Gearbox given "a lot of freedom" by Fox to Aliens: Colonial Marines

Fox has given a fair bit of leg room with the Aliens IP to Colonial Marines, developer Gearbox has said.

Chief creative officer Brian Martel told GameSpot that its been given "a lot of freedom" by the company, delving as far as the aliens life history.

"They've given us a lot of freedom at 20th Century Fox. Fox has been really cool about it. They want us to stay within the canon of the movies, so this game takes place after Alien 3," Martel said.

"But it is a spiritual sequel to Aliens, so it really lets us be in the boots of the Colonial Marines. But Fox also let us delve into the aliens hive life-cycle and those kind of things. So we've been able to dig in there and kinda create new aliens that make sense for gameplay because making a game is very different than making a movie, so you need different requirements. But they've been very cool with it, so its been a very exciting experience to work with those guys."

Martel added it was listening to fans of the series in terms of feedback they've implemented for the shooter horror.

"The fan reaction has been exceptional. Anybody who has had a love of Aliens has been extremely happy with how we treated things like the pulse riffle, how we've dealt with the Xenos and the settings of course, because we're big fans as well," he said.

"We definitely listen to what everybody wants, listening to the forums, bringing in people to test our games and those sort of things. We've really been able to hone in on what it is to be a true Aliens: Colonial Marines game."

Colonial Marines launches in 2012 for PS3, 360, PC and Wii U. Read our preview from gamescom here.