Pixel Sundays: No Alien Romulus Without These Creepy Video Games
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Alien Movies
The Alien series has been around since 1979. It all started with the movie Alien – The Eighth Passenger. That same year, a book based on the movie was also released. Then, six more main movies followed: Aliens in 1986, Alien 3 in 1992, Alien Resurrection in 1997, Prometheus in 2012, Alien: Covenant in 2017, and just a few days ago, Alien Romulus on August 15, 2024. There were also two crossover movies with the Predator films: Aliens vs. Predator in 2004 and Aliens vs. Predator 2 in 2007.
The first movie was a huge hit. With a budget of only $11 million, it made over $100 million. All the other movies were also successful, even though none of them made nine times their budget again. Alien: Covenant, the latest film, had a budget of $97 million and made about $240 million.
Alien Story
Here’s a super short and sweet summary of the Alien movies. If you don’t want any spoilers, you can skip them all right here.
In short, the Alien series is about a conflict between humans and Xenomorphs, an alien species.
In the first movie Alien, the spaceship Nostromo is on its way back to Earth when it picks up a distress signal from a strange planet. The crew finds an alien spaceship and a nest of eggs on this planet. One of the crew members gets attacked by a “Facehugger,” which plants an Alien embryo inside them.
This Alien later bursts out of the crew member’s body and starts hunting the rest of the crew. They try everything to stop it, but most of them die. Only Ellen Ripley survives and finally manages to send the Alien back into space. And that’s where the first movie ends.
In the second movie, Aliens, Ripley comes back. She’s been in cryosleep for the last 57 years and is now awake again. During that time, humans have set up colonies on the planet where the Alien was found, and one of these colonies has mysteriously disappeared. Ripley joins a group of Marines to investigate. When they arrive at the colony, they find it completely destroyed. The Aliens attacked it, and the humans either died or were used as hosts.
The fight against the Aliens escalates, and Ripley escapes with the only survivors, a girl named Newt and Hicks. But the Aliens are just one side of the problem. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation wants to use the Aliens as a military weapon. They’ll do anything for power and profit, even putting Ripley in more danger during her rescue mission.
Alien 3 picks up right after the last movie and starts with Ripley’s spaceship crashing on a prison planet. Newt and Hicks die in the crash, and only Ripley survives. She learns that they had a Facehugger on board, which brought along an Alien. The unarmed prisoners are helpless against the Alien.
As the movie goes on, Ripley realizes that she’s carrying an Alien embryo inside her, and it’s not just any Alien, but a Queen. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation finds out and wants to use Ripley for their own purposes. But Ripley won’t let that happen and kills herself at the end by jumping into a furnace, taking the unborn Alien embryo with her.
Alien: Resurrection takes place 200 years after the events of Alien 3. The movie starts with Ripley being cloned. They do this to get the Alien Queen inside her for commercial purposes. But during the cloning process, Ripley’s DNA mixes with the Alien’s. This gives her superhuman strength, a healing ability, and some connection to the Aliens. Her personality has changed too; she’s tougher and sometimes torn between her loyalty to the Aliens and the humans.
The scientists manage to extract the Queen’s DNA and start breeding new Queens. As expected, chaos breaks out. The Aliens escape and attack the ship. When mercenaries arrive, the situation gets even worse. Ripley teams up with the mercenaries to try to stop the Aliens from reaching Earth and wiping out humanity. Then things get a little weird. The Queen creates a new creature, a “Newborn.” Because of Ripley’s DNA, this creature sees her as its mother. It’s a mix of both human and Xenomorph traits.
Ripley ends up killing the Newborn in a dramatic way. But it’s too late. The spaceship crashes on Earth and is destroyed. Ripley manages to escape with a few mercenaries in a rescue ship.
The two movies Prometheus – Dark Signs and Alien: Covenant take place before the main story, so we’re not covering them today.
Alien Romulus
Alien Romulus is the latest movie, and it’s been out in theaters for a few days now. Since it’s brand new, I won’t spoil the story here. So if you’re interested, go watch it at the cinema. Alien Romulus is a standalone movie set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). The movie follows a group of young space colonists who search an abandoned space station for equipment they need for their journey. You can probably guess what happens on that station, but I won’t give away any more details. You can watch the movie trailer at the top.
