Alien Front Online E3 2000 Impressions

Alien Front Online was, in many ways, a well-kept secret at this year's E3. It was stashed in the back corner of Sega's booth, almost completely obscured by a few arcade games. But it was definitely one of the most interesting games on display, at Sega's booth or any booth.

The game is simple. Eight players enter an environment, which varies from city streets, to forests, to mountains, and more. Four of these players are piloting a tank. The other four are piloting an alien craft - I saw two types of alien vehicles. One was a two-legged walker, the other was a sort of hovercraft. The game is a simple team deathmatch, aliens versus humans. Aside from your main weapon and easy-to-use strafing controls, you can also obtain special weapons. The weapons include machine guns, guided missiles, and a nuclear missile that clears out an entire section of the map in a truly impressive fashion.

Four Dreamcasts were set up right next to four Alien Front Online arcade machines, and the eight stations were all linked together. Also, each station had a small headset, which allowed you to hear the action, as well as talk to other players in real-time. Hopefully lag won't be too big of an issue when the game ships, because it played extremely smoothly and was an absolute blast.