1986 was a big year for the emerging movie adaptation machine. Aliens, one of the biggest movie hits of the same year, got licenced by Activision. Developing one game themselves for their home market, their European subsidiary made a completely different one. The latter, here in spotlight, offering the much tighter design.
Set in a building complex overrun by Aliens and they can only be stopped by taking out their queens. Plus, a handful of marines is waiting for their rescue. The player controls no less than all six main characters of the movie, starting out as a group in the same room. A map is contained in the box, but where to search for the queens or the humans is not so obvious.
Exploring the 200+ rooms in first-person perspective, the player can move each character individually. Different approaches are possible with respect to keeping them all together, split into smaller groups or even try to cover as much ground as possible spreading them out.
One way or the other, switching around constantly is a necessity, because they need rest regularly. An exhausted character reacts more slowly, which can turn a sudden monstrous encounter into their last. Health and ammo needs to be managed likewise.
At its core, Aliens is a very simple game. Move around, open and close doors, shoot enemies. Find safe spots to rest. Keep in mind that securing some rooms is possible, but it cannot be done an arbitrary number of times. Going slow, anyway, is not a good idea, because the Aliens are actively leaving strange growth behind where ever they go, obscuring doorways etc.
Much like the film, the thrill is not in sophistication, but in the constant pressure to move forward, move fast, but keep an eye on everything. It's not a game recreating highlight scenes, but it captures the spirit quite well. The mechanically simple premise emerges into more complex tactical decisionmaking than originally expected.
Of course, it's not without fault. The control scheme requires one hand on the joystick and one hand on the keyboard. The keys defined as per the letters printed on them, e.g. N for north, E for East, R for Ripley. A spatial layout could have worked much better in this case. Especially when accidentally hitting the restart button M one time too many.
Granted, considering the aged, samey visual style, the almost silent speakers and less-than-perfect controls, it's not a must-play today. It's still one which can be enjoyed easily, however. Finally, this is game design which could have stood on its own, without a big film licence behind. It has its own identity, its own, original appeal. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about Activisions US game.
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