Guardians: Alien Hunter Review

Interstellar Mayhem

Guardians: Alien Hunter, an overhead shooter developed by Onesoft, had me blasting aliens of all types with the use of one finger on my phone. Possessing the same DNA as shooters such as Space Marshals, Guardians: Alien Hunter offers up a blistering adventure that has a few surprises loaded in its chamber.

I followed the simple story easily enough. Taking control of an intergalactic commando known as a “Guardian”, I was tasked with stopping an invading alien force from colonizing the galaxy as soon as I launched the game. Needless to say, I really had no idea what to expect when I loaded this game on my phone, but I was initially surprised by what it offered. However, when I really started chewing on it, I discovered that a few things drag it down from potential greatness.

Cosmic Eye Candy

Visually speaking, Guardians: Alien Hunter is a delight. It comes with a colorful design that’s akin to the Saturday morning cartoons of yesteryear. Starting off, I played as ‘Larz’. His character model pops off the screen along with his little pet eagle. I was controlling Larz in glee while I blasted aliens into oblivion. Each character comes with differing stats, but they all feel the same in terms of playability. The overall art design is excellent. This is especially true with the different gear and weapons that I accessed early on. The enemies I encountered look just as good, even though there’s not an awful lot of variety to them.

Honestly, I was so busy dodging projectiles I didn’t really care about the enemy’s design. I just wanted to reduce them to goo. The environments on each stage generally look the same, but their layout changes after each round which gives each firefight a certain freshness. The sound is suitable enough. Gunfire can sound a bit tinny and repetitive. However, the music does come with an epicness that charged me up and got me ready for battle.

Galactic Gear

Happily, I controlled the characters smoothly, tightly, and responsively. I danced around the arena with ease while avoiding bullets and enemies alike. Characters have a companion that follows them around the stage and assists in picking up power-ups. This is a much-needed feature, since stages become littered with: coins, food, and ammunition. I saved time from running around collecting everything and it helped keep the action flowing.

After completing the campaign, there’s more alien blasting fun with more unlockable modes Adventure and Glory Tower. Moreover, Guardians: Alien Hunter also comes with light RPG elements such as-a skills tree, upgradable equipment, and a crafting bench. I found myself upgrading equipment and skills after a few rounds. Collecting loot is easy after clearing a stage. I gathered up a rather hefty amount and provided myriad options on what to do with it. Thus, the menus are easy to navigate and organized.

A Brutal Terrain

Guardians: Alien Hunter currently has four worlds that are playable that each has up to 20 levels to clear. As I played the game, spikes in difficulty were common. This is due to the fact that I was forced to watch advertisements to either revive or open loot boxes. Being a free-to-play game, this is somewhat understandable. The problem is that the majority of the videos I needed to watch wouldn’t play or weren’t available. So, it forced me to use my rare gems to continue playing. There are tons of loot boxes that I couldn’t open up because the video wouldn’t work and this really bogged down my progress. It’s a nagging issue that hopefully, the developers can patch up, but it does make the game feel broken at times.

Guardians: Alien Hunter has oodles of potential. A few issues addressed with advertisements aside, the title offers hours of replayability for anyone looking for some mindless fun.