Througho๊ut the history of video g𓆉ames, planet Earth has been invaded by extra-terrestrial life far too many times to count. In many ways, putting aliens into a game—especially a combat-heavy one—is an easy choice. Aliens are easy to treat as simple fodder to annihilate. It helps that they're often made to appear gross.

Related: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Best Open World Games Of All Time

But some games do use this staple of the sci-fi genre to interesting effects, having alien civilizations that are as compelling to learn about as they might be to blow apart. Whether they're coming to E🗹arth or you're crossing through space, here are the alien civilizations that stand ꧅a humanoid head and shoulder above the rest.

10 Returnal Haꦑs Morꦛe Than Hostile Inhabitants On Atropos

Returnal Selene scanning for Xeno-Archives in overgrown ruins

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Returnal might have a title that makes you think of urinals, but that doesn't mean the game belongs in the toilet. In fact, it's one of the best (and only) PlayStation 5 exclusives to date, due in no small part to how cool the alien world where it takes place is—that is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:if you can survive to see it.

There are tons of hostile aliens out to kill you in the various biomes of Atropos, but there are also the remnants of a grander alien civilization. You can learn about them by interacting with Xenoglyphs, Xeno-Archives, and other atmospheric relics. It all adds up to a stunning, particle-eꦗffect-filled experience (when you'r🎀e not dying, at least).

9 Oddworld's Odd Alien Charm

Oddworld Soulstorm promotional art

In a nice subversion of alien expectations, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Oddworld games don't feature humans going to an alien plan🔯et, but instead show life on planet Oddworld in its entirety. And it is a hard life for our protagonist, Abe, and his Mukodon comrades, as they fight for equal rights and ecological protections from their industrial overlords.

If you're interested in seeing an alien civilization depicted not simply as some foreign thing to combat, these are some great games to check out. The latest entry, Oddworld: Soulstorm, is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:almost as good as the rest.

8 Jet Force Gemini's Giant Bugs

Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64 ant-like drones holding guns

Jet Force Gemini might not be at the top of everyone's mind when thinking about the best games 𝔉of bygone eras, but this cult classic sees the Jet Force Gemini team go head-to-head with one of the Nintendo 64's mo𝓰st memorable alien civilizations.

What makes the game both strange and compellin🍌g is that the aliens you end up fighting are monstrously oversized insects, where ants act as common grunts and more glamorous bugs, like Praying Mantis and tarantulas, operate as bosses. Entomophobes beware! It's an odd and uncanny ga🌳me, but a standout title from the Nintendo 64 era.

7 𝓰 Oh Yeah, There Are Aliens In Nier: Automata ༒

Nier Automata dead alien reveal scene

You'd be forgiven if you forgot that aliens are a key part of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nier: Automata. The narrative ce🅘rtainly does get complicated, not just in terms of what the story is, but how the story is ultimately toཧld.

Nevertheless, there are aliens in the game, and although you never se𒁏e their civiliz🐠ation (or the aliens themselves when still alive—they're all already dead at the start of the game) the mystery around their existence and the machines they brought to Earth makes them an awfully compelling presence lurking in the background of Nier's world and a strong thematic foil to the humans you think you're serving.

6 Dead Space's Necromorphs

Dead Space 3 alien city/alien machine on tau volantis

As far as sci-fi video games go, few do as well to marry the genre with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:elements of horror as the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Space series does. While much of Dead Space and its sequels see🤪 the player take on Necromorphs throughout the standard chilly𓂃 corridors of a military spaceship, Dead Space 3 takes you to Tau Volantis, the enemy alien civilization's home planet.

Related: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Games To Play If You Love Dead Space

The game didn't sell so well when it first launched, but that doesn't mean that heading to an actual planet to fight off the Necromorphs wasn't a fun and fitting end to ꦛthe tril𒀰ogy.

5 Mass Effect And The Excellent Asari 💜

Mass effect thessia home planet of the asari

There are a lot of interesting 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:alien civilizations and races in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect trilogy. You've got your sassy Salarians, your Quarians with their complicated history, your lobster-lik𒈔e Ranchi. The Krogans are cool because they're big. The Reapers are worth mentioning because they're thဣe bad guys, even if they're kind of rote.

But none are better than the Asari🍸. Intelligent, influential, and effective in most of what they do, they are c🔴onsidered the cream of the crop in Mass Effect's universe. More importantly, Liara is an Asari, which therefore catapults them to the best alien civilization in the Mass Effect trilogy.

4 ♔ Halo: Covenant Evolved 🧜

Halo covenant map, Sunaion city

For many game-likers, the opening of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Halo: Combat Evolved was ♛an awe-inspiring moment. After crash landing on an alien structure, the eponymous Halo, you look up and see the otꦡher side of the ring-shaped world bending into the sky.

Related: Halo💖: Every Covenant Vehicle, Ranked From Worst To Best

It's a striking visual and while the game has cemented its place in the history books for the way it revolutionized conso💫le first-person shooters, what makes♍ Halo special is how it really feels like you're exploring (and slaughtering) your way through this unknown alien place as you proceed through its beloved levels.

3 🅠Metroid Prime And The Chambers Of The Chozo

Metroid Prime Chozo Ruins in the rain

Having a game's premise placing the player character on an alien planet where they must try to both explore and survive isn't the most original setup, but few games have as much atmosphere as the original 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metroid Prime. In the first 3D entry for this long-running series, Samus Aran crash lands on Tallon IV, where she soon discovers the ruins of an extinct race of aliens called the Cho🌌zo.

No, they aren't brain-eating jellyfish like the actual Metroids, but exploring the remnants of th⛄e Chozo history is one of the highlights of gaming on the Nintendo Gamecub⛎e.

2 Bloodborne's Cosmic Cuties

Bloodborne great ones brain and amygdala

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bloodborne might not be what you think of most readily when co♐nsidering video games with aliens. No one goes to space, there are none of your standard sci-fi tropes, it takes place in a Victorian-era city. The first enem🥂y you fight is even a werewolf! But midway through the game, there is a stunning twist, which doesn't just affect the story, but also changes the overall atmosphere of Bloodborne.

The gothic elements grow stranger and morph into cosmic horror as you learn that everything going on in the game is at the whims of pan-dimensional deities, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Great Ones. Are they technically from anotheꦏr planet? Not exactly—but being from another dime🔯nsion counts as alien in our books.

1 The Most Interesting Aliens Are Out Ther🐠e In Outer Wilds

outer wilds Giant's deep planet

Amidst all the video games out there featuring alien civilizations, most of them have you fighting said aliens at some point, if not the entire time. That's not the case in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Outer Wilds, though, which stands out not🔯 just for being a game where you don't try to commit genoci๊de, but for being one of the best games of the last decade.

In this extraordinary indie masterpiece, you explore a solar system simply looking for clues to understand the lost alien civilization of the Nomai. It's a remarkable game, with devilishly inventive mechanics and puzzles, and something genuinely worth saying thematically as well. We won't get intℱo spoilers here, but do 🥀yourself a favor, and check out Outer Wilds if you'd like to see how a game can explore an alien civilization in new and refreshing ways.

Next: It's A Tragedy I Wo🌳n't Be Able To Relive The Wonder Of Outer Wilds