After the failed Aliens: Colonial Marines, all Alien fans' hopes were pinned on the upcoming Alien: Isolation, a first-person horror game inspired by the original 1979 film. And then the game saw the light of day. Were the hopes of almost desperate fans justified? Undoubtedly yes.

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Games under the brand have a very strange fate. For a long time, fans of the Alien franchise have been waiting for a good game in a gloomy and frightening universe so beloved, but they have been burned over and over again, getting non-atmospheric, non-canonical and simply unsuccessful games. The only projects that at least slightly conveyed the right atmosphere were developed by the studio Rebellion Developments in 1999, yes its sequel released by the company Monolith Productions. Yes, and they did not quite correctly capture the spirit of "Aliens", exposing xenomorphs as cannon fodder and perhaps the weakest link in the confrontation between man-alien-predator. For years, the guys at another studio, Gearbox Software, have been singing us songs about the great Aliens game they've been working on, but last year's Aliens: Colonial Marines turned out to be a mediocre, silly, and not at all scary shooter. And finally, the fans got what they wanted.

You are my lucky star…Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.

is purebred Survival Horror in the classic, best sense. The game was developed by the studio Creative Assembly, best known for its . It is somewhat strange that a studio specializing in strategies took up such an unusual genre for itself, but you should not be afraid - they turned out just great.

The story picks up fifteen years after the events of the original film. Ridley Scott 1979 year. We play as Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda, who, along with a small team, is sent to a space station called Sevastopol, where, supposedly, there is a flight recorder of the Nostromo cargo ship (on which her mother worked and disappeared) with, possibly, information about what happened on board. Arriving at this very station, the younger Ripley finds out that an elusive deadly monster is walking around somewhere nearby, and the local survivors have turned into terrible paranoids.

The first thing that catches your eye in the game is its retro-futuristic style: analog switches, toggle switches, massive bulging monitors and the like. Everything is carefully and lovingly recreated straight from the original film. It is immediately clear that the developers reviewed Alien more than once, not twice. Yes, that very first "Alien", because the game owes its atmosphere, first of all, to the original picture Ridley Scott than its high-profile sequel, filmed James Cameron, which turned "Aliens" from a horror movie into a fantasy action movie. Here, the atmosphere of isolated horror oozes literally from everywhere.

It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it.

The game truly shines when He enters the scene. Huge, scary, smart, invulnerable creature. Yes, yes, these are no longer “bugs” that crush only by numbers. This is the same monster we saw in the first movie. It is not scripted, its behavior is really unpredictable. For example, it can be distracted by throwing a noise flash to the side, but you should not recklessly rely on this method, because just after the fifth or sixth it will stop responding to it. And you won't fool him anymore. Or, say, you hid in a closet, the monster walked around this closet, sniffed and went home. Looks like it's time to crawl out of hiding? No matter how. It is possible that when you open the door of this very locker, you will see his drooling face in front of you. Yes, he set a trap for you. The alien has outwitted you. Congratulations, you are dead.

An open confrontation with a xenomorph is tantamount to instant death, because it is impossible to kill him or run away from him. This creates an uncomfortable, oppressive, dense atmosphere of hopelessness and helplessness. Honestly, in the same hordes of "strangers", "praetorians" and "queen" taken together, they frighten much less than the local lonely drone. And that's exactly what a real xenomorph should be. The real Alien. An ideal organism, an incredibly dangerous death machine that should inspire fear and respect, and not be shot into minced meat from a pulse rifle.

Due to the fact that such a deadly creature threatens our lives, we have to sneak, hide, not make too much noise, and in general be quieter than water, lower than grass, because Amanda, unlike her mother, does not know how to kick ass monsters of any shape and sizes. However, she also has a couple of aces up her sleeve. First of all, it is worth noting the local crafting system. Unfortunately, it won’t work to make a machine gun out of paper clips (it’s not MacGyver, after all), but here’s some Molotov Cocktail, or, say, a blowtorch - you’re always welcome. This is not to say that there are no weapons in the game, but in the inexperienced hands of our protagonist there is little use for a firearm. It gives more inner confidence. It's safer with him than without him, right?

It's a robot! Ash is a god damn robot!

