Movies adapting into games is commonly a contentious idea due to how much the product will be reliant on the IP. Too often the result is a licensed game that is put together with little care for it being a game and serving solely as a promotional tool for the movie. There are obviously licensed games like Spider-Man 2 or The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King that shatter that mold, but unless the IP itself has a longstanding franchise with unending content potential, it can be difficult to support a game based on which genre is selected for it.
For example, games set in the universes of Aliens, Predator, or the combined Aliens vs. Predator are typically unable to branch out far enough from their core identities to be more refreshing or modern. These games are usually so deeply ingrained in their IP that they feel banal as a result, even if the core gameplay is straightforward and digestible. That is not to say there has never been a popular or successful game based on the Aliens vs. Predator IP, but it has yet to truly break the mold in ways that its other theatrical counterparts have, and that is likely due to a lack of emphasis on horror.
Ridley Scott’s Alien is Seminal Sci-Fi Horror
Considering how influential games like Dead Space have become for science-fiction survival-horror, it is nearly impossible to not see influences from Alien. That said, while the original Alien was certainly a science-fiction horror movie, its sequel, Aliens, quickly abandoned that genre for action.
There are fans who adore one or both of these approaches in the franchise, but the action genre itself needs to be wildly creative in modern media if it is going to stand out, and rehashing Aliens in games such as the co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite or the upcoming real-time strategy game Aliens: Dark Descent have arguably not been the most effective genres for the IP.
Instead, if the IP is going to revitalize itself with as much of a presence as other licensed adaptations have, it needs a confident return to the horror genre that made it exciting again in 2014. In order to do that, Aliens vs. Predator should draw as much inspiration necessary from EA Motive’s Dead Space remake.
The Aliens vs. Predator Franchise Needs Another AAA Horror Outing
Alien: Isolation has arguably been the sole thread keeping Aliens games relevant for a while now, and that has hinged on the fact that it was a AAA Sega game that lent itself well to the modern horror genre in games. Only die-hard fans of Aliens have seemed to dip their toe into the waters of other recent Aliens games, while Alien: Isolation was essentially Outlast with one of the most iconic science-fiction horror licenses slapped onto it.
It continues to disappoint fans that Alien: Isolation never received a sequel, but EA Motive’s Dead Space could provide another great template for what a new Aliens vs. Predator game could look like. Taking from the concept ingrained in previous Aliens vs. Predator games, it would be fantastic to see marines, Predators, and Xenomorphs all playable again, but with the third-person survival-horror and graphical fidelity of the Dead Space remake.
Aliens vs. Predator, let alone anything involving marines, Predators, and aliens together would be much more difficult to ascribe to anything that stealth-oriented, but the Dead Space remake is a great example of how the title could be brought into a more traditional survival-horror plane in gaming and truly enhance itself. Playing as a marine is usually the least interesting option of the three, but if it echoed what playing as Isaac Clarke was like in Dead Space it could make for some truly terrifying encounters with a Predator stalking dimly lit corridors of a derelict ship.
In this way, it could also take inspiration from Mr. X from Resident Evil 2’s remake if players are stalked by a Predator. Likewise, playing as the Predator could offer gameplay that has the player lacking the creature’s technological equipment at first and needing to rely on wits to survive against a horde of Xenomorphs and facehuggers, which could prove to be disgusting and horrifying in current-gen fidelity as they wrap themselves around the marine or Predator’s head in third-person.