Aliens the Board Game is a wargame by the now-defunct company Leading Edge Games based on the events in the 1986 film Aliens. It was first published in 1989 and reprinted in 2001. Players assume the roles of the Marines from the film and must fight through the five encounters with the aliens shown in the film.
The five scenarios are as follows: 'The Reactor', 'The Dropship', 'Operations', 'Rescue Newt' and 'Ripley vs. the Alien Queen'. Each of these represents a different part of the film, with the outcome of each scenario affects the next.
The Reactor: This represents the sequence in which the marines are ambushed by the aliens inside the Thermonuclear Reactor. The marines are underequipped, due to the loss of their Pulse Rifle magazines. Their objective is to reach the Armoured Personnel Carrier which is waiting outside. Marines used in this mission's standard set-up are: Apone, Hicks, Vasquez, Drake, Wierzbowski, Dietrich, Hudson, Crowe and Frost.
The Dropship: This represents the segment of the film where the two dropship pilots are killed, causing the dropship to crash. If the marines lose this scenario, they continue as normal; If they win, they may elect to leave immediately, thus winning; or they may continue on with extra ammunition and access to the marines Ferro and Spunkmeyer. Standard set-up for this scenario uses the marines Ferro and Spunkmeyer.
James Wallis reviewed Aliens for Games International magazine, and gave it a rating of 3 out of 10, and stated that "This is a badly designed game, badly written with a very obvious built-in obsolescence and does not begin to justify its price. I find it said that it's on a subject popular outside gaming circles and is thus likely to put off many potential gamers before they've really had a chance to start."[1]
