Eric Neigher, Contributing Editor: We both saw the newest Aliens game from Gearbox Software and Sega, and we both agree on one thing: It's definitely Aliens. From the sound effects to the dialogue to the setting itself, everything a fanboy desires is right there in the game. What was your impression of the way that Gearbox is leveraging the IP? You're a big series fan, so how faithful did you feel they were to the source material?
Mike Sharkey, News Editor: Jim Cameron (his close, close friends call him Jim) made my favorite sci-fi movie not named The Empire Strikes Back. And no, I'm not talking about Avatar. Aliens is an ass-kicker of a movie, and the developers at Gearbox evidently feel the same way, as they gushed about the film before getting started on the live gameplay demo, describing it as a "dream project." How faithful are they staying to the source material? As faithful as Romeo to Juliet. Aliens: Colonial Marines is, with the blessing of Fox, a true sequel to the film, and the level we saw -- which takes place early in the game -- looks and feels like it, from the shoulder-padded uniforms of the marines to the red digital bullet counters on the sides of their M41A Pulse Rifles.
Eric Neigher: OK, first of all, no Star Wars anything is sci-fi in any way. Fantasy in space is not sci-fi. Anyway, I felt the same way about their faithfulness to the source material -- but do you think (as I kinda do) that this can be a double-edged sword? I mean, we're literally going back to LV-142, the site of the Aliens movie, with a team of marines... and fighting another alien infestation. We saw them, for example, fend off an alien swarm with the movie's sentry turrets, and the cargo loader from the movie was in there -- can they really do anything genuinely new here? And, if not, does Colonial Marines have enough for non-fans of the series to enjoy it?
Mike Sharkey: Counterpoint: The entire Star Wars universe is "in a galaxy far, far away." That's science. And it's fiction. What's that add up to? Knowledge: dropped. As for staying so true to the film franchise -- a franchise which was given the video game treatment more times than I care to recall -- you're right, it is a double-edged sword.
Yes, a squad of marines holes up in the same lab area where Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and the other marines tried to make a stand in the movie. And if you recall that memorable Bill-Paxton-yelling-like-a-crazy-person firefight ("You want some? How about you, you want some too? Come get some!"), then you know what we saw in the demo. Turrets were set up, motion trackers started beeping like crazy, aliens came scurrying out of every corner, and the red emergency lights kicked in, just like in the movie. The overwhelmed marines even escaped into another section of the facility and welded the door shut behind them.
But here's the thing: the demo we saw was clearly the very beginning of the game. If Gearbox is showing all of this in a 10-minute demo -- an alien queen even made an appearance -- then it's obviously taking the franchise in some new directions. We saw that when a new, dinosaur-like alien attacked the marines, using its massive head as a battering ram.
Eric Neigher: Good points. I have to say, what stood out as coolest to me was the ability for another player to jump in anytime as a co-op teammate in the single-player campaign. This seems like it has all sorts of cool implications for gameplay and storytelling.
Mike Sharkey: Drop-in, drop-out co-op is a key feature, no doubt. Friends that are fans of the Aliens movie will have a blast teaming up for this one, going back-to-back to fend off attacking alien waves. And when you mention co-op, I can't help but think of potential player-versus-player modes. After the last Aliens vs. Predator crashed and burned, I can't help but wonder if Sega will hand the multiplayer keys over to Gearbox, allowing the studio to craft a mode that allows players to become aliens. To be clear, no such mode was announced or even hinted at... but I'd be surprised if one wasn't included in Colonial Marines, in some form.
Eric Neigher: Agreed. Any closing thoughts or anything you want to call out for fans of Aliens, or shooters in general?
Mike Sharkey: This game was announced over two years ago, and before E3 Expo 2011, it looked like it might take Duke Nukem Forever's place for the Outstanding Achievement in Vaporware Award, so it was just nice to see Aliens: Colonial Marines come to life -- finally. This one still has a ways to go (it's out next year), but the early returns have me hopeful the game will be a worthy sequel to the film.