Aliens: Colonial Marines is a FPS which puts you in the role of a United States Colonial Marine named Cpl. Christopher Winter. You will have access to iconic weapons from the movie such as the flamethrower, pulse rifle, smartgun, shotgun, pistol, RPGs, and robotic sentry turrets. Players will also be able to use welding torches to seal doors and motion trackers to detect unseen enemies.

As you progress you will gain experience points when killing enemies and completing certain objectives. These experience points will allow you to customize the appearance of your character, purchase upgrades for weapons, and unlock other skill sets, all of which carry over to other gameplay modes.

The game features a campaign with dynamic drop-in/drop-out cooperative multiplayer for up to 4 players online or 2 players locally via split screen. Competitive multiplayer has been confirmed, and Gearbox has shown Aliens vs Marines team deathmatch 6 v 6 gameplay, as well as a 4 v 4 objective mode called Escape, where the marines team must reach an evac point while the alien team must hunt and stop them. Gearbox has said that there are other multiple “objective based modes” that have not been announced yet.

Described as a true sequel to James Cameron’s film, the story of Aliens: Colonial Marines takes place after the events of the second film, Aliens.  At PAX East 2012, Gearbox Software’s Community Manager confirmed that the game is considered an official part of the Alien franchise’s canon by 20th Century Fox. Much of the main plot was written by Battlestar Galactica writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle.

The story is told through the eyes of Corporal Christopher Winter, a Colonial Marine who is part of a search and rescue team sent to investigate the U.S.S. Sulaco in search of Ellen Ripley, Corporal Dwayne Hicks, and the rest of the missing marines who were dispatched to LV-426. The Sulaco, and the derelict alien spacecraft from Alien as well as LV-426 itself will all serve as environments in the game, as well as other locations yet to be detailed. Gearbox has stated that they were invited to speak with Ridley Scott and view the script for his Alien prequel Prometheus, insinuating that there may be connections or references to the events of Prometheus in Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Aliens Colonial Marines arrives with us on February 12th and is looking pretty damn awesome. Here is a selection of trailers that show off the game pretty well.