Matthew BaileyThe first game of our Halloween Spooktacular 2024 is “Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.” Now, I’ve had this game sitting on my shelf for quite a few years. It arrived around the same time I first got into “Nemesis,” which we re-reviewed at the end of the Summer Marathon a few weeks ago. If you’re interested in the Alien franchise, I’d 100% recommend checking that out, and I’ll link the review in the comments below.
For some reason, I never got around to playing “Alien: Fate of the Nostromo,” mainly because I was so into Nemesis at the time. Plus, both Jack and Toby couldn’t quite manage it, so I thought of it as a simpler, possibly watered-down version.
But recently, after buying Alien on 4K UHD Blu-ray, I felt compelled to kick off this year’s spooky season with “Fate of the Nostromo.”
The game is a cooperative, movement-based collection game where each player takes on the role of a crew member from the Nostromo. The objective is to navigate the ship, completing missions while fending off the ever-present Xenomorph hunting you down.
The game involves a set of missions, usually tasks like moving objects from point A to point B while avoiding the alien. Whenever you encounter the alien, you lose morale, and if the morale track hits zero, it’s game over.
Along the way, you can craft items like a flashlight, which reduces morale loss, or a motion tracker, which lets you see threats further ahead. You can also make tools like the grapple gun and incinerator to manipulate the alien’s movement, and even a cat carrier to help complete one of the missions (Jonesy to the rescue!). There are also elements like a self-destruct track and objectives tied to your final mission.
The best way I can describe “Fate of the Nostromo” is that it feels like a better version of family favourite Ghost Fighting Treasure Hunters but with a more compelling theme (in my opinion). The core mechanic revolves around teamwork, managing the alien’s location and movement. The alien always moves towards the nearest player, so by spreading out and moving carefully, you can “kite” it between two players, allowing a third or fourth to complete objectives. We’ve played the game a few times now, and each time we’ve just about managed to win—not too easy, not too hard. I think the difficulty balance is spot on.
Once you’ve played a few rounds, you can add in a mini-expansion that includes Ash, the synthetic. Ash moves around the ship, sabotaging the crew’s efforts by moving items and picking up scrap, essentially, making everything harder.
For a fairly mainstream release, the production quality is excellent. The board is lovely, with cool artwork featuring Jonesy the cat on the back. The characters are well-recreated, and the miniatures are solid. The game really captures the atmosphere of the Alien IP.
Now, here’s the twist: despite being based on a sci-fi horror movie, this game is totally appropriate for kids. Yes, it’s Alien, but there’s nothing scary in the game itself, no gore and no combat. Some of the alien cards have pictures of Xenomorphs, but my kids weren’t bothered at all. There’s no gore, and nothing that would make me uncomfortable playing it with them. In fact, it turns out to be a great family-friendly cooperative game. I’d go so far as to say, out of all the cooperative movement games I’ve played, this is the one I’d recommend most for kids. It’s easy to understand but has enough depth to grow with your family. And eventually, they’ll get to see the movie. As much as it pains me, they might even come to think of one of my all-time favourite films as “that movie based on the game we played growing up.” But hey, if it brings more people into the Alien franchise, all the better!
Bot boys absolutely love this and we have played it several times so far and it is def now in rotation.
In case you hadn’t guessed from my Nemesis review, I’m a huge Alien fan. And if you love the IP too, that’s an added bonus. Based on our recent Nemesis sessions, both my boys are desperate to watch the movie, though I haven’t quite let them yet. But everything in the game works really well, even the rulebook is beautifully designed, and styled like a transmission log from the Nostromo.
“Alien: Fate of the Nostromo” is a surprisingly family-friendly cooperative strategy game that I’d recommend over others like Ghost Fighting Treasure Hunters. If you’ve got little ones and love
