Aliens Fireteam was revealed recently and so far, it looks great! It has the intense feeling of James Cameron’s Aliens, where a squad of Colonial Marines sweep a devastated outpost, only to be swarmed by Xenomorphs, Facehuggers, and a giant Queen. Oorah, indeed. Then again, Aliens: Colonial Marines promised as much and… well, we’ll get into that later.
Whether we’re exploring seemingly abandoned space stations, leading squads of Marines through Alien hives, regretting the purchase of Colonial Marines, or embracing the bright pixellated ‘90s by beating up Xenomorphs Streets of Rage style, much like the film franchise, Alien games have had a mixed success. They range from great, atmospheric, movie-to-game experiences that faithfully recreate the authentic design of Ridley Scott’s menacing universe, to Colonial Marines. Here’s just a few of the best and worst games to burst from Ridley Scott’s seminal 1979 sci-fi horror.
1 – Alien: Isolation
Essentially a “hide in the nearest cupboard and try not to cry too loud” simulator, where you’ll spend the majority of your time crouching, snivelling and trying desperately not to make even a whisper of noise. Taking place 15 years after the original Alien, Alien: Isolation perfectly succeeds in recreating the claustrophobic design of Ridley Scott’s Alien from a first-person perspective, set on-board the Seegson Corporation station Sevastopol, where Amanda Ripley – daughter of Ellen Ripley – learns the Nostromo’s flight recorder is being held. What would otherwise be a simple task of dropping by the station, filing a request to inspect the recorder and be on her way, naturally becomes a scarring experience as the massive station has fallen prey to a familiar skulking predator… and no, not the ugly Yautja Predators.
If you’re a fan of the original Alien or simply a fan of horror games, Alien: Isolation is an absolute must play! Where many other Alien games have chosen to resemble the more action-oriented sci-fi associated with the 1986 sequel Aliens, Alien: Isolation opts for a truly atmospheric horror experience, complete with a familiar lo-fi ’70s vision of the future concept that miraculously gave Alien a timeless look. Its technical achievements include haunting atmospheric and lighting effects, sound design that keeps you on edge even when there’s no reason to be thanks to the deadly silence of space bringing attention to the metallic clanging of pipes and nervous, hurried scuttling in the distance, and a terrifying Alien AI which learns and adapts from each encounter. Sevastopol itself becomes as much of an antagonist to contend with as the Alien itself, which could appear around any corner, thanks to its dark, claustrophobic design, homicidal androids, and less-than friendly (or intelligent) human survivors, where some of the tighter corridors and halls are juxtaposed against large empty halls that make you feel very aware of how exposed you have just become. It brilliantly recreates the haunted space house, stalker horror feeling of Alien while its unique story, characters, and gameplay mechanics make this experience feel like a true sequel to the original Ridely Scott movie.
2 – Aliens: Infestation
There’s a degree of irony in how Nintendo’s often overlooked Metroid franchise has worn its Alien inspiration on its Varia-suit sleeves, going as far as to name one of its most iconic antagonists Ridley. Though he’s a giant space-dragon and therefore bears little resemblance to the director. The design of its creatures echo something you’d expect to see in an H.R. Giger sketch book, while the titular Metroids themselves latch onto the faces of their prey to drain their life, adding a vampiric twist to the iconic, rather presumptuous Facehuggers. The irony of this is that some of the better Alien games draw clear design parallels with the Metroid series, and Aliens: Infestation is one such title. Though arguably Alien: Isolation could likewise be comparable to Metroid Prime.
Released for the Nintendo DS in 2011, Aliens: Infestation is a 2D side-scroller set between Aliens and Alien3where you take command of a party of up to four Colonial Marines and explore familiar locations, from the USS Sulaco to LV-426, investigating the involvement of the UPP and Weyland-Yutani in recent Xenomorph activity. With backtracking, exploration, upgrades, keys, and other party members to find throughout each location, it’s yet another example of a Metroidvania, with a permadeath feature which means when a marine falls, they die forever and will need to be replaced by another character. Of course, this means when the entire party is wiped out, its “game over man, game over!” Each marine also has a personality of their own making them feel more fleshed out and unique than the disposable soldiers Weyland-Yutani view them as, with designs from a personal favourite comic book artist, Chris Bachalo. Now would be a great time to make a timely unveil of a remake or follow up of some sort on Switch.
