Xeno Enigma

The soundtrack for James Cameron's film "Aliens" has an interesting feature.  The classical musical instruments that make up soundtrack play specific roles, strings and woodwinds for the Aliens while the percussion and brass represent the colonial marines.  Depending on the scene, audiences might only hear one or the other.  However, certain sequences (such as in the track "Futile Escape") the music reflects how events playout on screen.  As the music progresses the alien instruments slowly, but inexorably undermine and finally eclipse the colonial marine ones.  Horns, in particular, grow weaker while the drums and chimes (which start off strong) struggle increasingly to maintain tempo and rhythm.  Apparently, due to time constraints, the entire score had to be recorded in one go which (as anyone can imagine) led to very exhausted orchestra of musicians.  Debatably, this may have unintentionally added a subtle layer fatigued desperation to the music that most viewers would only pick up on subconsciously.  I certainly didn't notice any of this until someone pointed it out to me.  So what does any of this have to do with video games?  Well...when it comes to adaptations of the "Alien" IP video game developers like their bugs and guns, but fail to really notice the disturbing implications at the core of the whole concept...namely, the erosion of advanced technology and organization by an invasive, organic malignancy.

One of the best ways to illustrate this theme is by examining the xenomorphs themselves.  Fans of science fiction and horror are probably familiar with these creatures.  They are slender, hairless, humanoids with elongated skulls, fangs, and claws.  Their tongues even have pseudo-mouths of their own.  Aside from a fairly ordinary pair of arms and legs each alien has a barbed tail as well as a set of dorsal tube-like appendages along the back.  This is where things start to get ambiguous.  Most "Aliens" media depicts these oddities as purely decorative, although the Aliens tabletop RPG suggests that they are used by xenomorphs to cling to walls and ceilings.  Sounds plausible although none of the films explicitly show this being the case.  The purpose of the elongated head is another mystery.  Is it tied to the secreted resin Aliens use to build their hives or does the large cranium contain organs serving another purpose?  Overall, the torso and limbs seem entirely too slender for the degree of physical strength Aliens possess.  There has also been some speculation (backed up by secondary sources) that the xenomorph's tail spike can inject a paralyzing venom which is one way they can bring living hosts back to the hive for embryo implantation.

The Alien life cycle is another case of something that is complex, but makes sense in that it's pretty similar to certain species of wasps.  However, the more you study it the less comprehensible it becomes.  The details are particularly bewildering.  What do Aliens eat?...nothing, appears to be the answer...and yet they don't seem to suffer for it.  The fact that they have highly corrosive acid for blood might lead one to theorize that Aliens are actually big, organic batteries.  That might help explain why they don't eat, but it doesn't really address the next obvious question - "how do they recharge?"  The Aliens preference for nesting in warm environments might be an indicator that they can absorb thermal energy which is somehow converted into matter that can be used for growth, repairs and egg laying, but that's pure conjecture on my part.

The intelligence level of the xenomorph has always been difficult to determine.  Are they on par with insects?...predatory cats?...or near human?  It seems to vary from film to film.  Senses and communication are also largely unexplained, so-much-so Dark Horse comics came up with the idea in their graphic novels that the Aliens were actually psychic.  DNA requisition is another aspect to the Alien physiology that has been around since the original film.  The script writer, Dan O'Bannon, admitted that his concept of the Alien was inspired by the Lovecraftian monster Yog-Sothoth.  What's less clear is the potential for RNA requisition.  Do Aliens steal not only the genes of their hosts, but memories as well?  If so it appears that any such information is only utilized in ways that expedite the Aliens' primal goals; survive, kill, reproduce.

