E3 Impressions | Aliens: Colonial Marines
Randy Pitchford is excited about Aliens: Colonial Marines. Sure, the Gearbox President is already dripping with charisma, but during the live closed-door demo at E3 he was positively bouncy when discussing their upcoming entry into the Aliens canon which launches Spring 2012 for PC, Xbox 360, PS3.
The squad-based tactical shooter is also in development for the new Wii U, and Pitchford said Gearbox is “thrilled with the new platform. [The game is] already running on the new hardware.”
Colonial Marines – being published by SEGA – is an official entry in the ALIEN universe; billed as a true sequel to the 1986 film with the full endorsement of 20th Century Fox. Before beginning the live gameplay presentation, Pitchford joked that the game industry has been ripping off ideas from Aliens for years, and it was awesome to finally do it officially.
Our gameplay demo was a vertical slice from Act 2, with your squad revisiting LV-426 and the ravaged colony Hadley’s Hope. Immediately, the survival horror influences became apparent. Your character lowers his rifle to bring up the iconic motion tracker (you can’t have your tracker and weapons both at the ready), remarking that it’s going haywire since all the blips on-screen must be impossible, right? Suddenly your teammate is snatched head-first from a nearby vent, and xenomorphs swarm your location. Pitchford takes a moment here to discuss the AI they’ve implemented for these always-terrifying creatures, explaining that they’ll work together and aggressively to make short work of you. This much becomes apparent as they swiftly pick off your team; traversing walls and ceilings to reach you as quickly as possible. Don’t expect any of the foreplay you see with typical shooters; these aliens are here to kill you without hesitation.
The fight wages on until the remainder of your team stumbles onto a new horror: A towering, sickly alien boss known as The Crusher. In futility, the squad empties their magazines into it but the majority of its frame consists of a giant head, shaped like a massive triangular shield. Confirming our beliefs, Pitchford remarks “Your bullets can’t penetrate it. Your only choice is to run.” Left with no choice, the crew scrambles into an abandoned armory, barely shutting the steel door in time.
It’s here that Pitchford introduces us to the 4 player co-op, which allows you to drop in (or out) at any point without interrupting the game. (To clarify, 2 players can rock co-op on the same console, with 4 players possible online.)
Pitchford’s fellow Gearbox developers strapped on a pulse rifle, and decided to continue the fight together. Unfortunately for them, the formidable Crusher returned and burst its way through the steel door, tossed heavy machinery around like it was cotton candy, and found itself on top of your character as the gameplay demo ended.
What we saw was enough to get us genuinely excited, especially after some lackluster entries in the Aliens universe. The proprietary graphics engine (developed solely for this game) won’t win any eyecandy awards but certainly excels at dynamic lighting, lending more atmosphere and tension to cramped quarters. Pitchford didn’t actually demonstrate much of the squad commands, but we know that issuing tactical orders to your squadmates should be a key component to gameplay.
With Battlestar Galactica writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle penning the script, and Gearbox at the development end, we truly have high hopes that Aliens: Colonial Marines delivers an engaging shooter dripping with horror and steeped in Aliens lore. We’ll find out next Spring 2012.
Jason is VGW’s founder, Executive Editor, and a longtime podcaster, writer, and “solopreneur” who is driven by the classic Jello Biafra quote “Don’t hate the media. Become the media.” His singular mission is to develop VideoGameWriters into a gaming site known for its intelligence, timeliness, originality and integrity. You can hear him leading the VGW Collective in the site’s official podcast, “Unlimited Ammo.”
[...] Game Writers posted their impressions, you can read them here. Before beginning the live gameplay presentation, Pitchford joked that the game industry has been [...]