If You Like ‘Alien: Romulus’, Then These Games Are For You

Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer

“Alien: Romulus” is the latest entry into the Alien franchise, and fans of the man vs Xenomorphs can find several games that are in that world, directly from the IP as well as outside.  These are in no particular order, so with that said, grab a pulse rifle, flamethrower and as Apone says, get hot, stay Frosty, and watch your six!

Alien: Fate of the Nostromo

1-4 players, 60-90 min

Ravensburger games

Exploration, set collecting, thematic, cooperative, unique mechanic

Why not start with the beginning: Alien Fate of the Nostromo takes a different approach to most of the Alien-type games. Here you don’t kill the Alien, you have to avoid it.  Every encounter with it reduces the ship’s morale. Lose too much and well as Hudson says in “Aliens”–it’s game over man!  Players take on the role of the Nostromo crew trying to complete objectives and avoiding encounters with the Alien in order to attempt the Final objective and win the game.  It used simple mechanics of moving and set collecting to build equipment to complete the requirements of the objectives.  There is an extra hard mode when you add the traitorous android Ash to the game as well.

Legendary: Alien Encounters 

1-4 players, 60-90 min

Upper Deck

Deck building,  complete objectives, Highly Thematic

To capture the whole experience, there is this deck-building game. You can play the entire movie series from “Aliens” to “Alien 4.” Using the Legendary system, players select an avatar and work together to play through the various scenes from the movies.  It is the most thematic of any official Alien licensed game. Each movie is broken down into missions; succeed in one and move on to the next.  You can mix and match them as well; How would the Colonial Marines have handled the original Alien? You can play it out and discover it on your own.

NEMESIS 

1-  6 players, 90-120 min

Awaken Realms

Dice rolling, card playing, miniatures, deeply thematic, semi-cooperative 

This is the first of the non-franchise games, but it is well worth looking at. In Nemesis, players are a crew on the ship The Nemesis and they wake up from hypersleep to see a dead crewman.  Each player has 2 objectives to choose to complete in order to win, some work together and some don’t. It’s up to each player to choose which one.  The ship has been breached and intruders are there to hunt them down.  It uses a unique combat system as each enemy has no set amount of life points, when you hit one their life is based on the value of an enemy card.  This is not a bug hunt, so players need to focus on their objectives to win.  Each game is totally unique and challenging, which makes it one of my top 10 games. 

Zombicide Invader

1-6 players, 60-90 min

CMON

Dice rolling, miniatures, card use, simple mechanics, cooperative 

If you want a game where you fight lots of Aliens and can just go on a bug hunt, then this is the game for you. It plays like all other versions of Zombicide: Gather gear, complete objectives, and eliminate the threat.  Instead of zombies, it’s aliens with unique abilities and new challenges. The game has expansions with different aliens to play against as well and it is compatible with any Zombicide game. Aliens in a fantasy realm against knights and elves? Sure can.  

Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corp

1-6 players, 60-90 min

Gale Force Nine 

Miniatures, wargaming, Dice rolling, card playing,  thematic, cooperative 

This is a real miniatures game: Like Warhammer, you need to assemble the miniatures. They are not assembled like all the other games.  The details on them when painted are amazing.  This is another officially licensed game, and it is “Aliens.”  Players are the characters from the movie and work together to complete objectives while taking down the Aliens. The base game comes with several of the Colonial Marines and Ripley.  There are expansions to complete the Marines, one with the queen, and the power loader. It uses some unique mechanics running the Aliens in addition to card-driven actions. 

It’s worth mentioning AVP: The hunt begins but it is hard to find because it is out of print. It has resin cast miniatures and they are just amazing.  The base comes with 5:Colonial Marines, 3 predators, and lots of Aliens.  The gameplay uses tokens that move on the map that are revealed when encountered, so you never know what you are facing.  The game has expansions for different predators and Aliens, you can even get the APC carrier and the dropship if you want. The rulebook is hard to follow but once you get the hang of it, the gameplay is fairly simple.  It’s an officially licensed game as well when it came out. It comes at a hefty price tag, and with other games that are available, I would only recommend it if you want everything that’s officially licensed or if you want resin miniatures. 

So there are just a few great games that can give you the experience in the world of “Aliens.” For more board game reviews, check out Movin Meeples.

 

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