If you take a quick glance at Alien Breed Evolution, you might write it off as a shameless Dead Space knock-off: space marines fighting off bug-like aliens in a derelict space station, blah blah blahhh...

...In reality, the Xbox Live Arcade revival of Team 17's Alien Breed series is a highly entertaining corridor shooter with intuitive twin-stick control mechanics. The satisfying production values (gorgeous graphics, moody soundtrack, great sound effects) are like a cherry on top of a massive alien ice cream cone. It isn't original, but it's definitely fun – but is it worth purchasing the full version?

Hit the jump and read our full review of Alien Breed Evolution, but try not to jump too high – you need to focus to blast these aliens!

Alien Breed Evolution is a standard third-person shooter played from an isometric perspective with twin-stick controls. What this means is it feels a bit like Dead Space mixed with Shadow Complex and Geometry Wars. Moving around the ship and defending yourself against waves of dangerous aliens is simple thanks to the intuitive control style. Cumbersome controls would have made it a lot less enjoyable to loot the ship and explore every nook and cranny for items; fortunately the game isn't hindered by this problem. Finding hidden bonus items is very rewarding, like finding Audio Logs in BioShock.

There are five stages in this game (there will be two more “episodes” with more levels in the near future), and each is a lengthy test of survival skill, inventory management, and marksmanship. There are a couple of weapons and equipment items, including an assault rifle, shot cannon (shotgun), laser rifle (with laser beams that bounce from wall to wall), small and large health packs, grenades, and sentry guns. These things help to dispatch the countless enemies that bombard you from every direction as you go about restoring power and stabilizing different sections of the ship.

There aren't a lot of enemy variations, but the hordes of them are threatening enough that it doesn't matter. Most of the enemies are blatantly ripped out of other science-fiction works, but it's hard to make a creative sci-fi game these days. Unfortunately, the only major boss fight (at the end of level 5) is pretty cheesy, but it's still pretty fun to see it through to the end.

Alien Breed Evolution is currently one of the better-looking Xbox Live Arcade games. It uses the Unreal 3 engine brilliantly to create moody environments that are like redux versions of Dead Space's haunting locales. Particle effects like gunfire, blood, and explosions look as exciting as they do in Shadow Complex. Those minute details look fantastic – like the protagonist's suit lights displaying his current health. The music is both absent and pulse-pounding when the time is right, and combined with the crisp, loud sound effects, each surprise encounter is even more thrilling.

On top of a 5-7 hour single-player campaign (with Leaderboard support and 3 difficulty settings for added replay value) there is a “Co-Op Assault” mode that puts two players in one large section of the ship and pits them against waves of enemies. The co-op mode is a lot of fun, but playing with a friend can be difficult due to the restrictive camera that forces players to work together. It forces you to move in the same direction, which brings about another problem – sharing items. The lack of a drop or trade function is inexcusable, because some players are bound to accidentally pick up (or selfishly stockpile) all of the trusty items when their partner needs them more.

This is a really simple game – there are no weapon or armor upgrades to find, you can't “level up”, and the collectible items are more important for Achievement purposes than anything else. Finding all of the hidden Log items unravels more of the mystery behind the story, but the story is definitely along for the ride in this game. There may be two more episodes planned in this series, but I'll be playing them for the gameplay, not another tired tale of helpless space marines and bug-like alien creatures.

To be honest, there isn't a lot to complain about here. Alien Breed is just a fun game to play, period. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it doesn't have to. At its best, when you're running for your life, firing blindly at a crowd of deadly alien creatures, it matches the thrills of big-name survival horror games. At its worst, it throws a stupid final boss at you or borderlines on repetition due to backtracking and find-the-switch quests. The only other issue I had was holding the left trigger to use items - it's just not the best way to throw a grenade; what were you thinking, Team 17? It would also be nice to see the scope broadened for missions and objectives in the next two games. There are too many switch-hunts and defend-the-terminal spots in this game.

For 800 Microsoft Points, Alien Breed Evolution is a pretty good deal. It's a great way to start off the new Alien Breed trilogy. Dead Space fans that are feeling the burn of anticipation for Dead Space 2 might want to take a look at this one – the gameplay is fun, the graphics are great, and it always feels satisfying to blast aliens with a shotgun. It might not be original or creative in any way, but Alien Breed could be a lot worse for $10.