What is the ultimate purpose of the Aliens?  Dark Horse comics went with the concept of a xenomorph homeworld whereupon they are the dominant species.  Incidentally by implication it might have been more frightening if they were not, but I digress...The enigmatic, spacefaring giant seen in the first film was simply a victim of its own curiosity.  Meanwhile, in the quasi-prequels "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant" the xenomorphs were engineered.  It's certainly possible to treat xenomorphs like a highly invasive species or even biological weapons.  Personally, I'm inclined to think of them as a malignant, unsustainable, almost cancerous disease that infects whole ecosystems rather than individual life forms.  I feel like the best way to convey this sort of horrific vibe isn't with tense FPS action or stealth gameplay, but rather grand strategy along the lines of Plague Inc.  Replace the epidemic with Aliens, countries with other-world colonies, and the CDC with colonial marines.  The Aliens themselves can retain the mutation mechanic based on the inconsistencies and speculation surrounding xenomorph biology that I previously mentioned.  In Plague Inc. it's also possible to get a boost from anti-vaxxers.  In a similarly structured Aliens-themed games the boost would come in the form of a Corporate Bio Weapons Division being stupid/greedy.

Now, I'm sure there are a few Aliens fans who would decry my ideas as being too abstract.  Frankly, the best of what the Aliens franchise has to offer has been milked dry by games that aren't even part of the franchise.  System Shock, Starcraft, Doom, Space Hulk, Dead Space and a whole slew of other titles did it better than any official game has, so if you're going to make a licensed Aliens game why not go with an as of yet unused macro viewpoint from which players can watch humanity unravel in the face of a threat they can't control or even truly understand?

Make it a Game

To paraphrase something movie reviewer Bob Chipman said:

There have been eight Alien films at this point and only the first two were good -just stop making them already.

It a comment I can relate to except I don't think it needs to be the end of the franchise.  I'm not talking about reboots here, rather I think any future Alien-themed properties should be in the form of video games.

Aside from novelizations of "Alien" and "Aliens" the books have been mediocre at best (with the possible exception of Aliens: Labyrinth).  The same is true of the comics although there are a few clever ideas scattered throughout them.  Video games have a pretty dismal track record as well, but the most recent adaptation of the IP, Alien: Isolation, has shown potential.  Don't get me wrong, the game is far from perfect.  For one thing it goes on for way too long, and for another there's a lot of pointless side characters whose presence seems to contradict the the title of the game.  Even so, I think a less action focused Alien game is the way to go.  Sure, everyone wants to recreate that classic battle between the xenomorphs and colonial marines, but it's been done to death now.  I'm not just talking about licensed games either, franchises like Starcraft, Resident Evil, Halo and DOOM have mined "Aliens" for every last piece of usable material.  The later movies have little of value to offer, and the original motion picture has been sucked dry too.  So where does that leave the IP?  As far as I can tell there's really only one place left untapped, and that's the prequels.

Putting it nicely, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are not good films.  The visuals are well shot courtesy of long-time directory Ridley Scott, but other than that the mystery is poorly revealed, the horror bits are cliche, and the plot is a total mess.  For whatever reason the writers chose to ignore most of what the previous movies had established, resulting in contradictions all over the place in terms of the Alien lifecycle and overarching timeline.  I could go on a rant about all the inconsistencies, but I'd prefer to keep things positive here (and more importantly - constructive).

Figuring out the origins of the Alien isn't as interesting as it might seem.  On the other hand learning more about the enigmatic Space Jockey race is worth exploring in more detail.  Unfortunately, in the 2 hours and X minutes running time allotted to films these days, it's practically impossible to do the subject justice.  So instead we're given an abbreviated version with disjointed events and scatter-brained ideas, as well as character actions and motivations that don't make much sense.  The hands of the writers are also clearly visible at times since they want to go from point A to point C without taking the time to come up with a satisfactory point B.  These are all problems that could be solved if both these films had been video games instead; more time for the story to unfold, ideas to be fleshed out, and characters to behave in believable ways.  The player could actually get to explore the ruins of the engineers' civilization, uncover the secrets of their technology.  They could fully read the poems of Shelley, Milton and Byron, gain a deeper understanding of David's fascination with T.H. Laurance, not to mention have branching dialogues with various characters.  Best of all, the story need not be confined to a single path.  Think The Dig meets Until Dawn and you're well on your way to a proper video game adaptation of Prometheus.  Incidentally, it would be pretty awesome (not to mention subversive) to have an alien story in which everyone survives through sheer competence and teamwork.  It might not bet especially true to the franchise, but the simple fact of the matter is xenomorphs are basically oversized bugs with the brains of chimpanzees.  Deadly, to be sure, under a certain set of circumstances.  However, once they become a known quantity they're not an unsolvable problem.  Compare them to to Space Jockey race and suddenly humanity appears to be in far greater peril.  Unlike the xenomorphs, this species of (once pachyderm-like) interstellar travelers has technology far in advance of even what exo-world colonizing humans posses.  What's their culture like?  Their psychology?  Do they have outposts scattered across the galaxy?  How long have they been roaming the stars?  Based on what is shown by the holographic map in Prometheus the implied answers are "many" and "for a long time."  That begs the question though, are there any other planets with engineered life?  If so they must be close to human...maybe that's what the line from Aliens was on about regarding Arcturians...

