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I think it would be fair to say that Alien: Resurrection is not a universally praised entry in the Alien franchise. It’s game tie-in, however, is generally very well liked. An early adopter of what has become the standard FPS controls on console, Alien: Resurrection is held in high regard as an authentic and tense Alien gaming experience.

It did, however, have a troubled development. Releasing nearly 3 years after the film itself actually came out, the game went through three different iterations and found it’s developers overwhelmed. Yesterday EuroGamer posted a nice retrospective on the development of Argonaut’s Alien: Resurrection for PlayStation 1.

After a year of work, Resurrection was facing numerous problems. The team had worked incredibly hard but there was a sense that Tim Moss’ original vision for the game wasn’t what they wanted to make anymore. A lot of the work was done, about 60 per cent or so, but with the end of 1996 approaching the team saw more impressive and realistic titles hitting store shelves. Amid a generation that focused on pushing the technical and graphical boundaries of what video games could do, Argonaut would drop what they were doing and follow suit.

It’s a really nice summary of the development of the game and well worth checking out!

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aahhh how i love this game. had to buy a ps mouse to play though. i just couldnt play it with the 2 sticks. i dont think issue was this mechanic per se. issue was, it was just a hard game to play that way. tjis as u needed absolute speed and accuracy, but as it was a ps1 and the game tested the console's limits, it just wasnt responsive enough imo. The ps mouse though changed everything!!! this is one of my fav games, and look forward to having a little time to revisit.
Also it's one oc the handful of FPSs (to this day, which is saying something..!) which allow you to walk as slowly as you want AND have the sound of your footsteps slow down to match your walking speed. Sounds trivial, but imo for a game like this this realism adds inmensely to the buildup of tension IMO (i.e. you are low on health and cant afford another hit, and are creeping ever so slowly. Doing so always reminded me of Elgin's demise scene). FPS developers, seriously take note!

I love that Tag Line

It is a good game, I completed it this year (after about 15 years of planning to do it).
Probably the 5th best Alien FPS and definitely better than Alien Trilogy.
The game is even referenced at the end of the movie credits.

How so? The game didn't come out for another 3 years. Is the studio credited for their work on the arcade machine?

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 10, 2018, 12:02:41 PM
How so? The game didn't come out for another 3 years. Is the studio credited for their work on the arcade machine?

They were already developing it and it wasn't supposed to take 3 years.
It is also possible they added this credit to the DVD later.
Proof here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifrPTOBCIfs#t=4m40s

Fair enough! Never noticed that  :o - but I don't generally sit through credits.

There are interesting things here and there. The egg-opening sound at the end of Aliens, the Bishop II name in Alien 3, etc. Alien 3 also shows the title card in the end again. But that is off topic already.

Amazing article and a nice read. ALIEN Resurrection the movie and long delayed game tie-in gives me 1997-2000 nostalgic chills. It's also a story of an amazing game's potential popularity, lost during fast-moving advances in gaming technology in the transitionary period of new console generations.

I recall the PSOne being long in the tooth around October-December 2000 with the Playstation 2 being demoed in pods HMV and GAME shops in the UK, so the buzz for a PsOne release was over.

I liked ALIEN Resurrection the movie enough (at the time) November 1997 but I'll admit it was a short-lived infatuation, only stoked by ongoing news of a game tie-in. I was more optimistic as ALIEN-Trilogy (also PSone) proved popular amongst gamers, critics and videogame sales in 1996.
I recall the "Teletext" gaming news feed on old-school tv sets (remember that service which rivaled the pre-dial-up internet?) I think it was GameCentral (which lives on to present day via METRO.co.uk free Newspaper) reporting extensively on the development of the Resurrection game 1997-2000.
I recall talk of a Tomb Raider style third person game and the News team had almost monthly updates on ALIEN-Resurrection (along with a very early incarnation of DUKE NUKEM Forever by another development team). Developers would write in the feedback section with updates, team changes or  handing in notices in frustration!
I can't remember if any video demo of the "TOMB RAIDER" style gameplay ever saw the light of day but I did see screenshots and talk of the character Dom Vriess.(wheelchair guy) being a reverse aiming gun strapped to your back in harder levels.

Didn't know the Moss Brothers (Argonaut games) were originally planning to do a game based on the game LOADED-1995. Although to clarify that was a GREMLIN Interactive game based on "ALIEN BREED" which was ironically a topdown "ALIENS" style rip-off.
I don't know anyone who owned LOADED but a lot of high school friends played the shit out of the DEMO that came with the PSone.

The change to a TOMB RAIDER clone would've sucked as too many games who tried to emulate were inferior knock-offs. They did not understand why the gaming mechanic of Lara Croft was ideal for her global travel but unsuitable for anything else.
You only need PsOne games like the FIFTH ELEMENT, BATMAN AND ROBIN, Deathtrap Dungeon to prove this point.

I'll admit I raised my eyebrows when the Resurrection team finally came back and said a first person shooter was in the works. At best PsOne FPSs were for the larger part, unplayable. Low polygon count, low frame rates, game slowdown and blocky enemies (Star Wars Dark Forces or Duke Nukem).

