First Looks// E3 2011: Aliens: Colonial Marines

You’ve got to hand it to Gearbox - it’s a studio full of incredibly enthusiastic people who seem to have a genuine passion for the licenses they’re tasked with making games for.

It was certainly difficult to stay professional while watching a gameplay demonstration of Aliens: Colonial Marines. Randy Pitchford’s hyperactive trivia-spewing was borderline adorable. These guys aren’t just making a license-based game - these are honest fans getting the chance to honour one of their favourite films of all time.

After giving a lengthy introduction as to how the Aliens franchise has been a huge influence on the film and game industry, Randy stepped to one side and promised not to say anything during the gameplay demo. But every so often he still managed to excitedly gush about some random fact about the franchise. I sort of want to keep him in a little box and look after him. He must only feed on rainbows and bubblegum unicorns.

The main thing to note however, is that this is not some random side-story to the Xenomorph universe. Pitchford explained that Colonial Marines acts as a true sequel to James Cameron’s 1986 epic, Aliens. You return to the cursed human colony Hadley’s Hope as the member of an unfortunate space squad - from the opening sequence your character is awakened from cryosleep to find that your ship is losing control.

With no way to regain command of the exploding vessel, your team crash lands onto Archeron - also known as planet LV-426, where the events of the Aliens movie transpired several months before. As you explore a dilapidated research centre on the destroyed colony, you discover Xenos trapped in jars, along with evidence of some foul play. Your squad knows nothing of the real horror that took place at Hadley’s Hope, but torn-open security doors and scurrying sounds give something of a harrowing clue.

It’s not long before the deadly silence is broken, when your character notices an Alien crawling out of a ventilation shaft and dragging your teammate back in for some feasting. From there, shit really hits the fan - a second Alien knocks you off of a ledge and down onto the planet surface. Xenomorphs start dancing all over the place as your team struggles to keep a lock on them.

And then you start to see where Gearbox had a little fun with the license - new types of Alien species. The first one you encounter is known as the Crusher - it looks like a giant version of your typical Xenomorph, but with a huge flat head that acts as both battering ram and heavy-duty armour. With no way to truly kill it, your only option is to run away to an abandoned armour facility and lock down the doors.

During this ‘last stand’ situation, I got to appreciate the lighting that Gearbox has implemented into the game. Pitchford likened the style to games such as Dead Space, but noted that the studio wanted to “really raise the bar” in terms of atmosphere in that regard. The result is an ultra-moody and foreboding Hadley’s Hope, but with flashes of flourescent colour that really befits the Aliens franchise.

Although this wasn’t a hands-on experience, the tense scenes and nicely-structured design of the opening stage made it look buckets of fun. Particularly when holed up in the facility, where you have a limited amount of time to set up laser turrets before you’re overrun with tonnes of the flesh-eating Alien shites. Drop in co-operative play was demonstrated, but it seemed a bit glitchy and laggy on the host screen at this early stage.

Towards the end of the demo, we see the squad having to dash into the cargo bay area of the facility, having to wait for a dropship to rescue them. Unfortunately, three minutes is a long time when you’re battling an army of Xenomorphs, particularly when you’re up against an alien three times your size.

This beast storms through the bay doors and smashes up all of the walker mechs that try to pin it down with ease. This is before it turns on you and attacks - the screen blacks out and the demo ends promptly with your apparent death.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is on track for a Spring 2012 release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it and see more. What’s more exciting for Nintendo fans is that Pitchford confirmed that the game is already running on Wii U hardware, so we can expect to see a version when Nintendo’s next console is released too.