In space, no one can hear you scream. Review of Alien: Isolation. Terror that flies on the wings of the night

Tell me, do you believe in sudden creative insights? For example, when some unknown studio under the wing of a giant publisher, which previously released exclusively passable games, suddenly produces a world-class hit. What if that publisher is Electronic Arts, notorious for endless sequels to add-ons and add-ons to sequels, as well as an inexhaustible stream of sports simulators that differ only by the number in the name? Yes, it turns out to be a completely implausible story: what kind of “insights” could have been born in the bowels of this machine for churning out pre-calculated hits?
Well, the greater the amazement of the public when, in 2008, the development studio EA Redwood Shores (now called Visceral Games) launched its Dead Space. The game, frankly speaking, was a great success: many critics rightly pointed out that as a horror game 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, a little over two years later, it appeared: we meet Dead Space 2.

An untold tale

If there is chronic bad luck in this world, then Isaac Clarke, the main character of the Dead Space series, is one of those eternal losers. How could it be otherwise: survive a nightmare on the Ishimura, lose your beloved girl, spend three years in an induced coma, wake up - and again there are only necromorphs all around, damn them! So you have to put on your favorite fursuit again, arm yourself with your trusty plasma cutter and set off on a new race to the final, so to speak, sow the reasonable, the good, the eternal.

If you expect that the developers will now begin to be praised for a skillfully told story or a cool presentation of the plot, you’re in vain, I didn’t even have anything like that in my thoughts. Imagine two cocktails consisting of the same ingredients, but only taken in slightly different proportions and mixed in a slightly different way, and you will understand how the script of Dead Space 2 differs from the first part of the game. Everything is the same: hordes of mutated creatures, panicking people trying to survive in this hell, crazy cultists-unitologists, a mysterious Obelisk, etc. etc., stopping at all points is required. There is only one noticeable plot “innovation” - get ready, take a deep breath! -- Clark, after the shock he experienced in the original Dead Space, is now tormented by visions of his dead friend. It’s original, you can’t say anything, all that’s left is to attach a leveling system to the game, and you’ll get a direct competitor to Mass Effect! Just kidding, of course. But the fact remains: the plot is not the strongest part of the new game, which in the future may serve the entire series in disrepute.

Terror that flies on the wings of the night

But what Dead Space has always been great with is the atmosphere. The first part became famous at one time for the fact that it was truly scary to play. No, not even like that, it would be more correct this way - SCARY! Don't believe me? Yes, you just haven’t read the Electronic Arts forum with heartbreaking stories in the style of “I played for an hour, now I sneak out to the toilet at night, armed with a crowbar.” You can understand the players: when mutated children fall out of the impenetrable viscous darkness at you in packs, whom, due to a lack of ammunition, you have to stupidly and artlessly crush with heavy boots, you will inevitably get scared, such things 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 release for frayed nerves, so skillfully did the developers whip up an atmosphere of languid anticipation and gloomy horror...

However, as I already mentioned, the game exclusively in the “space horror” format seemed overly scary to the majority of players. And Visceral Games, with an unwavering hand, diluted the pure horror with daring episodes of shredding necromorphs at speed. Using analogies from 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 horror elements, albeit very noticeable ones. But if one of the fans of the original “Dead Space” (are there any here?), after reading the previous sentence, decided that the game had become less scary, he would be prematurely upset. Don't close the magazine, stay with us! Because the “high class” of developers has not gone away. The first transformation of a man into a necromorph, shown in close-up in all the disgusting details, happens before your eyes right at the beginning of the game. And already in the first chapter you will meet with your dearly beloved mutant children, who began to look even nastier and more disgusting. Well, then in the same way, everything that was most frightening from the first part was carefully transferred to the sequel. So don’t worry about the “implementation” of the series, save your nerves for completing the game itself - you’ll really need them!

