Based upon the fourth movie in the Alien series, Alien Resurrection follows Ellen Ripley’s struggle against the extraterrestrial Xenomorph aliens once again. But how is Ellen Ripley still alive, since she committed suicide in the third movie, you ask? 200 years after the events in Aliens 3, technology has advanced enough to allow the creation of a clone of Ripley in hopes of fusing her with an Alien Queen, in order to devise the ultimate weapon. As expected, the plan backfires, and now the deadly xenomorphs have been let loose all over the research ship, and Ripley’s cell is jarred open from all the explosions occurring. Teaming up with a band of renegade space pirates on the ship on a course with Earth, Ripley and her new found allies have to work together in order to survive.

Tossing out all the negative aspects of Alien Resurrection, there is one thing that Argonaut Games excelled in doing: creating an immersive environment that entraps the player in the world of danger that surrounds them. Argonaut Games has done this through a fast engine that has the capabilities to render environments and characters that creates a feeling of suspense and despair as Ripley continues her descent into almost certain death. Electric fires snap and explode, faint hisses come from far down a hallway and dark corridors twist and turn for what seems like forever. The mood factor of Alien Resurrection is easily the best part of the game, and if you’re the type that can sink themselves into a game, you’ll find yourself twitching whenever a sound comes from somewhere outside the viewing area, or a sudden movement takes place in the darkness. Either way, that light switch starts lookin’ mighty friendly after a few of the more tense moments come to pass.

As immersive as Alien Resurrection might be, it can’t, however, make up for the critical shortcomings that are present in the game. The most prominent problem lies in the matter of control. The previous coming I made concerning the game being a PC title instead was said considering that the game is impossible to control with the normal controller. Alien Resurrection is the type of game that needs the PlayStation mouse in order to control properly, and considering how short in supply the mouse is (since there are few games that support the peripheral) and that most gamers won’t be willing to shell out $30 for an additional controller, it just doesn’t work out as planned. The use of the Dual Shock’s analog pads improve the situation and make strafing a breeze, but even after tweaking the game settings many times, aiming precisely is near impossible, and many times firing in the game comes down to strafing left and right and hoping that the bullets connect. It becomes the worst when the quicker sorts of enemies come into play, such as the face hugger, and that’s when the cursing starts to sputter out.

And that leads into difficulty, the next piece on the agenda. To start off with, no matter what difficult level that the game is put on, it would not have helped too much; the controls are primarily the cause of death in Alien Resurrection. You’ll tap down ever so slightly and the cursor will zip toward the ground, attempt to follow an enemy’s movement and you’ll soon find a bullet in your head. But we already discussed this in the previous paragraph. The other problems lie in the fact that because of the limited draw distance of the engine, it’s impossible to see more than a few feet in front of you at any given time (even with the flashlight turned on), and this results in numerous situations where Ripley will be battling an enemy and one will sneak up from behind and slash away. It’d understandable that the game is supposed to be immersive with such darkness, and to have opponents who are smart enough to pull off such maneuvers, but more often than not, the deaths end up being cheap and unnecessary. Then take into consideration that saves have to be done at designated points instead of at any time, and it makes for some more than frustrating moments.

The saddest part of Alien Resurrection is really the potential that will never be filled. If the control and difficulty problems had been tweaked a little more (the game had been delayed more than a year and a half already, though), the game could have easily gone from an average console first person shooter, to an exceptional console first person shooter. Argonaut Games definitely has the creative tools at their fingertips; there are just a few technicalities that have to be worked out before ascending to the next level.