Alien: Earthalready has the perfect setup for the nextAlienvideo game.The new hit FX serieshas been making waves, and not just for its somewhat out-of-placeIce Agereference -Screen Rant’s reviewer, Mary Kassel,gave its first episodes an 8 out of 10in a glowing review.
Alien: Earthhas brought the long-running media franchise back to the forefront of pop culture. As many fans look back at its best entries from years gone by, however, I look forward to what’s next forAlien, and I think that begins witha refresh of the series' video game sector.
Alien: Earth’s Setup Is A Lot Like A Video Game
The Perfect Premise
The early chapters ofAlien: Earthplay out just like a video game: a spaceship crash-lands on Earth, and the survivors set out on a rescue mission within a large building, with alien threats around every corner.
It’s classicallyAlien, butit also evokes memories of, say,Metal Gear Solid:almost every game in that series begins with a rescue operation, a clear, location-based objective, and high stakes that then open up into a wider governmental conspiracy thriller.
We Need More Games Like Alien: Isolation
Alien Games Have Lost Their Way
Alienvideo games have been around almost as long as the movies, beginning with the titular game released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. But more recently, they’ve been a bit of a mixed bag:Predator: Hunting Groundswas flat-out broken, whileFireteam Elitedisplayed a worrying reliance on action over horror.
Co-op shooters likeHelldivers 2andSpace Marine 2have become popular in recent days for their chaotic, alien-shooting gameplay;Fireteam Eliteunsuccessfully tried to replicate something of the same genre. But the fact of the matter isthat’s not the right kind of game for theAlienfranchiseto be adapted into.
Really,Aliengames peaked withthe critically underratedAlien: Isolation, the 2014 release by The Creative Assembly. This was pure survival horror: you were horribly outmatched by a single Xenomorph who you could never actually kill, with incredibly limited resources at your disposal.
The gameplay hinges onthe Xenomorph’s genius AI, which responds dynamically to your actions in order to force you to act decisively and think on the fly.
The Xenomorph learns from your gameplay style- if you hide in vents often, it’ll become more likely to check vents. If you repeatedly use noisemakers to distract it, it’ll learn to ignore them. It can figure out the range of your weapons, pretend to leave rooms in order to lure you out, or stand still to stymie your motion detector.
It all adds up to a brilliant survival horror experience that’s worthy of the bestAlienfilms, andis strikingly similar in premise toAlien: Earth.
The video game arm of the franchise should return to concepts like this, using newer game development technology to develop an even more advanced Xenomorph AI.Rogue Incursionwas a step in the right direction, but focused too much on VR immersion - a regular old console and PC game could take things much further.
The fact of the matter is thatAlienhas always lent itself well to video game adaptations, andAlien: Earthis no exception. Any and all futureAliengames should take inspiration from the tension, and the simplicity of the opening premise ofAlien: Earth, even if not directly from its storyline.
