This is the story of how we lost the most ambitious game in the Alien universe.

The Obsidian Entertainment studio often had problems with publishers, finances and deadlines. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Alpha Protocol lost a huge amount of valuable content before release, and ambitious projects Futureblight and Dwarves were canceled in the early stages of development. Recently, there was a story about an Obsidian game called Stormlands, the development of which was closed at the stage of presentation.

But perhaps the main lost game of the studio is considered to be Aliens: Crucible – a large-scale action RPG based on the film universe “Aliens”. The project was canceled a year before the expected release, the developers ran out of budget and time to polish the gameplay.

We’ve dug through concept art, developer statements, and early build data to figure out what we’ve been missing.

❯ The contract with Sega and the first ideas

In December 2006, the European division of Sega announced the acquisition of exclusive rights to develop games based on the “Alien” universe. The publisher planned to release at least five games between 2007 and 2011.

Prior to signing with 20th Century Fox, Giger’s iconic creations were firmly entrenched in the Alien vs. Predator crossover games. There were few solo, and most importantly, interesting games in the franchise: we can mention only the adaptation of the movie “Alien: Resurrection” for PlayStation and 16-bit platformers.

In 2002, Electronic Arts presented a beta version of the shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines, but it did not go beyond the prototype.

Initially, Sega commissioned the development of a team-based first-person shooter from Gearbox Software. In the future, this project turned into the long-suffering Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Aliens: Colonial Marines CSG teaser from 2008. After its release, Gearbox Software froze development for two years

In 2006, Obsidian already had the controversial Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and Neverwinter Nights II and two additions to it were in development. In the same year, Sega ordered an original RPG in a modern setting from Obsidian. Game designer Chris Jones and company head Fergus Urquhart presented the concept of a spy RPG with elements of stealth action. Soon the game received funding and the official name – Alpha Protocol.

However, the development of Alpha Protocol was due to a lack of experience in the team. Obsidian could not find a starting point and come up with game mechanics, so the development was temporarily frozen. Before that, the studio worked on continuations of popular series, so creating a unique project was difficult. The developers simply did not have experience in creating stealth actions.

Alpha Protocol CGI trailer from 2009

Obsidian was saved by the publisher: Sega let Alpha Protocol wait and offered to create an RPG based on the “Alien” franchise. Such an unexpected turn in the studio was met with great enthusiasm. Among the key developers were many fans of this cinematic universe.

Game designer Chris Avellone and screenwriter Eric Fenstermaker had a vision for the project. The developers presented the game as something between “Alien” and “Aliens”. From the first film, they took the feeling of gloomy hopelessness, from the second – numerous battles with xenomorphs. The core of Aliens: Crucible is a large but claustrophobic open world with almost unlimited freedom of choice.

❯ Plot

Summary of Aliens: Crucible plot in short

told

Chris Avellon. The events of the game take place several decades after Alien 3 (between 2199 and 2205). This is also hinted at by improved technology and military equipment.

The place of action is the planet Caldera. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation terraformed it, but it is still far from a comfortable life. Electromagnetic storms and earthquakes rage on the Caldera. You can get out of the planet only in good weather (which is rare), and all cargo is dropped directly from orbit in special containers.

Cauldron

An advanced colony with a large research complex has been built on the planet. Various flora and fauna are grown in it, which will help in the formation of a stable atmosphere. Avellon did not specify the origin of living organisms, but fans of the universe have two versions: they were either bred in the laboratory or brought from another planet.

Year after year, the colonists studied the Caldera until they finally stumbled upon a perfectly preserved spaceport of alien origin. The spaceport, as you might guess, was created by an ancient race of Space Jockeys. A research camp was set up around the alien building and several expeditions were sent to it.

The retelling also mentions that Aliens: Crucible revealed the origin story of the Xenomorphs and the Space Jockeys. It would be interesting to compare with “Prometheus” and “Covenant”, but alas.

Alien spaceport

After some time, communication with the colony was interrupted. Shortly before that, the supply ship “Armey” left for Caldera. The ship was not far away, so the Weyland-Yutani was ordered to investigate the cause of the radio silence. The “Army” team did not have to plan the landing for a long time, because the ship suddenly malfunctioned and began to fall into the planet’s atmosphere. Most of the crew miraculously evacuated in containers with supplies.

The hero of Aliens: Crucible is a nameless junior officer of the ship. At the very beginning, the player chooses the character’s appearance, specialization and floor. After the rescue, the officer discovers that the containers with his comrades have fallen in different parts of the colony. The main goal of the game is to survive, gather a team and get out of the Caldera. The hero (or heroine) will face xenomorphs, humans and a difficult climate.

❯ Game mechanics

Character development in Aliens: Crucible is reminiscent of many of Obsidian’s upcoming RPGs. The game had a branching skill tree and a choice of several specializations (only engineer and soldier are known). Each profession has its own unique abilities and perks that radically change the gameplay.

Tree of skills

Aliens: Crucible is a survival horror in an RPG shell with an emphasis on social relations. Already in the second hour, the player received at his disposal a small team of three people. You cannot control other characters, but you can give commands in battle. The execution of these orders depended entirely on an integrated system of morality. This system determined how the player treated an individual NPC, as well as how often they shared their gear. There was something similar in the third-person shooter The Thing based on the movie “Something”.

