We recently had the opportunity to preview parts of the new SEGA game Aliens: Colonial Marines - lets rock!
Aliens: Colonial Marines begins with an ostensibly abandoned ship, the U.S.S. Sulaco, recovered in orbit around LV-426. Players lead a group of highly trained United States Colonial Marines as they board the deserted craft to uncover the fate of the crew. They will have to fight to survive unspeakable horrors and their own anxieties as they chase down the truth behind a galaxy-spanning deception that places humanity at the mercy of the most murderous and deadly species in the universe.
The location for the preview was in London and had been transformed into Hadley's Hope on LV-426. There were even facehuggers laying around! (See above)
During the day we played three separate elements of the new game and we shall talk about each in turn.
Campaign
This is the single player story mode and has you playing as one of the Colonial Marines investigating the planet and coming under attack by the Xenos (think Aliens the film when they first get on the planet).
The campaign is a fairly standard first-person shooter mode where you explore various areas, perform tasks (such as moving sentry guns) and oh yeah, killing as many Xenos as you can in order to survive!
There are times when areas you go into are really dark and it's difficult to see what's going on. You can hear the constant beeping on the tracker and you know that something is out there, and that it's coming for you.
We only got to play a single level of the game, but I certainly wanted to play more.
Escape
Escape is a multiplayer mode where your team can either play as the Marines attempting to escape or as the Xenos trying to stop them.
Escape is a lot of fun whether you are playing on either side. When you are killed, you remain dead, and the winning team is the one that survives, even if you only have one man, or Xeno left.
Because when you die you stay dead you play slightly differently - or at least I did. I found that I didn't go charging into an area guns blazing, or acid spitting, until I was sure I could survive.
I look forward to playing this mode again when the game is released.
Extermination
This mode is another multiplayer mode. Each game lasts ten minutes, encompassing two 5 minute sections. For the first 5 minutes your team are the Marines trying to kill all the Xenos, and the second 5 minutes sees you playing the Xenos trying to kill the Marines.
I found it great fun playing as the Marines, and you can even, if you are lucky, find the SMART gun - then all you have to do is sit back, wait for the gun to automatically lock on to any Xeno and just squeeze the trigger.
However playing as the Xenos is not as much fun. In fact it was really hard and my team kept getting wiped out over and over again. This wasn't that our team was bad, it was just that the Marines could pick us off from great distances (and it was the same when the other team played as the Xenos).
During the game if you die you respawn, so at least you can keep trying.
Gearbox are going to have to do something to make this mode more interesting for the team playing the Xenos or I can see people skipping it.
I really enjoyed playing the campaign level and also the Escape mode, but not so much Extermination, so I really hope that changes.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of those games that has been talked about for years and is finally coming out.
It's a pity we didn't get to play more, we were certainly limited to what we were allowed to play, so I hope the rest of the game lives up to the hype and promise.
For now though I am looking forward to playing some more. For fans of the film this is going to be a great opportunity to explore areas that were only touched on, and Gearbox have certainly done their research. The game really does look and feel like Aliens.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is developed by Gearbox Software and will be published by SEGA, and is due for release on the 12 February for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U.