You’re being sent back to find out what the hell happened there.
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It served as a disturbing reminder that cinema’s most famous alien wasn’t entirely extra-terrestrial. It was the child of an unholy union, born to man and those he found waiting amongst the stars.
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Along with Ridley Scott’s artful direction and a few standout performances, Giger’s Xenomorph and its unusual life-cycle elevated Alien to something much more than ‘Jaws in Space’ (as it was originally pitched). In the years following 1979, it spawned a series: some good, some not so good. But its first sequel, for many, surpassed the original. Shifting genres, becoming much more of an action slash war movie, Aliens confidently had its own identity. It was a Vietnam war movie set in the future with legions of marauding aliens.
Gearbox’s game gets a lot of things right. It authentically weaves itself into the world established by Scott and extended by Cameron, but it’s perhaps the sound effects more than anything that really sell that illusion. From the unnerving, anxious beep of the motion tracker to the spluttering plasma rifle, the game sounds exactly like the movie. And the visuals aren’t far behind: you’ll walk down corridors and through rooms that look eerily familiar. Remember the lab with facehuggers preserved in large perspex tubes? It’s one of the first rooms you’ll enter. But other, more subtle artefacts remain, such as the expended gun turrets the marines used to make their final stand in the movie.
One of the reasons why the original Alien film worked so well was because it created a thickening sense of dread. It grew to unbearable levels over the course of its 117 minute running time, and that tension was only very occasionally vented. Like Jaws before it, you rarely saw the monster – the imperfections were all hidden, leaving your imagination to fill in the gaps with horrors beyond the skill of any artist.Aliens: Colonial Marines attempts to ratchet up the tension in a similar way. Once inside Hadley’s Hope, you’ll explore the dilapidated corridors, finding the debris of former lives. Poignantly, there’s a Weyland Yutani branded tricycle tipped onto its side. Audio logs chronicle a time before the terrible things came. At one point, you even come across Anne – Newt’s mother – pinned to a wall, imprisoned and impregnated by the xenomorphs.
However, this is a game, not a movie. And for it to work as one, certain concessions have to be made. While the tension is built up beautifully, it’s fumbled somewhat when the aliens pounce. It ultimately comes down to an unavoidable fact: the game has to show you the xenomorph. It’s a first-person shooter, after all. If they were constantly in the shadows, this would be a more authentic Aliens experience but the most infuriating FPS ever made. The xenomorphs are fast and aggressive, but they’re a lot less scary when they’re in full view, skating around on all surfaces and occasionally bumping into objects. This is Aliens: Colonial Marines at its most ‘game-like’, and least scary.
Like Jaws before it, you rarely saw the monster – the imperfections were all hidden, leaving your imagination to fill in the gaps with horrors beyond the skill of any artist.
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However, even the most pedantic of fans might forgive such flights of fancy given the promise of some great fan service. We already know that at some point we’ll encounter a Queen Alien in the game, and when I asked Burleson if players can expect to find a bright yellow power loader before this meeting, he said, “Yes. Maybe. No... Yeah.” As an alien fan, I hope so. I really hope so.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC is out on February 12, 2013.
Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. He mostly comes out at night... mostly. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.