The Alien franchise has followed a very bizarre course over the years.  It's started off as a very simple, but well thought out (and executed) melding of sci-fi and horror.  As more and more films have been released for the IP though the premise has become increasingly muddled until it degenerated into the brain-dead wrestling match that is the AvP movies.  Then it flip-flopped hard and turned into a bunch of pretentious nonsense.  A video game adaptation could potentially give this franchise some much needed grounding, structure and balance.  Of course, it would still need a competent storyteller which might be too much to ask of the video game industry.  Hmmm...I wonder if John Gonzalez is available?       

From Alien to Familiar

It can't be understated how much James Cameron's "Aliens" film has influenced video games.  Resident Evil 2, DOOM 3, and the original XCOM, all drew inspiration from the movie in obvious ways.  I've even heard arguments that it's directly responsible for the creation of the survival horror genre as we know it.

Unsurprisingly, there have been a large number of direct adaptations of the Aliens franchise with wild variations in quality (even between platform ports).  For example, the Amiga and Apple IIc version of Aliens are pretty different, as are the Sega Genesis and SNES versions of Alien 3.  As far as good Aliens-themed games go, the general consensus seems to be Alien vs Predator 2, Alien: Isolation, and the original DOOM total conversion mod.  I've also heard positive things about the Nintendo DS title Aliens: Infestation, but I haven't had a chance to play it myself.

When it comes to bad games, there are sadly far to many to properly list.  Part of the problem comes from unrelated games that cherry pick all the best bits of the Aliens franchise for use in their own projects.  Hence, when an actual licensed Aliens game comes out it feels derivative in terms of gameplay (take the old Mac game Colony, or Metroid and Contra on the NES for examples of games that beat'em to the punch).  Another, more fundamental problem, is a simple lack of developer creativity.  I'm probably a bit of an outlier here when I say that my preference is for the original over any of the sequels (yes, even the second one).  My reasoning is simple, the alien was far more mysterious in the original film than at any point after.

It seems that the aliens are a biological weapon of sorts, engineered by an enigmatic race of giants.  It makes sense, but what if the aliens were actually native to some planet instead?  What kind of eco-system would that world have?  An even more disturbing possibility is what if they're not the dominate species on their homeworld?  Another interesting corollary is what do aliens look like when they are devoid of human DNA?  Supposedly, one unique aspect of xenomorph physiology is their ability to take on aspects of the host species (incubator).  It's a sort of accelerated evolution through grave robbing.  Originally, the alien in the first film was going to be much more maggot-like with translucent skin and a clear domed head that held a humanoid skull underneath.  Unfortunately, the production crew couldn't get the lighting to work quite right so the idea never really panned out.  Still, it's interesting to consider whether or not the xenomorphs are even a species at all.  Perhaps they are the culmination of ever species they've used as breeding hosts up to that point?  In which case how would xenomorphs interact if they were from branching evolutionary paths.  Would the dog-alien in the third film cooperate with it relatives from the previous movie?  Would they fight like red ants and black ants?  These are interesting questions that nobody has tried to answer, which is a shame because it would make good fodder for a video game.

Another disturbing aspect to the xenomorphs is their ability to steal not just the DNA of their hosts, but their memory as well.  It would help explain why, at times, the aliens appear to be strangely clever, they know everything their host knew, it's just that most of the knowledge isn't pertinent when the mental faculties of a xenomorph are dominated by the three basic instincts: survive, procreate and kill.  To me, the weirdest part of unexplained alien lore has to be their feeding habits, or lack there of.  Xenomorphs don't appear to eat anything and yet they grow ridiculously fast.  My personal theory is that they are somehow able to convert energy into matter, kind of like photo synthesis except instead of sunlight and leaves it's their elongated head organ and thermal radiation.  At the very least this would help explain why aliens like to build their nests in hot places, and why they would be such desirably specimens for scientific research.