The alien monster isn't Ripley's only headache. Nearly paralyzed locals, and mostly synthetic androids, also pose a threat. They may not have such a creepy appearance as a stranger, but their calm monotonous voice, measured but confident gait and inhuman red eyes will make you cringe in your chair. These giants will gladly smash your head against the wall, and it is very difficult to cope with them, because they almost do not feel pain. To kill an android, sometimes you need to release more than one full barrel of a revolver at him, and given that Ripley shoots like her fingers are broken, the smartest thing is to attack them stealthily. Also, unlike people on whom the “alien” is sometimes distracted, the monster simply ignores androids. Thus, sometimes you have to fight with the android and the "alien" at the same time. What does it mean? That's right, instant death. The main headache of Ripley and, concurrently, the player, is the local save system. Progress is recorded only on certain terminals, which are located quite far from each other. Died somewhere between them - start again. It is especially offensive when, right next to the "checkpoint" itself, to which the player traveled for about forty minutes, he is suddenly pierced by a "stranger's" tail. I think it's not worth telling what a stream of obscene language follows such a failure.

Game over, man! game over!

The only significant drawback is, oddly enough, its duration. The passage of the game takes about twenty hours. It would seem that a considerable misfortune of modern games is their transience, but because what's wrong with a long campaign? And the fact that after about the middle of the game it becomes a little boring. Rare meetings with a xenomorph are no longer so frightening, the player no longer bounces in a chair from every rustle outside the door, and the ubiquitous androids cease to be something scary and simply begin to annoy. And towards the end, the plot completely sags, filling time with unnecessary running around. And there are even more false endings here than in The Return of the King. Maybe it's because it's impossible to make a tense survival horror that has not lost its frightening charm for twenty hours? Or because the developers did not have enough fuse and passion? Or just run out of ideas? Hard to say. But the fact remains that the game wouldn't lose anything if it were half as long.

Alien: There is something to scold Isolation for: the excessive length of such a simple and chamber story, imperfect artificial intelligence, a chopped off ending ... But I don’t want to scold at all. This is by far the best game in the Alien universe. Atmospheric, creepy, interesting and authentic. The way it should be. The one the fans have been waiting for.

Tell me, do you believe in sudden creative insights? For example, when a certain obscure studio under the wing of a giant publisher, which previously produced exclusively passing games, suddenly shoots out with a world-class hit. What if that publisher is Electronic Arts, infamous for endless sequels to expansions and expansions for sequels, as well as an inexhaustible stream of sports imitators, differing only in the number in the name? Yes, a completely implausible story turns out: what kind of “insights” could be born in the bowels of this machine for stamping pre-calculated hits?
Well, all the more was the public's amazement when, in 2008, developer EA Redwood Shores (now called Visceral Games) fired its Dead Space. The game, frankly, was a success: many critics rightly pointed out that, as a horror movie, it is better and more "atmospheric" than the legendary DOOM 3, and such comparisons are worth a lot. The interest of the players and the favor of the press made the continuation of the series inevitable (once again, remember who the publisher is!). And now, after a little over two years, it appeared: we meet Dead Space 2.

Untold tale

If there is chronic bad luck in the world, then Isaac Clarke - the protagonist of the Dead Space series - is just one of such eternal losers. But how could it be otherwise: to survive a nightmare on the Ishimura, to lose a beloved girl, to lie in an artificial coma for three years, to wake up - and again there are only Necromorphs all around, if they were not right! So you have to put on your favorite mechsuit again, arm yourself with a faithful plasma cutter and go on a new race to the final, sow, so to speak, reasonable, kind, eternal.

If you are waiting for developers to be praised for a skillfully told story or a cool presentation of the plot - in vain, I didn’t keep anything like that close in my thoughts. Imagine two cocktails made from the same ingredients, but only taken in slightly different proportions and mixed a little differently, and you will understand how the scenario of Dead Space 2 differs from the first part of the game. Everything is the same: hordes of mutated creatures, panicked people trying to survive in this hell, crazy unitologist cultists, the mysterious Obelisk, etc. etc., stopping at all points is obligatory. There is only one noticeable plot "innovation" - get ready, take a deep breath! -- Clarke, after experiencing the shock of the original Dead Space, is now tormented by visions involving his dead girlfriend. Originally, you can’t say anything, it remains only to tie the pumping system to the game, and you will get a direct competitor of Mass Effect! I'm kidding, of course. But the fact remains: the plot is not the strongest part of the new game, which in the long run can do the whole series a disservice.

