Gameplay

Abduction Action! is a simple action game where the player takes command of a UFO “in training” and is required to complete various tasks under the command of your Alien Commander Brother-In-Law (part of the unnecessary backstory this game tries to convey to you when you first play). While the controls are relatively simple, the gameplay has a bit of a learning curve; not only do you have to fly the ship and avoid enemy fire, but you also have to pick up items and perform abductions with your tractor beam, which proves to be a bit troublesome sometimes, since taking damage also turns off your tractor beam momentarily.

Although the game is called Abduction Action, most of your time will be spent killing “enemies” instead of abducting them. Players are given two basic choices for exterminating enemies: either pick them up with your tractor beam and drop them from a high height, or pick up various items and drop them on top of enemies. These are the only two options for killing anything that shoots at you and is often easier said than done. For some reason, this game uses very small sprites for the characters, and the small targets combined with the time it takes for an object to fall from your tractor beam to the ground makes it almost impossible to drop anything accurately. The game lets you stack items in your tractor beam though, so that mechanic adds a bit of strategy to the order in which you abduct items. The tasks are kind of fun, ranging from killing a certain number of targets to the infamous cow-abduction, but usually just feel like a poor attempt from the game to give you some direction or purpose for the level. Once you complete the tasks, the game lets you sit on the level and play around for as long as you’d like and gain some extra lives by bumping up your score, but this is more fun when you play the Score Attack mode, which is mentioned below.

This game is incredibly short, spanning only 5 levels, and can probably be beaten within 30 minutes if you’re a fast learner. The creators try to make the game seem longer and more in-depth by adding “awardments,” which is a clever name for their in-game achievements, in-game meaning they don’t affect your gamerscore and also meaning you probably won’t care about them. Abduction Action also features a Score Attack option, a survival mode for players to play in a freeplay environment with endlessly spawning enemies and items. While fun, the game only features a local leaderboard, so you’ll have to make some human contact in order to find competition.

Visuals and Sound

Abduction Action has a nice comic-book feel to it, with its bold titles and bordered windows. Unfortunately, like some comic books, the game is also laced with a lot of text, most of which is irrelevant to the gameplay. Each level is preceded with a window of text, and each task begins and ends with a window of words. The writing isn’t spectacular, and the game doesn’t bold or outline the important stuff, so you’ll have to sit through the underwhelming script to search for your objective.

The graphics themselves are alright, but nothing that will change your opinion about the level of artistry in most Xbox Live Indie games. The enemies and items change with each level, and each level is in a different environment, so the visual variety is nice. As for the audio, Abduction Action has fun sound effects and a humorous collection of dialogue. Your victims will shout out entertaining one-liners during the game, and the various sounds made from the hum of the tractor beam and the splatter of bodies adds to the humorous and quirky atmosphere.

Final Verdict

Abduction Action is a comical time-waster that’s good for some quick gaming. The entire game itself isn’t very long and offers a limited variety of gameplay, but for the mere asking price of 80 Microsoft Points, you don’t have much to lose.