In addition to the morality system Aliens: Crucible had a panic sensor. If the level of panic exceeded the permissible limit, then the character began to smoke in all directions or ran with all legs. This could happen during an attack by a large pack of xenomorphs or when an NPC saw someone die. If a comrade died, he died irretrievably. The number of survivors in the game is strictly limited.

Character models

Exploring the world in Aliens: Crucible is built on short forays and resource gathering. After the forays, the player developed and strengthened his own base. In this he was helped by the surviving colonists and members of the “Army” crew. The more people on the base, the better their defenses and more opportunities to craft new weapons and equipment.

In Aliens: Crucible, there was freedom of choice: decisions made in dialogues affected the fate of partners and the mood of the team. Screenwriter Eric Fenstermaker gave an example of a situation with an attack by a lycekhvat. If a comrade was infected, the player had three options: shoot him, temporarily freeze him in a cryocapsule and thaw him at the moment when his skills are needed (for example, when there is no mechanic in the team), or do nothing. In this case, the character could end his life or stay with the player until the Alien was born.

❯ Xenomorph and colony design

In addition to the canonical varieties of xenomorphs, there were three new species in the game: Stalker, Rhino and Red Queen. The first two appeared from mammals that were brought to the planet, and the Queen was bred in the laboratory. In Aliens: Crucible, there are two Alien Mats – Classic and Red.

Designers could not decide on the location of the colony and the climate of the Caldera for a long time. In early concept art, the colony was either in space or on a planet with many active volcanoes. As a result, they settled on a recognizable design like “Hope Hadley” from “Aliens” by James Cameron.

❯ Early builds

In addition to the concept art, three videos from the early images of Aliens: Crucible have leaked online. The first video was released in December 2010. It shows several locations and a shootout with strangers in the corridors of the colony. This is one of the demo prototypes of the game, dated November 2007.

In February 2013, a video dated December 2008 was leaked online. It showed the creation of a character, a skill tree, inventory, gunfights, story cutscenes on the game engine and dialogues with partners. Characters and enemies still have sketchy animations, and the AI ​​needs some work.

At the same time, YouTube videos posted animations of opponents and characters.

According to Chris Avellone, the cutscenes do not represent the essence of the game, as they are recorded from prototypes or raw versions. The game designer still has the latest build of Aliens: Crucible from May 2009. Maybe he’ll show it off someday.

❯ Closing the project

In 2008, one half of the studio worked on Aliens: Crucible, and the other – on Alpha Protocol. The creation of a spy action-RPG has finally taken off.

As time passed, Aliens: Crucible technology was delayed. Some mechanics that did not work as desired or were not yet fully implemented were removed from the game. Obsidian asked for a bigger budget and sent their work to Sega, including a demo version of Aliens: Crucible. The publisher’s quick response shocked the development team. Sega ordered the game to stop development without even seeing the previous version.

Cosmic Jockey’s Chair
Several factors influenced this decision. In 2009, Sega had major financial problems. The company closed several old divisions, including Sega Studio USA, Sega San Francisco, and Sega Racing Studio. As a result of mass layoffs, 20 percent of employees from all branches of the company were laid off.

Due to the shaky financial situation, Sega could not finance all the games that were in development at that time. Aliens: Crucible was canceled, and half of the required amount was allocated for the finalization of Alpha Protocol.

The head of Obsidian, Fegrus Urquhart, has his own take on this. He is sure that over the years, Sega has revised its views on the franchise. By 2010, Alien vs. Rebellion’s Predator, and Gearbox finally tackled Aliens: Colonial Marines after a long hiatus. The “soldiers vs. aliens” formula seemed like a win-win, while a complex RPG with tons of dialogue might scare away potential buyers. Sega bet on a clear and seemingly unwinnable genre – a first-person shooter with elements of horror.

At this point, Sega has no further plans to promote the RPG based on Aliens. We decided to take a step back and choose a more suitable genre for a game based on such a large franchise.

Official statement from Sega

Urquhart said that the game was almost finished, there was no additional investment and no time to polish the gameplay. Six months before cancellation, all dialogues were voiced, enemies’ intelligence and their animations were improved.

Sega managed to make a decent xenomorph game on only their fourth try. Aliens vs Predator (2010) did not live up to expectations, received mixed reviews and is now forgotten. The release of Aliens: Colonial Marines led to scandals and lawsuits, for which it was not Gearbox that had to pay, but Sega. Due to the poor reputation of the previous games, sales of the excellent Alien: Isolation were very modest.

As for Obsidian, in 2010 they released Alpha Protocol, but just before the release, the project changed for the worse. The massive RPG lost half of its planned content and received mostly negative reviews in the press. Due to tepid reviews and low sales, development of Alpha Protocol 2 was put on hiatus.

After a series of setbacks, the already hardened team at Obsidian showed itself brilliantly in the work on Fallout: New Vegas. The engine of Aliens: Crucible did not disappear and became useful for developers in future projects. On an improved version of the Onyx Engine, they created Dungeon Siege III and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

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Transferred to Habr and published on the Timeweb Cloud blog with the permission of the author, Semyon Kostin.

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