Aliens: Colonial Marines is a first-person shooter developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sega and released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on February 12, 2013. Although a Wii U version was also being produced it was finally canceled on April 5, 2013. The game was universally panned from critics and fans and is known as one of the biggest dissapointments of the 7th generation of consoles. The game is notable as being intended to fill in as canon storyline taking place between the movies Aliens and Alien3, although in setting it actually occurs at least during certain parts of Alien3 due to Ripley, Newt and Hick's cryotubes having already been ejected from the USS Sulaco.
Plot[]
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During the events of Aliens Carter J. Burke manages to send a message to Michael Weyland from Weyland-Yutani confirming the existence of the xenomorph species. Weyland sends the advanced research transport spacecraft WYS Legato to LV-426 with a cargo of human colonists kept in cryostasis to be used as hosts to the xenomorphs. However, the Legato arrives just after the destruction of Hadley's Hope and the departure of the USS Sulaco. After investigating the coordinates of the Alien Derelict the corporates discover the ruins of the craft and harvest several xenomorph eggs and begin experimenting with the colonists. They also pinpoint the location of the USS Sulaco through the network and the Colony's computer logs, sending the Legato to intercept the cruiser. 11 days later, the corporates connect their ship with the Sulaco, but then a xenomorph outbreak takes place in the Legato.
Colonist Lisbeth Hutchins awakens and finds a fellow colonist called Ethan during the chaos. While Ethan tells Lisbeth of the situation, a chestburster erupts from his chest, killing him. Unarmed and confused Lisbeth makes her way through the infested ship, watching corporate PMCs murdering infected colonists. Another colonist called Andrews helps Lisbeth but is killed by a xenomorph. Finally Lisbeth finds ex-Colonial Marine Stone and Turk, two colonists who go with her until the exit port of the ship. There Lisbeth separates to search for her parents while Stone and Turk board the Sulaco to search for military help. Lisbeth finds both her parents dead and begins to feel sick, realizing that she was impregnated with a xenomorph. Just before dying she manages to self-destruct the Legato by taking the ship's coolant system offline.
Stone and Turk manage to arrive at the cryostasis section of the Sulaco, where they find Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, Ellen Ripley and Dwayne Hicks sleeping. While awakening, Corporal Hicks watches a facehugger already attached to Ripley's face. Three Weyland-Yutani PMCs enter the area and during the fight one of the corporates fires his weapon and grazes Ripley's facehugger, which bursts acidic blood that burns both her cryotube and the floor, causing an electrical fire and activating the ship's alarm. During the alarm Turk is knocked unconscious by one of the PMCs, who throws him inside Hicks's cryotube. It closes immediately and is ejected out of cryostasis by the ship's computer, along with Newt and Ripley's cryotubes, sending them to Fury 161 inside an EEV. After killing the remaining PMCs and fighting several xenomorphs inside the vessel, Stone and Hicks escape the Sulaco using a service skiff craft and set course to Fury 161 to rescue Turk, Newt and Ripley, taking them two days to finally arrive. They both witness Ripley's death after she throws herself into a molten pit and are captured by Michael Weyland and several PMCs, who take them back to LV-426 in the still infested Sulaco.
14 weeks later, while in captivity inside the Origin installation near the Alien Derelict, Weyland demands both of them to give him the code for a recorded distress call that Hicks intended to sent to the USCM forces, but didn't manage to. After Stone denies any knowledge of such message he is executed by one of the PMCs. Hicks is chemically tortured for information while Weyland boasts how the colonists and human life in general are of little concern to him. While doing this a Weyland-Yutani scientist named Rick Levy rebels and rescues Hicks while keeping Weyland and his PMCs at bay at gunpoint. Another xenomorph infestation occurs inside the caverns near the Origin complex. Amidst the chaos Levy and Hicks fight their way until they finally arrive at a communications relay station and manage to send part of Hicks's distress call, which is picked up by the USS Colonial marines.
The USS Sephora is sent to investigate the Sulaco. 17 days later, the Sephora arrives, and begin investigating. While investigating the ship Corporal Cristopher T. Winter, Private Peter O'Neal and Private Bella Clarison discover Weyland-Yutani PMCs commanding the Sulaco and using Sephora marines as hosts to the xenomorphs. The hostile corporate mercenaries attack the Sephora using the Sulaco's weaponry and both ships are destroyed after the Sephora retaliates. Winter, O'Neal, Bella, Captain Jeremy Cruz, Sephora android Bishop, and dropship pilot Lieutenant Reid crash-land on LV-426 and take shelter in the ruins of the Hadley's Hope colony complex. Captain Cruz orders all the other survivors from the Sephora to gather at the Hadley Hope's ruins. While investigating the ruins of the colony, mutated and radioactive xenomorphs that only react to sound and movement, and are prone to exploding violently due to their unstable chemical makeup are discovered, as well as the corpses of Sulaco marines William Hudson and Trevor Wierzbowski.
Private Bella is found to be infected with a xenomorph after a scan by Bishop. As a result, she is escorted by Winter and O'Neal to a Weyland-Yutani xenomorph research facility, set near the derelict extraterrestrial "Engineer" ship from Alien, in order to surgically remove the embryo. However, an interrogated Weyland-Yutani physician explains to them that the infection can't be treated since extracting the alien will also kill the host anyway. Bella dies when her parasite matures while she is saying her goodbyes to Winter and O'Neal.
Hicks is rescued from the PMCs. Hicks describes how 'The Company' intercepted and captured the Sulaco, and because he was the only military personnel left on the ship, the Sulaco's computer awakened him. While trying to escape the PMCs, Hicks sent the distress signal that the Sephora picked up, and during the Sulaco's invasion, a xenomorph infestation caused the accidental launch of the escape module with the civilian survivors from the Sulaco out of the ship, and an unknown body inside Hicks's cryotube instead of him. Hicks was subsequently captured and tortured by Michael Bishop Weyland himself, the CEO of Weyland-Yutani, for nearly fourteen weeks, to force him to reveal information about the xenomorphs' origins and to take control of the Sulaco's weapon systems.
After gathering all the remaining Sephora Marines, Captain Cruz orders Hicks and all of his men to attack the Weyland-Yutani facility and seize the only remaining faster-than-light space cruiser left on the planet. While boarding the escaping ship, Captain Cruz sacrifices himself to kill an Alien Queen hidden inside the ship's cargo bay. Winter, O'Neal, Reid, Bishop, and Hicks capture and kill Michael Weyland, who is revealed to also be a Bishop-model android, and not the real Weyland. Searching for military intelligence, Bishop is connected to "Weyland's" CPU and states that he has "everything", setting the stage for a war between the Colonial Marines and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Development:[]
The game was originally announced in 2008. Cancellation rumours,delays, and layoffs weakened the project almost to the point where most people beleive the game was released unfinished. The game has been critizied for having different footage at E3 2013 and E3 2012 that many fans adored however none of it appeared in the final game.