Horror flying on the wings of the night

But what has always been great in Dead Space is the atmosphere. The first part at one time became famous for the fact that it was really scary to play it. No, not even like that, that's how it would be more correct - SCARY! Don't believe? Yes, you just didn’t read the Electronic Arts forum with sentimental stories in the style of “I played for an hour, now I sneak out to the toilet at night, armed with a tire iron.” The players can be understood: when mutated children fall out of the impenetrable viscous darkness at you in batches, which, due to lack of ammunition, you have to stupidly and artlessly crush with heavy boots, you will involuntarily get scared, such things hoo as resonate in the subconscious. But no matter how monstrous it may sound, such “baby beatings” during the game itself were perceived rather as a welcome relaxation for torn nerves, so skillfully the developers whipped up an atmosphere of agonizing expectation and gloomy horror ...

However, as I already mentioned, the game exclusively in the format of "space horror" (space horror) seemed overly scary to the bulk of the players. And Visceral Games, with an unwavering hand, diluted a pure horror movie with daring episodes of chopping necromorphs at speed. Using analogies from the cinema, we can say that the difference between the two parts of Dead Space is exactly the same as between Alien and Aliens. The first is a pure horror film, and the second is an action movie with elements of horror, albeit very noticeable. But if some fans of the original Dead Space (are there any?), after reading the previous sentence, decided that the game had become less scary, they were prematurely upset. Don't close the magazine, stay with us! Because the "high class" of developers has not disappeared. The first transformation of a human into a Necromorph, shown in close-up in all disgusting detail, takes place right before your eyes right at the beginning of the game. And already in the first chapter, a meeting with dearly beloved mutant children, who began to look even nastier and more disgusting, awaits. And so on, all the most frightening of the first part was carefully transferred to the sequel. So don't worry about "rendering" the series, better save your nerves for the passage of the game itself - you will need them oh how!

Jack of all trades

The shift of the game from horror to "shooter" required corresponding changes in the gameplay, and - praise to the developers! -- they were masterfully made. First, Clark now moves faster and more gracefully, there is no trace of the elephantine grace from the first Dead Space. Second, fanfares! - jet engines were screwed to our familiar mechsuit, so now you can fly in zones with weightlessness. Hey, who there said the words "Iron Man" and remembered Tony Stark? Ha-ha-ha, you haven't seen the red mechsuit of the fanatic cultist from the extended edition of the game yet... No, what do you want the game industry to not steal ideas from the Big Movie? Not in this life, friends! And if without snickering - "jetpack" (jetpack) turned out to be a really successful innovation, literally asking for the game. If in doubt, I advise you to finish the mission with the train, and you will see everything for yourself!

You don’t immediately notice another important “modernization” of the gameplay, it looks so unusual after the first Dead Space. The game has sane physics, partially destructible environments and items that can be moved, picked up and used against enemies. I immediately remembered how at the very beginning I toiled with shooting a whole bunch of vile creatures, but it turned out that all I had to do was smash a window with a shot so that all this bloodthirsty horde was pulled into space ... him into a crowd of relatives and we are seeing a big "boom". In general, try, combine different ways to exterminate evil spirits, let your imagination run wild.
Well, the last thing I would like to note is that there are more diverse and spacious levels compared to the original game. Fortunately, the transfer of the scene from the nooks and crannies of the spaceship to the open spaces of the city of Sprawl-city gave the designers and artists from Visceral more opportunities to express their imagination. Of course, and here you can blame that the new open spaces ... er ... not spacious enough. But still, local clubs, shops and the subway are much better than the endlessly repeated holds of Ishimura, which made the player mortally bored after the first third of the game. Yes, and the weightlessness here is still the best in the history of computer games, write it down! I do not think that in the near future we will see something similar from competitors, unless Crysis 2 will please with some unexpected mission on an alien ship.