Jack of all trades

The game's shift from horror to shooter required corresponding changes in gameplay, and - praise be to the developers! - they were introduced masterfully. Firstly, Clark now moves faster and more gracefully, not a trace remains of the elephantine grace from the first Dead Space. Secondly, fanfare! — jet engines were attached to the mechsuit we are used to, so that you can now fly in zero-gravity zones. Hey, who said the words "Iron Man" and remembered Tony Stark? Ha-ha-ha, you haven’t seen the red mechsuit of a cultist fanatic from the extended edition of the game yet... No, what do you want the game industry to not steal ideas from Big Cinema? Not in this life, friends! And without further ado, the “jetpack” (jetpack) turned out to be a truly successful innovation that literally asked to be included in the game. If you are in doubt, I advise you to finish playing 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 now features sane physics, a partially destructible environment, and objects that can be moved, picked up, and used against enemies. I immediately remembered how at the very beginning I struggled with shooting a whole bunch of vile creatures, but it turns out that all I had to do was smash a window with a shot so that this whole bloodthirsty horde would be sucked into space... An alternative use of new physics: we pick up a necromorph-exploder with telekinesis and throw him into the crowd of relatives and we observe a big “boom”. In general, try it, combine different methods of exterminating evil spirits, and let your imagination run wild.
Well, the last thing I would like to note is that more diverse and spacious levels have appeared compared to the original game. Fortunately, moving the scene from the nooks and crannies of a spaceship to the expanses of Sprawl-city gave the designers and artists from Visceral more opportunities to express their imagination. Of course, here too one can reproach that the new spaces are... uh... not spacious enough. But still, local clubs, shops and the metro are much better than the endlessly repeating holds of the Ishimura, which brought mortal melancholy to the player after the first third of the game. Yes, and the zero gravity here is still the best in the history of computer games, so write that down! I don’t think we’ll see anything like this from our competitors in the near future, unless Crysis 2 surprises us with some unexpected mission on an alien ship.

Failed "dessert"

For those who are tired of exterminating necromorphs alone, the developers have added multiplayer to the game. Unfortunately, this part of Dead Space 2 turned out noticeably worse than the first. There is essentially only one game mode; a maximum of four players can participate on each side. Plus, on the side of the necromorph team, “extras” controlled by artificial intelligence play along. Nothing special, as you can see, and experienced players will immediately point out that local online races are almost an exact copy of the Left 4 Dead series. The small number of cards does not please the soul of an experienced networker either - there are only five of them. So, given the transience of the rounds, the local multiplayer quickly becomes boring. I won’t even mention such “little things” as the inability to form permanent teams of players, an ill-conceived upgrade system, and a not very user-friendly interface. Against the background of everything else, it is already pointless to kill yourself about this... In the end, we have to sadly admit: the “dessert” did not work out, the online part of the game was made more for show, simply because it is inconvenient to release a game in 2011 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 and delight players with a truly exciting multiplayer.

The budget contributed to the decoration...

As always happens with successful projects, the sequel was made with a completely different budget, and this can be seen from the very first frames of the game. The engine, born back in 2005 (!!!), has been “tuned” so well that the picture looks almost at the level of modern standards. True, when the first delights have subsided, you notice the cramped levels, and the occasional under-textured objects (as a rule, pushed into the pitch darkness by caring level designers), and the limitations of the local physics - etc., etc. However, compared to the first part, the technical execution of the game has clearly made a noticeable step forward. Physics tricks have already been discussed, but you can evaluate the graphics yourself just by looking at the screens. Oh, and don't forget that the proven skill of the developers has not gone away: Dead Space 2 still has 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 grin knowingly at this point, and everyone else will probably be perplexed: “Is it really possible that some set of sounds from speakers can be SO scary?!” Well, if you don’t believe me, you will be in for a surprise, and don’t say later that you weren’t warned!

Everyone to watch the second picture!

If a game were judged simply as the sum of its parts, then Dead Space 2 would not have a place in the pantheon of fame. Judge for yourself: the plot was a set of science fiction cliches, and remains so; “horror” has been diluted with “action”, so that fans of the first are not enough, and fans of the second are still not enough; weak, passable multiplayer; graphics and physics are almost modern, but of course they can’t be compared with the upcoming Crysis 2... Only the gameplay can be praised, of course, without any reservations, but one gameplay - which, after all, in any “action” game, plus or minus about one and the same - completely insufficient for a blockbuster.
Luckily, Dead Space 2 is one of those times when the whole is greater, much greater than the sum of its 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 came close! If this reason is not enough for you to become interested in the creation of Visceral Games, then I don’t even know how else to persuade you - except perhaps to recommend watching “Alien” / “Aliens” alone at night... Although, of course, if you are not a fan of horror films , then this won’t help you either.
And there will definitely be a continuation of the series: this is clearly hinted at at the end of the 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 runs in 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 a space epic in the late 1970s that remains the most popular to this day, and Ridley Scott is the most terrifying image of aliens in the history of cinema . Why does the blood still run cold at the sight of aliens, although you can’t look at other aliens from films of that era without laughing?

