<> @3{ALIEN BASH 2 - GAME @4}by zYLAX / PTK @5 The public domain has often been described as a gold mine, and true to this there are some outstanding pieces of software waiting to be discovered. There is also a hell of a lot of shyte, but how can you tell which is which? Take the name ALIEN BASH 2. Anybody with any experience of the PD scene would probably think: "Oh, it's yet another Space Invaders clone!" or "Not another AMOS shoot 'em up!". Well, with this particular ALIEN BASH 2, both of those assumptions would be way off the mark. @6 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ @1 The game's scenario goes something like this: Apparently, in the prequel to this game (ALIEN BASH) you successfully took control of an alien ship you were being held prisoner on. You have now managed to land the ship on the alien's homeworld, where you can continue your extraterrestrial cleansing programme. Well, like most arcade games, the plot bares all but the thinnest link to the on-screen action. In essence, ALIEN BASH 2 has been heavily influenced by the Bitmap Brother's smash - The Chaos Engine to such an extent, it becomes a clone. Of course, being a PD game, ALIEN BASH 2 comes nowhere near to the standard set by the original. Think again! ALIEN BASH 2 has all the hallmarks of a commercial game, such as being constructed out of complete 68000 code for starters. Which comes with advantages such as super-smooth scrolling and no slowdown whatsoever. The next aspect of the game that hits you is it's look. The graphix are excellent. There is smooth character animation and all the static objects and screens are very detailed. I know this has been said over and over again, but ALIEN BASH 2 really IS commercial quality. The actual game consists of eight levels and you won't finish it in a hurry. Like I said before, this is a Chaos Engine clone so anyone whose played that game will know something of what to expect from this. What's amazing is that all of this work is down to two guyz: coding - Glen Cumming and graphix - Myles Jeffery. No massive development teams here! Fair enough, it isn't as good as Chaos Engine. But it comes pretty damn close!