Regrettably none of this has been explored or even addressed in a satisfactory manner.  Instead we've only really gotten rehashes of the first two films (usually with more bugs and more guns).  Worse still the aliens continue to get less and less...well...alien.  They started off as a mixture of flukes and tarantula wasps, then became something akin to ants or bees, and by the third film the alien was basically a jungle cat.  Appearance-wise too, the alien design has migrated away from the original bio-mechanical look to something more insect or reptilian in appearance.  Even the space jockey race have had their eerie pachyderm-like traits reworked into something more recognizably human.

Incidentally, during the pre-production of  Alien 3, H.R. Giger did a bit of design work on the alien for that movie.  Not wanting to simply repeat himself, the artist added some new features to the creature such as a "finger brain," consisting of numerous tendrils along the top of the head that would movie in rhythmic patterns.  Additionally, his new alien design had hollow tubes that would emit haunting windpipe noises.  I don't know how scary this would have been on film (none of he designs were used because of concerns over production costs), but it's bizarre stuff, totally unlike anything found on the planet Earth.  Hence, "alien" in the truest sense of the word.  I can understand why filmmakers would be reluctant to take those kinds of risks, but if you're going to make a tie-in game you might as well try to make it stand on its own merits.    

Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst

Is the glass half empty or half full?  If you choose the latter then it sounds like you're a pessimist, but if you choose the former you sound like an optimist.  Regardless of which you choose though, the reality is most of us fall somewhere in the middle.  I find myself often torn between what I hope a game will be while simultaneously trying to hedge my expectations.  Three titles currently in development have been on my mind of late; one nearing completion, one in the process of being crowd funded, and the last has yet to get underway.  Are they half full or half empty?  Let's find out.

Half Full:  Finally an Alien themed game that's not just another bug hunt.  A relatively helpless player, only one xenomorph, and a poorly lit claustrophobic retro-future environment...it's like a sci-fi version of Amnesia: The Dark Decent (but not Soma because that would be redundant).  Driven by a complex AI, the Alien itself promises to threaten the player dynamically rather than a forced reliance on scripted events.  Outmatched, the player must depend on a motion tracker, welder, hiding places, and possibly an incinerator unit to survive.  Based on what I've seen it looks absolutely terrifying in a good way, of course.  The time frame is set between the first and second films, which gives the story line some interesting opportunities to introduce new characters and locals.  Perhaps we will learn more about the enigmatic race of space engineers too.

Half Empty:  Two words about the development team - Creative Assembly.  I've talked about these guys in the past (link), but in case you aren't aware their track record isn't exactly stellar. In all likelihood we're looking at something that will be a buggy mess with so many issues, flaws and janky bits it will hardly be playable.  Expect months and months of patches to get it into a properly polished state.  Not that anyone will really care because the story will be some terrible piece of fanfic with a total playtime of about two hours.  Don't worry though, they'll still charge you full price for it.  Also, the Alien will get stuck on the level geometry and make a lot of generic animal noises for some reason.

Half Full:  Currently gathering funds on Kickstarter, this tactical RPG is the brainchild of Yasumi Matsuno (creator of Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy: Tactics, Vagrant Story and more recently Crimson Shroud.  He's one of my favorite Japanese game designers in no small part because his games resonate with real medieval history, rather than typical JRPG trappings taken from the J-Pop scene or story beats better suited to some paint-by-the-numbers TV Drama.  Better still, it looks like a bunch of ex-Sega "gaijin" are on the development team which means this particular title could be a fusion of the best that east and west game design philosophies have to offer.  Provided they can get enough cash together the talented composer, Itoshi Sakamoto and two veteran translators are going to join the team as well.  Overall it seams to be a very promising title for fans of strategy games.

