Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion

by Funcom

Product Features

• Expansion pack to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Anarchy Online
• Construct towns, houses and set up unique shops
• Defend your cities against invading alien forces
• Board and attack alien ships
• Note: This expansion requires Anarchy Online and an Internet connection, and charges a monthly fee payable by credit card or pre-paid game card (sold separately)

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001MBCDG
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,778 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The next chapter in the Anarchy Online saga further strengthens the sci-fi aspects of the game, making it even more unique compared to current and forthcoming offerings within the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) genre.

Not only are the social aspects greatly improved, with players being able to construct their own towns, set up unique shops, and build impressive organization headquarters, they also get their action quota filled when they come face to face with aliens wielding superior technology.

The new alien menace threatens all of the citizens of Rubi-Ka as the planet is suddenly invaded. A massive call to arms is sounded across the planet as the players rally to defend their own cities against the alien horde.

Features:

• Defend your cities against invading aliens
• Get access to alien perks and new special abilities
• Board and attack alien spaceships
• Build impressive looking organization headquarters
• Construct a wide variety of player-made houses
• Build your own towns with distinct looks
• Create your own shops
• Gain benefits by owning houses, shops, towns and organization headquarters
• Get access to a completely new trade skill interface
• Own a new line of personal flying vehicles
• Obtain new weapons, armor, social clothes, items and quests

This expansion pack requires the Anarchy Online game to play. Anarchy Online is a multiplayer online game you play via the Internet. A stable Internet connection is required to play. The makers charge a small monthly fee for this game, separate from your Internet service provider access charges.

Product Description

Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion is the next chapter in the award-winning multiplayer online role-player. In this expansion pack, the tiny world of Rubi-Ka has to face an all-new threat: An alien invader with superior technology. A call to arms is sounded across the planet, as players rally to defend their own cities against the alien horde.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Marketing Deadlines versus Quality Control, September 14, 2004

By 

Gwydion - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion (CD-ROM)

After 2yrs enjoyment of Anarchy Online, myself and my in-game guild were eagerly awaiting the release of this new expansion. The pre-launch publicity promised player made housing, player vendors, new Alien enemies and playfields on request. Upon its release however, we found that much of the promised content was not there. The player markets were withdrawn just prior to launch, the customised housing offers little or no storage and no way to personalise anything. Aliens can only be summoned if your guild has a certain building in place but due to poor design and, I suspect, pressure from marketing for a hasty release, many city plots were not made big enough for one of these buildings (something only revealed after you have gone through the lengthy and expensive process of creating the building and buying the land plot). We have experienced many bugs in building placement about which in-game advisors can only suggest - "this site is bugged, buy another site"! Now our guild pooled all our accumulated wealth from all our time in AO just to meet the insanely high costs involved in building a base, so you can imagine how that 'helpful' answer to our concerns makes us feel. As a small organization none of our needs have been catered for by this release. Quite the contrary, it seems, little or no thought was given to the average player with limited in-game resources, instead this expansion was set up so that only a certain sector of the AO community would be able to benefit from it, while penalising smaller guilds and completely excluding the solo player. All this coupled with the numerous bugs that ruin gameplay have made the Alien Invasion expansion a dissapointing and frustrating experience for all of my guild. Non of the promised game content has been made available to us and as the in-game advisors/bug hunters are mostly new volunteers the line from them is "put up or shut up".

We will all stick with the game as the previous expansion still has lots to offer but I would advise others without so much experience of Anarchy Online to give the Alien Invasion expansion a miss as it will taint your enjoyment of the wider game. Demonstrations that game site reviewers see often take place on controlled servers with GM supervision, something that in no way reflects the practical realities that ordinary players experience. No prizes for FunCom this year and definately no pre-orders for future expansions from us.

Score 0 out of 10, waist of money.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wallet invasion, September 23, 2004

By 

David (Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion (CD-ROM)

Anarchy online has really shot themself in the foot with this "expansion". first the pet code that was to be included for preorders wasnt made aviable in many cases, this is a rather large bonus for the game - actualy being able to have a pet to run around with even if its not a combat tool.

Pros

- Aliens have unique looks (though one style looks like its out of the Independance day movie)

- alien weapons are "shiney"

- new cloths look stunning for the graphics engine

- Some very cool "toys" found off of the general of a ship

Cons

- Aliens encounters dont take many things into account includeing profession, they just hit you hard, fast, and ignore your nano resist.

- Shiney alien weapons do pathetic damage. They are actualy better weapons for new players at level 1-20, then they are for level 200+ players. This means you tend to outgrow the hard and rare to find low ql weapons in about an hour of game play

- You dont actualy defend your base, an org of at least 6+ online players summons aliens to fight and by their mere existance your base takes damage

- if you wipe out the you summon fast enough, up to 16 but usualy around 10 people are allowed to do an alien mission

- All player towns look similar

- Benifits from town buildings are sporatic and seem to be on in some areas and off in others.

- Player owned shops dont exist even though they are suposed to

- player made buildings are not very unique, just differeing quality levels for a few weeks untill you get ql 300 ones.

- Base upkeep is so expensive you will have to almost work a full time job of playing to get the credits to keep it from self distructing. (yes even post base upkeep reduction patch)

- The new trade skill interface doesnt work properly. it only really helps identifiy an alien object.

- there are no new flying vehicals - its just a new paintjob that looks like it was made in microsoft paint

- Player citys cause major latency in your internet connection as you get near them. most of the flavorfull decorations compound this effect.

- if your at an alien attack, aliens spawn and attack you immediately. However your client stalls due to memory leaks and rendering problems letting them get several free hits, or even kill you while it loads.

- Alien generals only drop one piece of "good" loot. however require a team of 6-30 people to take down. and even the usefullness of this one piece of loot is questionable.

- Alien perks were -downgraded- in usefullness in beta because they were too easy to get. After release the alien xp gain was nerfed, fixed, nerfed and fixed again. as a result after about 5 or 6 of the alien levels its no longer worthwhile to actualy fight aliens for xp. spending a month to get 1 level isnt pratical.

- new armor is almost imposible to trade skill, and only parts of it are usefull.

On a more specific note - this expansion of the game actualy does not provide much new content. Any player can fight aliens with or with out AI. The only reason to purchase it is if you want to be able to board an alien ship (its a mission) once or twice a week. I regrete paying for this product and should have waited a bit as its already a bargin bin game.

This expansion is not required to play anarchy online, and infact offers very little. I'd rate this product higher if it was actualy a review of the base game Anarchy online, or the Shadowlands, however its an expansion for thoes and as an expansion I'll have to rate it as a 1 star product. Though honestly I would prefer to rate it at about half a star.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MMO to be remembered, November 28, 2004

By 

Planeteer (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion (CD-ROM)

I've been playing Anarchy Online for two years now and this game is the greatest MMORPG I have ever played, and basically the best game I will ever play.

All of the expansions to this game are phenominal, Shadowlands was a breakthrough to this game.. and now there is Alien Invasion!

Being able to build your own cities is an amazing idea for this game, and aliens being to invade is awesome.

We got new items, creatures, quests, zones, and everything in between with this expansion. This expansion is worth the money, it doesnt cost much but it will add-on to your experience in the game, whether you are new or a veteran to this game.