Alien Resurrection was the first First-Person Shooter to use the now common two analog stick control scheme, where the left stick moves you up and down and strafes you left and right, while the right stick turns you left and right and aims your gun up and down. However, it wasn't well received by some critics. Steven Garrett from GameSpot gave the game a 4.71/10 calling the control scheme "It's most terrifying element." He went on to say; "Too often, you'll turn to face a foe and find that your weapon is aimed at the floor or ceiling while the alien gleefully hacks away at your midsection."

On September 11, 2022, several cheat codes were discovered in the game by a user on game wiki The Cutting Room Floor. The list of codes that have known functions prior to December 2023 are as follows:

• On the Options menu, by pressing Circle/Left on the D-Pad/Right on the D-Pad/Circle/Up on the D-Pad/R2, you can unlock a Cheat Menu with basic toggles for Infinite Ammo, Infinite Health, No Chestburst and No Drown. All four of these options have dedicated cheat codes which are listed below:

• L1/L2/Up on the D-Pad/L1/L2/Up on the D-Pad/Circle = Dedicated Infinite Ammo code, can have unlimited ammo with weapons you can have at selected point in the game.
• R1/R2/Down on the D-Pad/R1/R2/Left on the D-Pad/Square = Dedicated Infinite Health code.
• R1/L1/Left on the D-Pad/R1/L1/Square/Down on the D-Pad = Dedicated No Chestburst code.
• R2/L2/Right on the D-Pad/R2/L2/Circle/Down on the D-Pad = Dedicated No Drowning code.

Remaining miscellaneous cheat codes that can be activated include:

• L1/Circle/Square/L1/Down on the D-Pad/Up on the D-Pad/Circle = Have weapons you can have at selected point in the game.
• R1/Square/L2/L1 = Selecting quit warps you to section 0 of selected level.
• R1/Triangle/Square/L1 = Quit functions as a restart.
• Triangle/L1/R1/Square/L1/R1/L1/Square = Press L2 + L1 to display debug information while in-game.

As of December 2023, there are three codes that have unknown functions:

• L1/Triangle/Square/Circle
• Square/Triangle/Square/L1
• L1/Triangle/Square/L1

On December 19, 2023, programmer Martin Piper revealed a pair of hidden cheat codes he included in the original release of Alien Resurrection. To execute these codes, you need to go into the game's Options menu and unlock the Cheat Menu with the code Circle/Left on the D-Pad/Right on the D-Pad/Circle/Up on the D-Pad/R2. The cheats Piper revealed include the following:

• A level selection menu can be unlocked in the Options menu right after unlocking the Cheat Menu by pressing R1/Down on the D-Pad/R1/Right on the D-Pad/L1/Up on the D-Pad/L2/Square. If entered correctly, you will hear a "bonk" sound indicating the code has been activated. Re-entering the Cheat Menu will reveal an additional option to re-visit any section in any level in the game.

• The more notable of the two codes Piper revealed is one that allows the Alien Resurrection disc to act as a boot disc to play PlayStation games on any burned CD-R disc without the use of modding. This novelty method works with any PlayStation model (as long as you have something to block the tray disc sensor on newer models so you can swap out the disc with the tray open), and must be done after unlocking the level selection menu (you can save after unlocking this menu so you do not have to unlock it again if you want to perform the disc swap trick). Once that is unlocked, go back to the Options menu and enter the code Left on the D-Pad/Up on the D-Pad/Right on the D-Pad/Down on the D-Pad/Right on the D-Pad/Up on the D-Pad/Left on the D-Pad/Square/Triangle/Square/Triangle/L1. The "bonk" sound will again be heard if the code is activated. Next, go back to the Cheat Menu and set the level selection to Level 6 and Section 1. Then while highlighting Section 1, hold down L1 (Note: it's imperative to keep holding down L1 for the remainder of this method) and press X. The screen will turn black and the Alien Resurrection disc will stop spinning, at which point you can swap out the disc with a burned CD-R disc of any PlayStation game you desire. While still holding L1, hold Square and Triangle, and then release all three buttons to boot the burned CD-R game.

When asked by YouTube channel Modern Vintage Gamer, Piper revealed that the latter cheat code had never been disclosed to Sony when the game was sent in for certification as Sony would have immediately sent the game back and forced the developers to remove it since it acted as a backdoor for playing pirated games, and he believed that no other developers who worked on the game were made aware of it either. In a YouTube comment, he explained that he only revealed the codes now because it had been so long since the game's release and he did not want to hold onto the secret for the rest of his life. According to him, the intent of the feature stemmed from Alien Resurrection potentially being planned as a multi-disc game, with the feature being implemented as a test to see if discs could be changed without resetting the PlayStation. Unlike standard multi-disc games that function with the PlayStation's built-in ability to swap out discs through an API call to maintain memory data without fully resetting the console, Alien Resurrection has code that loads an .exe file on any burned CD-R disc you swap it out with to start that new game up while bypassing the PlayStation's anti-piracy protection check.

Development on the game started as far back as 1996 to help prepare for the then-upcoming movie of the same name. Once it got the green light by Fox Interactive, they sent Argonaut huge boxes of scripts, storyboards and raw material used to make the movie.

The team originally utilized the game engine Gremlin Interactive used to create Loaded. Frustrated that the genre that Loaded used was starting to become outdated, Argonaut then recreated Alien Resurrection into a Tomb Raider-style game.

Technical difficulties also hindered them back, which forced them to turn the game from a second-person shooter to a first-person one.

Alien Resurrection would finally see the light of day on October 20, 2000, nearly five years since development began.