In this article I will try to answer this question, and also retell the main milestones in the chronology of the Alien universe, in which the line between canon and “works based on” is much more blurred than in the same “Star Wars”, and I will advise the necessary and sufficient a list of films and games that are worth getting to know.

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

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

Models pose for Giger for his work Erotomechanics VII

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

Necronom IV

A “standard” adult alien simultaneously resembles an insect, a reptile, and a human, clad in black leather. The aliens are very strong and agile, they can walk on both two and four legs, and on all fours they can move freely along walls and even the ceiling. With a tail with a sharp tip, they can easily pierce a person through. In the alien’s mouth are hidden another jaw (retractable and very powerful), and instead of blood it has acid, which instantly eats through even the bulkheads of a spaceship. Aliens have no eyes, but they can navigate perfectly in the dark. In general, these are ideal killers. But this is clearly not enough to be so scary.

Their reproductive 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 strive only to reproduce their species. Moreover, they have a hierarchy that is reminiscent of the relationships among social insects, and is associated precisely with reproduction.

The alien uterus lays eggs, from which facehuggers hatch - small arachnid creatures that lie in wait for the victim, jump on its face and implant an embryo through its mouth. Many years after the film's release, O'Bannon admitted that they deliberately made the aliens' method of reproduction similar to homosexual oral rape in order to further frighten heterosexual men.

The body of a person (or another large mammal, which the facehugger can also attack) becomes an incubator for the embryo. It is almost impossible to save the victim at this moment by cutting out the embryo, even if there is surgical equipment at hand, and this doom also adds to the horror. After a short time (usually a few hours), the alien develops to such an extent that it can survive on its own. Then it breaks through the chest, gets free and begins to grow quickly. It is curious that while the embryo is inside the victim, it borrows part of its genetic code and thus adapts to what awaits it outside.

Resisting aliens in the Aliens universe is not easy: technology that looked very advanced in 1979 now seems warm-tube retro. But they did not radically change them in films and games that were released 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 points the barrel at the target, or a portable motion sensor (however, it often does not so much warn of danger as put pressure on the nerves).

The worst thing is that you usually can’t count on help. Heroes invariably encounter strangers 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 Aliens universe, you cannot blindly trust your fellow sufferers. A key role in the colonization of space is played by the powerful Weyland-Yutani corporation, whose employees put the interests of the company above human lives. And getting your hands on such a unique organism is, of course, in the interests of the company.

With slight variations, this pattern, in which the authors frighten spectators and players, is found in any work about aliens. On the one hand, that’s why we love you. 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 greatly diluted with action.

This is rumor control. Here are the facts!

20th Century Fox behaves in relation to the Alien universe as if it does not care at all about the desire of fans to understand what is considered canon and what can not be bothered with. Scattering licenses to use the brand left and right, the film company extremely rarely explained what was the official version of events. Even if you leave out a bunch of books and comics that contradict each other, it doesn’t get any easier.

For example, those who don't like crossovers could perceive the entire Alien vs. Predator series as the same controversial set of fan fiction, until 20th Century Fox released as many as two films on this topic, in which they paid a lot of attention to the origins of Weyland-Yutani. And then Ridley Scott started making Prometheus, which is definitely in the 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 cannot be called the only correct 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 watched in extended versions.

The film "Alien" (director - 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 unfolds on the screen: the crew of the starship Nostromo, 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 of self-defense.

Because of this simplicity and stunning industrial set design, the film does not look ancient at all. He has also aged well thanks to excellent direction: the premonition of an alien attack is much more terrible 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 the special effects.

This film is not to be missed - it is not only the cornerstone of the Aliens universe, but also a cinematic classic 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 make useful equipment from scrap items.

