Cancelled Aliens: Crucible Initially Aimed To Be A More Thrilling Mass Effect

This past weekend, Writer Chris Avellone shared with videogame outlet VG24/7 revolving around the pitched plot for what could have been Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 if development ever took off. KOTOR 3 is not the only project Avellone along with others at Obsidian Entertainment were in the process of creating before ultimately being canned as he also gives insight on what the now cancelled Aliens: Crucible title could have been.

Avellone stated that the scrapped title “was really sad to see cancelled,” but despite the uncertain end of the project he was understanding for why the decision was made to do so. Continuing ny sharing that “it would be like – this is going to be really rough comparison – basically Mass Effect but more terrifying.”

The plot bringing the player to an alien planet where they discover a ship or installation abandoned by the Engineers. Even pinning the story to share similarities to the film Prometheus which is also tied into the franchise’s lore.

“But as you’re entering the atmosphere, [you realize] that this planet is incredibly unstable, so your entire crew gets blasted all over the planet,” Avellone tells VG24/7. “And you land and the player, and some marines, and your squads, and scientists – and the weird thing is that when Prometheus came out, I saw some of the similarities, [and thought] ‘oh, we had a character like that’. But the entire world was more violent and there were a lot more Aliens running around. It was more a question of survival, and ‘how do we recover all the supplies, and desperately try to make a base?’ It was fun to set up.”

Even expanding the concept of never-ending thrill by sharing that the player is never truly safe when playing, even when in a conversation with an NPC. “You can make conversations stressful and frightening. How do you do it so that an alien could be attacking you at any moment? You can’t take shelter in a conversation”

For the latest installment of the Aliens series in the videogame market, Aliens Blackout is a follow-up to 2014’s Alien Isolation which is exclusive to mobile iOS and Android platforms.

Source: VG24/7