3 – Alien vs. Predator Capcom Arcade
Capcom beat ’em ups are synonymous with ’90s arcade gaming, and one of the greatest injustices in the world of video gaming is the fact that Alien vs. Predator never released to any home system! Choosing between the cybernetically-enhanced Colonial Marines Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa (who has cameoed in other Capcom franchises like Street Fighter Alpha 2), the bad-ass Schwarzenegger action-hero muscle mountain Major Dutch Scaefer, as well as a Predator warrior and hunter, Alien vs. Predator pits you against swarms upon swarms of Aliens in San Drad, California. It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that Weyland-Yutani have been scheming to use the Aliens yet again and are responsible for the outbreak on Earth. With the assistance of the Yautja, the story pits three of the four playable characters against the hordes, a Queen, and General Bush in an attempt to cull the infestation.
The tragic realisation that it never released on home consoles hurts as much as a chestburster erupting over breakfast, as the beat ’em up gameplay is as good as any of the best of Capcom’s most well-received titles. The fact that it was one of the most successful cabinets upon its release and looked back as one of the best examples of beat ’em up gaming from the 16-bit era, if not of all time, makes it that much more distressing. Though perhaps we can take solace knowing that it’s not as distressing as the fact that the Alien vs. Predator title has been tainted by association with what are easily considered the worst entries in the Alien movie franchise…
Alien Vs Predator Capcom Arcade Beat ’em Up
4 – Alien Trilogy
Alien: Isolation may be fondly remembered as a brilliant, ambient if heart attack inducing first-person Alien experience, but way back in 1996, Probe Entertainment and Acclaim released Alien Trilogy for PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC. Borrowing familiar Alien designs, from the claustrophobic ship interior to Facehuggers, Chestbursters, dog aliens, and Queens, it consists of 30 levels very loosely derived from the first three entries in the Alien movie franchise. Of course, you take the role of Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, exploring each level as you hunt for weapons, ammo, specialised equipment such as a shoulder lamp, as well as key cards to unlock doors and progress to the next area – and when we say “loosely” based on the movies, we mean loose. It feels more like it took design elements to fit in the universe of Alien, rather than adapt story segments, though the game begins on the harmonious holiday paradise LV-426 in an attempt to restore contact with the colony. Which apparently went as well as you might expect. Though curiously, Ripley is a marine this time round: as if Aliens didn’t have an abundance of marines to play as.
For the most part the plot is told through text-based mission briefings, which guide the player through expansive levels, with occasional CGI cut scenes that remind you this is very much from the ‘90s, on the off-chance you might have forgotten. The gameplay itself takes on a first-person shooter style, not unlike a vastly more slow-paced Doom that captures the grunge and isolating ambience of the movies. With sound effects ripped from the films, including Alien screeches and cocooned colonists begging you to end their pain, Alien Trilogy is one of the best Alien gaming experiences that succeeds in capturing the design that made the films so memorable.
Alien Trilogy (PS1)
5 – Alien: Resurrection
Funnily enough, the best thing to come of the fourth entry in the movie franchise happens to be a tie-in game, which plays somewhat like Alien Trilogy, as well as the grotesque skeletal Newborn. As a first-person shooter, Alien: Resurrection follows the premise of the movie, where the damaged ship around you is as much of an unexpected threat as a leering, acid-blood Xenomorph. If there’s one thing the Alien series is consistent with, it’s dark, depressing spaceship interiors, and like Alien: Isolation, it makes use of well-designed lighting and moody, grungy environments to create a feeling of isolation which permeates through its dank, sordid environments, with the occasional half-eaten marine corpse scattered here and there to spruce up its gloomy interior a little. While interactions with real people are kept to a minimum, surviving marines are on a shoot-on-site protocol and most scientists will run and scream in the opposite direction: civility this far in the future, apparently, is as a dead as the crew of the Nostromo. Resurrection gives the impression that literally every faction involved in the events – the Aliens, Newborn, and armed humans alike – are all acting against you, driving that morbid sensation of loneliness in a depressing distant future of conflict and carnage. Personally, I think it’s a mystery as to why you wouldn’t want to join Sigourney Weaver’s side during these events, though.
Aliens are fast moving, strike from walls and vents, and with limited ammo, it becomes a Resident Evil survival horror experience that succeeds in nearly every way that Colonial Marines failed: in other words, it’s actually worth playing.
Alien Resurrection (PS1)
6 – Alien3
LJN. Three letters that put gamers into a state of rage, or paralysing horror and despair which spelt doom – in Xenomorph language, maybe – for games of old. Looking into some of the worst LJN games has as much payoff as gazing into a mysterious gooey egg you found abandoned in a wrecked spaceship: sure, it looks harmless enough, but then an alien jumps out, attaches itself to your face, and suddenly you’re carrying its sadistic embryo in your chest! Admittedly, Alien3 – or is it Alien Cubed? – is at the very least somewhat playable, so far as its flawed movie counterpart is watchable. But the design and goals are questionably implemented. What’s worse is it’s repetitive, the timer is more of a pain than setting the Nostromo to self-destruct only to have to race back and fail to disengage it before the ship explodes, and it’s another example of how the lack of a map makes it hard to navigate. Seriously, why make such an expansive environment that you have to explore, where every square looks almost the same and not include a map?