It needs to be managed by Ellen's daughter named Amanda. 15 years after her mother disappeared, she got a job in the same Weyland-Yutani and went in search of her, which led to the Sevastopol station, where the ship Aneisidora 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 drawback is not a reason to skip such an extraordinary project. If Alien: Isolation is still not in your collection, be sure to buy it during the Steam sale.

And check out the Crew Expendable and Last Survivor add-ons, which recreate famous scenes from the first film. By themselves, they are very short and do not represent anything special, but if you have already become a fan of the “Aliens” universe, then you should hardly ignore the chance to take a walk around the “Nostromo”.

The film "Aliens" (director - James Cameron)

Today it is difficult to imagine that a sequel to a commercially successful film could be released only seven years later. But that’s exactly what happened with Aliens, and Ellen Ripley spent 57 years in suspended animation on board a lifeboat. By that time, colonists had already landed on LV-426, and Ripley’s daughter had 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 corporate job, Ripley took a job as an exoskeleton loader operator and carried boxes until her connection with the colony was lost. Then Weyland-Yutani made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: to fly on the Sulaco ship on LV-426 with a detachment of Marines as the only person in the world who knows at least something about aliens.

The title doesn't lie: there are a lot more aliens on the screen in Aliens than in the first part. And a squad armed to the teeth does not give up without a fight. But the action movie still turned out to be unique: it touches the soul not with special effects or dynamics, but with tension. The episode with the automatic turrets, which still impresses me the most, doesn't show any aliens at all, which makes it even more disturbing.

In my opinion, the second film is the strongest in the series. He is not so scary, because 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 at 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 film that you want to watch again at least once every couple of years, even if you know it by heart. Along with the first part, this is the quintessence of what the Aliens universe attracts fans with.

Shooter Aliens vs. Predator, released by Rebellion Developments in 1999, its 2001 sequel from Monolith Productions, and another version of 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 as brave fighters with pulse rifles and smart guns (not to take into account the ancient console shooters ).

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

Film "Alien 3" (director - David Fincher)

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

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

Ripley again fails to reach her target normally: the inhabitants of the prison planet Fiorina 161 find her lifeboat from the starship Sulaco, in which the only survivor is the main character. 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 tired its creators were of their own creation, and did not leave hope for a continuation.

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

As many as four games based on Aliens 3 were released on different consoles, very different from each other in structure and gameplay features. Most of them rather grossly misinterpreted the events of the film, 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 game for SNES.

Game Aliens: Colonial Marines

The shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines is super-unfinished. Electronic Arts announced a game with this name back in 2001 and tried to release it 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, developers from Gearbox Software brought an impressive demo version to E3, which convinced many that the project would be worthy.

However, the release turned out to be a disaster. Not only was the game very bad, it had little in common with the video above. Outraged customers even sued the publisher, accusing it of false advertising, and won the case. Sega had to fork out $1.25 million. After the release, information appeared on the network that Gearbox had been leading Sega by the nose for several years: it took money from it to develop Aliens: Colonial Marines, but spent it on other projects. But instead of strangling the project and suing the developers, the publishing house 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 held 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 raunchy quality. After all, this is exactly the rare case when 20th Century Fox said that the game is part of the canon. Moreover, it rewrites the most important detail of Alien 3.

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

During their adventures, the heroes meet Corporal Hicks, who survived the ending of Aliens, but died at the beginning of Alien 3. This inconsistency was clarified in the Stasis Interrupted add-on, released almost six months after the release of Colonial Marines. Unlike the original game, which added almost nothing to the universe's history, this addition is truly of interest to fans.

Game Aliens: Infestation

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

Film "Alien: Resurrection" (director - Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Some works simply shouldn't exist. For example, such as “Alien: Resurrection,” which appeared on screens in 1997. If this film were just mediocre, it wouldn't be so bad. 20th Century Fox literally dug the series out of its grave and abused it. It’s especially unpleasant that the excellent screenwriter Joss Whedon, the author of “Buffy” and “Firefly,” and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who had yet to film his “Amelie,” had something to do with this. True, after the release of the film, Whedon was very dissatisfied with it and claimed that during the filming the authors did not deviate from the script, but they filmed everything differently than he had planned, and completely wrong.

