Aliens: Crucible – canceled RPG from Obsidian

A alien from the film of a stranger has become one of the worst characters for children of the late last century. Unfortunately, a lot of incorrect decisions were made on the way of development of the franchise, which is why many low-quality projects were born. But there were those who simply did not go out, let it on paper and looked like masterpieces. We will talk about one thing today.

Strangers scare us from the screens for a fourth ten years. Ridley Scott in 1979 showed how to make a movie about the battle with a monster in a closed space. It is fair to note that now old Ridley shows how this is not necessary. The films of this franchise have come a long way from the revolution in the genre of Horror to mediocre horror films;Games did not lag behind either. Over the years of the life of a stranger, a variety of developers shared with us their vision of the perfect game about xenomorphs.

Projects for arcade machines, consoles, personal computers and portable devices, bitemaps, shooters, horror and even quests – almost every genre covered someone else’s. The most popular game series was games about the collaboration of a terrible alien with another popular character of films – a predator. Aliens Versus Predator has a dozen games on various platforms, from Super Nintendo to modern mobile devices. Fans of games of the most beloved often call Aliens Versus Predator 2 from Monolith Productions. This game has developed the ideas of the first part of the authorship of Rebellion. We have three different gaming campaigns for each of the RAS and the multi -user regime, where players have months with each other in the guise of all three races.

But along with good games, bad. About Aliens: Colonial Marines, I think you don’t need to talk. The crackle with which Gearbox long -building failed was difficult not to hear. The creators of the popular Borderlands had all the trump cards in their hands – easy to develop the shooter genre, the film license, according to which these same shooters have been successfully developed more than once, as well as the already experience in creating such games. But Gearbox, unfortunately, became a company that could not.

In the middle of the zero in one small but proud Obsidian Entertainment studio, a pleasant and ambitious atmosphere reigned. Despite the abundance of bugs in the newly published Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, developers worked on the might and main of Neverwinter Nights 2 and were looking for publishers for new projects. Such a publisher became Sega. The company ordered the original RPG from Obsidian in a modern setting, in the studio prepared the concept of a spy role-playing game with stelars’ elements, and Sega approved it. The project received funding and the official name – Alpha Protocol.

True, the developers were too inexperienced. Prior to this, the studio worked on the sequels of popular series and the creation of an original project, and even a stealth-beer, was an overwhelming task for them. The game was temporarily frozen, but here SEGA saved the company. The publishing house was allowed to leave Alpha Protocol so far, while proposing to develop RPG on someone else’s. Unexpected news in Obsidian was delighted – after all, among key employees, many turned out to be fans of this franchise.

In the shortest possible time, the gamepa -designer Chris Abellon and screenwriter Eric Fenstermeaker formulated the vision of the future game: the oppressive atmosphere of gloom and hopelessness of the first film, as well as the epic battles with crowds of xenomorphs from the film of the second. A big open world for research with almost unlimited freedom of choice, while frightening with every turn and angle. These were the first ideas of Aliens: Crucible, and the Obsidian Entertainment project has not been released.

The plot tie became known thanks to Chris Abellon: the game designer retold it for one of the Western Internet transmissions. The events of the game began a couple of decades after someone else’s 3 and unfolded on the planet of Calder, one of the worlds in the process of terraforming by Vayland-Yutani. But while storms raged there, earthquakes were far from a comfortable life. Flights there and from there were extremely rare due to the weather, and the necessary were thrown off the orbit with special lutboxes.

A colony with an advanced research complex lived on the planet. Scientists and engineers raised Flora and Fauna there, which could survive in this unfavorable place and help to form an atmosphere. Whether they brought animals and plants from other planets or brought out in local laboratories – it is unknown.

The colonists studied Calder for several years Fat Pirate Casino until they came across an unknown space port of non -human origin. As you might guess, the ancient race of comic zokeev created the spaceport. People immediately began to study alien buildings and set up a research camp around the port.

Avellon noted that in Aliens: Crucible the authors revealed the secret of the origin of xenomorphs and their creators. By the way, Ridley Scott is now doing this in Prometheus and the Testament, in his style and with tons of biblical references. It is not known what was invented on this topic in Obsidian, but it would be interesting to compare.

Another Armey supply ship was sent to Calder, but shortly before, the connection with the colony was interrupted. Since the ship was not far from Vayland-Yutani received an order to conduct an investigation and find out the reason for the radio monitor. I didn’t have to plan a landing on the planet for a long time – literally immediately the ship failed and crashed to the surface. The crew, let it be in full force, was evacuated.

The main character is an nameless junior officer. We would allow us to choose his appearance, specialization and gender. Miraculously surviving, the officer realized that capsules with colleagues fell in different ends of the colony. The main goal of the game would be survival, team gathering and escape from Calders. The opponents were not only xenomorphs, but also people. Nevertheless, the main villain could be the harsh climate of an uninhabited planet.

The development of the hero in Aliens: Crucible, as in future Obsidian projects, had a branched tree of skills and the choice of specializations. Each profession had unique perks and skills that changed the gameplay. It is known that among the classes there were an engineer and soldiers.

