Alien (film) disguise imaginative poverty". In a 1980 episode of "Sneak Previews" discussing science fiction films of the 1950s and 1970s, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were critical of "Alien". Ebert called it "basically just an intergalactic haunted house thriller set inside a spaceship" and one of several science fiction pictures that were "real disappointments" compared to "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and "", though he did compliment the early scene of the "Nostromo" crew exploring the alien planet as showing "real imagination". However, the film later made it onto Ebert's "Great Movies" list, where he gave it
Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula overhead map depicting the player's spaceship in relation to the nearby alien vessels. The player may either attack, attempt to communicate, try to flee the encounter by running away, or scan the alien vessels to determine their capabilities. Conversing with friendly alien species is an important means by which the player obtains clues to advance the game's plot. Some encounters result in the outbreak of hostilities in which the player must either attempt to destroy the attacking vessels or flee. The spaceship computer automatically takes care of targeting and firing lasers and missiles, except for blasto pods which are manually