When I am asked what is the first movie that scared me, it was the Ridley Scott classic film, “Alien.” The feeling of terror portrayed in that film, with the low lighting tight corridors claustrophobia, it’s cinematic genius. Since then, I have been a fan of the genre, and “Aliens,” its sequel is one of my all-time personal favorites. Take that theme and combine it with my favorite deck builder, Legendary, well that’s a must-have for me. But like all gamers, when it comes to a movie or TV theme, is it really a part of the game, or is it just slapped on? I wanted to find out. So let’s take a look and see if it meets up to all that I am looking for.
Alien is a 1-5 player deck builder set in the “Alien” universe. It has scenarios from the first 4 “Alien” movies that are preset to play. It uses the Legendary system, similar to the Marvel Legendary game. To start, select what scenario you want to play. Layout the playmat and start to build the decks needed for that scenario. Each scenario has 3 objectives to complete to win. Collect the mini decks of cards associated with each mission. Starting with the third mission, add the appropriate number of drone cards from the drone deck, based on the number of players as found in the rule book. Shuffle the third mission and place it on the hive space on the playmat. Next do the same for the second and first missions, placing the second on top of the third and finally, the first on top of the second.
Next, take out the strike deck, shuffle, and place in its appropriate space. Take the hatchery and the Sergeant decks and do the same as well, placing the Sergeant deck face down. The game comes with 16 character decks of 14 cards each. Select the 4 characters you want to use and shuffle those to make the barracks deck. Take the top 5 cards and place them face up in the HQ area.
Each player will need to pick an avatar, this is their personal character to play. Each avatar comes with its own specific card to add to their starting deck. Deal each player 7 specialist and 5 grunt cards, to make a total starting deck of 13. Select the first player, and you are ready to begin.
There are four phases in a player’s turn: Hive phase, Action phase, Strike phase and Clean up phase. In the hive phase, the active player takes the top card from the hive deck and places it in the leftmost space of the complex face down. If there is no space, shift each card to the right. The rightmost card will then go to the combat zone, where it is revealed. In the action phase, the current player will draw 6 cards from their deck and proceed to use them to scan the complex, recruit from the HQ, or fight an enemy.
Each card has 1 or 2 types of abilities. Strikes to attack or scan, and points to recruit. Each card in the HQ has a point cost, if you have enough points, you can recruit that crew member and place it in your discard pile to use on later turns. Each room in the complex has a specific strike cost that is paid in order to reveal the hive card. Pay the cost, and flip the card. Hive cards consist of enemies, events, hazards, or allies. Once a card is revealed, it’s effect is immediate. Some cards remain in their room, while other’s like allies and facehugger’s have an immediate reveal effect. A facehugger is one of the most challenging enemies in the game. The player who revealed one immediately places the card next to their avatar. They have until the end of the next player’s turn to kill it, else it dies and is replaced with a chest-burster card in that player’s discard pile. This a time bomb because the next time that player draws that card, it kills them and they die. There are only a few ways to remove one, so keeping enough strikes in your hand to kill one is a very important part of the strategy in this game.
Each enemy has a strike amount needed to kill it. Play enough strikes and the enemy dies. Each crew member card also has a status and affiliation, and some cards allow bonuses when making combinations of these classifications.
In the Strike phase, any enemy in the combat zone still alive will attack the player. That player must draw a strike card for each remaining enemy in the combat zone. Take enough strikes and your character dies.
In the last phase, the cleanup, the active player discards all their cards played and draws a new hand of 6 cards and play continues with the next player.
If you are looking for the experience of Aliens directly from the movies, this game delivers. I will tell you straight out, this game is hard. It takes a lot of strategy in order to win. There are next to no cures if you get a chest-burster in your deck. Your only hope is to complete the third objective before you draw it. This is exactly like in the movies, there’s no cure, its a death sentence. I think the card combinations work and are tied to the theme. Marines get bonuses off of each other and can stack their strike value to deal enough damage to take out the Queen. The character decks feel like you are playing out those people in the game. The Aliens can damage with acid, double strikes can hide and take captives to infect. It is an excellent experience for fans of this franchise.
The core box comes with the scenarios and characters from the first 4 movies, and Upper Deck has two expansions for the base game, including one for the newest movie “Alien Covenant.”
The Legendary game engine offers solid mechanics for a deck builder and the theme of Alien works wonderful using it. For me, this is a great game and one that gets my recommendation.
Written by Ed Carter