The gameplay resembles Survival Horror, as well as a role -playing game – but only dialogues and the possibility of choosing. Literally immediately the player received a team of three people and the ability to give them orders. Reminds this Mass Effect, but much deeper. A moral system could appear in the game: depending on how the player relates to a specific character, he performed his teams or, vice versa, ignored them. Probably the next analogue of such a system is the Thing game based on the movie “Something”. There, partners vividly reacted to the events. As in The Thing, in Alien: Crucible, a panic sensor was planned. If he exceeded the permissible norm, the character began to shoot in all directions or run away from the battlefield. If a comrade died in arms, then he died with ends. At the end of the story, the player could remain the only surviving.

They wanted to build the gameplay on the study of the world and sorties for collecting resources. Having accumulated enough funds, the hero strengthened and developed his base. In this he was helped by the surviving crew members and colonists. The degree of security of the base depended on the number of survivors.

Freedom of choice in Obsidian Games has always played one of the main roles. In Alien: Crucible, the decisions made by the player influenced the mood in the team, the fate of partners and colony. Suppose a comrade infected MordoprygLycevat. The player immediately got a choice – shoot a partner, freeze in cryocapus and defrost when his skills are needed, or do nothing. In the latter case, the character will end his life himself or continue to help the hero until the birth of the alien.

The design of xenomorphs and colonies was invented almost from scratch. In addition to canonical aliens, it is known about three new species – stalkers, apparently fast monsters, rhinos, the thickest representatives, and red queens bred in laboratories. The uterus was also in this part, but the arts could not be found with it.

The developers spent a lot of time to determine the climate of the Calders. Initially, they completely thought about the space station, and on the early arts you can even see the base among existing volcanoes, but chose a more recognizable style. The design of Calders and its colony clearly reminds us of the “Hope Hadley” from “strangers”.

In addition to concept arts, three videos from very early builds leaked to the Internet. The first is dated November 2007. Here, in very poor quality, you can see part of the katsen, one location and shootout.

The next video recorded in December 2008 shows us the creation of a character, a tree of skills, inventory, plot videos on a game engine, dialogs with partners and shootings. Animation is schematic, and artificial intelligence is not worked out.

Almost simultaneously with the same video, a video with the development of animation appeared on the Internet. Chris Abellon assures that the videos are not like the latest versions of the game and are recorded from the early and damp builds. The game designer, by the way, has the latest version of the assembly for May 2009, but Chris has not yet been striving to show it on the Internet.

2008. Obsidian studio is divided into two halves. One of them creates aliens: Crucible, the other is Alpha Protocol. Development is much more slow than expected. From the game on strangers, you have to delete some game mechanics that are difficult to implement with current financing. Then the head of Obsidian sends to the Sega work together with the demo version of the game and a request to increase the budget. The answer came too quickly: Sega decided to stop the development of the game, without even looking at the preliminary version.

At the beginning of 2009, the publisher had large problems with finances. Several internal units closed, more than 20 percent of employees reduced. Due to this situation, SEGA did not have the opportunity to maintain the development of all its projects. As a result, Aliens: Crucible was canceled, and half the desired amount was allocated to create Alpha Protocol.

As Fergus Urkhart later said, the head of Obsidian Entertainment, most likely SEGA revised the franchise plans. After all, a stranger in the gaming industry is known to the shooters, so in 2010 Rebelion took up another alien vs. Predator, and Gearbox – Aliens: Colonial Marines. Judge for yourself, a clear genre – a first -person shooter, and even in such a beloved setting – soldiers against strangers. But the role -playing game with dialogs and the right to choose could scare away potential buyers.

Urkhart said that their game was practically over. Six months before the abolition of the project, all dialogs were voiced, and the intelligence of the NPC and animation improved. There were enough small additional investments and time for the finalization and polishing of individual gameplay elements. However, one of the game designers, Josh Soyer, does not agree with this. Not so long ago, in an interview with the IGN portal, the developer said that the studio was very behind the deadlines. There were problems with the design of locations, something was wrong with the animation. Obsidian tried to fix these problems, but time did not work in their favor. As a result, the Sega made its choice, and Obsidian employees with sadness, but without surprise continued to develop Alpha Protocol.

Years later, this decision of the publisher can be called not the most reasonable. Aliens vs. Predator 2010 is a good game, but the hopes assigned did not justify. The release of Colonial Marines was completely accompanied by scandals and trials, during which Sega suffered even greater losses. Alien: Isolation became one of the main games of 2014, and one of the best in strangers in general, but its sales remained modest. Perhaps due to the reputation of past franchise games.
Obsidian released Alpha Protocol. The game came out well, but far from what they planned initially. In the press, Spy RPG received negative reviews, and due to low sales of hope for a sequel, there was no.

It’s sad that, apparently, a worthy game, which was invested so much effort, never saw the light. Nevertheless, the Aliens: Crucible engine was created not in vain. ONYX Engine was improved and used in other studio games – Dungeon Siege III and South Park: The Stick of Truth. But xenomorphs on it, unfortunately, did not run.