Features Here's how to make the perfect Aliens game.

I want the game you describe!
The mechanics of republic commando would work well here, for squad direction/action - albeit in reverse!

 

I want that seige game, I want to feel like I am constantly losing.

 

I think this is a good summary of the problem and why these games never quite get it right - because it's really hard to make it _feel like_ you're losing, without actually making you lose. And 'cos people don't like losing, it's hard to keep people playing your game if you stray onto the wrong side of this difficulty see-saw.

 

Is it just me that immediately thought of Left 4 Dead being quite a good platform for this...4 person coop survival (xeno's would need to be much tougher than zombs of course).

 

exactly the impression I've got, though i hope it's closer to l4d's map you need to progress through or even alien swarms mix of moving then defending. I almost want to be optimistic about this as i do think this 4p co-op template can fit aliens exactly as the article says - scouting, retreating, setting up defences, fighting off waves then dash to complete and objective and extract in the face of overwhelming number of aliens you can only fend off for a time. Time will tell, we've all been hurt before :S

 

That is the best idea I've heard for a while.

 

I don't really disagree with what you say in general, but I think you are falling in to the trap that so often makes games-of-movies so poor; you are trying to make a movie in to a game. It generally doesn't work. The best games based on movies are ones based in the universe, using the source as inspiration and going other places with it (there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Chronicles of Riddick).

You are right, that people do tend to look back on Aliens as more of an action film than it really is. But I think you too easily brush off the success of the first AvP. Have you played it recently? The marine moves faster than the Alien does in the modern AvP games. It's insane. It's like the guy is scooting around on rocket skates. The game is "scary", in the sense that you can die very quickly, but the same is true when playing as the other races (especially the alien). Even the Predator goes down crazy fast when encountering rocket launcher-wielding marines in later levels. For me personally, a lot of that fear was also due to the (now patched) lack of a save option in the middle of a level. In my opinion, the original AvP has a lot more in common with games like Q3:A and other fast, twitchy shooters. It just also happens to do an excellent job of combining those kinds of mechanics with the setting of Aliens. AvP2 wasn't quite so arcadey feeling, granted.

My second point is that while Aliens does a good job of showing a group of hardened marines getting slaughtered in good, old-fashioned horror stylings, you are glossing over the fact that not only have these people never encountered the xenomorphs, they don't even believe they exist when Ripley is trying to warn them. I don't think it is beyond reason that mankind would start to take them seriously, and develop some new doctrine, and maybe even kit, for combating them. What are they going to do otherwise, just abandon any Alien infested planets? That doesn't sound very human to me.

The biggest thing I think developers get wrong is making the Aliens take way too many rounds to go down. What makes the Aliens so dangerous is their speed, numbers, and lethality, but the original AvP's design of having them take very few rounds to die (I mean, they are held together by an exoskeleton after all) made them <i>feel</i> right.

I guess in conclusion, I don't think an action game is necessarily out of the scope of the Aliens universe. I think a modern game based around what made the original AvP's marine campaign could be genuine, high quality, edge of your seat terror <i>and</i> action. It just requires approaching it correctly. We already have Isolation, and I don't think that leaves no room for Fireteam.

My bigger concern is that Fireteam will make at least a few small, but critical, decisions that will hinder it feeling like any kind of Aliens game, and will just feel like L4D with Xenomorph skins. But I am withholding judgement. I honestly think a well done cross between L4D and AvP would be an amazing game if done right. I just don't expect it to be done right, at least within my subjective view if not in an objective sense.

Wow, rant over.