of including mechanics like meta-progression and destructible environments that are expected or even hard to find in quality, full-price titles.”
- “If you are deciding between this game and any other game on Steam, I recommend picking this up as you can get hundreds of hours of gameplay out of it.”
- “Gameplay is fluid and full of action.”
- “There’s not much variety in enemies, environments, or gameplay mechanics.”
- “It doesn’t really introduce new ideas or evolve its gameplay, so it turns repetitive pretty quickly.”
- “However, its poor gameplay makes the overall experience dreadful.”
graphics
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
38%
45%
The graphics are widely considered basic, outdated, and poorly optimized, featuring simplistic visuals, stiff animations, and occasional glitches. While some find the visuals acceptable or nostalgic, many describe them as distracting or subpar, though this is often overlooked in favor of gameplay enjoyment. Overall, the game does not impress with its presentation but delivers a functional, if rough, visual experience.
- “It never pretends to be a complex or cinematic experience; instead, it offers a simple, messy burst of alien-splattering fun wrapped in a distinctly homemade aesthetic.”
- “10/10 amazing story with flushed out plot and overwhelming graphics!”
- “They're an improvement graphically and are a lot more fun to play.”
- “The visuals are simplistic, the character animations stiff, and the aliens sometimes behave erratically due to basic AI routines.”
- “Lower end graphics with low frame rate gave me vertigo and nausea pretty quick but that might just be me.”
- “It's not great - the graphics are outdated and the physics are quite wonky.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is largely unintentional and stems from its quirky bugs, silly physics, and unconventional character designs rather than clever writing or depth. While some find the ridiculous moments and environmental destruction amusing, others feel the game’s comedic value is more about how hilariously flawed it is. Overall, the humor appeals mainly through its absurdity and developer responsiveness to feedback.
- “Some parts are laggy but the dino aliens are funny to shoot.”
- “I mean that's funny that I can kick box to the moon.”
- “The dev, after seeing my review, offered to allow me to test updates - since then physics have improved - though are still hilarious sometimes - and it shows that devdan really wants to take feedback and improve the game - much better than most roasted devs who blame those who dislike the game for its failings.”
stability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is hindered by numerous bugs, including AI and environment glitches that cause characters to get stuck, frozen screens, and audio cutouts. These issues disrupt gameplay but do not prevent completion, and some players find enjoyment despite the technical flaws. Overall, stability problems significantly impact the experience and detract from the game's quality.
- “The story mode can be kind of buggy (the next phase/wave of the level won't fire unless you've cleared 100% of the baddies, and sometimes some goofy little alien gets hung up on a rock or something way far away from you, and you'll spend 10 minutes looking for him to trigger the appropriate event), but I can attest that all three are completable.”
- “Get put into menu, go to change settings, and notice that every time I move the mouse or press a key, the screen freezes for a second and the sound cuts out.”
- “At first I was pretty astounded how trashy the game was: buggy AI, terrible graphics, bad options, etc., but the more I played I actually started to enjoy just mindlessly mowing down aliens.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
12%
50%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many users reporting poor performance even on relatively powerful systems. Despite simple graphics, it runs poorly on older hardware and lacks basic optimization, leading to a frustrating experience.
- “There's a bit of that arcade-style loop where you try to beat your previous performance, which kept me engaged for a while.”
- “Matter of fact, I doubt these are aliens - they're just the local wildlife horribly mutated by the optimization of the habitat they live in, hungry for blood because of the high gas prices.”
- “It would be a good game but total unoptimized.”
- “But that's where the good things about it end, Action Alien has horrid optimization, probably one of the worst I've seen in a game.”
- “Terrible optimization, no gameplay, in general, a bad game.”
- “But this hasn't even been optimized in the most basic way to run on a fairly high-end gaming system.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The music is relaxing and generally well-liked, providing a soothing atmosphere. However, some users find it repetitive and are frustrated by the inability to turn off or separate the sound and music.
- “I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
- “I like to play games while streaming music.”
- “The music is good but can seem repetitive.”
- “Not able to turn off sound and music.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a heavy grind, especially for unlocking achievements and perks, with lengthy levels and increasing difficulty. While initially engaging, the repetitive fetch quests and continuous grinding quickly become tedious and monotonous.
- “Super grindy to get all achievements; levels are super long considering the gameplay.”
- “It becomes a tedious fetch quest grind after that, and enemies increase in difficulty as you clear more objectives.”
- “It's fun for a few minutes, and then it just gets boring, repetitive, and tedious.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The atmosphere is marked by functional but unrefined audio design, with weapon sounds feeling less impactful and alien cries coming off as repetitive or comedic. However, the highly directional footstep sounds effectively enhance the tension and immersion, contributing positively to the game's overall atmosphere.
- “The audio design, while serviceable, lacks the nuance or atmosphere of more refined shooters; weapons sound functional rather than impactful, and alien cries alternate between comedic and repetitive.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Replayability is largely influenced by a player's tolerance for repetitive gameplay and enjoyment of straightforward arcade-style action. Those who appreciate fast-paced, simple carnage will find more value in replaying the game.
- “Replay value largely depends on the player’s tolerance for repetition and their appetite for simple arcade carnage.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users criticize the monetization, feeling the game is overpriced and released prematurely, perceiving it as a cash grab without sufficient development.