At least on the Mega Drive/ Genesis and SNES, Alien3 captures the gritty industrial look of Fiorina ‘Fury’ 161, even if it diverts from the plot significantly, adding more Aliens where the movie had one, as well as a ton of guns despite being set in a prison. Which is more than can be said of the inferior NES version. Unlike Fincher’s movie, Alien3 has you play as the series heroine, Ripley, trying to find as many survivors as possible before either an alien eats their faces with their weird jaw-tongues, or they get impregnated by a space-crab and birth more psychotic insectoids, played from a 2D side-view perspective that may echo some designs of the Metroidvania. Again. Ultimately, you wonder whether Alien3 was perhaps not the best film to adapt, where Aliens could have been a better choice being more action oriented, unlike Alien3.
Then again, Contra exists, and you’ll have a better time playing it.
Left: Alien3 Screenshots: NES (Top), Mega Drive/ Genesis (Middle), SNES (Bottom).
Right: Alien3 NES Cover.
7 – Aliens: Colonial Marines
Remember when the trailer for Colonial Marines dropped originally and everyone was excited for it because it looked like they were bringing the James Cameron vision to home consoles, in the way that Alien: Isolation did with Ridley Scott’s Alien years later? Yeah. Massive disappointment when it released, then. It’s never a good sign when your trailer looks amazing, but the game is an unfinished, near-unplayable mess. Cyberpunk 2077 players know what I’m talking about. It’s riddled with bugs, and not just the Xenomorph kind – who are evidently buggy beyond comprehension themselves. The AI was hyped up to be something menacing, but the end result left the Aliens either stuck walking into walls, unaware of you and your team, and favoured the often overlooked “run headlong into the marines crosshair” tactic. It’s possible they just wanted to be put out of their misery, though. And who can blame them? But if you thought the Alien AI was bad, well… your team aren’t much better. Considering O’Neil is armed with a Smartgun, he sure struggles to live up to its name.
The sad truth is that it’s exciting to be able to visit Hadley’s Hope, LV-426, or the Sulaco and finding Easter eggs like Bishops severed android legs from the climax of Aliens. But when the gameplay is so broken, it’s not a surprise when fans try to ignore Colonial Marines, or the fact that it’s regarded as the direct sequel to Cameron’s Aliens. Aliens: Fireteam looks great, too, but perhaps our experiences with Colonial Marines – and Cyberpunk 2077 for that matter – should be used to remind us about putting too much faith and excitement in the promises of otherwise excellent, and therefore misleading, trailer footage.
8 – Alien (Atari 2600)
It’s Pac-Man with a flamethrower with some Frogger bonus stages for good measure. But with the Alien logo on the cover. That’s the game.
Supposedly based on 1979’s Alien, you play as Ellen Ripley on the Nostromo, running around a maze and avoiding Aliens – essentially Pac-Man running from Ghosts – using a flamethrower to immobilise your enemies, and upon completing the stage, the game turns into a game of Frogger, with multiple coloured Aliens to dodge instead of cars. Not sure I remember that scene in the movie though…
In fairness, the Atari 2600 was fairly limited in what it could present, but then maybe adapting Alien might not have been well suited to this? To their credit, the manual at least attempts to flesh out the story somewhat by explaining how the pellets you appear to eat during the Pac-Man stages – running from Aliens is hungry work after all – are actually Alien eggs you destroy, and the flashing orbs that let you eat the Aliens themselves, like Pac-Man’s power pellets, are Pulsars that allow you to overpower the invasive Xenomorphs. It’s an inventive way to explain how the simplistic nature of the game ties into the movie, and where the movie only has one Alien, this game has several, making it more like Aliens than Alien. Really, it’s not “bad” per-say, more super dated – though it’s doubtful anyone in 1982 would have expected, or perhaps wanted, a new Alien tie-in game to play like this. No surprise the adverts at the time didn’t even show any gameplay at all, either. The irony is that it’s better than the Atari 2600 Pac-Man port – and Colonial Marines – it’s just bizarre that they chose Pac-Man and Frogger as the base inspiration for a game based on Alien. That being said, it’s not exactly “good” either.
Alien Atari 2600
