Explore ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo! This game’s structural perfection is matched only by its hostility. I can’t lie to you about your chances, but, you have my sympathies.

1-5 Players 45-60 Minutes Age 10+

Designer: Scott Rogers

Artists: Stefen Koidl, Vladimir Rodriguez

Publisher: Ravensburger

That’s not our system…

Like practically everyone else in the world, I’m a huge fan of Ridley Scott’s Alien. My introduction to the Aliens franchise was through James Cameron’s Aliens, I didn’t manage to watch the original Alien film until a couple of years later, but viewing it as a prequel to the movie I was already familiar with I was instantly drawn into the claustrophobic corridors of the Nostromo as the massive mining vessel lumbered its way through space, with no escape but the vast emptiness of the cosmos in every direction, the setting instilled a sense of isolation and terror. That alone would have been enough, but then they had to land on that damn planet…. So it should come as no surprise that I was filled with that same sense of overwhelming curiosity to explore when I learned that ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo was being published by Ravensburger. Does the game itself live up to its namesake? Slide into your space suit and let’s investigate….

I volunteer to be in the first group to go out

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is a one to five player game in which you play characters from the classic film who are tasked with evading the alien and completing a set of objectives in order to unlock a final secret main objective which must be achieved to secure victory. All of this must happen before the crew’s morale drops to zero in which case, the players lose the game. The layout of the ship seems almost nonsensical, with its darkened rooms and corridors weaving through the bulk of the ship. ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is essentially a pick-up-and-deliver game with characters moving carefully about the ship working as a team to achieve objectives. These may include such simple tasks as taking an incinerator to the nest or entering the airlock with a coolant canister. As viewers of the film we didn’t much care where the various locations were or what the ship’s layout was, but as players, knowing where to go, how many action points you’ll need to spend, and what may lay in wait for you when you get there are of vital importance.

The game takes place shortly after the events that saw crew member Kane birthing the titular alien. The board itself contains small visual Easter eggs that tell that story, such as acid burns, blood stains and other clues to indicate this hostile organism has recently been introduced and is presently stalking the ship. This is further reinforced by the fact you can choose from only five remaining crew members, Ripley, Dallas, Parker, Lambert, and Brett. Ash is a non-playable character who can be included to the game is an additional threat, adding psychological tension to complement the physical threat posed by the alien. Each crew member has a unique skill and a pool of action points they can use to take actions such as moving, collecting scrap and crafting items.

There is no player elimination, hidden traitor or competitive play as you may have come to expect from similarly themed games, but in this case, I feel it works well given the game’s purpose here, after all, the crew did work together in the film for the most part, so other than Ash, having these mechanics included would have worked against the game. That being said, I would love to see some additional content released that added those features and perhaps allowed players to experience an alternative version of the story, where a different crew member was infected allowing Kane to become a playable character or even a hidden movement mechanic involving Ash and the Alien as playable characters in a competitive mode. I can but hope.

We have to get him inside

So, how does it all work then? At the start of the game, the alien begins in the nest, and, if you’re playing with Ash, he begins in the medical bay. During a round each player may take a number of actions equal to their action points. Each character has a various number of action points, depending on their special ability, for example, Brett, the engineer has only three action points, but may craft items for free, Ripley has four action points, and her ability allows her to move another character one space on her turn at the cost of one of her action points. Captain Dallas, has no special ability but instead has a hefty five action points, meaning he can do a little more than most of the crew. Each character ability is useful and any combination of characters seems to work well together. I particularly like that they made Ripley’s ability dependant on having other characters in the game, otherwise in a solo game it would be tempting to simply to play the franchise’s hero. They avoided making Ripley overpowered and she must rely on her crew to help her through. I felt this was a nice touch and it’s something I appreciated. The game board depicts two interior levels of the Nostromo with most of the rooms being familiar to anyone who has seen either the original or the director’s cut version of the film. Places such as the cockpit, the hibernation chamber the crew mess and even the alien’s nest are all present here. The shape of the ship itself doesn’t make much sense, but for the purposes of the game, it doesn’t matter much.

How come you guys don’t freeze him?