Scientists on the military space station Auriga manage to clone 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 deliver 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 clone of Ripley in this film resembles the heroine of Milla Jovovich from the Resident Evil series: she also remembers little, but has superpowers. It looks just as cheesy.

"Aliens" we have lost

In 2015, it became known that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp could make a fifth film in the Aliens universe, which would erase the events of the third and fourth parts from the canon. The published concept art showed both Hicks and the grown-up Newt, the girl whom Ripley and the Marines saved in Aliens, and the authors of Alien 3 killed along 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 it seemed very powerful. However, all the cards were mixed up by Ridley Scott and his “Alien: Covenant”: 20th Century Fox did not give Blomkamp the green light until Scott released his film.

Apparently, we will never see the adult Newt. Blomkamp recently assessed the film's chances of release as "weak", and Scott said that there was never any script - just a 10-page description of the concept.

Another irreparable loss is the role-playing game Aliens: Crucible, which Obsidian Entertainment worked on. It was announced back in 2006, when the studio only had Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2. Aliens: Crucible was supposed to be released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, development progressed with difficulty, and in 2009, publisher Sega strangled the project. After this, various materials began to appear on the Internet, which could be used to judge the unreleased game. For example, in 2013 such a video appeared.

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 never gave a clear answer, although Ridley Scott himself filmed it. “Prometheus” was somehow stitched into the famous universe: several recognizable elements were simply crammed into it, like “Weyland-Yutani” and a starship of an unknown humanoid race. The 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 it were not for the familiar names, such a description would fit every second film about travel to distant planets.

Although you need to watch “Prometheus” in any case, 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 a solar sail and recharge, but a sudden neutrino flare disables part of its systems and kills 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, which was sent by Elizabeth Shaw, a member of the expedition on the Prometheus ship 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 explore it. Of course, this also ends badly.

In theory, Alien: Covenant should entice fans by showing where the first aliens came from. The explanation turned out to be logical, but rather boring. In addition, it is too closely connected with discussions about the creation of life, which Ridley Scott began to promote in Prometheus (more likely to pretend to be profound than to be deep). So the fears that the aliens were added here only to lure fans of the universe into cinemas are partly true. It’s not at all 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 “Aliens” series that Scott brought out could not become a single organism. It turned out to be two almost independent films: first, a piece of the new “Alien” was recorded on film, “Prometheus 2” is wedged in the middle, and the last third is “Alien” again. "Prometheus", as before, is beautiful, but empty and sluggish, but "Alien" is quite worthy. Events unfold according to a well-known pattern, and the characters in some episodes act surprisingly stupidly, but everything is shot very well and stylishly, and dynamic moments are well combined with tense ones. If we had thrown out “Prometheus” and better developed the theme of aliens, it would have turned out to be a good movie, but otherwise it would have been rather tolerable.

And even the “intriguing” ending doesn’t help. If Scott limits himself to the trilogy, then in the next film I would like to see how a spaceship of alien forerunners with alien eggs ended up on LV-426, and not a new batch of allusions to biblical stories.

After the failed Aliens: Colonial Marines, 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. Have the hopes of the already almost desperate fans come true? 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 the much-loved dark and frightening universe, but time after time they were burned by receiving unatmospheric, non-canonical and simply unsuccessful games. The only projects that even slightly conveyed the desired atmosphere were those developed by the studio Rebellion Developments in 1999, and its sequel, released by the company Monolith Productions. And they didn’t quite correctly capture the spirit of “Aliens,” making the xenomorphs look like cannon fodder and perhaps the weakest link in the human-alien-predator confrontation. For several years, the guys from another studio, Gearbox Software, have been singing songs to us about the wonderful game in the Aliens universe that they are working on, but Aliens: Colonial Marines, released last year, turned out to be a mediocre, stupid 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 a purebred Survival Horror in the classic, best sense. The game was developed by the studio Creative Assembly, known primarily for its series. It’s somewhat strange that a studio specializing in strategy would take on such an unusual genre, but don’t be alarmed - they did it just great.

