Alien Ship Assault
Sixty seconds, fourteen aliens, and a walk back to the pad you landed on
About Alien Ship Assault
Anyone expecting rows of pixel aliens marching down a screen should adjust their expectations. This one runs under the title Alien Ship Assault and plays from above: a top-down raid through a derelict ship whose rooms and corridors are laid out fresh every attempt. You start on a landing pad with sixty seconds, fourteen aliens aboard, and a map you have never seen.
Most of the ship is dark. Roughly seven tiles of corridor light up around you and the rest fills in on the minimap as you walk it, so half the pressure is navigational. Killing the last alien does not end the run either. The ship flips to an extraction phase and you have to find your way back to the pad you started from, with whatever seconds are left, through corridors you were too busy to memorise on the way in.
Health packs and time capsules are scattered through the rooms, the clock never stops, and a bad route costs more than a bad fight. Runs take a minute or two and every attempt builds a different ship.
What is different about this version
There is no aiming. Your weapon locks onto the nearest alien within eight tiles that you have clear line of sight to, and if nothing qualifies it simply points where you are walking. That single choice turns the whole game into a positioning problem: you decide who to shoot by deciding where to stand, and breaking line of sight is the only way to stop shooting a target. The layout is generated per run from up to fourteen rooms joined by corridors, so nothing can be memorised between attempts. The second departure is the extraction. Clearing the ship leaves the clock running and sends you back the way you came, which means the route you took while hunting is half the score.
How to play Alien Ship Assault
- You start on the glowing extraction pad with sixty seconds on the clock.
- Move through the rooms and corridors to find the fourteen aliens.
- Hold fire and the gun tracks the nearest alien it can see.
- Four hits kill an alien; their shots take fifteen off your hundred health.
- Grab health packs to heal and time capsules for five seconds each.
- When the last alien falls, the pad starts flashing on the minimap.
- Get back to the pad before the clock runs out to extract.
Controls
| Desktop | WASD or the arrow keys to move, hold Space to fire, Escape to pause. |
|---|---|
| Phone or tablet | A thumb stick on the left to move and a fire button on the right. |
| Players | One player. Any other characters on screen are run by the game. |
Strategy
Learn the six-tile line. Aliens ignore you completely until you come within about six tiles, and that is also the range at which they start shooting. Nothing on the ship hunts you from across the map, so a room full of them can be split up simply by stepping back into the corridor you arrived from and letting them come to you one at a time through the doorway. They move at roughly half your speed, so backing away while firing is almost always winning.
The arithmetic is in your favour in a straight fight. Four shots kill, your gun fires about seven times a second, and your bullets travel noticeably faster than theirs. What actually kills you is standing in the open middle of a room with three of them converging, since contact alone costs twenty health and their shots cost fifteen. Doorways and corners fix that, because the auto-aim needs line of sight and so do they.
Route discipline matters more than accuracy. Every room holds one time capsule worth five seconds, so a sweep that takes in capsules on the way costs nothing and buys you the walk home. Health packs return about ten seconds after you take one, which makes the room containing one a good place to fight a second time. Keep a rough idea of the direction you came from, because once the last alien drops you are running that route in reverse with the clock still going.
Mistakes that cost you the game
- Walking into the middle of a room before you know what is in it. Six tiles is all the warning the aliens need.
- Pushing deep without watching the clock. The run home is the same distance you just walked, and nothing shortens it.
- Walking past time capsules because you are chasing a kill. Five seconds each, and there are six of them.
- Standing still to shoot. You are twice their speed and that speed is the whole defence.
Tips
- Fight in doorways. The auto-aim wants line of sight, and so do they.
- Take a health pack before it is urgent; another appears in the same place ten seconds later.
- Glance at the minimap when you turn a corner, not when you are already lost.
Questions about Alien Ship Assault
How do I aim?
You do not. The gun finds the nearest alien in line of sight within eight tiles; otherwise it points where you are moving.
Is the ship the same every time?
No, the rooms and corridors are generated fresh each run, so nothing carries over except what you know about the aliens.
What happens when I kill the last one?
The extraction phase begins. The pad you started on starts pulsing and you have to reach it before the clock hits zero.
Can I get more time?
Yes, six capsules are scattered across the rooms and each adds five seconds when you walk over it.
What ends a run?
Running out of health or running out of time. Both show the same summary with kills, time and your best so far.
Does it cost anything?
No. Alien Ship Assault is free to play, runs in your browser, and needs no download, install or account.
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