To the Marines' sensitive nostrils, the acidic discharge eating away at the scorched flesh of his friend's torso smelled as foul as a soiled diaper.
The Xenomorph lay dead to the side of the fallen soldier, its innards exposed. Another of 7-foot-tall salivating beast appears and slashes the remaining marine to bits. If only he could have escaped.
Last week Gearbox released a new trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines that showcased Escape Mode, a multiplayer gauntlet of four Xenomorph versus four marines. The humans must escape from one end of the map to another, while the aliens must prevent this getaway.
The trailer looked like it recaptures some of the battles from the James Cameron directed film "Aliens" The film portrayed the marines as cocky and confident against a less technologically advanced enemy. What transpired in the film was pure terror as the aliens wreaked havoc on the marines.
Tim Turi of GameInformer and Mike Nelson of Gamespy got to play Escape mode at Pax this past week and here is what they had to say about the game's new mode in their respective articles.
"The goal of Escape for marines is to make it to the end of the map within 10 minutes," Turi wrote. "It's a simple concept, but it distills the essence and tension of Aliens into a single, highly replayable mode."
Nelson wrote; "It did feel like everything favored the xenos, and not just because the team was intimately familiar with the map. The marine players, when killed, well that's it. You're watching from the sidelines. And once one teammate goes down it's like a domino effect -- you can kiss survival all but goodbye once you're down to two marines."
So far the new game mode sounds like it will be an addictive experience when Aliens: Colonial Marines releases on Feb. 12, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360.
Learn more about Escape mode here and watch the Escape mode trailer below...