Here's Your First Look at Aliens: Colonial Marines' New 'Escape' Multiplayer Mode

Problem is that they'll most certainly make the Aliens too easy to kill. They really should take a note from the first two movies, and if they can't replicate that in a multiplayer setting, they probably should stay away from it, if the end result is making two equally strong sides.

@fisk0: Agreed. Gimme a co-op multiplayer survival horror where you are being hunted by a SINGLE Alien.

@flamingeyebrows: Never played Bioshock 2's multiplayer, but didn't they do something where one guy was a big daddy, and all the others were regular people/splicers? Something like that could work.

In all the AvP games the aliens were easy to take down. This looks a lot like some of the multiplayer modes in the old AvP and AvP 2, and for that I can't wait.

@fisk0: uuuuh I don't know if you saw the second movie but the aliens were pretty easy to kill.

Looks like less l4d and more Dead Space 2.

I really hope that the auto tracker gun isn't what it was in avp2.

@fisk0: I don't know about Bioshock 2 but playing as the tank in L4D is the closest thing I can think of to this.

The problem is making the Xenomorph not that suseptible to bullets but at the same time finding a way to encourage stealthy play instead of just rushing the Marine players.

Maybe a mode where a Predator and a Xenomorph are both hunting the Marines and each other?

@fisk0 said:

@flamingeyebrows: Never played Bioshock 2's multiplayer, but didn't they do something where one guy was a big daddy, and all the others were regular people/splicers? Something like that could work.

A Big Daddy suit would show up at some point on the map, and someone could go put it on for a limited time. It was essentially their form of "Quad Damage" or "Overshield". Honestly, the Bioshock 2 multiplayer was fucking excellent.

This Aliens stuff looks alright. However, is it just me or does the ridiculously smooth frame rate just look a little odd for some damn reason?

@Hef: Been quite a while since I saw it, but iirc even though they killed off a few xenomorphs, the amounts of humans to die per xenomorph were quite a few, and they were crushed by vehicles and vented into space or killed by concentrated fire by several people rather than by single soldiers, except for Ripley, but she's pretty badass.

Dat PC frame-rate.

This looks pretty damn awesome in my opinion! Let's just hope Gearbox gives the PC version the same treatment they are giving to Borderlands 2.

@Alorithin said:

Looks like less l4d and more Dead Space 2.

I really hope that the auto tracker gun isn't what it was in avp2.

That's my first thought too. To be fair though, I actually enjoyed Dead Space 2's multiplayer (in concept).

Still, I am pretty cold on this game.

Having watched the Aliens movies for the first time not too long ago I'm stoked for this. Also I trust Gearbox.

There was an escape mode in AvP2 but it was called evac, don't know how similar this is though.

@flamingeyebrows said:

The problem is making the Xenomorph not that suseptible to bullets but at the same time finding a way to encourage stealthy play instead of just rushing the Marine players.

Maybe a mode where a Predator and a Xenomorph are both hunting the Marines and each other?

You just described the multiplayer in AvP2 except there were several aliens and a only a few preds. The faster xenomorph types did die pretty quickly, but there were also more resistant types, like the predalien, but there could only be so many of those resistant types at the same time. Also most servers had predators locked to a 1:4 - 1:8 ratio to marines, simply because preds were OP (like they should be). No idea if people are still playing it online, but if they are and you never played it, I totally recommend it if you're into the alien or predator franchises.

@fisk0: I don't understand why everyone thinks the Xenomorphs are so strong. In Aliens they totally get torn up when shot by the marines, there's just so many of them that you probably don't notice. At least that's how I remember it going.

This looks fucking awesome

I think, for a multiplayer trailer, this looks very cool, and it's rare in trailers that they'd use music that I wouldn't mind hearing in the game. Anyways, I'm very excited for the campaign due to not only it being an Aliens game, but because it's going to be canon. I'm not going to guess what the final product is going to be, whether it rate well or not, I just want to be excited for this. I'm a huge Alien fan.

@flamingeyebrows said:

@fisk0: I don't know about Bioshock 2 but playing as the tank in L4D is the closest thing I can think of to this.

The problem is making the Xenomorph not that suseptible to bullets but at the same time finding a way to encourage stealthy play instead of just rushing the Marine players.

Maybe a mode where a Predator and a Xenomorph are both hunting the Marines and each other?

