So now that we're seeing some familiar faces, like the skewered android Bishop, or the bandaged Corporal Hicks it might be a bit difficult to place where exactly Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines takes place in the continuity, so far as the movies and comics are concerned, especially after what the cinematic abortions known as "Aliens VS Predator" did to the series.
It's probably best to think of the game as a split, with the "Aliens" movie serving as the best basis, especially given the familiar locale like the derelict spaceship, and Hadley's Hope on LV-426, but with the all the charm of the planet's exploded processer.
Wherever in the timeline the game takes place, whereas "Alien 3" follows Lt. Ellen Ripley, Gearbox pitched Colonial Marines as a direct story sequel to "Aliens." Gearbox's cinematic director Brian Burleson gave his own opinions to Official Xbox Magazine on just what was going on. "Looking at the end of Aliens - we've got them getting off the planet, we've got that atmospheric processor going off," Burleson said. "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."
20th Century Fox is already accepting the events of Colonial Marines as part of the franchise's official continuity, so obviously, they were impressed with Gearbox's work. What remains to be seen is if gamers will be as well. If so, Gearbox has plans for the series to continue along the story set by Colonial Marines.
"Hopefully there's going to be lots more stories," said Burleson. "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."
Now gold, Aliens: Colonial Marines is set for release on Feb. 12, for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.