The Story Timeline Order of Alien Games
The Alien franchise is considered a classic in the horror genre. The first movie of the franchise, Alien (1979), is considered an all-time classic horror film. The Alien movies feature the horror atmosphere of being trapped with a threatening alien life form in spaceships, space stations and planets. Thus, it can be said that the Alien franchise, as well as the Alien games, are themed after sci-fi environments and scary enemies.
The Alien franchise is often associated with the Predator franchise, and with the crossover franchise Alien vs. Predator. Even though these different franchises share continuities in different forms of media and video games, I believe that a single article that features these three franchises across their different video games and continuities would be too dense, and for this reason this article will only focus on the Alien video games.
The first video game inspired by the Alien universe is Alien, released in 1982 and inspired by the 1979 Alien movie. Even though the Alien franchise is mostly known for its horror atmosphere, most of the Alien video games released in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s are action games. Perhaps, due to the technological constraints of the past decades, it made more sense to create action video games inspired by the Alien universe, rather than horror games, which would require more subtle atmospheric effects and soundscapes. Another possible reason is that, in the 1980s and in the 1990s, many of the most successful video games were action games. Regardless of the reason to this trend in action video games inspired by the Alien series, some notable exceptions are Alien (Concept Software, 1984), Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure (Cryo Interactive Entertainment, 1995) and Aliens: The Computer Game (Activision, 1986). Also, I believe it is quite important to mention Aliens: The Computer Game (Software Studios, 1987), that features a gameplay that would perhaps resemble the much later game Alien: Isolation. In Aliens: The Computer Game (Software Studios, 1987), the player character must navigate, in first-person perspective, a sci-fi maze filled with xenomorphs. While in this game the player controls a team of marines, differently from Alien: Isolation, it is interesting to note how fitting the first-person perspective in a sci-fi maze is for a horror video game set in the Alien universe.
This trend of action video games in the Alien series would go on for most of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but also with games of different genres and sub-genres, such as maze, strategy, adventure, run and gun, rail shooter and first-person shooter (FPS).
Is There an Order to Play the Alien Games?
Most of the Alien video games are self-contained, which means that they can be played and enjoyed even without having played previous games of the franchise. For this reason, it is generally suggested to play the game that the players is interested in the most. However, for fans of the Alien universe and Aliens video games, it is suggested to play these games in story order for a more comprehensive story experience in the Alien universe.
While the different Alien video games are set in the same universe and share common elements, it is important to mention that often each game takes place in different locations, time periods, or feature its own storyline inspired by the Alien universe. In other words, not all Alien games are directly related, story-wise. Moreso, it is often that there are multiple games inspired by each film, and many of these games are set in an approximate time period to each other, meaning that they could possibly take place almost simultaneously, or, if not canon, in different continuities. Nevertheless, considering that in some cases there are multiple games in a similar time period, I have decided to group these games in the same place in the story timeline order, in order for it to make sense chronologically. This decision is explained more in-depth in one paragraph below. In the case of these multiple games that take place in a similar time period, for the most comprehensive story experience possible in the Alien universe, I suggest playing at least one, and if possible as many as possible, or all of the games in each row before moving to the next row. In other words, I suggest playing all games inspired by the first Alien movie, before moving on to all of the games inspired by the second Alien movie, and so on. However, if the player is looking to play only one game of each time period, in this case I suggest selecting one game from each row. In other words, one game inspired by the first Alien movie, one game inspired by the second Alien movie, and so on. This suggestion is for the playthrough to be the most comprehensive story experience possible.
The Story Timeline Order of Alien Video Games
In the case of the Alien franchise, quite often there are multiple games with the same name, based on the same movie. However, since these games are different, it is worth to mention all of them in any comprehensive list, and my goal is to write a comprehensive list. Still, in many cases these different games contain the same plot, or storyline, considered that they are often based on the same movie. For this reason, these different games will be mentioned, usually separated by their developer and by the release date, but they will share the same place in the story timeline order because they contain the same core story.
Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure (Cryo Interactive Entertainment, 1995)
Alien (Fox Video Games, 1982) | Alien (Concept Software, 1984) | Alien Trilogy (Probe Entertainment, 1996)
Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly, 2014)
Aliens: The Computer Game (Activision, 1986) | Aliens: The Computer Game (Software Studios, 1987) | Aliens: Alien 2 (Square, 1987) | Aliens (Konami, 1990) | Aliens Online (1998, Mythic Entertainment
Aliens: Colonial Marines (Gearbox Interactive, 2013)
Alien 3 (Probe Entertainment, 1992) | Alien 3 (Probe Software, Bits Studio, 1993) | Alien 3: The Gun (Sega, 1993)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Cold Iron Studio, 2021)
Aliens Infestation (WayForward Technologies, 2011)
Alien Resurrection (Argonaut Games, 2000)
Aliens: Thanatos Encounter (Crawfish Interactive, 2001)
Both games Alien (1982) and Alien (1984) are inspired by the same movie, Alien (1979). For this reason, for the purpose of this list, I've considered both of this game to feature the same plot. In other words, even though they are different games, since this is a chronological story order list, they have the same location in my chronological story order list because they tell essentially the same story and are based in the same movie.
Aliens: The Computer Game (1986) is based on the movie Aliens, which is a sequel to the movie Alien. For this reason, it is reasonable to say that the video game Aliens: The Computer Game (1986) is a sequel to the games based on the movie Alien. This principle was also used for other video games inspired by Alien movies. In many cases, the exact time period of the game may not be clear, but the game is clearly inspired by a specific Alien movie, and the movies, on the other hand, are set in specific time periods of the Alien universe.
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