Half Empty:  The Kickstarter will fail to reach a worthy goal.  Or worse still, it will greatly exceed the goal only to founder afterward resulting in vaporware.  Mr. Matsuno isn't exactly the most mentally stable individual either.  I understand that it's a fine line between genius and insanity, but initial flip-flopping on twitter about his degree of involvement with the project isn't exactly encouraging.  Worst of all though is the lack of any proof of concept.  The game thus far is nothing more than some hand drawn artwork of landscapes which isn't very helpful when you consider that the game is supposed to use a 3D engine to render environments (as opposed to flat backdrops).  The Kickstarter could really benefit from a vertical slice or something (anything really) to show what the design team is going for.

   

Half Full:  First off, if you haven't seen the teaser trailer for this game go check it out on the official website here.  Personally, I really dig the art style.  The use of negative spaces really coveys the perfect kind of atmosphere for a horror themed RPG.  The idea of characters having to struggle with both mental and physical threats in a dynamic way is a relatively unexplored concept when it comes to electronic entertainment.  Also, fantasy themed video games are so ubiquitous these days it's refreshing to see a title that sets itself apart from the pack with unique mechanics, character archetypes, foes and overall style.  It doesn't hurt if you're a huge fan of old-school Dungeons and Dragons or the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos either.

Half Empty:  The problem with trying something new and untested when it comes to video games is the danger of becoming trapped in development hell.  Mechanics that looked fun on paper turn out not to be in play, or else end up being incredibly difficult to achieve due to unforeseen complexities of their design.  The "affliction mechanics" could very well be overly simplistic or more annoying than fun in practice.  Worse still the game could be the kernel of a revolutionary new aspect of video game design which ends up being marred or scrapped entirely because the creators lack the resources or confidence to see their idea through to the finish.

To the three development teams of these games, I wish you luck, but all the same make sure to watch your step.  The road ahead is filled with perils.  Choose wisely though and even greater glories await you.

Fear Done Right

I'm a big fan horror in video games. Especially when it's mixed in with a bit of space sci-fi. Sadly, I've been disappointed by all the media that has recently carried this particular theme.

Prometheus (the film) was poorly thought out. Dead Space 3 had way too much action. Aliens: Colonial Marines was simply dull. The reason for these failures can be traced to one key point. Escapist Columnist, Shamus Young, thinks Aliens is really about Ellen Ripley.  I disagree.  Don't get me wrong, she's a great character and gives the audience someone to root for...but as I mentioned before in this blog post, it really comes down to primal instincts and anxieties.  So, to make what I'm getting at explicitly clear, let me show you a way to make an Aliens game done right.

Horror co-op might actually work here (link)

You wake up from hypersleep alone and disoriented. Your in the belly of an old starship. Outside the cryo-chamber it's dark claustrophobic corridors lined with cold metal. From here the player can explore three decks. A-deck is astrogation and consoles for various ship systems. Here you can figure out what the hell is going on and get a map. B-deck is the living quarters. Medical, the galley, airlocks and space suits are all here. You can also find a motion tracker. C-deck in engineering. You can rig up an incinerator unit, set the self destruct and prep the escape pod. The nest is also here. Including crew who woke before you...or what's left of them. You see...there is an alien on board. It isn't aware of you at first, but after a short time it takes notice. It's smart and patient...it might stalk, it might lay an ambush or it might simply avoid the player for awhile to create a false sense of security. A flamer will keep it at bay, a motion tracker will warn you when it's close. Beyond that though your pretty much defenseless.  What do you do? Zap it out into space? Set the self-destruct sequence and bail? Program the ship to fly into a sun?  What about sending out a distress signal?

It's up to you. Things are open ended and there are multiple ways to finish with some endings better than others.  There's also a number of side objectives you could try to complete. Rescue cocooned shipmates, figure out what happened from "Mother" or use an auto-doc to remove the alien egg sitting in your chest - Surprise! Meanwhile, doing anything requires you to navigate using a flickering flashlight hearing the ping of your tracker. Is that a bulkhead or the alien holding perfectly still? maybe you could send some fire that way but your flame thrower is already sputtering. Maybe you should make a refueling run or weld some doors shut and barricade a few air-ducts. Maybe don a spacesuit and go EVA to reach another part of the ship with worrying about the xenomorph...that is assuming you have the oxygen.

