In the dark reaches of space, they’re coming. A scourge, a horde of unspeakable terror. They swarm with unrelenting hunger, driven by the instincts of all lifeforms: to feed, breed, and spread. To fight them is to delay the inevitable outcome of their swarm.
Whether they’re parasitic monsters or a hivemind of hyper-intelligent beings, the Alien horde is a force to reckon with in Science-fiction games. When a single speck of their emergence appears, prepare for a decisive war where every setback makes them stronger, while you grow weaker. At some point, it’s no longer about defeating the horde but surviving them.
10The Lambent - Gears Of War
As the war against the Locust Horde rages on the surface of the planet Sera, an insidious infection is spreading underground, wiping out the offensive horde and killing off the planet itself. They are the Lambent, a gruesome result of the Locust being infected by a yellow liquid substance called the Imulsion. The spread continues even after the death of the lambent beast, with explosions of Imulsion spreading through contact and becoming a zombie-like pandemic.
For decades, the Lambent battled the Locust underground, ultimately losing ground and resulting in the emergence event, kickstarting the war that became the game series' main conflict. By Gears of War 3, they have become the primary threat to Humanity and the Locust combined. Finding a solution to destroy them also means finding a way to annihilate the Locust horde of the trilogy.
9The Chimera - Resistance Series
During the events of World War I, a mysterious incident in Russia resulted in the awakening and spread of the Chimera, a legion of savage monsters that spread like a virus onto humans. Humans afflicted by the Chimera ultimately transform into them and are equipped with all manner of gruesome tools to continue the spread of the affliction.
Outside the humanoid Chimera, which is the main combat force you’ll be facing throughout the world, there are massive leviathans, towering monsters, and other bizarre forms that are connected through a command system. Defeating the command system generally helps in taking them down. The Chimera landed on Earth millions of years ago but didn’t emerge fully until their excavation during the 20th century.
8Terminids - Helldivers 2
The horrifying bugs of the galaxy. The Terminids are a swarming race of multi-caste insect-like monsters that are responsible for committing the most heinous thing, disenfranchising our innocent civilians. For the sake of democracy and the glory of Super Earth, your job is to wipe these tyrannical terrors off the galaxy.
Terminds operate on a hivemind, pretty similar to many of the creatures on this list. There’s a leader and the soldiers that carry their intentions from acidic bile to razor-sharp claws. From tiny scavengers picking resources and food for the hive and massive titans that ransack whole bases. To take on these beasts you would need overly excessive firepower and a go-get-em attitude.
7Metal Heads - Jak Trilogy
When Jak and Daxter complete their adventure in the first installment of the Jak trilogy, they open a portal that incidentally lets out a race of hostile animalistic monsters known as the Metal Heads, ancient enemies of the Precursors. Since they became unleashed, the Metal Heads dramatically affected the world of Jak & Daxter, fitting the edgier tone of Jak 2 and Jak 3.
Metal Heads are diverse and can appear in all shapes and sizes, from dinosaurs to scorpions and bats. While many of them look like animals we know, some are much more alien-looking. They are also pretty smart, with a sense of sentience and planning out their devious attacks on humans.
The Metal Heads were the biggest threat to humanity during Jak 2, with their remnants gaining strength in Jak 3. Their leader, Kor, was the biggest reason for their successful expansion.
6The Hive - Destiny Series
In the dark reaches of the Moon, a malevolent race of zombie-like aliens known as the Hive, have taken residence and are on a warpath to assimilation and annihilation. They came to be from a pact formed with the ancient Worm Gods, which utilize their parasitic offspring to spread their influence along with the esoteric magic that comes with the deal.
They went by another name, the Krill. Many of the biggest enemies and villains of the Destiny setting were beings that were associated with dark magic. Key bosses associated with them include the Hive Gods, Oryx, Crota, Savathun, and Xivu Arath just to name a few. Of the many factions in the Destiny series, the Hive are some of the most chaotic and dangerous to face.
