In the vacuum of the games industry, no one can here your pleads for a sequel!
It doesn't get much more classic than Ridley Scott's 'Alien' franchise, the first of which presents a stunningly grounded sci-fi arthouse monster story that elevates itself far beyond its station by merit of the sheer quality of presentation. James Cameron's 'Aliens' would present itself as something of a aspirant to that coveted role, however, itself presenting a much more action heavy, and thriller-adjacent, sequel rife with swarming monsters, explosive machine gun fire and endless quippy and quotable movie moments. For years fans of each have argued back and forth about which is better, an argument I have no horse in personally, because the only question I have to ask with this franchise is thus: which iteration of the franchise has more of a future in the gaming space, and why does it seem like it's only the action-heavy Aliens sequel? Does 'Alien' not also have it's credit and purpose?
Firstly, let's establish the difference. Alien presents a simply iconic and distinct look of the industrial space-age future, one that feels so tactile and believable compared to the technical utopian visual of Star Trek that it's impression is stamped forever on Sci-Fi iconography. Alien stars a highly intelligent yet utterly inhuman monster, one that seems to hunt down and victimise the crew throughout the entire movie tearing them apart as if for fun; hardly ever does it feel like the crew of the Nostromo have anything resembling a chance to survive for be merit of their brawn, and even their sharpest wits seem a mere pittance to the unknowable intellect of the 'perfect organism'. Aliens, on the otherhand, is more visually generic with it's look at space-age colonies, and due to budget constraints their 'xenomorphs' are considerably less impressive and artistically shot. Their monsters are mindless and charging, like stumbling ants with nothing but murder in the brain who charge into death by turret fire with little more intelligence than a computer drone. The movies have their considerable variations of vision.
Yet if we look at the amount of games that have birthed from the original Alien vision, only two really come to mind off the top of my head. One is Dead Space, and Dead Space 2 by extension, which both borrow heavily from the basic premise of Alien as well as the visual motif of 'industry in space', bringing rough and dirty utility to space-faring innovation. Their monsters aren't quiet as imposing and overbearing, as merit of it being it video game through which players are usually expect to go through hundreds of enemies in their campaign to survive, but the 'Necromorphs' certainly carry the 'fear factor' for what they've capable of doing; growing out of the bodies of the deceased on shock body horror glory. 'Alien Isolation', on the otherhand, is direct adaptation of the source material that does everything in it's power to faithfully recreate the world, feel and emotions of Alien to a game playing public. From visuals, to themes, to even the presentation of the Alien as this unkillable, overbearing menace that seems to toy with you as it hunts with an advanced AI that never seems totally stumped by your efforts to sneak around it. Both are gaming classics in their own right, both have very few companions to share that space of their respective subgenre with.
Aliens, on the otherhand, possibly by merit of it's premise, has many more entries under it's wing. You have Aliens Colonial Marines, a legendarily shoddy first person shooter that may or may not have been the operate factor in the smuggling of assigned investment money towards the betterment of Borderlands 2. (Allegedly.) You have Aliens Versus Predator: a severely underrated three-person narrative following various sides of an extra-terrestrial conflict that allows you to play as everyone with a stake in the battle, with a simply sublime multiplayer mode welded ontop for good measure. Aliens Infestation, a side-scrolling DS game. 'Aliens: Fireteam Elite', multiplayer Xenomorph hunting. 'Aliens Trilogy', a doom-like loosely based on the films. Aliens Versus Predator (the originals). And the upcoming 'Aliens: Dark Descent', which sounds like the Alien-Amnesia crossover that no one could have ever foreseen.
On it's surface the reason why should be pretty obvious. When it comes to designing games, we're all more comfortable designing products where the main way of interacting with the world is to shoot big guns extensively, then we are with the types of games that exploit psychological horror in their attempt to unnerve us. A lot of expertise and specialised passion needs to go together to make a game like 'Alien Isolation' work, and nearly as much passion needs be spread about the audience for them to like and get aboard with what it wants to create. But a game about marines shooting aliens? Well, that has some of that all important, investor pleasing, universal appeal; doesn't it? There's FPS lovers and makers popping around this industry like flies ever since the 2000's boom of shooters, might as well capitalise on that by making Aliens themed shooters, no?
To be fair to them, I at least think that some of these shooters are inventive; and almost none have been bottom-of-the-barrel trash. Colonial Marines at least attempted to be a worthwhile shooter with broken squad based mechanics, unimportant new Alien variants and a proposed canon narrative that poked giant holes in some of the most hated plot elements of the Alien canon. Fireteam wanted to bring a cooperative shooter angle to the formula, albeit in a manner I found exceedingly generic. And Alien Dark Descent purposes to throw in some light 'XCOM' style tactical precision with group squad orders and permadeath and all that goodness. Still, I can't help but wonder what would happen if the less trigger happy elements of the Aliens franchise had their day.
The Resident Evil franchise has proved that horror can have it's loud and quiet entries, sometimes one after the other, without the world totally folding in on itself from the sheer paradoxical nature of it all. Alien Isolation has remained the franchise's sole venture into exploring it's traditional roots and it is one of the highest regarded horror games of it's generation. So why have we never gotten anything even close to a sequel? Or heck, any other interpretation of the Alien formula that respects the majesty and integrity of the original design? Or at the very least make a Five Nights at Freddy's reskin, I mean come on! I know that Alien has potential in gaming, I've practically seen it- but I cannot prove that it has a future... which to me is the sorer spot.
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