Failed Dessert

For those who are bored of exterminating Necromorphs alone, the developers have added multiplayer to the game. Unfortunately, this part of Dead Space 2 turned out much worse than the first. The game mode, in fact, is only one, with a maximum of four players participating on each side. Yes, plus, on the side of the Necromorph team, an "extras" controlled by artificial intelligence plays along. Nothing special, as you can see, and experienced players will immediately point out that local online races are almost an exact tracing paper from the Left 4 Dead series. The soul of an experienced networker does not please the small number of cards - there are only five of them. So, given the transience of the rounds, the local multiplayer quickly becomes boring. About such "little things" as the inability to form permanent teams of players, an ill-conceived system of upgrades, as well as a not very convenient interface, I will not even mention. Against the background of everything else, it’s already pointless to kill yourself about this ... As a result, we have to state with sadness: the “dessert” did not work out, the network part of the game was made rather for show, simply because it is inconvenient in 2011 to release a game with a claim to class “A” without online mode. Okay, let's wait for Dead Space 3, I hope Visceral Games will come to their senses there and please the players with a really exciting multiplayer.

The budget contributed to decorating…

As is always the case with successful projects, the sequel was already made with a completely different budget, and this can be seen from the very first frames of the game. The engine, which was born back in 2005 (!!!), was “tuned” so well that the picture looks almost at the level of modern standards. True, when the first enthusiasm subsides, you notice cramped levels, and periodically coming across under-textured objects (as a rule, pushed by caring level designers into pitch darkness), and the limitations of local physics - etc., etc. However, compared with the first part, the technical execution of the game has clearly made a noticeable step forward. We have already talked about tricks with physics, and you can evaluate the graphics yourself, just by looking at the screens. Oh, and don't forget that the proven craftsmanship of the developers has not gone anywhere: Dead Space 2 is still the most "atmospheric", stylish darkness since the legendary DOOM 3.

Excellent soundtrack is the second "calling card" of the series, and here the continuation is in no way inferior to the "progenitor". In my opinion, new heights are not taken simply because there is nowhere higher. If you scare the player even more, then it’s not far from a heart attack. Those who played the first Dead Space in this place smirk knowingly, and everyone else will probably be perplexed: “Is it really possible for some set of sounds from the speakers to scare THAT much ?!” Well, if you don't believe me, you'll be in for a surprise, and don't say later that you weren't warned!

Everyone to view the second picture!

If a game were judged simply as the sum of its parts, then Dead Space 2 would not see a place in the pantheon of glory. Judge for yourself: the plot, as it was a set of sci-fi clichés, has remained so; “horror” was diluted with “action”, so that fans of the first are already not enough, and lovers of the second are still not enough; weak, passable multiplayer; the graphics and physics are almost modern, but, of course, they cannot be compared with the upcoming Crysis 2 ... Only the gameplay can be praised unconditionally, without any reservations, but one gameplay - which, what is already there, in any "action" plus or minus about one and the same - absolutely not enough for a blockbuster.
Luckily, Dead Space 2 is just one case where the whole is bigger, much bigger than the sum of the parts. It has its own special style, its own atmosphere, its own audiovisual solution, caught at first sight, from the first sound, especially by those who at one time did not miss the first part of "Dead Space". For everyone else, it's enough to know that Dead Space 2 is simply the best horror game on PC these days. No Resident Evil series with their funny zombies even stood next to it! If this is not enough reason for you to be interested in the creation of Visceral Games, then I don’t even know how else to persuade you - except to recommend revisiting Alien / Aliens alone at night watching ... Although, of course, if you are not a fan of horror films then that won't help you either.
And the continuation of the series will definitely be: this is quite clearly hinted at in the final game. So we are waiting for new meetings with Isaac Clarke, but for now we are slowly mastering the Dead Space universe, since the new game is a good reason to do this.

Dead Space 2
System requirements: Pentium 4-2800 (Core 2 Duo-2600 recommended), 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Windows Vista/7), 10 GB free disk space (12 GB recommended), 8X DVD drive, GeForce 6800-class video card with 256 MB of memory (GeForce 8800 GTX recommended), sound card, mouse. An internet connection is required for initial activation and online play. The program works under Windows XP SP 3/Vista SP 1,2/7.
Development: Visceral Games
Edition: Electronic Arts

The Alien universe occupies almost as important a place in modern culture as Star Wars: George Lucas created the space epic in the twilight of the 1970s, which remains the most popular to this day, and Ridley Scott - the most terrible image of aliens in the history of cinema . Why is the sight of aliens still chilling in the veins, although it is impossible to look at other aliens from films of that era without laughing?

In this article I will try to answer this question, as well as retell the main milestones in the chronology of the Aliens universe, in which the line between the canon and "works based on" is blurred much more than in the same Star Wars, and I will advise the necessary and sufficient a list of movies and games worth checking out.

