First it’s like, awww he is so cute…then there are the exploding bodies and the orange lethal alien is on the run trying to escape its captivity.

This action puzzle game from Trapdoor and published by Electronic Arts is another little surprise of a game that can be found on Xbox Live Arcade. Our little orange friend crash lands (At least that’s what I got out of the opening cut scene…) and is abducted and spirited away and winds up in a research facility…t during captivity some other being within the facility communicates with our alien, hoping together to be able to find a way out…then it’s soon up to the player to decide how to escape. They can try for stealth and avoid conflict, or release some carnage on the abductors.

Using special abilities such as Frag, Echo, Swap, Launch, and Warp and upgrades to get through the levels and if you’re really good eventual escape. The special abilities that our deceptively cute orange alien has are as follows. Frag - Warp into objects or humans and destroy them from the inside. Echo – Create a decoy of yourself to distract enemies. Swap – Place your Echo over an object to instantly switch places with it. Launch – Warp into objects and fire them away from you at high speeds. Warp - Teleport instantly through walls, over obstacles, and into objects. Players will need all of these abilities and making good choices on how to use them along the way if they are going to make good their escape.

The puzzle obstacles grow more challenging as the game progresses, ramping up nicely so the game does not become a bore, nor overly easy. There are laser obstacles and upgraded guards that are shielded from warp to make things more of a thinking person’s game.

There are frustrations in the game, though it does not really have to do with the levels as much as the controls for our little alien friend. Players have to be very sure of where they are warping, so as not to warp in front of a laser turret, doing this will leave the alien in a little orange goo on the floor…. or off of a high place where our little orange guy will fall to a dark death. Laser turrets can be temporarily shorted out for a short period of time if they are warped into. Warping around the short distances for much of the levels can be done by warping into barrels or through some walls.

Further on in the game, we find that we can warp into humans and vibrate to the point of exploding them from the inside, this ability should be used with some strategic thought behind it. Be aware that other guards with weapons will notice another person acting strangely and will shoot them, and therefore shoot our little alien and kill them on the spot.

Save locations are auto save stations, these are control panels in the wall that have a little computer disk icon; again, these are auto save spots, when you get to them it just saves a checkpoint.

Along the way there are special little sections that can be warped into that are challenge rooms, there are leaderboards, and players can use these special rooms to win grubs and up their abilities. The rooms consist of challenges of your little aliens abilities by way of timed obstacle courses. Nice.

Along with the games gore and violence, there is some strong language so this one is not for some young kids, check the rating parents if you do want a surprise.

Built with the Unreal 3 engine, the visuals are decent enough with its top down view giving the player a good view of the playing levels as they go. The sound matches the game style and all are pleasing.

While the game is not going to please everyone, the game brings it old school harkening to some of the styles that started the action puzzle gaming of old. Warp is a nice straight to the point gaming experience that if you come ready to have some fun, you won’t be disappointed.

Have fun, play games.

Edwin Millheim