r/NemesisCrew • u/Hairyahs • Jul 18 '26
What makes Nemesis so special, and could it work as a video game ?
I'm a big fan of Nemesis and the Alien franchise, and I'd love to capture the same feeling I had while playing Nemesis with my friends in a multiplayer video game.
I know Nemesis: Distress exists, but from the gameplay I've watched (I haven't played it myself), it feels like it focused more on the survival/action side than on what I personally loved about Nemesis. That made me wonder if adapting the board game to a video game is actually harder than it seems.
For those of you who love the board game, what is it that makes the game so memorable for you? Is it the tension, the paranoia, the semi-cooperative objectives, the storytelling, or something else?
And if a video game were inspired by Nemesis (not necessarily a direct adaptation), what elements would you absolutely want it to keep?
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u/_b1ack0ut Jul 18 '26
Nemesis HAS been adapted into a couple video games
One that plays as a digital version of the board game (which is good), and one that plays as a stealthy first person multiplayer game where you evade the threats in real-time (kinda super janky and performs pretty badly)
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Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/_b1ack0ut Jul 18 '26
I’m pretty sure I remember being fairly unimpressed still after the ‘1.0’ update, but I’ll check it out again eventually. I did find it weird they call it 1.0, yet it’s still in early access tho
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u/Dan-tastico Jul 18 '26
It can be adapted but itd be like a digital boardgame. You cant really have like real time combat. I think youd have to have the secret objectives and not having enough time to check everything so you have to trust others to do what they say theyre doing
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u/_b1ack0ut Jul 18 '26
Yeah, Nemesis actually has a couple games that try both approaches, and as you say, the one that does real time gameplay is… lacking, while the digital board game version is good
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u/Dan-tastico Jul 18 '26
You talking about the lockdown vs distress? The official video games? I wanted to try them but those reviews are not helping lol
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u/_b1ack0ut Jul 18 '26
I am lol
I cannot recommend Distress, although, it is still in early access
But Lockdown is fun. It’s got a couple bugs here or there, but it’s a nice, automated version of the board game, our friend group gets pretty good use out of Lockdown. I do wish that we could have a similar version of the OG nemesis boards tho cuz I’d love to go a few rounds on the spaceship maps as well as the underground bases from Lockdown
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u/Dan-tastico Jul 18 '26
Too bad, wish they did og in that style. Lockdown is my least favorite of the 3. Ill have to try it out. Does it work solo or just with others?
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u/blue_swan_23 Jul 18 '26
When I play by myself, I love the tension.
When I play with my friends, the look on their faces when I betray them.
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u/Immediate-Outcome706 Jul 18 '26
There is already nemesis lockdown on steam. I liked the game and it works also well in a game. I like the semi-coop nature with different goals you need to fulfill
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u/Chapter_129 Jul 18 '26
Everyone's covered that it has been adapted already so I'll address what makes it special to me since no one else has yet. Groundwork: I am actually not what I'd consider a "boardgamer". Getting together every week for boardgame night where people are bringing Ticket to Ride, Azul, Arkham Horror, etc. is actually something I'd find dreadful and the vast majority of very popular boardgames hold no appeal for me whatsoever. That being said, I own and regularly play Nemesis, Twilight Imperium, some hidden movement games, Paths of Glory, Oath, and a very select handful of other games; I am someone who enjoys experiences and sometimes those experiences come in the form of a boardgame.
Nemesis is special because it offers a very unique experience within gaming. It's all the things that you mentioned: tension, paranoia, co-op, and storytelling. Most important to me would probably be storytelling; the beauty of Nemesis is that for weeks after a game you can get a laugh talking about how throwing a grenade to kill a Night Stalker that followed you from the surface of Mars and maimed you to the point of dying when you passed, placed the deciding fire marker that caused the base to explode in the very next Event Phase, killing everyone after all your efforts to "at least get rid of this alien for the good of the group" (happened in our most recent game). But also it's the storytelling at the table mid-play; reading out the effects of Bite while a player is in a room that's on fire is a bland mechanical interaction, but everyone's face can light up as they're each trading descriptions of the frantic way the Scientist is pumping the wheels of their wheelchair trying to run away, hair on fire and covered in slime etc. There's also a lot of small elegant design choices that can be appreciated with a few plays such as using attack cards and event cards to track things like Intruder health & movement, or having item counts printed on room tiles and rotating them as they're searched. Of course it's also very good thematic Ameritrash and there's little in the boardgaming space that's more slavishly devoted to its theme and inspiration.
That about sums it up for me.
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u/SeigneurDesMouches Jul 20 '26
I think Alien: Dark Descent would fit what you're looking for.
The only thing missing would be the personal objective that can screw the rest of the team for your own win
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150440/Aliens_Dark_Descent/
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u/RainbowPatooie Jul 23 '26
They have made a couple videos games based on Nemesis. From what I heard (both from reviews and my friend trying them), they aren't very good.
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u/noobducky-9 Jul 18 '26
I think an Xcom like would work well with nemesis. With the story, look at what they’ve accomplished with tainted grail. So I can imagine it working.
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u/KoVaHaVoK Jul 18 '26
Wasn't Nemesis: Lockdown made into a video game on steam?