The end product though was, IMO, better than ALIEN Trilogy and far more intense and satisfying. I didn't feel the need to upgrade to a PC to play ALIENS VS PREDATOR 1999 as Resurrection was on par with graphics and physics.
Speaking of which; it's interesting that Argonaut thought the next ALIEN movie (following Alien 3) being drafted by 20th Century Fox in 1996 would be an Aliens Vs Predator movie. I think many high school friends and their parents in this era shared the same hope with talk and rumours.

Alas, ALIEN- Resurrection was a safe but ultimately boring movie. A sentiment shared by its game developers who did better work on the franchise than the movie itself.
It's not like ALIEN 3 had that problem too.........oh wait.

Ah man, I was always bummed I couldn't play this back then since I was Sega Saturn boi and my next console was a PS2 many years later after this game came out. Must've forgot about it meanwhile. I'll def try to give this a go with some emulator. Hell, might even clean the dust of my Sega Saturn and play Trilogy before as well.

The game was hard as hell though. You have to conserve ammo at every step, otherwise you will end up in an unwinnable situation where a pistol is not enough.

Quote from: MU-TH-UR 6000 on Sep 10, 2018, 02:47:30 PM
Ah man, I was always bummed I couldn't play this back then since I was Sega Saturn boi and my next console was a PS2 many years later after this game came out. Must've forgot about it meanwhile. I'll def try to give this a go with some emulator. Hell, might even clean the dust of my Sega Saturn and play Trilogy before as well.

Worth mentioning backwards compatibility here.

You can only play ALIEN Resurrection on the original PsOne console and not PlayStation 3 (unsure about PS2?) like other PsOne games. A YouTube reviewer said various game code doesn't work and there are glitches with backwards compatible consoles.

I downloaded the emulator version and it works a treat. You might need to add in the dual stick and rumble features if your USB controller has that function. I only use the D-pad and shoulder buttons.

Didn't ps1 games work on ps2?  Original stations are not very rare or expensive. If seen used o es for under $10.

Quote from: bobcunk on Sep 10, 2018, 05:52:11 PM
Didn't ps1 games work on ps2?  Original stations are not very rare or expensive. If seen used o es for under $10.

Its a case by case basis.depending on the game.

No mention of the PS2 on gamefaqs having issues with ALIEN-Resurrection but the PS3 is well documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_games_incompatible_with_PlayStation_2

Aye, backwards compatibility is an option for me as well if I can find the game somewhere. I just completely forgot about it once I got the PS2 back then.

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Sep 10, 2018, 04:37:41 PM
I downloaded the emulator version and it works a treat. You might need to add in the dual stick and rumble features if your USB controller has that function. I only use the D-pad and shoulder buttons.

That sounds great! I'll probably try it this way.

You play it on PS2, I can confirm that.

I remember the trailer for this game was on the first-ever widescreen VHS releases of movies 1, 2, and 3 here in N. America. How I salivated over that trailer! By the time the game was ultimately released, I'd already gotten a PC and AvP '99, and it just couldn't measure up.

The facehugger/chestburster mechanic in the game remains one of the best applications in the series. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody else bothered with it.

I remember waiting so long for this to come out, and I remember the initial summary of this game back when it was supposed to be 3rd person.  It would have been amazing, to me, if they had made it work more like a Resident Evil game like they were originally intending to.
By the time it came it out, it was WAY too late, and the level design sucked...it was just the same corridors over and over.
If you look at the original screenshots from the scrapped game, you see there was such a vastly different level design. 
Its too bad.

all ps1 games work in ps2. the ps mouse however, doesn't. its the only reason i still keep my ps1. for alien resurrection, and the ps1 port of the original xcom

You do need a PS1 memory card for A:R to work on a PS2  And you can't use Component video - only RCA.

I'm running mine off a HDMI converter and that's fine.

Quote from: SiL on Sep 11, 2018, 03:56:15 AM
The facehugger/chestburster mechanic in the game remains one of the best applications in the series. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody else bothered with it.

The ability to "abort" a chestburster providing you could find the "portable autodoc" was a fair gameplay balance feature.

Plus the "scan HUD" was so cool and reminded me of something out of ALIEN 3's escape pod, medical unit scene.

I strongly recommend using a mouse with the game. The regular Windows mouse will work on the ePSXe emulator, although it took some time to configure it. You can basically configure the game to use your regular FPS keyboard mapping.

Quote from: SiL on Sep 11, 2018, 03:56:15 AM
The facehugger/chestburster mechanic in the game remains one of the best applications in the series. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody else bothered with it.

I never played this game so I am not sure how much of the plot is the same as the movie but if it is relatively the same and humans were kidnapped and used as hosts just like in the movie, did the scientists use the the portable medic thing to remove the chestburster from them or were they left to die painfullly like in the movie?
Or is it merely a game mechanic that has no bearing on the plot of the game?