Please keep Predators out of this game, it's not Alien vs. Predator and who ever mixed those two movie alien species together should be banned from this planet, it's like mixing Rambo with Terminator.

The key to proper multiplayer gameplay is to make humans very fragile. Xenos are fine, the warriors are proper easy to kill with most weaponry as movies clearly showed, if you got no weaponry well they you should be fucked, but humans in most AvP games just too much of a beating if you weren't biting their head off.

For humans they should go with the Rainbow Six: Raven Shield health system, where one hit will gimp you and another one will kill you and of course a head shot/head bite/head swipe will instantly kill the marine, no health regeneration.

As for xenos, they should easily take some bullets, not a full 30 bullet clip, but 3-5 hits should be easily survivable (aka 100 health points and bullet taking 20 points each) and again a proper head shot = kill. Possibly health regeneration out of combat, 100%, 80% 60%, 40%, 20%, depending on the damage you've taken.

Yep, it's Alex.

Looks really cool.

Let's be serious here, Alex. Nobody on the GiantBomb staff plays Left4Dead.

I'm not sure what to make of this trailer because we never see a horde of aliens running at them, there's only like one or two on the attack. The most I see in one frame is about 4. So is it really just 4 vs 4 with no bots on the Alien side?

@FMinus said:

As for xenos, they should easily take some bullets, not a full 30 bullet clip, but 3-5 hits should be easily survivable (aka 100 health points and bullet taking 20 points each) and again a proper head shot = kill. Possibly health regeneration out of combat, 100%, 80% 60%, 40%, 20%, depending on the damage you've taken.

Most games, and even some of the movies skip the "their blood is acid!" part (can actually only remember the Aliens TC for Duke Nukem 3D having that). Would be interesting if they made a very strong incentive to stay away from living or dead xenomorphs, other than the fact that they have strong melee attacks - but that shooting one to pieces in too close quarters would splatter you and your team mates with acid. Get Volition in on the team and port their Geomod tech over, so that Alien bodies will burn holes through the floors, creating new shortcuts for the xenomorphs to squeeze through.

Escape? Not very interested. Lifecycle would fire me up but I think they already stated that this is not in.

@Jared said:

This looks pretty damn awesome in my opinion! Let's just hope Gearbox gives the PC version the same treatment they are giving to Borderlands 2.

So creepy love letter from the alien to PC players?

God I miss AVP2 multi player.

@flamingeyebrows said:

@fisk0: Agreed. Gimme a co-op multiplayer survival horror where you are being hunted by a SINGLE Alien.

play the old AvP games.

people are comparing this game with L4D, Bioshock2, DS2 and even ACB but the truth is that they all copied the original AvP.

Where did this idea that Xenomorphs are difficult to kill with guns come from? Hundreds were killed by the turrets and soldiers in the movie Aliens. The movies are quite clear that Xenomorphs are more like the Zerg when they have access to large populations and use overwhelming numbers to reduce any resistance. The only time Xenomorphs are difficult to kill is when they are stalking people who don't have access to military-grade weapons. Stop conflating the two very different scenarios.

I think they really fucked this game up for me, as far as direction goes. I was really hoping for something atmospheric and subtle, not balls out AvPing

Yeah whatever, I am sure this will be included in whatever Sega mega pack I get from next years Steam Summer Sale so looking forward to paying what equates to about $4 for this.

I love how sometimes they complain that games are so iterative and just the same thing with a new skin and then they praise it.

@Jon_Danger Agreed! AvP2 was awesome.

So is this 4 vs 4 cus if so the Alien team needs some AI to help out or it's just gonna be shit running from 4 players.

It's a blatant rip off of Left 4 Dead, but as a mother fucker who loves him some Left 4 dead I'm down for a Left 4 Dead with Aliens game. I hope this game gets a community going around it as I could see me playing the game for a bit.

@flamingeyebrows said:

@fisk0: Agreed. Gimme a co-op multiplayer survival horror where you are being hunted by a SINGLE Alien.

So true, much like man with the golden gun or the 'Zombie' mode from halo, It's hilarious trying to escape from a friend who is insanely overpowered. With the right maps, I'm thinking a catacomb-esque hive complete tight bends and secret doors, hatches - it could mean hours of fun for the whole family over the age of 18.

