Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't just a cheery, popcorn-crunching corridor blaster to while away your weekends with - according to cinematic director Brian Burleson, it's a carefully calculated foundation for future sojourns in the Alien universe, Gearbox-led or otherwise.
"I think it's actually bigger than a lot of people give credit for," Burleson told me, when I asked whether the IP had been drained of juice. "If you look at the canon of the movies, if you look at where Alien was versus Aliens versus Alien 3 versus Alien: Resurrection, they all share a common genealogy but go off in different directions.
"Hopefully there's going to be lots more stories. I think we've picked an interesting bit for ours, and I hope other people are going to continue to make more stories with this universe in the future."
Warming to his theme, Burleson went onto discuss how Colonial Marines itself was born of questions the films leave hanging. "Looking at the end of Aliens - we've got them getting off the planet, we've got that atmospheric processor going off... where can we pick up that thread? What are the repercussions of that?
"That's sort of where we come in, because as storytellers it's always fun to figure out where someone else left some dangling threads in their story. That's another cool thing about this universe: all the stories do that, they always leave a few dangling threads for somebody else to pick up.
"So we've run with a few of those, and created our own fiction from that, and left a few dangling threads of our own for other people to hopefully pick up one day, and expand the universe even further."
Sega already has big plans for the IP - the publisher is brewing up another Alien game for next generation consoles, developed by prolific Total War household Creative Assembly. What little we know about it can be found in this interview.
For its part, Gearbox has expressed an interest in developing a more experimental follow-up to Aliens: Colonial Marines, and isn't averse to the prospect of a Predator project either.
Alas, Colonial Marines itself isn't quite the tour de force we were hoping for, thus far. The campaign has the makings of greatness, but the multiplayer leaves much to be desired.
22 comments so far...
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
I prefer to forget Resurrection ever happened...bastardisation of the franchise & the previous films that it is
I'm looking forward to playing Colonial Marines however, and wouldn't be oppossed to another game in the same vein as the first three films, I remember reading an OXM article about returning to the films roots as a true survival/horror game - but I hope this talk of an "expanded universe" doesn't mean anymore cross-overs, and with the Prometheus plot & possible sequels I can see just that happening. Although I enjoyed the film it felt all over the place, like Ridley Scott wanted it to be a prequel, but not a preqeul, yet use the high regard of Alien to attract an audience?
CunningSmile on 21 Jan '13 said:
I read an interview with Joss Whedon once in which he disavowed it. His reasoning was '...they made me write about a dozen endings for that film. Not one of them included a giant turd baby...'
Bezza89 on 21 Jan '13 said:
It had Michael Wincott in too, that guys voice is epic. Really sad he isn't playing Sam Fisher as he would be perfect in age, appearance and voice. Tom Hardy is hardly a disappointment though, might be better.
msbhvn on 21 Jan '13 said:
Michael Wincott did the voice of Death in Darksiders 2. One of the only decent things in the whole game.
Clanger67 on 21 Jan '13 said:
I suppose Fincher left them a bit limited on where to go after killing Ripley in three though.Think they should have just stuck to the trilogy though.I can't see Ridley ever getting how he wanted to make it after the first one,given Cameron lost Terminator and look what they have done with that since.
OXM ETboy on 21 Jan '13 said:
There are an *astonishing* number of crap Alien/Aliens films/books/games, given how awesomely awesome the first two films were. I've got a soft spot for Alien 3, though.
Clanger67 on 21 Jan '13 said:
Some good english talent in three,think Charles S dutton is a good actor as well.Like Fincher as a director as well.Plus isn't that always the case when the suits get involved,let's make some money from this franchise,blah,blah,blah.It certainly wasn't the first or will be the last series to get wrecked by the money men.
CunningSmile on 21 Jan '13 said:
Biggest tragedy is that the first two comic series, that dealt with an adult Newt and alcoholic Hicks with PTSD, were amazing...then Alien 3 killed them both and the series was recalled and is now out of print. Everything since then has been a case of diminished returns.
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
It's a good film (even better with the "Assembly Cut"), but unfortunately the production issues show through.
