Aliens

It’s been twenty-five years since the first Alien game. An Atari 2600 shitastrophe, it was less like a terrifying journey through the bowels of the Nostromo, and more like a jaunt through a bunch of discarded Pac-Man levels. Sadly, the intervening period hasn’t been kind to one of the greatest licenses ever. But Sega, new owners of the Aliens license, are determined to change that - and not once, but twice. The company confirmed that both Gearbox (Brothers in Arms) and Obsidian (Knights of the Old Republic 2) were hard at work on different Aliens games; one a first-person shooter, the other an RPG. Both would build upon “the distinctive look and feel of the original films,” and both are penciled in for a 2009 release.

The RPG will span a more ambitious period of time than the FPS, possibly the entirety of the series - 260-odd years - and the fact that Obsidian refer to the look and feel of the original films means that key forces and allegiances from them will be included or referenced: the crew of the original’s Nostromo; Aliens’ marine forces and the shady figures behind The Company; Alien 3’s prison population; and the Winona Ryder-led band of mercenaries from Resurrection. If you look at the timeline of the story, there’s a 200 year gap between Alien 3 and Resurrection; could the game fill that?

Gearbox’s FPS will be more tightly focused. Given that it’s a shooter, they need look no further than a take on Aliens (perhaps a separate team on a separate mission?), especially as they’ve got a fantastic squad system to port across from BIA. In fact, this blueprint would be such an easy fit, given both games are about war, we’ll punch ourselves SQUARE IN THE FACE if there’s not an evolved version of the team dynamics that make Brothers in Arms a cut above the rest.