half life 2
Valve’s brilliant shooter throws scientist Gordon Freeman into a dystopian Earth flattened by the evil Combine alien invasion force. The visuals are gorgeous, the physics astonishing, and City 17’s Orwellian setting provides a nightmarish backdrop for the tense tale of rebellion, sacrifice, and gunfire.
Resistance: Fall of Man
Set in an alternate post-World War II period in which an alien race known as the Chimera has infected and enslaved most of humanity, Insomniac’s shooter series has the gritty, hushed look of a sci-fi movie. British film of the 1950s, and it’s notable because it doesn’t begin in New York or London, but in… Grimsby, a city criminally ignored by mainstream action-adventure games.
X-COM: UFO Defense
The legendary X-COM series of strategy games has players controlling small squads of soldiers who land on alien invasion sites to destroy the monsters and collect their artifacts for research. Combining tense tactical fights with resource management, the gameplay was absolutely gripping, and the reboot series has revived the turn-based combat genre for a new generation.
Earth Defensewith Strength 5
Easily the best title in the Sandlot wave-based shooter series, heavily inspired by the classic Kaiju movies. Giant bugs and robot monsters have invaded Earth and it’s your job to destroy them using a combination of high-tech weapons and cheesy dialogue. Destructible cities provide an exciting backdrop, and co-op is pure sci-fi anarchy.
Prey
A very different kind of alien invasion game where the aliens have been captured and imprisoned on an orbiting space station, but now of course they are running amok. Designed by Arkane, the studio behind the Dishonored series, it’s a really interesting open game, allowing for a lot of experimentation and emergence as you explore the dark and dank corridors hunting down monsters and gaining their strange shapeshifting abilities.
Destroy all humans!
Another pastiche of sci-fi movie tropes, this ridiculous action-adventure puts you in control of one of the alien invaders who must destroy humans and steal their DNA to ensure the survival of their species. A sexy combination of Grand Theft Auto and Mars Attacks!, complete with flying saucers, death rays and anal probes.
body harvest
One of the most unlikely titles in Nintendo 64 family history, Body Harvest takes place on a devastated Earth where alien monsters have spent years devouring humans. You play as a time traveling super soldier visiting key locations during the invasion to destroy people processing plants and save the planet. The creepy atmosphere and the really strange dark Scottish humor made Nintendo decide not to publish the game itself: fortunately, the American company Midway intervened.
halo 3
2007 was a busy year for alien incursions, with Crysis and Mass Effect also featuring apocalyptic battles for the planet. Let’s go with the third Halo game though, as it’s an epic return for the series with Master Chief and his team defending Earth from the Covenant and the Flood, in a massive three-way space carnage.
the wonderful 101
Long overlooked at the time of its initial release on the Wii U console, The Wonderful 101 is a clever action-adventure pitting an army of superheroes (simultaneously controlled as a horde) against an invading alien criminal gang. Directed by Okami and Viewtiful Joe’s Hideki Kamiya, it’s a visually bewildering treat, which made imaginative use of the console’s game controller.
generation painter
I wanted to finish with this super stylized version of the alien invasion theme where you travel through various neon-dotted cyperpunk districts, photographing people, places and graffiti while UN soldiers fighting space monsters in the background. to squids. It’s what all great alien invader stories are: a brilliant allegory about colonization, observation, and alienation.
