So all day I've been seeing journalists saying they don't see how you could possibly make a game that is true to the Alien series. I think it is easy. Just make Amnesia and put it in the Aliens universe. I mean that pretty much does it, right? An unbeatable enemy who outmatches you in every way. The only solution is to run and hold them off as long as possible. There is no chance at victory, only survival and escape. That pretty much defines a human versus alien situation. Put it in a Dead Space like situation where the player is all alone in a derelict ship or planet and is doing his best to survive and escape. Essentially combine Dead Space with Amnesia and you get the perfect Aliens game.

Exactly!

There should be very little Aliens and you shouldn't be able to kill them in one second if at all. They should be able to pick your team up one-by-one without you having any chance of pretty much doing anything but a little dent in the survival. Actually though of that myself, even one single alien could be the main antagonist in the whole game, where you randomly meat him, while he eats through your insertion team and such.

Running away, finding alternate routs, everything you can to escape, etc. That game would require a lot more environment interaction aka making your own alternate routs, welding doors you decide too and not the game etc., but could all be done pretty much instantly.

unlike games we got this far where there's apparently a pool of 500000 aliens all waiting to just run towards you in a straight line and die with a bullet or two (not scary, nor fun).

Right. I think a game with just one Alien, like in the first movie, would be great. All the Alien games so far have been more like the later films (I believe I haven't seen most of them) in that they focus on soldiers fighting aliens. I think it would be really fun if like in the first movie you were just some dudes on a ship without any combat training and had to improvise to survive. Like you said, working in the environment to block off the alien or slow him down. Killing him would be out of the question. It's just a matter of escaping in any way possible. That is my comparison to Dead Space. You aren't a soldier, just a dude come to fix a ship and now your only hope is to get out. But I wouldn't have much in the way of weapons and none of the weapons would kill the alien, just slow him down. I think that would be a ridiculously fun game.

I would play this. Maybe you play as a Newt-like character; you are just a kid, you have no weapons and you are all by yourself.

The stealth section in Colonial Marines (which was fine, if exceedingly simple) made me want this exact thing. In context, that hilarious Xeno walk is actually mildly unnerving, and when they rush up to sniff you out, I admit recoiling a bit. In a more horror-centric game, that would be truly terrifying.

For all the shit that this game is getting, I give it props for reminding me that Xenos still have the capability to be scary. Now we just need a dev like Frictional to pull it off.

It could even work with you having a weapon if they just made it so when you actually got the chance to fire at the alien for whatever reason, you don't actually kill it but just scare it off. That would also make the alien feel even more threatening, as it would feel like you are underpowered even with a weapon in your hands.

A relatively open game where you are just exploring alone and trying to escape like that with an alien on the loose could be really great.

I'll call up the president of video games

That was a really intense level that was capped off by the hunter xeno chasing you through rooms. Having to weld doors shut and book ass made me think that the game was going to pick up after a rocky start. I both want and don't want a game like that. It'd be unnerving and intense but I'd probably wind up cursing it for being unnerving and intense.

It's disappointing that more of Colonial Marines wasn't that kind of cat and mouse gameplay. It was definitely the highlight of the game.

Or hang on; make a mod for Dead Space 1 that replaces all the Necromorphs with Xenomorphs!

While I can't help but appreciate tp's intentions in this matter, I personally just don't see it. Amnesia was partly so terrifying because of the very limited exposition upon the monster; you never knew what the thing hunting you through the shallow waters in the cellar was and by jove, you did not want to know. Whenever you'd even lay eyes upon one of the walking monstrosities, your vision would blur and you yourself would be beset by a rising surge of panic, wondering "Did he.. Did it see me? Is it coming for me?" Having to work up the courage to peek behind the corner to find out.

Now; with such an established set-up as Aliens, I simply don't find that you can have that. We all know the Xenomorphs too well to be as truly shocked by 'em as we were the first time we heard it skuling around the corridor in the original movie. Besides, so much of the horror associated with the aliens is graphic and brutal in nature; elements that I don't see how you could incorporate into a game similair to amnesia other than as death-animations, which comes off a little cheesy to me.

It is the mystic element that defines what Amnesia is; the unknowing of it. Because no matter what the game throws our way, our own imaginations is what makes it so horrifying.

Just remake AvP 2 over and over and over and over again or make a Dead Space 1-esque game on the genre; I think that'd be for the best.

I completely agree with Raven10's post; such an Alien game would/could/should be awesome!

I do still believe it's technically possible to make an second film-inspired Aliens shooter that is a really good game, even if Colonial Marines (yet to play) didn't accomplish to be that.

The hilarious thing about Colonial Marines is that all the pieces are there for a great ALIENS shooter. It has the music, the sound effects, the aesthetic, and the fan service. The only piece it's literally missing is gameplay. It's astonishing how shooter developers (both TimeGate for Section 8 - a highly underrated multiplayer shooter, and Gearbox for, you know, Borderlands) could get that one critical aspect of their game so fucking wrong.

The hilarious thing about Colonial Marines is that all the pieces are there for a great ALIENS shooter. It has the music, the sound effects, the aesthetic, and the fan service. The only piece it's literally missing is gameplay. It's astonishing how shooter developers (both TimeGate for Section 8 - a highly underrated multiplayer shooter, and Gearbox for, you know, Borderlands) could get that one critical aspect of their game so fucking wrong.

My collective theories on vanilla Alien/s games (as in, not VS Predator) are as fallows:

• A movie license game would be reluctant to do something like a pure survival horror game (action sells, at least in theory) so your best bet would be to do something in compartmentalized chapters; Newts story (survival within a colony), Ripley's story (escape the ship), and the Colonial Marines story.
• A Colonial Marines story needs better establishment as to who the Colonial Marines were before the Xenomorphs. This would more then likely be a military shooter but would later turn into a slower, more tense, experience when assigned to deal with the Xenomorphs. I think this would better emulate the pacing of the second film.
• Xenomorphs are as smart as they are strong. They should be able to kill the player on contact as they lurk in the shadows and wait for their prey to become vulnerably before they attack. Gun play should be a matter of figuring out where the alien is hiding and flushing them out which could then result in the horde rush as the Xenos scurry in panic resulting in a large fire fight.

Truth is, i think it's up to someoneelse to develop a real Alien successor far and away from the actual license. Something that's clearly a homage but with enough original components to avoid a cease and desist.

Frankly every horror game (sci-fi horror included) should basically function like Amnesia, but big publishers have no idea how to market that. And hell, maybe they're right, and maybe there aren't even enough people in the world interested in a game that is actually pants-shittingly terrifying like Amnesia. Maybe the vast majority of people who claim to like horror games simply want something with zombies, or (at best) basic jump scares like in Dead Space 2 and 3.

I mean, Amnesia sold quite well, but that's because A) it's one of the only games to actually do horror properly and is in a class of its own, and B) the game was never more than $20, and that allows for more people to take a chance on buying the game, even if it turns out to be too stressful for them to finish it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people got like 1-3 hours into Amnesia, then stopped because it was stressing them the fuck out. Or at least, that is the anecdote I hear constantly.

A $60 version of that, where the player may only play a few hours before the game freaks them out too much, is a bit of a hard sell. So publishers don't even risk it, and instead make Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Of course it's possible, but it's a massive risk that a lot of developers/publishers aren't willing to take. Especially with a licensed IP. Why take a gamble when you can play it safe with a run-of-the-mill FPS? It's a bummer.