Does 'Alien' have potential in games?

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.

Character Six

What do the numbers mean, Mason?

What do you think of the number six? It's just a number right- same as any other? Wrong! Six is regal, it's ascendant! Six is the number of heroes and protagonists! Or at least, that's what I've been led to believe by a very particular trend amidst entirely unrelated games that I may just be purely imagining. Am I the only one who's noticed this? The fact that whenever you're presented with a vague protagonist who's designation is a single number, the go-to pick appears to be Six? Why? It's one below the most common picked number in the world, I suppose; and calling a player 'Number one' would be too obvious, I guess. But still- Six? Is it the curve of the loop? Half an ouroboros, simulating the cyclical nature of gameplay systems designed to keep the player in a cycle of dopamine hits and craving periods? Am I conjuring a conspiracy out of nothing? No I am not- and let me prove it to you.

Do you remember the Aliens Vs Predator game? No- the one on the Xbox 360! I can only assume most people don't given the fact that it's often totally ignored in lists of prominent Alien-franchise games despite it easily being my favourite. (I haven't played very many, but I'm decently sold on my game's quality anyway.) It was a game consisting of three campaigns, one as a Marine, one as a Predator and one as an Alien. All featured wildly differing playstyles of which my favourite was the Alien playthrough. Not just for the hide-and-seek style of gameplay and the ability to climb up walls, but also for the curious insight into what it was like to see the world through the carapace of a Xenomorph. Of course, the problem with making a protagonist out of an Alien is that they're all designed to look the same so your character would be lost in group settings. Unless... unless the story begins with your Alien being birthed in a test facility wherein you're designated a test number which is burned into your skull for life!

Yes, as you've likely guess that number is Six and for the Alien gameplay campaign you play as 'Alien Six'. There's nothing especially unique or special about Six apart from the fact he's controlled by the player; the game hardly bothers to pay any lip service to the fact he was born in captivity. In fact, when it's all said and done; there's nothing personally unique about Six apart from his number on his head. We could have been placed in the skin of a totally different Alien for every mission and nothing of value would have been lost from the narrative. So why bother? Because we like to think there's narrative consistency, and that we're following one scrappy lad on his journey from captivity to bringing the Weyland-Yutani corporation to it's knees! And for some reason that hero can only be entwined with the player if he has a big Six on his head... apparently...

A much more famous example of this sort of trend that I'm sure most people are familiar with, is the very last all around good Halo game made before the franchise was sold off to it's slow assassins. 'Halo: Reach' is the game that slapped the action out of the hands of Master Chief as he floated through space and brought us instead to before the events of 'Combat Evolved' to the legendary fall of Reach to the Covenant. New locations meant a new protagonist, and this one would be placed in such a position as to be the avatar of the player character rather than another player in this Sci-fi universe. That Spartan would be inducted into Noble Team at the beginning of the story, and thus inherit the recently 'vacated' moniker of Noble Six.

Six has a very special place in the hearts of the community, probably because he or she was designed to quite literally be the player. Whereas Master Chief has a history and a cool voice and personal relationships (or 'relationship' to be more accurate.) Six was a purposefully designed enigma with a secretive past, very few voices lines, and now relationships outside the one's you form in battle throughout the course of the narrative. He or she was a blank puppet for the audiences hand to slip inside of, and thus that character became synonymous to them. And again, he or she just happened to be assigned the 'Six' call-sign. Now not just emblematic of a hero, but emblematic of a character who literally represents the player and community! How illuminating!

And finally there's my favourite example of this inexplicable 'Six' trope. The legendary protagonist of the greatest Fallout game ever made; Fallout New Vegas. This game follows the exploits of a courier working in the Mojave Wasteland, who found themselves tangled up in affairs above their station and being shot in the head and left for dead. Now an uninitiated player might go through the entire game and never connect the significance between the number 'Six' and the player character, but anyone even slightly ingratiated into the community would know that of the many couriers sent on the job that ended up getting you buried, the player was the Sixth. Thus they are forever known within the community with the immutable title; Courier Six.

Imagine having your name and identity totally supplanted by a job you used to do and the designation you just happen to have had assigned during your most traumatic on-the-job injury! And all because the Fallout creators constantly want to make the player character known as 'The Vault Dweller', despite that being the moniker of the original Fallout protagonist, leaving it up the community to decide their new name. Fallout 3 was 'The Lone Wanderer', New Vegas is 'Courier Six', 4 is 'The Sole Survivor'. Of course, Six's name goes a step further. Every single mod on the Nexus seems to have been brought so readily into the community name that in many mods the player is literally just referred to as 'Six'; over their chosen name. (Because some of these mods are voiced and that's a pithy away around addressing the player without using their name.) This time a 'Six' title dangled before, and widely adopted by an entire loving community.

Six is just a simple number, but to video game creatives it is so much more. It is the everything number, used to denote the most important commodity any entertainment venture can gain: it's audience. Whatever it is that is so special about Six, it is clear that the number resonates on a deeper intrinsic level with all who witness it, to the point many are proud to wear it on their chests and back as a symbol of pride and power! Six is a statement. A primalist cry into the unforgiving void that we are real and we exist, and that Six is our creed, Six is our designation and Six is our future. Inside of Six lies all of humanity, condensed into the point of a needle and spun into a whirling pool of dreams. Or this is all a coincidence and I'm crazy.