“Priority: Survive” is a free sci-fi real-time strategy game released in 2008. The game is heavily inspired by Blizzard’s StarCraft and the Alien franchise.
If someone told me in 2008 that a completely free, fan-made RTS built in little more than a souped-up version of the StarCraft engine would still scratch the exact same itch in 2025 that Blizzard’s masterpiece did back in ’98, I’d have called them crazy. Yet here we are: Priority: Survive remains one of the most brutally fun love letters to both StarCraft and the Alien franchise ever made.
You’ve got two factions that feel instantly familiar but deliciously twisted:
– The United Earth Directorate (UED 2.0, basically): classic Terran-style marines, siege tanks, dropships, and nukes, but with a darker, more corporate-military vibe and some genuinely clever new units (the flamethrower-wielding “Pyromaniac” and the spider-mine-laying “Arachnid” drone are instant favorites).
– The Zerg… except they’re literal Xenomorphs. Yes, actual Aliens. Acid-spitting drones, facehugger-style infestations that can turn enemy infantry into new xenomorphs mid-battle, lurkers that burrow and pop up with that iconic inner jaw attack, and a Queen that looks like it crawled straight off the Nostromo. It’s shameless, it’s glorious, and it works.
The campaign is short (10 missions per side) but ridiculously replayable because the mission design is pure late-90s Blizzard worship done right: defend this convoy while xenomorphs pour out of every vent, hold the line for 20 minutes as the hive slowly overruns the map, escort a scientist through a derelict colony while something skitters in the darkness. The atmosphere is thick with dread; fog of war actually feels scary when you know a royal facehugger might leap out of the black and turn your entire medic ball into enemies.
Gameplay is fast, vicious, and unforgiving. Micro matters. Macro matters more. One misplaced marine squad can lose you the game when they get parasitized and start spawning xenomorphs inside your base. The sound design is half the experience: the inner-jaw “thunk,” the marine scream as he’s dragged into a vent, the Queen’s unearthly shriek when she’s selecting targets… it’s all ripped straight from the movies and it never gets old.
Is it balanced perfectly? No. Are there a few rough edges and one or two outright broken unit matchups? Sure. Does it matter? Not even a little when you’re watching a nuke detonate just as a horde of royal warriors crests the hill in glorious 640×480 glory.
Priority: Survive isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s grabbing the wheel Blizzard made, painting it black, adding acid blood and chestbursters, and flooring it straight into your nostalgia receptors at 200 mph. And the best part? It’s still 100% free. Go grab it, turn the lights down, crank the volume, and remember why we fell in love with RTS games in the first place.
In a world of $70 AAA games that forget to be fun, Priority: Survive is a reminder that sometimes the best experiences come from fans who just wanted to build the game of their nightmares.
10/10 would get impregnated by a facehugger again.
The game features are:
3 unique groups (army, pirates, aliens)
24 units
15 buildings
6 missions
A strategy game by CZ company Distortum , a great RTS with a superb graphic.
Resources of a far planet in a distant galaxy are contended by 3 factions :
humans -, spac epirates and angry aliens.
On Screen below you can check the situation, map , controls, constructions.
