Xenomorph is fine, but using "Xeno" is like Harry Knowles' interview on the Reservoir Dogs Blu-Ray where he calls the movie fucking "Rez Dogs." It makes me want to punch a baby.
I am actually with Hudson on this (even though I would phrase it differently, but I believe the idea behind it is the same
). "Xenos" is a Marine-developed derogatory term used for the noble species which deserves far more respect (also see sig
) and is basically the same as "bug" which, well, bugs me equally (pun this time fully intended). And of course, it has no (and somebody correct me if I am tremendously and embarassingly mistaken) basis in the movie canon. (Basically you could also say it the way that I dislike the way Marines "play tough" and call the Aliens names while by right they should refer to them as "these things" with terror in their voices, as something alien, unknown and unpredictable).
The 'xeno' thing doesn't really bug me (no pun intended), but what does disappoint me is the need to create classes of alien. 'Warrior,' 'Lurker,' 'Spitter,' etc. I wish we could have a game where they were just 'aliens' like they were in the films.
I get why they do it: each class has varying strengths and abilities to help mix up the game play and keep things fresh so games don't spiral down into more of the same with each play. But the end result will be people applying the classes to the aliens in the films. ...Kind of like how we had 'Runner' applied to the beastie in ALIEN3 because of a game.
I don't think this would actually be the issue. The main reason being that you do not have any clear equivalent of "lurker" or "spitter" in the movies - not in the way those things look (I mean, you have a spitting alien in Resurrection, but he has no bowls of liquid attached to his head). What I'm afraid of is rather that if the game actually is successful (which would be of course overall positive), those names will stick in the future Alien canon. Maybe.
Yep. The need for stronger/more powerful or advanced classes of the things completely cheapens the original design and makes it seem boring and obsolete.
While I agree with that I really don't need to see rhino-aliens or whatever, I think this is mixing up two different things together. Making specialised classes for this mode of game is fine, in my opinion, it is even good - to have one alien type which is fast but weak, other which is strong but slow, etc, typical and absolutely normal - why not. They are still aliens. Even spitting acid is fine with me as a special ability of one kind - it does not "disturb believability" for me. What I find a bit unnecessary is why they have to look so differently. Maybe it's for gameplay reasons, for balance - every Alien can see that this Marine is holding a smartgun and that one just a pistol, but they probably needed Marines to be able to say in the same way "hey, watch out, that one spits".
Even though I would immediately downplay this argument with the fact that you are not supposed to have time to observe the Aliens and count their legs or other interesting things! They are supposed to jump at you from the shadows, and you should just fire really fast or die! (And that's still the better case.)
Personally, I have no problem with slight variants in the look - I think the AVP 2010 game did it well, there were a couple of these skins, which were all basically the "classic" types of Aliens. So why not to have the option to choose first your "class" (lurker, spitter, whatever) and then your look (which does not need to have some funny things on its head).
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