In Space No One Can Hear You Roll

The ALIEN movie franchise has survived for so long due to the way it draws people in. The movies that everyone talks about are the ones that make you feel part of their world, and with Ridley Scott’s classic and its spin-offs, you can practically feel the monsters breathing down your neck. Obviously this is an experience that we’ve tried to emulate many times, and thus there are a great many games and board games that try to emulate the experience. Let’s take a look at a few.

- Ed Fortune

Space Hulk is perhaps the most famous and recognisable game that evokes the movie Aliens, though it is in no way set in the world of Weyland-Yutani and Ripley. Instead, it’s a Games Workshop product and is thus set in their Gothic space opera world, Warhammer 40K. The design is pretty bang on when it comes to the Alien experience, however. It’s asymmetric, which means one side plays the sinister alien Genestealer aliens and the other side gets to play the Terminator Marines. Aesthetically, the detailed models are nothing like the movie; the Marines are in giant power-armoured suits that look like a mix between Tony Stark’s better work and a 13th century cathedral. The Genestealers have four arms, ovipositors, and slick heads with wicked teeth. The game board is a jigsaw-style set-up of narrow corridors and thick walls. The aliens swarm the corridor in the form of blips; little counters that could represent one, two or three aliens. Only when the marine has line of sight will he know how many foes he must face. The marine, of course, has a very big gun and can shoot wildly. For the most part, this will take out the aliens as the marine player rolls lots of dice. However, doubles means the gun can jam and if that happens, it’s usually lights out for the brave human as the monsters are really good at ripping people apart.

Space Hulk is a design classic, with an easy to adjust board, quick intuitive design mechanics and some fun bluffing elements. The game’s nuances mean that you’re never quite sure what your opponent can do. Games Workshop tend to release the game on a limited run every few years or so. Back in the ‘80s, we had expansions (called Genestealer and Death wing), and though they’re long out of print, rumours abound that these will someday return as full versions of Space Hulk with some thematically appropriate changes.