Alien Hominid Invasion is a run-and-gun with lots of loot

I can see myself sinking a lot of time into it

The Behemoth is taking another crack at Alien Hominid with everything it’s learned from Castle Crashers, BattleBlock Theater, and Pit People, and the result is Alien Hominid Invasion – an up-to-four-player run-and-gun arcade shooter with character customization, XP-based leveling, loot drops, and longer legs.

The new game – and it is a new game, not a remake – was announced in January. Today, just in time for PAX East, The Behemoth shared its first gameplay footage and screenshots for Alien Hominid Invasion.

Before I drone on, it’s worth stressing that co-op is local and online. (I hate when that info is buried.)

In a lot of ways, the footage is what I expected. It’s unmistakably Alien Hominid, but with a new non-linear format that fits into the current climate. I’m all about games with “life steal” weapon attributes. Other possible incremental stats include shots-per-second, piercing, movement speed, and defense.

If you’re puzzled by that town-map screen in the trailer, the central hook of Alien Hominid Invasion is beaming down to Earth to “invade randomly-assembled neighborhoods built from hundreds of hand-crafted city blocks,” so it’s more free-flowing. You’ll also “abduct intel from your enemies to sabotage their plans, observe the oddities of human life, blow up bosses, and mutate into a variety of powerful Alien forms in order to take down the not-so-secret Agents that are dead set on ruining your day.”

You won’t need to worry about one-hit kills like before, but they might be a factor in certain scenarios. On that note, The Behemoth is planning to have Friendly, Normal, and Insane difficulty settings.

The release timing is up in the air, so don’t necessarily count on a 2020 launch. Alien Hominid Invasion will be done when it’s done, and it’s coming to Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.