Alien Breed 3D 2: The Killing Grounds

DisMoi5 2018-12-09
(8/10)
One of my best all time classics!
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Lester1 2018-10-15
(9/10)
Since my review of playing this in emulation below, I have been lucky enough to get hold of an A4000 '040. In the mid 90s I used to dream about owning this game and an Amiga powerful enough to play it properly, and 25 years later I have not been disappointed. If you set the window and screen resolution to (2*2), it plays like the original but with the addition of "look up and down" (with the mouse in the WHDLoad version ). If you up the resolution to 1*1, it looks great and is only slightly slower for the first few levels, but struggles a bit with some parts of the more ambitious level designs later on.

To get the most out of it, I still think emulation on a PC (not Pi) is required. After much fiddling around with WinUAE you can get full screen, full speed, high resolution, and it is glorious; much much more advanced than any other native Amiga game. (But I think it would be too hard for me without the extra energy and ammo given by WHDLoad).

I also downloaded and tried the "Xenium Core" levels referred to below but so far but it hasn't felt any easier to me than the main game, if anything it seems harder! Still nice to have though and some nice features / additions.
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Lester1 2018-03-08
(9/10)
This is wonderful, now that it can be enjoyed using emulation. I would love to play it on my 28mhz A1200 with 8mb of RAM instead (as I do with AB3D) but this sequel just works so much better in WinUAE. So I can see why people would get a bit frustrated with this on traditional hardware unless they have a really powerful Amiga. But I still think that it's a great thing that Team 17 made this, an Amiga-exclusive full-3D FPS with no compromises. Without this game, that just would not exist. The only other Amiga FPS which even has a look up/down feature is Breathless (which I also like), and that can't be done with the mouse and the game generally is only 2.5D (like Doom) instead of full 3D (like Quake).
I do think that the level design could make better use of the engine (although I'm not especially far into the game yet) and it is generally too difficult for my tastes, so I am definitely going to be trying the Xenium Core add on pack referred to below. And I will probably always prefer the first installment as I got it for Christmas '95, whereas purchasing this is one, whilst I would have loved to, I knew would be pointless on my then stock A1200. But this game gives the Amiga its own native Quake type FPS, even if it has taken modern tech for most people to have the chance to get the best out of it.
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PopoCop 2018-01-18
AB3D2 is a tough game. It requires fast Amiga: with 68030/50 Mhz you can play on a small screen but with at least 68040/40 Mhz and turbo patch you can switch to full screen. A lot of patience and practice is needed. Difficulty level is very high (maybe too high), many levels are too dark.
There is an excellent pack of new levels called Xenium Core (available on Aminet). It's more playable than original game, a little easier (but not easy) and includes new enemies and weapons (for example flares which are VERY handy). If you enjoyed The Killing Grounds try also Xenium Core. If you were put off by TKG try Xenium Core too.
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Legerdemain 2013-06-26
(4/10)
Actually this runs just fine at least on 030 and upwards, as long as one is playing the 2MB-version. However, that does not matter much at all considering the game is as unbalanced as it is.

By the third level some kind of full scale frustration should have kicked in, if you are the slightest of a player like me. Enemies with unavoidable and invisible attacks, a constant lack of ammo even when playing strategically and way too few health packs.

Compared to Alien Breed 3D, this sequel may be technically superior in most ways possible. But what it makes up for with its technical marvel it completely lacks in the department of Fun.

However, that would not be a first in the Alien Breed series. But I am not sure one is allowed to talk in such ways.
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rhorschack 2012-11-23
The game that brought the Team17 vs Amiga Power feud to its climax !
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GuyFawkesRetro 2012-05-31
(10/10)
You need A Hyper 1200 for this, which those days was a NO. Now, this game like other FPS 1200 titles (these days), if you have the hardware, are awesome.
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grond 2011-11-10
I completed Alien Breed 3D but only played this for a few minutes. I had a comparatively powerful Amiga (A1200 with 50 MHz 68030 and 8 MB of Fastmem) but it still wasn't fast enough to render more than something like 3 to 6 frames per second. This didn't only look jerky but made playing impossible.