Would this game draw critical praise for being terrifying?  I think so. Would it sell like crazy?  Probably not.  I think it could be done well in nine months (unlike the game we ended up with), but it would be short and have to be sold as a $20 downloadable game (DLG?) possibly on Steam.  So for that reason alone, the above is pretty much ensured to never happen.  Gearbox might have tarnished their reputation a bit with Aliens: Colonial Marines, but they made a lot of money, and most gamers don't have any clue who Randy Pitchford is.  Still and idea is an idea.  

They Should Have Been Games

Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid, the later entries in the Final Fantasy series...what do these games have in common?  They all feel like the product of a frustrated wannabe filmmaker.  Perhaps these particular stories would have been better off had they used movies as their medium.  Dragon's Lair, especially to me, always felt like it would have made an awesome animated film rather than a clunky QTE driven collection of FMVs.  So, while these phenomenon of the video game industry exist, there's also several examples in the world of cinema that would have probably found a more receptive audience had they chosen to be video games instead of motion pictures.   

Flash Gordon was originally a pulp sci-fi comic which debut in the 1930s as a direct competitor to the similarly themed franchise Buck Rodgers. In 1982 a live action film came out. Then a game was released in 1987, but it pretty much ignored the style of the film. This was most likely due to the fact that the movie bombed at the box office. For better or worse the film has since become a cult classic with its distinctive look as well as quirky tech; such as atomic rockets, lightning fields, and ray guns that go "pew-pew." So, why should this have been a game? Well to start with the blond-haired, square-jawed protagonist is the star quarterback of the New York Jets (Yale Polo player originally). This makes him perfect marketing material. A less snarky reason comes from the world of Flash Gordon (a.k.a. planet Mongo). It's basically a sci-fi version of Hyrule. For starters we have hawk-men, lion-men, and shark-men which correspond well with Deku, Gorons and Zora. Then there is Ming the Merciless in lieu of Gannon, King of Evil. Flash has a love interest in need of rescue, just like Link. Even the respective princesses, Midna and Aura, thematically overlap each other quite a bit. Hammy acting plus black and white morality may seem cliche in cinema, but in video games it's par for the course. Also the soundtrack courtesy of Queen rocks.  

Total Recall (the remake) would have made an excellent FPS had it been picked up by Monolith Productions. Instead though that company has been delegated to making League of Legends with a Lord of the Rings graphics set. A pity since the film felt like a lot of loosely stitched together action set pieces. It would have been great to play, but felt a bit awkward to watch. Also, is it me or do the robot enemies look an awful lot like the ones featured prominently in Binary Domain?

Prometheus was a disjointed disappointment on the big screen, but what if it had been a classic point-and-click adventure game? Lucas Art's The Dig with the horror elements cranked up is what I'm thinking. Or maybe Darkseed set in space...Gemini Rue and Primordia by Wadjet Games are some good recent examples of how to make a fun sci-fi title that's light on the combat. Plus, there is the matter of video games not being required to adhere to a two hour or so format. Imagine having more time for exploration, character development and (god-engineers forbid) answers to some of the questions that the film asks. At the very least the stupid behavior of the science team would make a lot more sense if it were the result of a mischievous player's input. I don't know how anyone else played Space Quest back in the day, but I highly doubt that I'm the only one that wanted to see what happened when Roger Wilco touched stuff.

Well...that's all I got for now.  But before I go let me ask one question.  Why are all these guys looking to the right?  Seriously...all three pictures I posted are from DVD box art and in all three cases the faces displayed prominently in the center foreground are looking toward something off camera to their starboard.  Weird.

Part FPS, part space flight-sim, this could have been an interesting hybrid game rather than a forgettable TV series

Less is More

Aliens, Xenomorphs, Bugs...I should start by saying these creatures are essentially a combination of tarantula wasps and Shub-Niggurath.  That in itself can be pretty terrifying, but what really sells the concept is their stalking sexual predator like nature.  Remember everyone can be implanted with alien eggs so to them anyone is fair game.  The first film pioneered the concept.  The second sidestepped it a bit.  I won't fault James Cameron for it though since his take on the franchise was largely responsible for the birth of the survival horror genre.  The rest of the films (excluding Prometheus) missed the point....mostly.  So what is the point?  In a word - dread.

