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GAMEPLANET IS STARTING TO get a little jaded with stealth. What started out as a more thrilling alternative to rushing around all guns blazing has evolved to the point where most action titles involve at least a smidgen of sneaking around and the concept has become slightly blase. So it was with a mix of trepidation and anticipation that we took our first look at Alias, billed as a mix of high action and stealth.

A lot of the initial appeal we had with Alias was its links to the TV series. All of the main stars are in the game, providing the voices for their characters. In addition the show's producers and writers are also involved, providing the story and dialogue for the game. The result of this is that the game plays remarkably similar to what you see on television. None of the dialogue or action that we saw would be out of place in an episode.

The characters are also well reproduced, although none would be confused with their real-life counterparts. The main character on both TV and in the game, Sydney Bristow, is especially well done. Her walk, her run, her fighting style, even the way she brushes back her hair are evocative of the TV series. The show's costume designers also worked on the game so Sydney always looks the part as well.

The game itself is well portrayed with large, detailed levels. While most of the environment is not interactive there are various items that are, for instance security cameras that can be shot out. We saw some nice lighting effects in the level as well. The use of shadows and light is well done, and can be used for maintaining stealth.

Consistent with the rest of the game the soundtrack is very similar to the TV series, beginning with the familiar theme music. An atmospheric orchestral soundtrack accompanies the action and seems very responsive to the gameplay, changing depending on whether Sydney was in stealth mode or openly fighting.

The level we played was an infiltration mission, where Sydney had to sneak into an enemy's base and steal a laser prototype. Controlling Sydney was relatively simple, with the large number of actions fairly simple to pick up. The level itself was quite large and required a mix of stealth and fighting, depending on the amount of enemies around at the time. We were quite pleased to see that while the mission itself was quite linear, there seemed to be a number of ways to accomplish a task.

As in the TV series Sydney is given advice through her earpiece as the mission progresses. These mainly detailed tasks that needed to be done to complete the mission, but also gave advice about using gadgets or strategies to complete the task. While these were mostly helpful they did become a little intrusive and explained how to complete the mission in a little too much detail. Though this is fairly consistent with the TV show we are hoping that this diminishes as the game progresses.

Alias is a game that will directly appeal to fans of the TV series, but which also seems to have enough playability to draw other gamers in as well. The mix of action and stealth seems to have a good balance and there are a number of original ideas. Released into a market that seems to have a glut of average action games Alias looks to have the potential to be one of the better titles available.

Show me the screenshots!