Aliens Online

• Developer — Mythic Entertainment Kesmai • Publisher — Fox Interactive • Producer — Matt Firor Jason Bell Nick Laiacona • Director — Paul Provenzano • Designer — Mark Jacobs • Programmer — Rob Denton • Artist — Bob Frizzell Missy Castro • Released — April 16, 1998 • Genre — First-person shooter • Modes — Single player, multiplayer • Platforms — Microsoft Windows

Aliens Online included asymmetric teams, teams consisting of more players than found in most first-person shooters of its era, job/class specialization, and RPG elements. Players could fight on either the side of the United States Colonial Marines or on the side of the Aliens. Scenarios were played in one of six different maps, with three more added over the game's lifespan. • The Colonial Marine faction had the Medic, Scout, Soldier, and Heavy Weapons classes. More advanced weaponry were available when grouping as a "fireteam," and increased hit points became available as a character progressed in rank. Marines' equipment included the motion detector from the film Aliens, which was their sole method to locate Aliens, but would not locate Aliens which were not moving. In later versions of the game, the Marines could also drop proximity mines. • The Hive Alien faction had the Face Hugger, Drone, Queen, and Empress classes. Their capabilities included leaping easily to vents and speeding through cramped ducts, and radar of the entire map, representing the aliens' greater awareness and hive-like mentality. They attacked only at close range using tail strikes and with claws. Each map allowed one alien player to fill the role as Queen or Empress, and that player could freely swap from drone to drone. Players gained points for killing Marines and lost them by dying, except when playing as a face hugger, which loses no points for dying.

The game was announced in June 1997. The budget for the game was $450,000 USD.

The software was free to download and was automatically updated. Joining GameStorm for $9.95 per month was required to play the game. Online play was shut down in 2000 after the GameStorm network was sold to Electronic Arts.