@fisk0 said:

@FMinus said:

As for xenos, they should easily take some bullets, not a full 30 bullet clip, but 3-5 hits should be easily survivable (aka 100 health points and bullet taking 20 points each) and again a proper head shot = kill. Possibly health regeneration out of combat, 100%, 80% 60%, 40%, 20%, depending on the damage you've taken.

Most games, and even some of the movies skip the "their blood is acid!" part (can actually only remember the Aliens TC for Duke Nukem 3D having that). Would be interesting if they made a very strong incentive to stay away from living or dead xenomorphs, other than the fact that they have strong melee attacks - but that shooting one to pieces in too close quarters would splatter you and your team mates with acid. Get Volition in on the team and port their Geomod tech over, so that Alien bodies will burn holes through the floors, creating new shortcuts for the xenomorphs to squeeze through.

You're completely right, that would be so awesome and would add to the atmosphere of the game. In addition to casual acid spray damage, xenos could kill each other to "burn/melt" through places on the map to make shortcuts and similar stuff like etching a girder to fall on a marine or etching the APC to get inside, or disabling it by etching the wheels etc.

I also don't quite like 4v4 game mode, should be at least 4 marines vs. 8 xenos. If they keep it 4v4, maybe really steal from the likes of Left 4 Dead and have additional CPU xenos running around, including Facehuggers.

I wanna to play as a facehugger.

Too bad it's still gonna be shittier than AVP 2. That EVAC mode was sick, and this might be a LITTLE bit like that, but really it's just more Left 4 Shit gameplay, lol.

I know this sounds shallow, but this game's not looking too good, graphics-wise (looks like they're getting a good 60fps on it though).

Also, more like Left 4 Dead: Aliens n Marines, am I rite.

fuck this looks awesome!

@fisk0 said:

@Hef: Been quite a while since I saw it, but iirc even though they killed off a few xenomorphs, the amounts of humans to die per xenomorph were quite a few, and they were crushed by vehicles and vented into space or killed by concentrated fire by several people rather than by single soldiers, except for Ripley, but she's pretty badass.

Actually they kill quite a few Xenos with bullets in the second movie. I've seen it like a dozen times by now and every time i watch it, i try to keep an kill count on the Xenos to see if their number matches up with the actual population of the colony.

Usually around 20 kills (sentry scenes mess up counting so bad) i stop trying to count, because it ends up being impossible to come up with an reliable number.

If the Marines would have encountered just a single Xeno there, they would have moped the floor with it after it killed a few Marines max.

I also doubt that "being badass" gives extra damage and bullet penetration on firearms ;)

I want to say this footage has to be from a console, otherwise its not living up to the stuff coming out on PC recently. Also is it me or does the game seem a little slow paced?

I'm still looking forward to playing it being an Aliens fan.

@Turkalurch said:

I want to say this footage has to be from a console, otherwise its not living up to the stuff coming out on PC recently. Also is it me or does the game seem a little slow paced?

I'm still looking forward to playing it being an Aliens fan.

The whole thing is looking more shabby by the day. These days we usually see the high-end PC footage mixed with the best action scenes - but if this is the best they can show in both action and graphics I'm not sure this Colonial Marines will be worth it. I'm yet to watch a trailer for this game that hasn't let me down... and I really want to like this game.

@Nethlem said:

@fisk0 said:

@Hef: Been quite a while since I saw it, but iirc even though they killed off a few xenomorphs, the amounts of humans to die per xenomorph were quite a few, and they were crushed by vehicles and vented into space or killed by concentrated fire by several people rather than by single soldiers, except for Ripley, but she's pretty badass.

Actually they kill quite a few Xenos with bullets in the second movie. I've seen it like a dozen times by now and every time i watch it, i try to keep an kill count on the Xenos to see if their number matches up with the actual population of the colony.

Usually around 20 kills (sentry scenes mess up counting so bad) i stop trying to count, because it ends up being impossible to come up with an reliable number.

If the Marines would have encountered just a single Xeno there, they would have moped the floor with it after it killed a few Marines max.

I also doubt that "being badass" gives extra damage and bullet penetration on firearms ;)

I guess I stand corrected than. Also, another reason for me to get the Blu-ray boxset. Haven't watched most of them since the late 90's when I bought them on VHS.

But of course being badass increases bullet penetration, damage, reload speed (or even increases the bullet per magazine count by infinity). Both action movies and RPG's should've taught you that by now!