E3 2011: Aliens: Colonial Marines - Love and a Power Loader
Like Aliens? Gearbox does, and it's on full display here at E3.
June 8, 2011 June 9, 2011 June 9, 2011
A game can't just be aimed at a single audience. For the crowded shooter market in particular, you've got to be good, and you've got to appeal to a broad swath of players. Aliens: Colonial Marines might be able to pull that off. It's got four-player, drop-in co-op for the entire campaign. It's got a ton of distinctive, cool-sounding weapons. It looks like it'll have some great setpieces and intense scripted moments. The shooting seems responsive and fast.
But there's a specific audience out there that's been waiting for Aliens: Colonial Marines. An audience that knows what planet Hadley's Hope is on, that remembers the last stand in Operations. And Aliens: Colonial Marines is really that audience's game.
All of this will either confuse you or get you hard.
That love comes through in the little touches in Aliens: Colonial Marines. I'm not talking about the easy tugs at your nostalgia either - the old standbys are there, like the sound of a pulse rifle, the escalating whine of a motion tracker picking up... something. Developers have been using easy Aliens throwbacks for decades now, but Gearbox seems to be going for something less cheap.

The premise fits snugly into the existing continuity between Aliens and Alien 3. You're part of the marine platoon sent in response to a distress call from LV-426, the home of Aliens' "shake-and-bake" terraformed colony, Hadley's Hope. That call came from a marooned contingent of marines from the troop transport Sulaco, and... all of this will either confuse you or get you hard.
There's not a lot more to say about Aliens: Colonial Marines right now. It's still around a year away, though it looks good and runs pretty well. It sounds like an Aliens game. There are pulse rifles, shotguns ("for close encounters"), smartguns, sentry turrets, power loaders... POWER LOADERS. You'll venture through familiar areas from Aliens after you're marooned on the rock that is LV-426 -- because why wouldn't a platoon looking for shelter make their way to the planet's only colony? You'll find Operations, home of Hudson's Last Stand TM, and you'll in turn realize the futility of human barriers to Xenomorph ingenuity.

Again, you'll either get all of that and find your anticipation for more info on Aliens: Colonial Marines' campaign and multiplayer rising, or you'll keep half an iota of attention on another possibly cool shooter. But regardless of which it is, Gearbox is pouring its heart into elaborating on a film that changed science-fiction, that's influenced video games for the entire 25 years they've existed, because everyone at Gearbox loves it. And as someone who's been right there with them since I sat cowering under a blanket on the couch next to my dad, watching a movie I had absolutely no business watching on HBO at the age of six, I'm cautiously optimistic that someone will finally get it, and get it right. Even if that developer did make marine chatter during the demo.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is out in Spring of 2012.
Recommended Stories and More
Hottest Xbox 360 Previews
Bullets and Body Parts Fly in The Darkness II
We get our hands dirty pulling off executions in The Darknes...
We get our hands dirty pulling off executions in The Darknes...
Connections for Aliens: Colonial Marines (X360)
Popular games in this genre: 1. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (X360) 2. Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 (X360) 3. BioShock Infinite (PS3) 4. BioShock Infinite (X360) 5. Halo 4 (X360) |
![]() |
Popular games on this platform: 1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360) 2. Mass Effect 3 (X360) 3. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (X360) 4. Tomb Raider (X360) 5. Silent Hill: Downpour (X360) |
![]() |