My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are.

Aliens owe their appearance to the Swiss surrealist artist Hans Giger, in whose gloomy works mechanisms and living flesh are mixed in such a way that BDSM motifs are almost always striking.

Models pose for Giger for his Erotomechanics VII

Alien screenwriter O'Bannon met Giger when they were both working on Alejandro Jodorowsky's iconic adaptation of Dune, which never saw the light of day. In 1977, Giger sent one of the first copies of his Necronomicon album to O'Bannon, and the Necronomicon illustration included in it became a prototype for aliens when the filmmakers decided to bring the artist to the shooting.

A "standard" adult alien simultaneously resembles an insect, a reptile, and a human wrapped in black skin. The aliens are very strong and agile, they can walk on both two and four legs, and on all fours they move freely along the walls and even the ceiling. With a tail with a sharp tip, they can easily pierce a person through and through. Another jaw is hidden in the mouth of the alien (retractable and very powerful), and instead of blood, it has acid, which instantly eats even the bulkheads of the spaceship. Aliens do not have eyes, but in the dark they navigate perfectly. All in all, they are perfect killers. But this is clearly not enough to be so terrible.

Their breeding system is more frightening. Although the aliens are quite intelligent, they do not even have the rudiments of any culture. In fact, these are wild animals that seek only to reproduce their species. At the same time, they have a hierarchy that resembles the relationship of social insects, and is associated precisely with reproduction.

The alien uterus lays eggs that hatch into facehuggers, small spider-like creatures that lie in wait for the victim, jump on her face and implant the embryo through her mouth. Years after the film's release, O'Bannon admitted that they deliberately made the method of alien reproduction look like homosexual oral rape in order to more scare heterosexual men.

The human body (or other large mammal that the facehugger can also attack) becomes an incubator for the embryo. Saving the victim at this point by excising the embryo is already almost impossible, even with surgical equipment at hand, and this doom also adds to the horror. After a short time (usually a few hours), the alien develops to the point where it can survive on its own. Then he pierces the chest, gets out to freedom and begins to grow rapidly. It is curious that while the embryo is inside the victim, he borrows part of the genetic code from her and thus adapts to what awaits him outside.

Resisting aliens in the Aliens universe is not easy: technology that looked very advanced in 1979 now seems like a warm tube retro. But they did not radically change them in films and games that came out much later, in order to maintain a single style. Therefore, all the electronics in "Aliens" are primitive and very cumbersome, although there are very useful inventions, such as the M56 Smartgun machine gun, which automatically aims the barrel at the target, or a portable motion sensor (although often it does not warn of danger, but puts pressure on the nerves).

Worst of all, it is usually not necessary to count on help. Heroes invariably encounter aliens on distant planets or inside starships. Either no one knows about their misfortune, or help will arrive much later than the aliens find them in narrow metal corridors and turn them into living incubators. Finally, even in the face of mortal danger in the Alien universe, one cannot blindly trust comrades in misfortune. The powerful corporation Weyland-Yutani plays a key role in the colonization of space, whose employees put the interests of the company above human lives. And to seize such a unique organism is, of course, in the interests of the company.

With slight variations, this pattern, in which the authors scare the audience and players, is found in any work about aliens. On the one hand, we love it. On the other hand, I want at least some development. That is why I consider the first film in the series to be the best, which for obvious reasons was the most original, and the second, where the space thriller was heavily diluted with an action movie.

This is rumor control. Here are the facts!

20th Century Fox treats the Alien universe as if it doesn't care about fans wanting to know what's canon and what's not to worry about. Throwing brand licenses left and right, the film company extremely rarely explained what was the official version of events. Even if you leave out a bunch of conflicting books and comics, it doesn't get any easier.

For example, those who don't like crossovers may have seen the entire Alien vs. Predator series as a similarly controversial set of fanfiction, until 20th Century Fox released two films on the subject that paid a lot of attention to the origins of Weyland-Yutani. And then Ridley Scott started filming Prometheus, which is definitely canon, and portrayed the early years of Weyland-Yutani differently. At the same time, the Fire and Stone crossover intertwined the plots of as many as four independent comic book series: Prometheus, Alien, Predator and Alien vs. Predator.