The first part didn't make use of computing power when available, the second part demanded far too much computing power.
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ReTroViRuS 2011-04-26
(3/10)
I appreciate anyone who is able to find some enjoyment in Alien Breed 3D 2. However, I see this less as a measure of your skill than as a demonstration of how much you are willing to put up with a sluggish, aesthetically ugly and overly difficult game.
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runequester 2009-10-25
(8/10)
This one probably would not run well on classic amiga hardware, though emulation makes it a breeze.
Its extremely atmospheric, very tense and the difficulty is through the roof.
Alien Breed 3D 2 is where the men are separated from the boys.
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Chuckles 2009-09-09
(10/10)
I've just played this through emulation so I can't make any judgements concerning speed, as thru different 68K chips. Do I like it? Yup. And I've played the latter 1990's new generation 3D-Shoots, such as, Half-Life, Half-Life2, and Dues Ex. And Doom.
And I like this Alien Breed shooter, despite its being lower on the clock/pixel scale than later 3d PC games. I've been involved back into Amiga games for about a year now, and today was the first day of playing a real Amiga 3D game. I'm not disappointed.
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cioran53 2007-10-01
(6/10)
Team17 wanted to prove that an Amiga could handle a FPS like a PC back at the time. And this one was designed and programmed like a PC game. A lot of options, details and setups. But the game itself was so slow on a 68030 that I did not really play it. I heard that the 68060 could not handle it either. A shame because it could have become a real it… with more powerful Amiga computers.
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ReTroViRuS 2007-08-06
(3/10)
This was a horrible, horrible failure after the promising start of the Alien Breed 3D series. The framerate is sluggish even on 060 systems. The game is nearly unplayable. Worse yet, the polygon count of the new enemy models is so low even their pixelated counterparts in the first Alien Breed 3D look better.
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Yure 2007-05-07
(7/10)
Level design not as good as the first chapter. Slow and buggy although visually impressive. Too bad.
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elend 2007-04-04
Unplayable due to heavy slowdowns even on a 060.
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mailman 2006-02-26
(10/10)
This game is not as bad as many players describe it, although at the beginning people may be easily disappointed. TKG has one of the best graphics Amiga game has ever had but this is not everything what counts. TKG needs a lot of playing. The player has to train each level, need to know it, likely feel it. The game requires a lot of patience to be put in and after some time it will pay you back with love. Very high difficulty level makes the suspense, thrill and fear fade away a bit. Instead of afraid you pray for survive constantly watching energy counter which sometimes is trying to reach zero with the speed of light. And still no luck in finding first aid kit... I dare to say that TKG is the must-see for First Person Shooter fan who thinks that there is no Doom-like game which is too tough for him/her. He/She will very quickly change his/her mind
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Karpow 2005-06-01
(8/10)
Hell this was SLOW. Even on all mighty 060! There was a patch to speed up the game, but it also messed up the graphics a bit. Nevertheless, I used to play this quite much. The game is good and exciting. It just could have been quite a lot faster...
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squirminator2k 2005-05-31
TKG's fantastic engine couldn't save the game from being a virtually unplayable mess. Awful level design, terrible sound and "Doom" style controls (apparently Team17 don't believe in mouseview!) made this game one of the worst gameplay experiences on the Amiga.
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Fizza 2005-05-03
(9/10)
Very challenging, yes it was like playing underwater but the graphics were on point and the atmosphere was pure Alien Breed. I still wish to play this at 25fps, has anyone managed this? This would have been the dream game for the PPC line way back when.. Superior to Doom II & potentially Quake IMO!
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Guybrush Threepwood 2005-05-02
(7/10)
Level design was good, OK GFX and sound but to be quite honest Team 17 were trying to take the "Alien" series to a different format in 3D as opposed to birds eye shoot em up, so you have to give them at least some credit for not trying to cash in on same format time after time as some games companies still do
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jnk 2005-02-07
(5/10)
Why did they have to make AB in 3D? That's a great way of destroying a great game!
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fx 2004-12-31
(6/10)
Cool game, too bad it runs slow even on a 060.
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