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

The first thing you'll notice about the game is its retro-futurism style: analog switches, toggle switches, massive bulbous monitors and the like. Everything is carefully and lovingly recreated straight from the original film. It’s immediately clear that the developers reviewed “Alien” more than once, or twice. Yes, exactly that very first “Alien”, because the game owes its atmosphere, first of all, to the original film Ridley Scott, rather than its high-profile sequel, filmed James Cameron, which turned Aliens from a horror film into a science-fiction 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 really starts to shine when He appears on the scene. A huge, scary, smart, invulnerable creature. Yes, yes, these are no longer “bugs” that push solely by numbers. This is the same monster we saw in the first film. It is not scripted, its behavior is truly unpredictable. For example, you can distract him by throwing a noise flash to the side, but you shouldn’t recklessly rely on this method, because after the fifth or sixth time he will stop reacting to it. And you won’t deceive him in this way again. Or, say, you hid in a closet, the monster walked around this closet, sniffed and went away. Sounds like it's time to come out of hiding? No matter how it is. It is possible that when you open the door of this very cabinet, you will see his slobbering face in front of you. Yes, he set a trap for you. The alien has outsmarted you. Congratulations, you're dead.

An open confrontation with a xenomorph is tantamount to instant death, because it is impossible to kill him or escape from him. This creates an uncomfortable, oppressive, thick atmosphere of hopelessness and helplessness. Honestly, in the same hordes of “strangers”, “Praetorians” and “Queen” taken together are much less frightening than the local lonely drone. And this is exactly what a real xenomorph should be. A real "Alien". An ideal organism, an incredibly dangerous death machine that should inspire fear and respect, and not be shot into mince from a pulse rifle.

Due to the fact that our lives are threatened by such a deadly creature, we have to sneak, hide, not make too much noise, and generally be quieter than water, lower than the grass, because Amanda, unlike her mother, does not know how to kick the asses of 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 be possible to make a machine gun out of paper clips (she’s not MacGyver, after all), but some kind of Molotov cocktail, or, say, a blowtorch is always welcome. This is not to say that there are no weapons in the game, but in the inexperienced hands of our protagonist, firearms are of little use. It rather gives inner confidence. It’s calmer 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. The threat is also posed by local inhabitants almost crazy with fear and, mainly, synthetic androids. They may not have such a creepy appearance as an alien, but their calm monotonous voice, measured but confident gait and inhuman red eyes will make you cower in your seat. These bruisers will gladly smash your head against the wall, and it is very difficult to cope with them, because they hardly feel pain. To kill an android, you sometimes need to fire more than one full cylinder of a revolver at him, and given that Ripley shoots as if her fingers were broken, the smartest thing to do is to attack them on the sly. Also, unlike people, whom the “alien” is sometimes distracted by, the monster simply ignores androids. Thus, sometimes you have to fight with an android and an “alien” at the same time. What does it mean? That's right, instant death. The main headache for Ripley and, concurrently, the player, is the local save system. Progress is recorded only on certain terminals that are located quite far from each other. If you died somewhere between them, start again. It’s especially offensive when, right next to the “checkpoint” itself, which the player took about forty minutes to get to, he is suddenly pierced by an “alien”’s tail. I don’t think it’s worth telling what kind of stream of obscene language follows such a failure.

Game over, man! Game over!

The only significant drawback is, oddly enough, its duration. Completing the game takes about twenty hours. It would seem that a significant problem with modern games is their transience, but what’s wrong with a long campaign? And the fact is that after about the middle of the game it becomes a little boring. Rare encounters with a xenomorph are no longer so frightening, the player no longer jumps in his chair at every rustle outside the door, and the ubiquitous androids cease to be something scary and begin to simply be annoying. And towards the end, the plot sags completely, filling the 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 doesn't lose its frightening charm over the course of twenty hours? Or because the developers lacked drive and passion? Or have you just run out of ideas? Hard to say. But the fact remains: the game would not have lost anything if it were half as long.

Alien: Isolation has a lot to criticize: the excessive length of such a simple and intimate story, imperfect artificial intelligence, a cut-off ending... But I don’t want to criticize it at all. This is, by far, the best game in the Aliens universe. Atmospheric, creepy, interesting and authentic. The way it should be. The one that fans have been waiting for.