So what do you need to see to get a complete picture of this universe? The option that I will offer below can by no means be called the only true one, but I will try to explain each of my statements.

An important note - all films in the series, and especially the third part, are best viewed in extended versions.

Alien (Directed by Ridley Scott)

The first film, released in 1979, is now perceived not as an entertainment product that excites the blood, but as a serious science fiction parable. This feeling is greatly strengthened by the fact that a very chamber drama is unfolding on the screen: the crew of the Nostromo spaceship, which includes the main character Ellen Ripley, responds to a signal from the moon LV-426, lands on its surface, finds an abandoned alien spaceship and returns to board with an extra passenger, after which all the action takes place in narrow cabins, corridors and ventilation shafts. At the same time, people have almost no means for self-defense.

This brevity and the stunning industrial design of the sets make the film feel far from ancient. He also aged well thanks to excellent directing: the premonition of an alien attack is much worse than the attack itself, so he rarely appears on the screen, and the modern viewer does not have time to be horrified by the shortcomings of special effects.

This film is not to be missed - it is not only the cornerstone of the Alien universe, but also a classic of cinema that even those who are indifferent to space horror films should know.

Game Alien: Isolation

In 2014, the Creative Assembly studio, famous for the Total War strategy series, released a game of a completely different genre - an action game in which you need to hide a lot and craft useful equipment from improvised items.

You need to manage it with Ellen's daughter named Amanda. 15 years after the loss of her mother, she got a job in the same Weyland-Yutani and went in search of her, which led to the Sevastopol station, where the Anesidora ship delivered the Nostromo logbook and a stowaway of alien origin.

The game turned out to be very beautiful and atmospheric, but too long. However, even this serious shortcoming is not a reason to miss such an outstanding project. If Alien: Isolation is still not in your collection, be sure to buy it on the Steam sale.

And check out the additions Crew Expendable and Last Survivor, which recreate the famous scenes from the first film. By themselves, they are very short and do not represent anything special, but if you have managed to become a fan of the Aliens universe, then you should hardly ignore the chance to stroll along the Nostromo.

Aliens (Directed by James Cameron)

Today it is hard to imagine that a sequel to a commercially successful film can be released only seven years later. But this is exactly what happened with Aliens, and Ellen Ripley blabbed in suspended animation aboard a lifeboat for 57 years. By that time, colonists had already landed on LV-426, and Ripley's daughter had already died of old age.

When Weyland-Yutani finally found the heroine, no one believed her words. At least that's what she was told. Having lost her job in the corporation, Ripley took a job as a loader exoskeleton operator and carried boxes until her connection with the colony was lost. Then the Weyland-Yutani made her an offer that could not be refused: to fly on the ship "Sulaco" on LV-426 with a detachment of marines as the only person in the world who knows at least something about strangers.

The name doesn't lie: there are a lot more aliens on the screen in Aliens than in the first part. And the detachment, armed to the teeth, does not give up without a fight. But the action movie still turned out to be original: it takes the soul not with special effects or dynamics, but with tension. The auto turret sequence, which still impresses me the most, doesn't show any aliens at all, which makes it all the more worrying.

In my opinion, the second film is the strongest in the series. It is not so scary, because the weapons in the hands of the heroes increase their chances of fighting back, or at least accepting death without suffering. But the image of charismatic soldiers, who manage not only to shoot back from strangers, but also to joke (until it gets really hot), turned out to be so successful that it was replicated in most computer games based on the universe. This is the kind of movie that you want to watch at least once every couple of years, even when you know it by heart. Along with the first part, this is the quintessence of what the Alien universe attracts fans to.

Shooter Aliens vs. Predator by Rebellion Developments in 1999, its 2001 sequel by Monolith Productions, and Aliens vs. Predator 2010 from the same Rebellion - all these games are based on the classic image of the marines from Aliens, and before the release of Colonial Marines there was really no other opportunity to play for brave fighters with impulse rifles and smartguns (not to take into account the ancient console shooters ).

Unfortunately, the second part is not sold in digital distribution, and the third one is still slag. But the improved version of the original, re-released on Steam under the name Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000, boasts an even more or less lively multiplayer community.

