This Year's Best Space Aliens: The Showdown

This Year's Best Space Aliens: The Showdown

Feature

It seems that shooting aliens is coming back into fashion. Granted, the competitors are nearly all sequels so they are not original concepts, but the majority of these are arguably the biggest games this year.

Gears of War 3 vs. Killzone 3 vs. Duke Nukem Forever vs. Dead Space 2 vs. Bulletstorm vs. Resistance 3 vs. Crysis 2.

It seems that shooting aliens is coming back into fashion this year – thank goodness; I was beginning to tire of shooting the same old Earth-bound terrorists. Granted, the competitors are nearly all sequels so they are not exactly original concepts in design, but the majority of these titles are arguably the biggest games this year. It seems right to compare their common trait – aliens. Rather than ponder over graphics, we decided to get to the nitty-gritty and make character design the grounds for judgment.

Factors


To help the judging process we are using four different factors to compare each alien species. All of these factors range from 1-100, with 100 being the best.

Monstrosity - Based on physical appearance. How much terror they infuse in us.
Intelligence - A simple measure of brainpower. This includes on and off the battlefield.
Vigor - How resistant they are to human defense.
Threat to Humanity – Self-explanatory. Consider this an overall score of sorts.

Locust Horde (Gears of War 3)
This Year's Best Space Aliens: The Showdown
The Locust Horde was discovered on Emergence Day when it rose up from The Hollow (an underground tunnel network) of Sera to attack the human inhabitants on the surface. They are a reptilian race mainly made up of humanoids that are much bigger and stronger than humans. They have made it their purpose to wipe out the human race in order to retreat from the infected Lambent Locust that are driving them out of The Hollow. They attack in numbers and mainly rely on brute force to win battles. Their skin is very tough which, when combined with armor, means they are very resilient to firearms. Their main weakness is exposure to bright light due to their adaptation to the dark.

Monstrosity: 64
Intelligence: 65
Vigor: 80
Threat to Humanity: 84

Helghast (Killzone 3)
This Year's Best Space Aliens: The Showdown
The Helghast are fairly unique in that they are descended from humans but have become so acclimatized to the harsh environment of Helghan that they are most definitely alien. Much like the Locust, the ‘Higs’ are tougher and larger than humans and use this to their advantage in battle. As more human than any of the other competitors in this contest, the Helghast differentiate themselves through their military units. Their weaponry, tactics and appearance are generally quite familiar and it is this lack of creativity that lets the side down.

Monstrosity: 43
Intelligence: 55
Vigor: 76
Threat to Humanity: 78