Questions & Concerns About Aliens: Colonial Marines

Next week, Gearbox's long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines arrives at last, and it's a challenge to not get swept up in the excitement around a game based in the legendary Aliens universe by a developer that's still hot off the release of a great game. That's why, in our Questions & Concerns feature, we're taking a deliberately skeptical look at what we know about Aliens: Colonial Marines -- and what we don't -- to make sure you can see past the hype. We hope none of this stuff ends up being a problem, and it's still way too early to declare it a good game or a bad game, but you'll definitely want to read this before you preorder!

For reference, here's the biggest chunk of Aliens: Colonial Marines gameplay shown to date:



Now that you're caught up, let's get into the nitty gritty!


Will bringing back dead characters mess up the story?


Colonial Marines takes place a few months after the ending of Aliens, but its cast includes Hicks, Drake, and Apone. The latter two were thought to be either killed or used as babymakers by the aliens, while Hicks died on the prison planet of Fiorina 161. Are any of these characters going to make extremely improbable, suspension-of-disbelief-breaking resurrections, or are they just going to be the source of journal entries we find as we play?


Will it be too fan-service driven?


Most of what we've seen of Colonial Marines so far has been positively dripping with references to the films, as thick as alien goo. There's the spot where the alien queen tore Bishop in half, there's the Power Lifter suit, there's the locker room and the dropship hanger. Of course, lots of that is expected, and in fact it'd be worrisome if we didn't see nods to the iconic films -- we want this game to immerse us in that world, and that's what separates it from a generic sci-fi shooter that just wishes it were an Aliens game. At a certain point, though, Colonial Marines runs the risk of becoming more of a virtual tour of the Aliens set than a game focused on designing interesting levels and gameplay. That's baggage that comes with any licensed game, and not all are fortunate enough to have it both ways.


Will the long development take a toll?

Aliens: Colonial Marines was first announced in February 2008 -- five full years ago -- and it had been in the works for roughly three years before that. So we're talking about an eight-year development for a first-person shooter, which is not generally a sign of a healthy, problem-free process. For perspective, that's three years longer than BioShock Infinite, which is itself renowned for taking its sweet time. From what we've seen, it definitely won't push the graphical envelope on any platform, and facial animations in the intro look dated. How much of this game was developed in 2008, and how much in 2012 and 2013? After all, when Gearbox picked up gaming's most famously delayed shooter, Duke Nukem Forever, it wasn't ashamed to release it without first bringing it up to 2011 standards.






What will the quality of the PC version be like?


Gearbox has made some great PC games, but it's inconsistent with its dedication in areas such as adapting console UIs to work on the PC. With Borderlands 2, PC gamers got an actual love letter that promised us loads of options, an FoV slider, high-rez textures, mouse-enabled menus, and more -- and Gearbox delivered. On ACM, there has been no such promise, leaving us to wonder if this one will be closer to the original Borderlands. The recently-released recommended specs aren't exactly demanding, asking only 2GB of RAM and videocards that were cutting-edge three years ago.


Will the xenomorphs be fun to play?


Gearbox has had numerous events where we've been allowed to play multiplayer, and even let the public have at it at PAX. But here's the catch: it's been very shy about letting anybody outside the company play as the xenomorphs. That changed at the IGN livestream event last week, but the fact that Gearbox didn't have confidence in their controls or balance until recently means there might be cause for concern. We know Gearbox can make a co-op shooter, but a team and class-based shooter with dramatically asymmetrical sides is something we've never seen it do before -- and not many games get that right.