5The Zerg - Starcraft Series
After becoming a part of a deadly experiment by the Xel’Naga, a group of parasitic bugs that can adapt and evolve into a multitude of forms soon broke out of their creators' control and started infesting the galaxy. They are the Zerg, and they have grown to be some of the most ferocious factions of enemies in the Starcraft universe.
There are two types of Zerg, those under the control of the Overmind, and those that remained in their homeworld and evolved to be the Primal Zerg.
As the war against the Terrans escalated throughout the galaxy, one unlucky Ghost Operative, named Sarah Kerrigan, was left to the horde. Instead of being devoured, she soon became the most powerful member of the Zerg horde, the Queen of Blades. Under her command, the Zerg began gaining ground and became a dreaded power.
From giant worms to the insectoid-like creatures that make the term “Zerg rush” popular, their overwhelming force is something to be reckoned with.
4The Xenomorphs - Alien Series
The titular monsters of the film series, the Xenomorphs, have appeared throughout gaming history as a constant threat that spread like a plague with their gruesome habit of having babies burst from their hosts.
In recent history, some highly acclaimed Alien games that let you survive their onslaught include Alien Isolation, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and Aliens: Dark Descent. Each of these games offer a different way to deal with them, from stealth, going all out with a squad of marines, and strategizing against them.
Xenomorphs in many video games have appeared indifferent types and castes that represent their chaotic adaptability. Some will spit acid as an attack. Others can run and crawl incredibly fast. Beware of how you fight them in games.
They have a second mouth for a killing bite, a bladed tail for stabbing, and they bleed corrosive acid which is just as bad as letting their face-hugging babies jump you. Once the Xenomorph spread has several different types and an established Queen, containing them is no longer truly possible, and it always leads to blowing up the area of the infestation.
3The X-Parasites - Metroid Series
X-parasites are large cell-like organisms that are highly volatile and hostile. They are the primary enemies of Metroid Fusion and are returning threats in Metroid Dread. After Samus wiped out theirmain predator, the metroids, which were made by the Chozo to eat them, these creatures ended up multiplying out of control. She also nearly died from her initial encounter with them at first contact.
The only way she survived the infection was by having a healthy injection of Metroid DNA, altering her physiology enough that she could tackle the X-Parasite. One single cell can spread into an all-out slaughter-fest nightmare where all the creatures the X-Parasite consumes become another creature they can imitate. They even imitated Samus’s old suit, making for some of the tensest moments in gaming.
The Necromorphs are the result of dead flesh getting reanimated by the signals of the marker, an ancient relic from millions of years ago. They can result in some of the most grotesque and disgusting transformations of the human body in gaming history.
Bones become bladed weapons, organs become volatile acid pouches, and the human body is either completely reformed into a horrific monster or gets absorbed into the biomass of an even bigger monstrosity.
The Necromorphs are part of an even more horrific event that happens when the Markers are activated; the Convergence. They do anything they can to add more bodies to the biomass, slaughtering mass sleuths of populations to start the Convergence process. Necromorphs can’t die since they’re already horribly mangled corpses,but they can be stopped by strategic dismemberment.
While this is the “in-game” way to “kill” them, in the lore of the series, this simply deactivates them while their necrotic tissue becomes repurposed for something else.
1The Flood - Halo Series
The Flood is the ancient enemy of the Forerunnersand the most dangerous force in the galaxy. They are spreading contagion that formerly originated from small parasitic spores. The Flood’s greatest strength comes when they spread big enough to start thinking.
The Flood are not just a spreading infestation of parasitic lifeforms, they are an overexpanding intelligence that becomes harder to stop once their spread goes worse.
The Flood don’t just consume the biomass of their hosts, they also absorb their intelligence into the hivemind. Soon they know how to use your weapons and your tools, and even know how to use your vehicles and travel in spaceships. The Flood is at their worst and most nightmarishly dangerous once a Gravemind is formed, a massive amalgamation of rotting corpses and ancient knowledge.
The Flood are so impossible to eliminate that the only feasible way to stop them once their spread goes too far is to fire the Halo Array, which wipes out all sentient life in the galaxy that could sustain them.