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
Strangely, theres a full draft script on the internets that has Newt & Hicks survive, with Hicks as the main character. Was pretty much a re-hash of Aliens with a little Cold War & Resi T-Virus thrown in, worth a read.
Some of the original concepts for Alien 3 sounded great, one had Ripley crash on a 'monk inhabited, wooden monastry planet' (think Death Star without the "fully armed & operational" part
) with her tripping out 'coz she was 'preggers' with the Alien Queen, whilst another picked off the monks. Bits & pieces from that script found their way into Fincher's.
CunningSmile on 21 Jan '13 said:
I've read some really odd scripts for Alien 3, probably because it went through so many changes, and I know Weaver was really throwing her weight around with a list of demands. The comics I mentioned, which came out between Aliens and 3, revolved around Newt and Hicks having woken up on Earth to find Ripley gone. Skip forward ten years and Newt has major rejection issues as a result of losing both her family and Ripley, and is now in an asylum and Hicks an angry alcoholic in constant pain from the acid burns. Just the people you want to send on a mission to what you think is the Aliens home planet. They dealt with a lot of the Space Jockey stuff and Aliens reaching Earth that Prometheus and Resurrection cover and are worth tracking down.
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
Sounds interesting, wouldn't mind having a read through those
CunningSmile on 21 Jan '13 said:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aliens-Book-1-M ... 718&sr=8-1
Should be the first one. Failing that try
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aliens-Outbreak ... 651&sr=8-1
Which is the first one, sort of. It's actually a reprint in which they changed the names Newt and Hicks to Billie and Wilks so I have no idea if the Ripley part of the story still makes sense.
FishyGinger on 21 Jan '13 said:
That was a pure balls idea (balls in this case being bad.) with the wooden space station. Noahs bloody ark in space, only the leopards eat people. And all the animals are people too....and not much like Noahs Ark. There may be hookers though if Bezza likes. And Bacon.
I really liked 3, the different version with the Alien coming out the bull was also quite good but a bit rough in places. It did explain a lot more. 4 was even bigger balls than the wooden spacemonkshipstation. Nice enough concept and would have been decent if only the space baby wasn't there. Pretty sure I saw it on an episode of the Muppets.
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
Admittedly an entire space-worthy station constructed soley from wood is a tad far-fetched, with the "Space Amish" monks, but the idea of the characters being unprepared once again appealed (i.e. hardly anything of value as a weapon). I guess the "wooden" thing was that version's unique spin on the story. Seems a lot of the that script was adapted to be less 'wacky' for the final draft, old prison colony = wooden station, religious convicts = 'Space Amish', burning the Alien out, Ripley's suicide etc... into a worthy conclusion. Wouldn't have called it pure balls however, at least not as pure balls as 'convenient cloning after jumping into a lead furnace'
Bubblebeard JS on 21 Jan '13 said:
erm....
also do you know if they have fixed the blood issues from the previews??
Sandbwoy on 21 Jan '13 said:
This game has grown on me recently. The more I see about it, the more interested I am. Doesn't actually look too bad.
SkinnerChinner on 21 Jan '13 said:
You are indeed, practically a crime against cinema!
OXM ETboy on 21 Jan '13 said:
@Bubblebeard
If by "blood issue" you mean "alien blood doesn't really damage you" - not as far as I know. It probably has more of an impact on higher difficulties, though.
Also: you haven't seen Alien and/or Aliens? Outrageous! Practically the whole of blockbuster action cinema and much of blockbuster gaming is based on those two films.
Metalrodent on 22 Jan '13 said:
hurrah, so basically it's another game like Halo 4 with deliberate plotholes so we have to go out and buy the expanded universe crap they will inevitably produce (luckily for me I like the Halo books lol)
CunningSmile on 22 Jan '13 said:
What Ed said! Skip Alien 3 and Resurrection unless you really enjoy the first two but for the love of Jebus watch the first two!
PaladinRonin on 22 Jan '13 said:
I feel that it's a good idea if people leave some room for others to work a story out of a universe they didn't invent. It allows for future creative writing.