Being quite a sparse game compared to many others on the market, many players have described ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo as Nemesis-lite a sentiment I tend to agree with for the most part, though the two games really are very different, despite being obviously based on the same generic premise. This game a more quick and friendly game that players can breakout for a causal gaming session whereas Nemesis is really a fully cinematic experience requiring a larger investment of time and effort, not only in terms of learning rules, but the commitment of play time as well since ALIEN’s, average play time only runs between 45 to 60 minutes and marks one of the few times I’ve encountered an accurate play time on a box.

I’ve even seen some comparisons to Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps, but the two games couldn’t be more different, apart from both being based on their respective movies in the Alien franchise. Just like the movies themselves, ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is a more measured and considered game with you creeping around, attempting to avoid the alien and survive and basically going out of your way to avoid the creature. Whereas Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps is a fully scenario based combat miniatures game more akin to Space Hulk where combat is at the heart fo the game. Each of these games represents their movies well and it depends on the sort of game experience you’re looking for as to which one you’d enjoy most. Although, good luck finding Another Glorious Day in the Corps these days!

We’re not doing any more work until we get this straightened out

While the base game of ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is enjoyable enough on its own. The game really comes into its own when playing the additional Director’s Cut rules written by Scott Rogers, the game’s designer. These additional rules affect almost all aspects of the game, from the set up and the way the game generally behaves, to the end game and the final victory conditions making it far more challenging for most players. It really does feel like this is the way the game was originally intended to be played and Ravensburger perhaps wanted to tone back the difficulty and make it a little more approachable to casual gamers. If so, then good on Scott and Ravensburger for allowing these additional rules to be added for a greater challenge. It would have ideal to have had them included in the base game, but you can freely download the one page PDF of the Director’s Cut rules here to print out and keep in the box if you wish.

Don’t worry, you’ll get whatever’s coming to you

The component quality is adequate, if a little basic, but it is nice to have sculpted minis of the original Nostromo crew, though its a shame they couldn’t have included a model of Kane just for variant play if you want to pretend a different crew member had been face-hugged, however I appreciate them trying to stick to the narrative as closely as possible. The minis are decently detailed with the names of each character inscribed on the base and each one comes in a different colour to match their player board so you can easily tell them apart during play. There’s also an alien mini, which is slightly taller than the crew members which is accurate and a cardboard standee of Ash, the duplicitous android (40+ year old spoilers!). Again, it would have been nice to have had a mini of the character rather just a standee, but it does help to more easily differentiate friend from foe on the map. The art work on the cards is excellent and Ravensburger resisted the urge to go the way that Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps did by having stock photos, which has always been a pet peeve of mine as is comes across as cheap and lazy. In ALIEN we’ve got a nice Illustrated art style on the cards and character board, perhaps it was just applied a Photoshop filter to some production shots in some cases but whatever the case, it adds a more depth to the production.

Signing off.

The shuttle doesn’t take four… but it sure does take two!

Overall, ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is an extremely satisfying narrative experience. The game successfully evokes the theme of being a survivor aboard Nostromo and working together as a team. Making the game co-operative rather than hidden traitor or competitive was an interesting choice and one that I find works well for the game. That’s not to say is couldn’t have benefited from a separate hidden traitor, or fully competitive modes and maybe we’ll see some fan made content in the future that can do this, but as it stands, I feel that ALIEN is a solid entry for the franchise and a great representation of the movie it depicts The Directors Cut rules released by the designer of the game add an extra level of challenge to the game for more serious players, or for those who are simply looking for a deeper experience. Personally, I find a game works just as well either way although I’ll probably only play the Director‘s Cut unless teaching the game to new players as I did enjoy that variant. If you’re a fan of light to medium weight games with a good theme and co-operative play, then ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo should provide a solid evenings game play. If you want something more combative, go for Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps (if you can find a copy) or for a deeper, more mechanically heavy cinematic experience, you can’t go wrong with Nemesis/Lockdown. Personally I feel there’s room for all three in my collection and that’s the trilogy I’m going with! (Yes, I know technically the Alien movies form a quadrilogy, but have you seen Resurrection? Ugh!)

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you enjoyed this review and if you’d like to pick up your own copy of ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo I hope you’ll consider using our affiliate link here, as doing so helps to support the running of this website. Thank you also to Mighty Ape for providing this copy of ALIEN for review! Remember to join our Above Board Facebook group and become part of our steadily growing community of gamers. Until next time, take care!

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo Review