We've been waiting for Aliens: Colonial Marines for a Duke-Nukem-Forever-worthy eternity. Set following the events of Alien 3, the new shooter pitches players into the ass-kicking boots of a United Colonial Marine squad, dispatched to the drifting U.S.S. Sulaco in search of one Lieutenant Ellen Ripley. There's a preview in issue 75, which you can download in its entirety here.
Gearbox hasn't had much to say about Colonial Marines over the past three years. That ends now. Following an early showing of the game, which launches next year, OXM cornered studio founders Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel plus producer Zach Ford for a lengthy chat. Have you got something handy for close encounters? Yes? Then let's begin.
We're going to start with some really basic fan-service questions. Do you get to use the powerloader?
Randy Pitchford: That's a great question.
Which you're not going to answer?
Pitchford: Well clearly in what we just showed you, you can see the powerloader, the problem is if I answer that question then you're going to ask me other questions. So we wanna cover that later.
Brian Martel: But wouldn't that be great?
Pitchford: Yeah... that is a desire that we all have, and part of our mission is to fulfil our dream.
Next fan-service question: do you get to drive the APC?
Pitchford: Did you see them in the hangar?
Yes, I saw them up there, so they're definitely there.
Martel: And the lights work!
Pitchford: There's a lot of things about that APC that are really interesting, you remember where Gorman sat, with all the monitors?
That was going to be the third question.
Pitchford: There's a turret - we've never even seen that used. It's never even been shot before.
Martel: Did you know there are rockets, there are a few rocket pods that pop up?
Pitchford: I didn't know if you knew that.
I didn't know that.
Pitchford: And of course there's that gun on the front. But everybody's seen that turret, nobody's seen it fire. How does it fire? It would be awesome if somebody got to do that.
Pitchford: A lot of the fun about this game is that stuff, the fan-service stuff. We don't don't want to mire in specific features like that right now, we're trying to do broader strokes, but the game will launch in the spring of 2012, you can imagine between then there will be a number of - between screenshots and trailers and discussion more will be revealed and somehow we must ship and retain enough surprise that people have an experience that they're comfortable they haven't already had, so forgive me for being cautious, we don't want to spoil all the surprises. But the mission is to fulfil those dreams and have those experiences.
Watching the monitors and seeing the remote monitoring of the marines, that seems like it would lend itself to a squad-control tactical kind of thing, is that something that would go so far as to deny? Is it just a pure shooter?
7 comments so far...
Ninja Squirrel on 11 Aug '11 said:
Now I want the game even more.
Best tell the misses shes an xbox widow in the spring
Jensonjet on 11 Aug '11 said:
Interesting, without really saying much.
They sound desperate to spill the beans, but have a gameplan for publicity and it almost seemed like they agreed to be interviewed too early. I'd like to hear the recording of the interview. They sound like they're genuinely excited about the game and they clearly get along well. It actually sound like they're having a fun time crafting this game.
I'm intrigued by their solution to bringing back dead players in co-op. They mention the Left4Dead solution as one way it can be handled. I think it was a great idea and worked perfectly for that game.
Personally I prefer dead players to stay dead for the rest of the round. It's harder, but it makes dying more important and people try harder to survive. Otherwise you get that multiplayer team death match situation where no one actually cares, and people run around understandably not caring. If dying means sitting out part of a map it makes a game more atmospheric and people play better.
I think getting the balance of this right can make a big difference. I'm happy to see this game as deadly as they care to make it. In single player a really difficult game can be frustrating but with co-op I think it can pull gamers together and have them plan and work together better.
I just hope the Aliens aren't too easy to kill. They need to be deadly. I think in past games they've been watered down too much. I'd like to see the toughest difficulty in co-op to be something your average multiplayer gamer would be put off by. Regardless, I can't wait for this. There's no guarantee but I'm convinced this could be amazing.
BODGE2 on 11 Aug '11 said:
This all sounds good so far, just as long as they get the swarm mechanic right so you actually have to work as a team like in L4D & not just 4 players going in the same direction as in Halo 3. As for how to handle a player dying, unless your playing with friends a lot of people just quit & find another game if they die early on in a level instead of waiting for the next round so I cant wait to see how they handle it.
OXM Jonty on 11 Aug '11 said:
They're loving it. They were grinning all the way through the interview; they've clearly got all sorts of fan-service stuff that they're going to unveil later on.
Jensonjet on 12 Aug '11 said:
Good to hear. I'm sure most developers are as excited about their product as these guys are, but as the recent Halo 2 article pointed out, sometimes we're not told the full story. And with the stuff we've all read about with Team Bondi, it's obviously not all productions are roses and champagne. I'm sure the excitment and enthusiasm for the project will be apparent in the game too.
I loved hearing that they were inundated with writers wanting to work on the project. I like the sound of their choices too. I really enjoyed Battlestar Galactica and think having some of its writers onboard is really good news.
Hopefully this turns out to successful and we never have to see Aliens lumped in with those Predators again. I think Predators, in any format, are too B-rate to deserve to share the limelight with Aliens. It's like putting salad cream on caviar!
Ninja Squirrel on 15 Aug '11 said:
Maybe you don't die in a sense and get dragged off to the nest and await the face hugger or the squad to bail you out?
BomBom on 21 Aug '11 said:
Why don't they just let us mod weapons such things as extra magazine,laser sight,little flame thrower, combine knife with shotgun and many more.Also Deus Ex HR has thing where can you combine things with weapon and that waht should be done in this game