Quote from: The Cruentus on Sep 11, 2018, 11:03:43 AM

Quote from: SiL on Sep 11, 2018, 03:56:15 AM
The facehugger/chestburster mechanic in the game remains one of the best applications in the series. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody else bothered with it.

I never played this game so I am not sure how much of the plot is the same as the movie but if it is relatively the same and humans were kidnapped and used as hosts just like in the movie, did the scientists use the the portable medic thing to remove the chestburster from them or were they left to die painfullly like in the movie?
Or is it merely a game mechanic that has no bearing on the plot of the game?

It is a game mechanic to give you a chance to stay alive and the plot of the game is minimal.
There are some interesting differences to the movie like you encounter Purvis in the middle of the game and he chestbursts 2 minutes later.
Perez is a mid-game boss in the gymnasium that is really hard to take down.
You encounter hundreds of drones in the game but only about 3 warriors. They are not even bosses, they just pop up randomly.

In the game if you get face hugged you get impregnated with an Alien. Portable autodocs allow you to remove the Alien embryo. If you don't, eventually the Alien will be born and you'll die.

Almost every other game just makes huggers a QuickTime button mashing event, more annoying than anything.

Quote from: SiL on Sep 11, 2018, 12:44:54 PM
In the game if you get face hugged you get impregnated with an Alien. Portable autodocs allow you to remove the Alien embryo. If you don't, eventually the Alien will be born and you'll die.

Almost every other game just makes huggers a QuickTime button mashing event, more annoying than anything.

The two first AvP games don't and it's quite terrifying. You die instantly.
I think the first AvP game handles it the best, with the SCREEEEE sound.

Atari Jaguar AvP,  Alien Trilogy and a lot of others just make you wiggle the thing off (or AT has it get on your face when your health is sufficiently low, been a while).

never got into this game played most of the others except the first avp game played the second on a friends pc and enjoyed it but all other games have been on console.still cant get over what gearbox did anyway hopefully we get new info soon on what foxnext and coldiron are doing any info would be nice

Ive had the game for YEARS but never played for more than literally a few minutes due to the horrible controls.

Quote from: SiL on Sep 11, 2018, 12:59:20 PM
Atari Jaguar AvP,  Alien Trilogy and a lot of others just make you wiggle the thing off (or AT has it get on your face when your health is sufficiently low, been a while).

In AT, it will just attach for a few seconds and then dies, but while it is attached there is nada you can do to get it off. It just drains your health while it is on but if it attaches to you and you got low health, it can "kill",you. a movie clip will play showing Ripley falling unconscious from the hugger. Strangely this clip will play even if a chestburster kills you.

Fantastic game.

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 11, 2018, 05:33:09 AM
I'm running mine off a HDMI converter and that's fine.

Really need to get one of them.  The telly in the lounge only has Component which doubles as RCA, so I have to constantly keep changing leads for the PS2 or the DVD player or the N64.

Quote from: The Cruentus on Sep 11, 2018, 11:19:24 PM
In AT, it will just attach for a few seconds and then dies, but while it is attached there is nada you can do to get it off.

That's it! And later in the game they always grab you when there's a shitload of other enemies around, so you're losing health and blind.

Luckily I always had my pink acid boots on ;D

I remember that cheat  :laugh:

Cheats! You guys are such a disappointment to me...

 :laugh:
In fairnesss, I only rarely cheated on that, only after I completed the game and wanted to just have fun by choosing the levels and fighting the queen.

Quote from: The Cruentus on Sep 12, 2018, 10:27:09 AM
:laugh:
In fairnesss, I only rarely cheated on that, only after I completed the game and wanted to just have fun by choosing the levels and fighting the queen.

Same. Prison levels were real spooky for me as a wee lad but I always enjoyed replaying them for some reason. I was super excited/scared to see the runner aliens for the first time. Then the fast grown-ups showed up...

What I liked about AT as well as it was technically an original game, it took elements from the movies and redone them. For example, you have to battle three queens and you visit a lot of locations and you have to deal with W-Y PMCs. It didn't have any baggage either from what I remember, it was just a fun game.

Quote from: The Cruentus on Sep 12, 2018, 10:33:53 AM
What I liked about AT as well as it was technically an original game, it took elements from the movies and redone them. For example, you have to battle three queens and you visit a lot of locations and you have to deal with W-Y PMCs. It didn't have any baggage either from what I remember, it was just a fun game.

It was done in a time where the storyline were just some paragraphs before you started a level haha. But it worked. It had everything an Alien fan wanted. 

Yep, I was satisfied with it, sadly I never got round to getting resurrection but I heard it was a fairly good game with most complaints about it being about the control scheme.

The added quicksave functionality of the emulator helps a lot with the difficulty in the game.

The difficulty gets easier once you learn the game's ins-and-outs. I can play it nowadays and have heaps of ammo, but the first few times I played the game it felt more scarce.

Out of all Alien games, this one stuck with me the most. Atmosphere is just insane... and it never lets up. The final level especially where you're chased by the Newborn aboard the Betty was some of the creepiest shit in a video game I've experienced, haha!