New Aliens Video Game To Be Unveiled At San Diego Comic-Con

The Alien franchise has had plenty of video game adaptations over the years, with mixed results. For every Alien: Isolation there is an Aliens: Colonial Marines, and the most recent title Aliens: Fireteam Elite received a mixed response at launch. Released in 2021, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a cooperative 3rd person shooter in which players must fend off hordes of Xenomorphs while completing slightly repetitive mission objectives. Despite receiving mixed to fairly positive reviews the game failed to build a large player base and (as of writing) only averages a few hundred players a month. 

20th Century Games are hoping to revive the Alien franchise once again, with Vice President Luigi Priore describing the universe as "full of untold stories, and opportunities to create gripping original games". They are partnering with development studio Survios to create "an intense single-player, action horror game". Survios has previously made video game adaptations of The Walking Dead and Creed franchises, and Chief Product Officer TQ Jefferson believes that the studios' "proven expertise in creating immersive gaming experiences" makes them the perfect choice to adapt the Alien franchise.

 

Survios' Aliens game will feature "an original storyline, set between the Alien and Aliens films". It will be interesting to see where exactly the game takes place in the Aliens timeline, as the 57 years between the first two films remain largely unexplored. During this time Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is in deep stasis, and her daughter Amanda has her own run-in with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Amanda stars in the 2014 stealth horror game Alien: Isolation, set 15 years after the original film, and while it is unlikely that Servios' game is a secret sequel to Alien: Isolation, Servios could use the lore added to the Alien universe established in that game in their own canon.

Expect the similarities to end there however as, while Alien: Isolation was a stealth game with an engineer as its protagonist, Survios is developing an "immersive action-horror" title that follows "a battle hardened veteran [that] has a vendetta against Xenomorphs.". With the announcement using the name Aliens rather than Alien, fans can likely also expect Servios' game to be more tonally in line with James Cameron's action-packed, marine-filled sequel, than Ridley Scott's tense original.

Survios' Aliens game will be on PC, Consoles, and VR, and is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. More information will be announced at the 'ALIEN: Expanding a Dark and Frightening Universe' panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21st.

 

Alex David Johnson (@AlexJohnWriting)
News Editor, NoobFeed