Aliens: Colonial Marines First Impressions Review

Introduction

Gameplay Overview

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In our short time with Aliens: Colonial Marines, we found that the game managed to effectively balance the strengths of both the marine and alien classes. We were unable to play a single-player episode for ourselves, but in our time in multiplayer, it was apparent that a lot of thought has been given toward making the xenomorph aliens a unique and challenging enemy—if not the seemingly omnipotent enemy of the movie series.

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As with other first person shooters, the most crucial element of Aliens: Colonial Marines is the gunplay. Taking down aliens is not so much a matter of firepower—they tend to go down with a few well-placed shotgun blasts—but rather location. In a poorly-lit environment with steam pouring out of every corner, finding the creepy, moist enemies becomes the real challenge. To combat this, Gearbox gives the player the standard motion-detection tool made famous in the movies. While not accurate, the slowly moving red blobs and beeps certainly do enough to get your blood pumping as the eponymous enemies quickly close down on the player. Gearbox has also left little on the table in terms of combat, keeping things canonical even down to the xenomorph's acidic blood. As such, taking down an alien may not guarantee victory, as taking too much damage means that dying alien's last blood spatter may be enough to take down your marine as well.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines features cooperative gameplay that lets up to four players take on single player missions in a drop-in, drop-out format. This fits somewhat with the narrative style that we saw in the short single player gameplay footage shown at PAX East, with the player mostly tasked with investigating as a lone marine. At any time you can bring in a friend or three, lending you a little extra firepower to deal with the occasional horde of xenomorphs who want nothing more than to leave a present in your chest cavity.

Controls

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The version that we were able to play at PAX East involved mutliplayer on an Xbox 360, though the final game will be available on multiple platforms. The version we played controlled well, utilizing the control sticks to move and aim, with iron sights available for those who need more accuracy than shooting from the hip affords. In multiplayer (and we assume, singleplayer), the player has to select from a number of weapon loadouts, able to hold a multitude of ammunition, but only a few weapons, at a time.

We weren't able to play as the aliens in our single mulitplayer round, but we were able to watch Gearbox's developers take on human marines. In multiplayer they were afforded the option to use standard soldier aliens, the more stealth-based lurkers, or a rushdown tank enemy used to break up groups of marines. This gave each round a varied feel, with both sides able to strategize and adapt their tactics depending on their opponents' actions.

Multiplayer

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The only hands-on experience allowed by Gearbox at PAX East 2012 was in a multiplayer demo, taking on Gearbox themselves. In that time, we found that the multiplayer was frantic, putting players in the shoes of a group of marines that need to stay together to stay alive. On the xenomorph's side, the aliens have a number of advantages on their side, able to work as a team to scale the walls, with their heightened senses telling them where their prey is on the map. Despite the advantages enjoyed by the aliens, the gameplay didn't feel tilted too heavily in the favor of the aliens, with the marines having just enough firepower to keep things honest.

Graphics, Storytelling, & Atmosphere Overview

As anyone who has seen the Aliens movies, this is a franchise built on atmosphere, with every creaking, hollow spaceship home to the worst horrors the universe can come up with. That spirit is maintained in Aliens: Colonial Marines, where enhanced firepower does little to assuage your fears that every door may lead you down a path you don’t want to find yourselves on. The game features some generally impressive graphics, with the player and enemy animations, in particular, deserving of some special attention.

Storytelling

In the short single player footage that we saw, the player was immediately tasked with investigating the derelict ship, the Sulaco. With the xenomorphs already tearing through some other marines, the player is basically left to their own devices, until they stumble upon an alien nest. It doesn’t take long for things to go completely pear-shaped for our marine hero, ultimately leading to him getting trapped on the alien-infested Sulaco. The storytelling is atmospheric, employing suspense and exceptional audio to keep the player on their toes through what was (at least in the demo we saw) a mostly linear environment.

Art Design

The art design of Aliens: Colonial Marines keeps it in line with the movies and previous games, placing the player in one of what seems like a thousand dark, steam-filled hallways. While we weren’t able to see much of the storyline, the game should take players through many of the familiar locales of the series, including LV-426, the Sulaco environment that we already saw, along with the Hadley’s Hope colony. In talking with developers from Gearbox, they were quick to emphasize that Aliens: Colonial Marines will be as true to the series as possible, so we don’t expect the environmental design to do much to prevent the xenomorphs from leaping out at the player from every angle possible.

Sound Design

The audio elements on Aliens: Colonial Marines worked well to keep the player immersed in the game. The sounds seemed to echo around the abandoned (well, maybe not willfully abandoned) ship, though the weapon sounds themselves seemed pretty standard for a first person shooter.

Conclusion

While we weren't able to take the single player of Aliens: Colonial Marines for a spin ourselves, our short time with the game's multiplayer really showed off how Gearbox is interpreting the Aliens world through the lens of a first person shooter.

Though this is hardly new territory for vidoegames, Aliens: Colonial Marines does a good job of balancing the strengths of both the marines and xenomorphs, producing a canonical, suspenseful entry into the narrative. The gunplay is nothing revolutionary, but the lack of a HUD, dark environments, and solid audio design do wonders for keeping you on your toes.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game is the four-player drop-in, drop-out cooperative gameplay, which should do well for helping to combat the tougher areas of the game where a little bit of extra firepower goes a long way.

Again, we'd like to see more of the single player campaign before we pass judgement, but the multiplayer feels balanced despite the inherent differences in the character classes. If that level of attention has also been paid to the single player campaign, you can consider us excited to see what Gearbox has done with the reins of the Alien franchise.