Alien RPG - A "Terrifying" Mass Effect

VG24/7 talk with Chris Avellone about Obsidian's cancelled Alien RPG and say it was gearing up to be a terrifying Mass Effect.

"But as you're entering the atmosphere, [you realise] that this planet is incredibly unstable, so your entire crew gets blasted all over the planet," Avellone explained. "And you land and the player, and some marines, and your squads, and scientists - and the weird thing is that when Prometheus came out, I saw some of the similarities, [and thought] 'oh, we had a character like that'. But the entire world was more violent and there were a lot more Aliens running around. It was more a question of survival, and 'how do we recover all the supplies, and desperately try to make a base?' It was fun to set up."

One of the things Obsidian really wanted to nail with Aliens: Crucible was a sense of fear, even during conversation. Where most RPGs pause the action while you have a chinwag, here the xenomorphs could arrive at any time, interrupting your plans.

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Really is a shame as it looked like it would of been a good Alien RPG. Though you have to remember this was after Sega funded Alpha Protocol which was a massive failure.

So it's safe to assume the relationship did sour quickly after that.

Alien RPG was gearing up to be the very best RPG of all time with a cult following. It would have received a day in our calendar as National Deep Space Alien Day. Everybody would have brought flowers with head-hugger ornaments on their heads. Evil publisher from LV-426 however prevented this game to become a massive success.

Associating the words "mass effect" with the project likely did it no favours. Too bad we'll never see this.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
…Though you have to remember this was after Sega funded Alpha Protocol which was a massive failure….(

Failure saleswise?

For all its faults it was a good game IMO.

Originally Posted by BlackVoid
Failure saleswise?

For all its faults it was a good game IMO.

Yes sale-wise it was flop and that's all that matters to a publisher like Sega. The game does have a cult following but reviews were not good either. I still enjoy playing it.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Yes sale-wise it was flop and that's all that matters to a publisher like Sega. The game does have a cult following but reviews were not good either. I still enjoy playing it.

I remember enjoying it but I only played probably less than half of the game. Is it still worth a go these days? Any useful mods?

Originally Posted by mbuddha
I remember enjoying it but I only played probably less than half of the game. Is it still worth a go these days? Any useful mods?

Game is still pretty much the same since release as not many mod were released. I recall a veteran hack, graphic re-shades, and a re-balance mod that's about all.