Halfway into E3 and we’ve finally got our first small taste of gameplay from the remake thanks to Reinhard Pollice, Director of Business and Product development at THQ Nordic. Pollice showcased the game briefly with Geoff Keighley on the YouTube @ E3 livestream. This is very early pre-alpha gameplay so do keep that in mind.



There are many things we can immediatly take away from the footage:

The saucer moves much faster than in the original (a much welcome change in my humble opinion).

It appears the saucer’s flight height can be changed, or will change automatically based on terrain and obstacles.


The death ray appears to have a swirling vortex aesthetic and the weapon doesn’t seem to be coming out of the front of the ship as in previous games. The saucer’s lights also don’t seem to change color to reflect the current weapon being used.



The new HUD is cleaner but could be sized down a bit to be less intrusive. The alert level has been relocated to a nice place by the minimap, though I would prefer they be color coded as in the original, Blue for Civillian Awareness, Yellow/Gold for Police, Orange for Army and Red for Majestic.

The minimap has zero detail and leaves a lot to be desired currently.

Unlike the original there unfortunately doesn’t seem to be any persistent lingering building damage like fire or death ray burn marks.

Turnipseed Farm’s layout seems to be faithful to the original, but there is so much more needed geographical detail like lumber piles, a stream and a rock wall.


Pox now has new dialogue where he chimes in to give positive reinforcement when the player acomplishes an objective. This new dialogue does appear to be voiced by Richard Horvitz.

Buildings explode as if they’re full of TNT when destroyed, this is true for any building such as the windmills and tractor sheds.


As the Death Ray fires, small areas on the edge of the saucer reveal retract to glowing lights. This appears to be the new visual representation of the ray’s overheat mechanic.


The detail on the NPCs like the sargeant here are phenominal. There also appears to be ambient details on the maps now, such as the dandelion seed.



The sargeant’s Joe McCarthy line sounded different do me, suggesting some dialogue has been re-recorded for the remake.


The soldiers’ boots seem to interact with the terrain by ‘smushing’ the mud as they run. It’s a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ detail.


Each NPC appears to have their own unique, indicidual body structure and facial design.




New icons appear next to the minimap as the alert level rises. The police and army symbols look too similar. Wheras the civilian awareness in the original was one large exclamation mark, it is now three.

The psychokinetic telemetry broadcast from the mothership to highlight mission objectives is no longer a bright obnoxious pink but a more subdued shade of violent, maybe lavender? I prefer it.


Some of the soldiers don’t disintegrate when killed by the Death Ray.

A better look at the potential new Death Ray overheating indicator.


When the saucer takes damage its shield flash around the hull, the shield strength bar appears and a damage taken indicator appears as blue hexagons around the edges of the screen.



A tutorial message also appears, though I think it’s currently a bit too intrusive.


Designated landing zones return, just as in the original.

This version is being played with an Xbox controller, but instead of the landing propt being mapped to A it is instead mapped to X. Perhaps new features exclusive to the remake are mapped to A instead?


Saucer shield strength doesn’t seem to regenerate, indicating pickups will be returning, or perhaps the drain and transmog abilities from 2 will debut here.

Unlike the original, the tanks seem to have their own escorts of soldiers.


Similarly to Path of the Furon, the Death Ray can be used to draw certain... ‘images’ in the terrain. Terrain damage seems to be persistent, likely until leaving and re-entering the level.


The effects from the fire to the lighting and even the mud puddles look phenominal.

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