Alien Video Games
Of course, we wouldn’t be talking about the Alien series if it didn’t have something to do with video games. After the movies became so popular, it was clear that video games on this topic would be a hit too. And it all started in 1982 when the game Alien for the Atari 2600 was released. Over time, more than 50 different Alien and Predator games were developed and released. The games have changed and evolved a lot. Some are shooters, while others are strategy games. So, let me introduce you to five of the most successful Alien games.
Alien: Isolation
The first game we’re talking about today is Alien: Isolation from 2014. This game even won the BAFTA Games Award for Use of Audio and was nominated for Best Game of the Year. The game is available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac OS, Android, and even iOS. It was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega.
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game. You play as Amanda, the daughter of Ellen Ripley from the movies. Your goal is to find out the truth and discover why your mother disappeared. You find out that the flight recorder of the Nostromo, your mother’s old ship, is on the Sevastopol space station. But when you get there, you find the station in chaos, with Aliens on board.
You have to escape from the station with very limited resources. The game focuses on stealth and strategy. You can’t fight the Aliens; your only options are to run or hide.
Aliens vs. Predator
Aliens vs. Predator is a game developed by Rebellion Developments and released in 2010. It’s a first-person shooter where you can play as a Marine, an Alien, or a Predator. Each species has its own campaign.
In the Marine campaign, you play as Colonial Marines, sent to a colony on the planet BG-386. There, you’re confronted by an Alien threat, and you have to take them down, just like in a classic first-person shooter.
In the Predator campaign, you obviously play as a Predator. You also go to the planet BG-386. Your mission is to kill humans and Aliens. This campaign focuses more on stealth elements, especially with the Predator’s cloaking technology. You have to collect trophies to prove your honor as a hunter.
As an Alien, in the Alien campaign, you play as a Xenomorph that escapes from a lab on BG-386. This campaign focuses on speed and agility. You use your melee attacks in combat. Your job is to kill humans and other enemies to strengthen the Xenomorph threat and secure the Aliens’ dominance.
Alien 3
Alien 3 is from 1992 and was released for NES, Game Boy, Amiga, and other consoles. It’s a run-and-gun game based on the movie Alien 3. It’s a side-scroller. You play as Ellen Ripley, known from the movies, and you’ve crashed on the prison planet Fury 161. But unlike the movie, there are tons of Xenomorphs on the planet that you have to defeat.
To take down these enemies, you have various weapons at your disposal, including flamethrowers, pulse rifles, and grenades. Without these weapons, you wouldn’t stand a chance against the hordes of enemies. The levels are often labyrinth-like structures where you have to search for prisoners. Meanwhile, you must defend yourself against endless waves of Aliens.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Aliens: Colonial Marines is a first-person shooter from 2013, developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sega. The game takes place after the events of Alien 3. You play as Corporal Christopher Winter, a Colonial Marine. Winter’s mission is to go on a rescue mission and find the USS Sulaco, the ship where Ellen Ripley and her companions were traveling.
In the game, you fight not only against Aliens but also against humans, particularly the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s forces. You fight with weapons familiar from the movies, like the iconic pulse rifle, flamethrowers, smartguns, and more. The battles are somewhat tactical, as you fight alongside AI-controlled allies. The game also offers a multiplayer mode where one team plays as Xenomorphs, and the other as Marines, and they battle it out.
Aliens: Dark Descent
Aliens: Dark Descent is the newest Alien game. It’s a real-time strategy game set in the Alien universe. This game was released in mid-2023 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It was developed by Tindalos Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment.
In this game, you control a team of Colonial Marines on a space station or planet, where you must fight against a horde of Xenomorphs. Your job is to manage your entire team and assign roles to everyone. Your team members all have different skills, which are important in and out of combat. Always find cover for your soldiers, or you’ll quickly say goodbye to them. Because once a soldier dies, they’re gone for good and won’t come back.
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By 
Kilian
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Hey, I’m Kilian, but online you’ll probably know me as “Tux1243.” I've been part of the team for almost two years now, always trying to keep you in the loop with the latest and coolest gaming news. I also have a huge passion for doing deep dives and detailed analyses of entire game series and franchises. I love getting to the bottom of things and exploring the little details and backstories that make game worlds so fascinating.
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