Alien Resurrection is a 2000 first-person shooter game developed by Argonaut Games and published by Fox Interactive for the PlayStation. Based on the 1997 film of the same name, the game was originally intended to coincide with the film's release, but was mired in development hell for a few years, finally being completed and released in 2000.

The Story Behind Alien Resurrection

Morale dropped further when the team were invited to a private screening of the film; they found it underwhelming at best, and were disappointed that the game they had made for the film, Atom Zone, only appeared very briefly. In November 1997, by which time the Sega Saturn version had been dropped, Fox announced a Spring 1998 release window for the title. If it remained in the other perspective it would've got cancelled.

Frustrated at having a year's worth of work completely scrapped, a significant fraction of the development team quit the project. After this release window was missed, the game was announced for a Fall 1998 release. I'd have put money on that." The game was one of the first games to use both analogue sticks of the DualShock controller for simultaneous movement and aiming.

How Alien Resurrection Plays

In addition to traditional drone aliens, the player also faces marines and facehuggers (if the player is implanted with an alien, they must track down a device to remove it, or the creature will hatch and the game ends), later fighting boss creatures such as the alien queen and the newborn. Based on the 1997 film of the same name, the game was originally intended to coincide with the film's release, but was mired in development hell for a few years, finally being completed and released in 2000. The code allows the launching of unlicensed, burned discs.

The player must complete different tasks to progress across the game. The player uses four different characters from the movie. When the Xenomorphs bred from the queen that was extracted from her cloned body escape containment and begin running rampant aboard the Auriga, Ripley must unite with a group of rag-tag mercenaries to escape the vessel.

Why Players Still Load It Up

Despite this, the control scheme would soon become standard for first-person shooters on consoles. Ellen Ripley awaking aboard the USM Auriga and trying to escape from the xenomorph-infested research spaceship USM Auriga along with a crew of mercenaries. Critics praised the game's atmosphere and frequently scary gameplay.

Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen said that the game had "Nice atmosphere, but what starts out frustrating quickly becomes kinda slow and dull." Steven Garrett of GameSpot criticised the then-uncommon dual analogue stick control scheme, describing the game as "almost unplayably difficult to control and unreasonably hard to enjoy". Following the same basic plot of the movie, the game takes place years after the events of Alien 3 and follows a cloned Lt. GamePro said that the game was "a fine first-person shooter, but unless you're a big fan of the films, there are even better options (Medal of Honor, Quake II) out there." The game sold 250,000 units.

Alien Resurrection — Frequently Asked Questions