Aliens: Colonial Marines will have new breeds of alien, gauntlet sections and heroic last stands

Aliens Colonial Marines - outta the walls!

Aliens: Colonial Marines aims to deliver the definitive Aliens co-op survival experience, but Gearbox are keen to try and ensure that it doesn't turn into a mindless xeno-blaster. As revealed in our six page preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK , Gearbox have taken cues from Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead to ensure that Aliens: Colonial Marines is "at times a tactical shooter, at times survival horror, at times adventure and exploration." New gadgets and weapons give marine teams plenty of choice when setting up defences, but players will have to deal with new, never-before-seen breeds of alien.

Gearbox showed us a brand new variant on the classic Xenomorph with a heavily armoured forehead. Its job is to charge like a rhino towards intruders. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford reveals that Gearbox are aware of the risks of bringing new designs to a series as visually iconic as Aliens. "You have to be careful," he says. "You don't want to bastardise our memory of what the Aliens are. But if we shoot the same alien over and over again, we will be bored. Fortunately there's some things we're getting to add to the canon which keep it interesting."

The 'rhino-morph' will form a part of Alines: Colonial Marines "gauntlet" sections. "We've come up with language to define some of the tools we use for pacing," Pitchford explains, "Gauntlet Run: this is about getting from point A to point B and everthing's going to be thrown in your way around you. Last Stand: this is when you're in a defined area and we're going to be pouring in aliens from all directions. That's a pacing moment that can feel sometimes like Left 4 Dead or some of those great moments from Half-Life 2 where you're setting a turret here and setting a turret there. These are really interesting wheen you add co-op into the mix."

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.