Enter Aliens: Colonial Marines, a FPS in the works by Gearbox Software that has been delayed so much it was though to be canceled at one point.  I suspect that the themes relating to sexual assault, birth anxiety and threatened motherhood (link) that were so prevalent in the first two films are completely absent in this video game foray into the Aliens Universe.  Lacking those fear inducing concepts, what we're left with is basically a game of Whac-A-Mole where the mallet is swapped out for a pulse rifle and the moles are replaced by Aliens.  There's nothing wrong with this in and of itself, but with the video game market filled with so many FPS titles with analogous action what separates Aliens: Colonial Marines from the rest?  Yes, it has iconic imagery from the lovingly recreated exterior of the Sulaco to hand welders and sentry guns...but that's just cosmetics.

No disrespect the the developers, but if your going to make an Aliens video game in which the focus is more bugs and more guns then it's game over, man. Instead your better off visiting Frictional Games' blog page for ideas. These guys know how to make a horror game and frankly being a space trucker hunted by an Alien (or three, but not cubed) in the isolated bowels of a poorly illuminated star ship armed with a motion tracker and sputtering flame unit sounds ten times more intense than blasting hordes of xenomorphs with a heavily armed squad of wisecracking interstellar jarheads to back you up.  No offense, I like Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez but if all we're looking at here is a elevator trip down nostalgia hell then the whole concept should just be nuked from orbit.  

Surviving the Horror

At first glance you might think the title of this post is a reference to the holiday season, but don't forget that this is a video game blog page. That said I will admit that the inspiration for this comes from the newly released Prometheus movie trailer. So what am I getting on about? Well...you see...after seeing a preview of Ridley Scott's return to the sci-fi/horror genre I got to thinking about horror video games and how they've kind of faded into the background recently. Jim Sterling over on The Escapist did an excellent little piece on what's need for games to be scary, and while I more or less agree with his points I think that there's something else to it. In order for horror games to work they need to have an element of unpredictability to them.

Take Doom 3 or even Dead Space for example, both are a blending of sci-fi and horror which put the player in a survival situation. Both revolve around a series of jump scares and set piece moments designed to fill the player with dread. The problem is the pattern becomes predictable at some point and players quickly find themselves getting immunized, or worse yet annoyed, by each new "gotcha" surprise. Don't get me wrong especially when it comes to atmosphere these games are oozing with it, foreboding architecture mixed with ominously lit environments and an eerie sound score make for a great setting to cause some player anxiety. The problem is said players know where all the monsters are hiding. Couple that with lots of guns and it's not really scary, rather it's simply a dark action game. So, how to solve this problem? I think the best solution would be to take some advice from one of the masters, H.P. Lovecraft. In effect he's famous said that it's fear of the unknown that really gets under people's skin. To apply this to video games two things need to be done.

First, don't let players know the full extent of what their getting into. Doom 3 failed to frighten many players simply because the story and enemies were a rehash of the first game. Dead Space sufferes from a slightly different problem in that the main threat "Necromorphs" are exactly what they sound like. No twists like they are the byproduct of nanobots gone wrong or some kind alien collective of micro-organisms...sorry turns out they're just a bunch of mutant space zombies. If you watched the high production value trailer then you pretty much already know everything about your foe which kills a lot of the suspense.

Second, there has to be a kind of randomization to the scares. Not knowing where and when the monsters will appear increases the dread quite a bit. Condemned: Criminal Origins succeeded to some degree with this by using non-scripted AI routines. But to be honest dragon attacks in Skyrim are probably some of the best examples of how to keep players on their toes. Plus it avoids the monster closet or worse yet the teleporting behind you trick which gets especially irritating in subsequent playthroughs. Utilizing such a system also plays to the strengths of video games since other forms of horror media can really only get you the first time you experience it.

I should conclude by saying that I'm a big survival horror fan, and have played everything from Resident Evil and Silent Hill to Fatal Frame and Clock Tower. But I have to say I have never played a horror title that keeps the player in the dark knowledge-wise while fully embracing emergent gameplay. What would such a game be like? I don't know for sure, but I bet it would be pretty damn freaky.