Mike Diver's Aliens: The Video Games is a must for fans of the iconic franchise

Want a break from your screen for a while but still want to absorb yourself in video game knowledge? Mike Diver’s new book, Aliens: The Video Games is a good place to go, especially if you’re a fan of the Aliens franchise. A full history of every game released in the franchise over the last 45 years, it’s beautifully presented, well researched, and a pleasure to flick through.

One thing is very clear: Diver knows what he’s talking about. Aliens: The Video Games immediately presents itself as a definitive guide, and you won’t find as much knowledge on the subject in one place anywhere else. There are definitely more Aliens games that you can have imagined possible, and Diver has perfectly indexed each and every one of them here – even if he’s not been able to gather as much information about them as he’d have liked.

While some games have a huge amount of text written on them – Alien Isolation, arguably the most popular game ever made in the franchise, has no less than nine pages devoted to it – others have merely a few lines of text. Jump to the Alien vs Predator chapter of the book and you’ll find only a few paragraphs about AVP: VU, a browser game from 2007 that is seemingly undocumented and Diver admits to being able to find very little information about.

Aliens: The Video Games front cover — The front cover features original art from Sam Greer. Image: GameSpew

Rather than being presented in chronological order, games are organised by the movie they’re based on, with chapters dedicated to Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien vs Predator, along with “other Alien movies” (sorry, Alien Resurrection – there’s just not enough games based on you to warrant your own chapter) and original Alien games. You’ll find all the games you’ve heard of, along with arcade games from years gone by, indie game curios and some mobile games from a time when gaming on your mobile phone wasn’t popular or practical.

Some of the most interesting entries are those concerning unreleased games, such as a PS2-era Aliens: Colonial Marines, an RPG announced in 2006 called Aliens: Crucible, and even a cancelled electronic handheld from Tiger. Where available, all game entries are accompanied by full-colour images of box art, screenshots and even some concept art, making flicking through Aliens: The Video Games a visually appealing treat.

Aliens: The Video Game open page — Laying flat when open, the 180 pages of Aliens: The Video Game feature a wealth of information accompanied by cover art, screenshots and concept art. Image: GameSpew

Across the 180 pages of Aliens: The Video Games is a wealth of information about all 60-odd Alien games mentioned here, on top of a smattering of Predator games, games inspired by Aliens, and other games that feature the Alien franchise in some way (Dead by Daylight et al). All presented in well-written prose, they’re a combination of Diver’s own knowledge and hands-on experience with the games, and interviews from people involved in the game’s production. Not all of the interviews cited amongst the book’s pages are new, however: Diver often quotes from other media, pulling interviews from long-published magazines and online videos.

Not everything you’ll read in Aliens: The Video Games is brand new information, then. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s not supposed to be. It sets out to be a comprehensive guide to all Aliens video games that exist (or have existed, or nearly existed) in the world, and at doing that, it succeeds with aplomb.

In a purely tactile sense, too, this is a very nice book. Its hardbound cover features original art from Sam Greer, and the 180-odd pages inside are thick, glossy and full cover. If you’re a bit of a bibliophile like me, you’ll also hugely appreciate the otherwise indescribable yet irresistible bookish smell that emanates when you open it up. And props to publisher White Owl/Pen & Sword for the binding, which lays flat regardless of what page you open Aliens: The Video Games on. The perfect coffee table book.

Whether you read it cover-to-cover or simply dip in and out to learn a bit about a different Aliens game every so often, Diver has created a fantastic compendium that any fan of the Aliens franchise should be proud to have on their shelf.

Thanks to Pen & Sword Books and Mike Diver for providing a copy of the book for the purposes of this review.