Pitchford: Colonial Marines experience leans closer to "gritty realism" than action

Randy Pitchford has described the gameplay experience of Aliens: Colonial Marines as being more akin to "gritty realism" than a typical action-shoot. Don't you fret though: the "definitely" has plenty of action.

Speaking with the PS Blog, the Gearbox boss explained gameplay footage shown in videos by marketing "will tend to focus more on the action" side of things, stressing that it's hard for viewers to "really feel difficulty and challenge" when watching promotional footage.

Pitchford also said the team is trying to strike the right balance between showing the player too much xenomorph and showing too little, by focusing adding value to the moments when the player actually comes into contact with one.

"It’s been fun for us to dream up the presentations, but we’re not approaching it like no one knows what a xenomorph looks like," he said. "We do have some awesome new variants to reveal for the first time, so we try to get value out of those moments for the experience when you’re playing the game."

The multiplayer component in the game is also a "big deal" for the development team, and it's currently "getting a huge amount of attention." Pitchford said Gearbox will soon be looking for opportunities for people to get hands-on time with the multiplayer, which will provide the firm with an outside perspective on the mode.

"Peer review and testing with customers is really important to us in the tuning process," he said. "If [anyone] in Dallas, TX wants to be part of our user testing program, they should check out our website for more information."

Finally, players will be able to step inside The Derelict spacecraft, discovered on the Acheron LV-426 moon and thought to have been destroyed during a meltdown, but Pitchford declined to comment further on it, due to his wish not to spoil anything.

Colonial Marines releases in the fall.

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