They're Alive!

They're Alive! is an eccentric and deeply unconventional first-person shooter that feels less like a product designed for broad appeal and more like a snapshot of a very specific creative moment. Developed by Orion Games and published by Strategy First, the title blends low-budget shooter mechanics with heavy-handed satire, science-fiction paranoia, and an unmistakably Eastern European sense of humor. Originally released in 2009 and later resurfacing on Steam, the game carries all the hallmarks of its era: experimental ideas, rough execution, and a willingness to be strange even when that strangeness undermines cohesion. The premise drops players into the role of an ordinary engineer who moves to Moscow in search of opportunity, only to become entangled in a surreal conspiracy involving aliens secretly controlling humanity. This setup quickly establishes the game’s defining tone—bleak, absurd, and conspiratorial—where mundane urban environments collide with outlandish sci-fi concepts. A signature mechanic involves special glasses that allow the protagonist to see hidden truths, revealing enemies, secret messages, or concealed pathways that are otherwise invisible. While this idea …

wanted to like this one for some reason but alas, fate got in the way. positives: looks okay! kind of reminds me of like, a super budget FEAR or something at times, which is great because i think FEAR is a great-looking game. i also like the theme (ahhh secret aliens and you can only see them with your They Live glasses which is wat this game's title is a pretty clear, uh... homage to. homage may be stretching it, though.) negatives: completely nonsensical and disjointed story that defuses how surface-level fun the alien theme is. really rough start (the first twenty minutes of this maybe 90 minute long game are melee ONLY) that leads to a pretty fun middle that did genuinely have me liking the game... but then it gives way to a really monotonous and repetitive endgame that consists of the two most annoying enemies in the game being thrown at you forever in a series of corridors while you are constantly scarce on ammo, which just feels like a drag. most of the weapons feel bad and for some reason every aspect of movement feels terrible - you are SO ungodly slow and when you look around it feels like your mouse is moving on a grid or something. the glasses gimmick does not actual…

A very nice game with great details and turning point in the story. I dont know what engine they used for this game ( maybe source ? ) but its a cool one.

you're better off just getting your hands on Monolith's Condemned somehow, I know it's delisted on steam but I'm sure there's still a way to get the game whether its by a key or just GOG. This slav jank aint even worth a minute of your precious time.

Game was great but at some point I had a bug with auto and quick save and I would need to restart the game.

Short and most certainly amatuer, this game still managed to get a kick out of me. The premise and pithy commentary is very funny and the gameplay, while not too enthusing, is fine for the 1-2 hour runtime. Some dubbed voice lines get cut early and the visual gags don't work without knowledge of Russian and the kind of situation it was in around the time of the game's release.