Getting lost in a good video game? Oh, it’s like entering a different world. Suddenly, hours fly by, you smell kinda funky, and realize you haven’t had a sip of water. Yep, been there, done that. I’ve been a gamer since I was young, and my concentration during gameplay is legendary, truly. Picture this: I’m decked out in an all-pink outfit dominating in melee, leaving other players clueless about what hit them. Yeah, I’m that serious about gaming, and my audience knows it well.
Recently, someone from our Discord named Gabe dropped a game in the chat, and I couldn’t resist checking it out. It’s an ancient aliens game, perfect for a content idea since I’ve dived into several wild Ancient Aliens episodes on my channel—think Bigfoot as an alien or robots being aliens, and even the notion that we might be aliens ourselves. Seeing this game for $15 on Steam, I had to get it, and boy, was it a ride.
The game kicks off strong, throwing you right into the action with a cutscene featuring Giorgio Tsoukalos, a prominent Ancient Aliens host, at a convention or something. If you aren’t familiar with Giorgio, you’re in for a treat. This guy is a meme legend with his own spin-off shows on the History Channel, where he hunts for aliens. The dialogue in the game seems like it was lifted straight from his shows.
Right from the get-go, the game’s dialogue questions humanity’s fascination with gold, proposing that ancient humans might have assigned value to it by observing extraterrestrials. The cutscene even has interactive storybook vibes, freezing when Giorgio finishes talking until you press continue. It’s a neat touch that gives you time to process the outlandish theories thrown your way.
The game quickly transports you back to ancient Egypt to work alongside Giorgio to unravel ancient mysteries. You’re then abducted by English-speaking aliens facing a generic planetary crisis. They need resources from Earth, promising to provide means to defend Earth against a catastrophic event in return. This fits well within the Ancient Aliens universe, where many major Earth events, like the dinosaurs’ extinction and biblical floods, are attributed to extraterrestrial interventions.
Interestingly, the game design has aliens employing humans for their dirty work, making you, the player, the human boss. Despite some narrative inconsistencies, like whether we are slaves or partners to the aliens, the game rolls on with a somewhat uncomfortable undertone, especially when ancient script dialogues reference you as ‘master.’ This whole narrative feels a bit off, considering the gameplay subtly suggests human enslavement.
Mechanically, it’s a mix between classic RTS games like Age of Empires and casual games like Cookie Clicker. You manipulate the natives to mine resources and construct the Great Pyramid, which in the game’s lore is a hydrogen reactor for the aliens. There’s a research mechanic too, helping unlock new technologies and buildings as you progress.
One of the most bizarre yet oddly engaging aspects of the game involves abducting humans to harvest DNA, using it as a currency to upgrade your workers. It’s a morally questionable mechanic, especially when it’s done through a probing process that plays disturbingly repetitive cutscenes. Visual quirks abound, from glitchy aliens bouncing around to fighter jets oddly clipping through the Great Pyramid.
A lot of the gameplay centers around various currencies: gold for building, DNA for research and worker upgrades, and iridium for speeding up tasks. There’s also ‘plausible deniability’ as a currency, which you gain by erasing evidence of alien presence, basically using religion as a front to manipulate the people.
The game’s storytelling, involving a love-rectangle with characters like Giorgio, an alien, a gambling priestess, and a Pharaoh, sets up what could’ve been an intriguing power struggle. But sadly, it doesn’t fully deliver, leaving you with more questions than answers. It doesn’t help that this game was once a mobile game, and gameplay often feels like it belongs on a phone screen than a PC monitor.
Despite these flaws, there’s something enjoyable about it, especially for fans of the Ancient Aliens series. You build, you probe, you research, and slowly piece together this outrageous narrative about ancient history shaped by extraterrestrial beings. The grind to finish the pyramids feels less satisfying on PC, but it’s a glimpse into the crazy theories beloved by History Channel fans.
At the end of the game, completing the hydrogen reactor pyramid triggers a cutscene where it saves Earth from a rogue planet, only for the Great Flood to wash away all your progress. Giorgio snaps you back to reality, but with your memory wiped clean, ensuring the mysteries of the world remain unsolved. It’s a twisty, wild narrative fitting of the Ancient Aliens brand.
So, what’s the takeaway? Despite its quirks and occasional frustrations, there’s an unrevealed charm to the game’s kooky, conspiratorial narrative. It’s not perfect, nor is it particularly deep, but if you’ve got a soft spot for stories about ancient astronauts meddling in human history, this game provides a few hours of amusing distraction. Maybe not worth the full $15 on Steam, but it’s a curious experience that’s worth a look for fans of the unexplained and the unusual.