When I was younger, there weren’t the variety of games available that
there are now, there weren’t the variety of players available, so a lot of the
games that were put out there were calibrated so that you could play them by
yourself on the assumption that you either didn’t have friends close...
Or you
didn’t have friends...
How times have changed...
One of my favourite game publishers at the time was Task Force Games,
because all the games they did were balanced and fair in a number of ways, they
were designed to work both in single player and multiple player modes, and each
of them took an idea that was well known at the time, such as a lone warrior
making their way across a map or a barbarian in search of treasure and riches,
but the one that made the most interest for me was a game called Intruder...
As you can see from the cover, it may well have been based on a film
you’re familiar with...
Intruder was a simple game, something unknown had found its way on to
the ship (which in a move of remarkable meta gaming was called the Prometheus) and had started killing its
way through the crew, if you didn’t get to it quickly, it mutated, got
stronger, faster, meaner, harder to kill and in general, significantly more
unpleasant. There were a number of other
complications in the game, such as the science division not letting you kill it
at the beginning (no surprise there then...) and the higher powered weapons (Blasters,
flamethrowers, and electric prods, naturally) needing to be researched before
you could actually use them, so no running to the weapons cabinet when you’re
on a science vessel, you’ve got to figure it out and then build it.
Played as a single game, it was often best to separate the crew and see
if you could find the beast before it started to change and get larger and
stronger, the main reason for which was because in the lower stages of
evolution, it might not attack, and anyone carrying a cage might manage to keep
it trapped. The entire criteria for
winning the game was that all the Intruders on the board (one of the potential
complications was that the Intruder could make copies) are either neutralised
or killed depending on the stage of the game.
Once the Intruder started to change to other stages of evolution, it
became far harder to subdue but you then got the option to try and bring it down
with more direct methods.
What made it more complex was the fact that the Prometheus was a research ship that was picking up random animal
specimens, all of which got loose when the Intruder broke out. Quite a few animal specimens, which when you
find them, may look like this...
But when you start playing the game, look like this...
As a two player game, it rapidly became a chase where the Intruder
player looked to isolate a crew member without a weapon and then begin its
evolution from there. Far more
interesting as a two player game, the mechanics for the game in single player
mode still made for interesting playing and covered every aspect of the film
that it was based on (Alien for those still guessing), making for an excellent
game experience all around.
Somehow, they never got sued for use of imagery, ideas, or concept, I
suppose it was back in the days when people didn’t get lawsuit happy when there
was no real damage being done to the IP of the main product, and there’s since
been a version of the game made that uses the same map (slightly shinier), same
game system (slightly updated), and same ideas (Not at all changed), which is
available online in both print and play formats and the version that comes in a
box with real counters.
And either way, one of the better monster hunt games out there.