Surprised as I was by many games at E3 this year, none surprised me more than the once thought canceled Aliens: Colonial Marines becoming a canonical sequel to the films. Having grown up on those movies and still possessing the old-school figurines, this news excites me beyond description. It also helps that the game is a blast to play, but we'll all have to wait until February of next year to get our hands nice and dirty with it.

Aliens: Colonial Marines interview

           

As far as becoming integrated with the overarching story, I believe Colonial Marines will be the first video game ever to become part of something as renowned as Aliens. Speaking to senior producer on the project, Brian Burleson about Colonial Marines becoming canon, he had this to say:

"It's amazing to think that the sequel to the films is a videogame and to be able to work with 20th century fox to make this canonical, you have to do a lot of groundwork, you have to meet the right people, you have to make sure you cross your T's and dot your I's 'cause so many people care about this and are passionate about this franchise that go back 26 years."

Colonial Marines will take place after the events of Alien 3. Expect to see everything in place, from familiar characters, weapons, machines and the xenos themselves. Gearbox wants to create a rich, accurate experience that Alien junkies will devour. After all, it's not every day that a project is green-lit like this.

You're probably going to be in this situation a lot.

The game itself will feature a four-player co-operative campaign where your friends can drop-in or drop-out at any point. For those who can't trust an online companion to help get you through the xenomorphic threat, split-screen will also be implemented. While Gearbox was mum on details about other modes, multiplayer will be a large factor of the game. Unfortunately team deathmatch was the only mode that was being shown off, but it was still rather fun.

Taking much inspiration from games like Left 4 Dead, team deathmatch revolves around two teams of five racing to a specific kill score. Regardless of your choice to side with the malicious xenos or the trigger-happy marines, each side will be customisable with various loadouts or classes. For example, the xenos will be able to choose between various breeds and can eventually evolve into something called a Crusher. Like the Tank in Left 4 Dead, the Crusher is a massive beast that can take a ton of punishment and excels at causing utter chaos. Since marines typically want to stay together to survive, the Crusher can charge in to divide the team, leaving the rest open to assault the helpless marines.

I wasn't lying. This thing is big.

The marine side of things allows you to choose an assortment of weapons and perks, while also generating powerful weapons that can be picked up throughout the level. For instance, the iconic Smart Gun is one of these pick-ups and makes short work of any kind of xeno crossing your path. Ammunition is limited though, so you'll need your team to back you or risk using up the powerful weapon just as fast as you picked it up.

Surely more modes will be revealed as time progresses, but from what we played Colonial Marines proved to be a fun multiplayer experience. If being canon for the series isn't reason enough to give this one a shot, then maybe the mixture of co-op and multiplayer will entice you further. Whatever the case, February 2013 can't come soon enough.