Aboard the Nostromo
ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is a 1-5 player cooperative adventure game inspired by the Alien movie franchise. You are playing as the crew of the Nostromo, trying to make the necessary repairs in order to escape before being scared to death by the Alien that is hiding on board. The game is now available to purchase from Target stores in the US. EU release is planned for September.
At the start of the game, each character receives an initial objective card. These objectives must be met before the goal of the current mission is revealed. A player's turn is split in two phases: the Crew Action phase, and the Encounter phase. In the Crew Action phase, your character can perform as many actions as the number shown on their crew placard (e.g. Ripley can take 4 actions). These actions are: 1) Move (into an adjacent corridor or room, or up the ladder to the upper level). 2) Pick up/Drop scrap tokens or items. These are placed into your inventory which has a capacity limit. 3) Use an Item. 4) Craft an Item by discarding the required scraps. 5) Trade scraps or items with another crew member, as long as you are in the same space. 6) Special Action: perform the special action of a crew member.
In the Encounter phase, you will draw a card from the Encounter deck and resolve it. The cards may instruct you to place tokens on the board, perform actions, or move the Alien towards the nearest crew member. When a crew member comes face to face with the Alien, they first lose the amount of morale listed on the Encounter card, and immediately flee three spaces in any chosen direction. When fleeing, a character may have to enter a room with a "concealed" token. In that case, they have to flip it and see what it is. If it's a surprise attack by the Alien, you move the Alien in that room, decrease the character's morale and make them flee again. If the token shows Jonesy, it hisses at you and you lose one morale too.
If the crew lose all their morale, the game is over. You also lose if the current Mission card sets off the ship self-destruct and you don't make it on time. If you wish to play a more challenging game, you can introduce Ash. Ash removes useful scrap tokens and can only be stopped if a crew member has him under supervision.
This game came out of nowhere for me and looks really great, especially for the price point ($30 here in the US.) It looks similar to Horrified, which isn't a bad thing at all.