Alien 3 (Director: David Fincher)

The third part of the 1992 release is already a relatively modern cinema, which is clearly visible in its visual range. And this is perhaps its main advantage. Alien 3 was born in pain: the script of previous films also changed a lot, but here it was shoveled several times beyond recognition. For example, in the original version, on which William Gibson worked, the “space Soviet Union” played an important role, and in the penultimate version, events developed on a wooden planetoid inhabited by monks who denied technical progress.

In the final version, the space monastery turned into a prison planet, but its prisoners remained deeply religious. The shooting itself took place with such scandals that in the end Fincher slammed the door and the film was edited without his participation. Such ups and downs could not but affect the quality of the picture: "Alien 3" turned out to be very uneven and heavy.

Ripley again fails to reach the target normally: the inhabitants of the prison planet Fiorina 161 find her lifeboat from the Sulaco starship, in which the main character is the only survivor. For those who managed to fall in love with her fellow travelers in Aliens, such a turn was, of course, very bitter. The ending of the third part clearly showed how much its creators were tired of their own offspring, and left no hope for a sequel.

You can watch Aliens 3, of course, but you don't have to. In this case, you will not see with your own eyes the entire official chronology, but the ending of the second part does not leave a feeling of understatement, and its aftertaste is much better.

According to Alien 3, as many as four games were released on different consoles, which differed greatly from each other in the structure and features of the gameplay. Most of them misrepresented the events of the movie rather crudely, if only because Ripley had access to firearms. If you suddenly decide to play one of them on an emulator, it is better to give preference to the SNES game.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines - super long-term construction. A game with this name was announced by Electronic Arts back in 2001 and tried to be released on the PlayStation 2. Sega announced the development of its own Aliens: Colonial Marines in 2008, but it only reached the shelves in 2013.

In 2011, the developers at Gearbox Software brought an impressive demo to E3 that convinced many that the project would be worth it.

However, the release turned out to be a disaster. Not only was the game very bad, it had little to do with the video above. Outraged buyers even sued the publisher, accusing him of unfair advertising, and won the case. Sega had to fork out $ 1.25 million. After the release, information appeared on the network that Gearbox led Sega by the nose for several years: they took money from her to develop Aliens: Colonial Marines, but spent them on other projects. But instead of strangling the project and suing the developers, the publisher decided to release it and recoup the costs.

The only advantage of this game, which at least slightly brightens up the disappointment, is the co-op mode. Immediately after its release, we had a stream, during which we had a great laugh at the absurdity of what was happening on the screen. His entry is still on Riot Pixels.

At the same time, Aliens: Colonial Marines cannot be completely ignored, despite its obscene quality. After all, this is just the rare case when 20th Century Fox said that the game is included in the canon. Moreover, it rewrites the most important detail of Alien 3.

The command of the colonial marines sends another military starship "Sephora" with a whole battalion on board to search for the missing "Sulaco". The Sulaco, last seen near Fiorina 161, somehow returned to LV-426, where the Marines find it 17 weeks after the events of Aliens. After docking, they stumble upon a whole brood of aliens, and then - on the Weyland-Yutani mercenaries, who open fire on them.

In the course of their adventures, the heroes meet Corporal Hicks, who survived the ending of Aliens but died in the plot of Alien 3. This inconsistency was clarified in the Stasis Interrupted add-on, which was released almost six months after the release of Colonial Marines. Unlike the original game, which didn't add much to the history of the universe, this add-on is really of interest to fans.

Aliens: Infestation

The story of how the Marines from the Sephora flew to the rescue of the Sulaco is told by another game - Aliens: Infestation, which was released on the Nintendo DS a year and a half earlier than Colonial Marines. Its plot is very different from Colonial Marines: suffice it to say that the same "space Soviet Union" from the early scenario of "Alien 3" appears here. The game itself, by the way, was quite decent. Although it does not fit into the official chronology, Infestation is definitely worth playing for Nintendo console owners.

Alien: Resurrection (Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Some things just shouldn't exist. For example, such as "Alien: Resurrection", which appeared on the screens in 1997. Whether this film is just mediocre - not so bad. 20th Century Fox literally dug the series out of its grave and abused it. Particularly unfortunate is that the brilliant screenwriter Joss Whedon, author of Buffy and Firefly, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who had yet to direct his Amélie, were involved. True, after the release of the film, Whedon was very dissatisfied with him and claimed that during the filming, the authors did not deviate from the script, but filmed everything differently than he intended, and completely wrong.

Scientists at the military space station Auriga succeed in cloning Ripley, who died two hundred years ago in the finale of Alien 3. They do this in order to cut out an alien embryo from her, which she tried to destroy in the third film. Soon, the mercenaries bring innocent people to the station, whom the military wants to use as incubators for strangers. Of course, at the most inopportune moment, the aliens break free. The Ripley clone in this film resembles the character of Mila Jovovich from the Resident Evil series: he also remembers little, but has superpowers. It looks the same way.

The Aliens We Lost

In 2015, it became known that District 9 director Neil Blomkamp could make a fifth film in the Aliens universe that would erase the events of parts 3 and 4 from the canon. The published concept art included both Hicks and a grown-up Newt, the girl that Ripley and the Marines rescued in Aliens, and the writers of Alien 3 killed with Hicks.

It sounded very promising: Sigourney Weaver was delighted with the director and hoped to play Ripley again, and James Cameron said that Blomkamp showed him the script and he seemed very powerful. However, all the cards were confused by Ridley Scott and his "Alien: Covenant": 20th Century Fox did not give Blomkamp a green light until Scott released his film.

Apparently, we will never see an adult Newt. Blomkamp recently rated the film's chances as "weak" and Scott said there was never a script, just a 10-page concept.

Another irreplaceable loss is the role-playing game Aliens: Crucible, which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. It was announced back in 2006, when only Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 were on the studio's account. Aliens: Crucible was supposed to be released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, development progressed with difficulty, and in 2009 the Sega publisher strangled the project. After that, various materials began to appear on the network, which could be judged on the unreleased game. For example, in 2013 there was such a video.

Films "Prometheus" and"Alien: Covenant" (directed by Ridley Scott)

The idea of ​​making a prequel to the main series called "Prometheus" was a win-win. Who doesn't want to know where the aliens came from?The trouble is that the authors of the film did not give a clear answer, although Ridley Scott himself shot it. The Prometheus is somehow sewn into the famous universe: several recognizable elements were simply stuffed into it, like the Weyland Yutani and the starship of an unknown humanoid race. Fatal eggs were found on the same one in Alien.

A team of scientists in the service of the corporation flies to the moon LV-223, located in the same system as LV-426, hoping to find there the forerunner race that created humanity. And, of course, he finds his death. If not for the familiar titles, such a description would fit every second film about travel to distant planets.

Although you need to watch "Prometheus" anyway, because "Alien: Covenant" is its direct continuation. Ten years after the events on LV-223, an accident occurs on the colony ship Covenant, flying to the planet Origa-6: the starship stops to deploy the solar sail and recharge, but a sudden neutrino blast disables part of its systems and destroys the captain and 47 out of 2000 colonists.

While the surviving crew members are repairing the Covenant, they receive a signal from an unknown planet sent by Elizabeth Shaw, a member of the Prometheus expedition from the previous film. This planet is even better suited for colonization than Origa-6, and is much closer, so the new captain decides to study it. It ends badly, of course.

In theory, "Alien: Covenant" should beckon fans with the fact that it shows where the first aliens came from. The explanation turned out to be logical, but rather boring. Plus, it's tied too tightly into the creation-of-life discourse that Ridley Scott started to push back in Prometheus (more aspiring to depth than deep). So the fear that aliens were added here just to lure fans of the universe into cinemas is partly true. It is not difficult to imagine how some other monsters would have been brought out here instead of strangers: the film would have been called "Prometheus 2" and its main message would not have changed at all.

Perhaps it was worth doing, because the hybrid of Prometheus and the Alien series that Scott brought out could not become a single organism. It turned out two almost independent films: first, a piece of the new "Alien" was recorded on tape, "Prometheus 2" is wedged in the middle, and the last third is "Alien" again. "Prometheus", as before, is beautiful, but empty and lethargic, but "Alien" is quite worthy. Events unfold according to a well-known pattern, and the characters in some episodes act surprisingly stupid, but everything is filmed very high quality and stylishly, and dynamic moments go well with tense ones. If we could throw out "Prometheus" and develop the theme of strangers better, it would turn out to be a good movie, otherwise it would be rather tolerable.

And even the "intriguing" ending does not help. If Scott confines himself to a trilogy, then in the next film I would like to see how the forerunner alien starship with alien eggs landed on LV-426, and not a new batch of allusions to biblical stories.