As Gearbox decided to focus on projects such as Duke Nukem Forever and Borderlands 2 and outsourced a significant part of Colonial Marines to other studios.

[5] As the fictional Colonial Marines military unit depicted in James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens,[6] players have access to weapons such as pistols, shotguns, grenades, pulse rifles, flamethrowers, robotic sentry turrets, and smartguns, which automatically track and target opponents.

[10] Unlike Colonial Marines, Alien players play from a third-person perspective and cannot use firearms, but have the ability to climb walls, run on ceilings, deliver attacks with their claws, and unleash streams of acid.

[11] Players earn experience points by overcoming opponents, completing challenges,[11] and finding collectibles—Audio Logs, Dog Tags, and Legendary Weapons, all of which are related to characters who appear in the film series.

Shortly before both ships are destroyed in the ensuing confrontation, the Marines, along with commander Captain Cruz, Sephora android Bishop, and pilot lieutenant Lisa Reid, escape aboard her dropship and take shelter in the ruins of the Hadley's Hope colony complex on LV-426.

Although the Marines learn that Clarison has been attacked by a facehugger and needs medical treatment, Cruz orders Winter to travel to a nearby Weyland-Yutani research facility set up near a derelict Xenomorph spacecraft and recover a manifest that identifies an unknown prisoner from the Sulaco.

In an attempt to save Clarison, Winter and O'Neal accept the mission and escort her to the facility, where they intend to convince surviving personnel to remove the Xenomorph embryo from her body.

However, upon arrival, an interrogated Weyland-Yutani medical officer explains to them that Clarison's life cannot be saved because the creature's invasive placenta is cancerous and will eventually kill her even if the embryo is successfully extracted.

A fire in the hypersleep bay subsequently caused the Sulaco survivors Ellen Ripley, Newt, and Bishop to be jettisoned from the ship, along with the body of an unidentified man who was mistaken for the corporal.

Hicks himself was captured by Weyland-Yutani personnel and subjected to torture during interrogation, overseen by android Michael Weyland in an attempt to learn more about the Xenomorphs' origins and to gain control of the Sulaco's weapon systems.

After gathering the remaining Sephora personnel on the colony, Cruz orders an all-out assault on the Weyland-Yutani complex in the hopes of capturing the FTL vessel.

Winter is confronted by a Xenomorph queen in the hangar bay, and attempts to eject her using a cargo launching system, but fails when she climbs back aboard.

[22] Initial work on Colonial Marines, internally codenamed Pecan,[23] began in 2007 with the creation of a prototype by Demiurge Studios,[17] who also helped Gearbox with the networking and multiplayer aspects.

[25] Developers also struggled to optimize the game after spending a significant amount of time increasing its graphical fidelity for a press demo, which ran on high-end computers not normally meant for general use.

The game's shader and particle fidelity were then decreased significantly before release, and textures had to be reduced in size to fit into the memory restraints of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[20] It shares a title with an unrelated 2002 PlayStation 2 project by Electronic Arts and Fox Interactive that would feature a similar setting and subject matter.

[40] At the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, after confirming that Colonial Marines would be released in spring 2012,[41] Gearbox unveiled a teaser trailer and revealed that a Wii U version was in development.

[44] In January 2012, Sega announced that the game had been delayed to a fall 2012 release, stating that the company did not want to "sacrifice the creative process just for the sake of following a [deadline].

"[45] In May 2012, it was delayed one last time, with Gearbox stating that Colonial Marines would launch for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 on February 12, 2013, while the Wii U version would follow later.

The collector's edition included a Powerloader figurine inspired by the film, a Colonial Marines dossier, character customization options, exclusive multiplayer weapons, and a firing range game level.

[53] The first, Bug Hunt, was released on March 19, 2013, and adds a new cooperative mode that involves up to four players fighting increasingly larger waves of Xenomorphs and hostile soldiers across three new maps.

Players earn in-game money by killing opponents, which can then be spent on different options like buying ammunition or opening up new areas of the map to increase their chances of survival.

[68][3][2][66][69] Writing for IGN, editor Tristan Ogilvie remarked that, although Colonial Marines looks and sounds like Aliens, it does not feel like it and does not bring anything new to the first-person shooter genre.

"[3] Also in agreement, Jose Otero of 1Up.com stated: "The weapons and sounds of ACM feel authentic, but the bland look of the game will make you think it shipped as an unfinished product.

"[65] Colonial Marines was criticized for having low-resolution textures, low-quality lighting, poor character models and animations, and uncontrolled aliasing and screen tearing.

[72] Edge remarked that the Colonial Marines are in an inappropriate context because in the film they are depicted as Weyland-Yutani's private army and tasked with fighting Alien creatures.

[64] Destructoid editor James Sterling criticized the story for its archetypal characters and immature dialogue, stating that the game fails to understand the essence of Aliens.

[11] Sterling explained that the film "dissected its posturing 'manly man' stereotypes, and showcased how utterly frail a cowboy mentality can be when everything falls apart", while Colonial Marines "revels in its own testosterone, submerged gleefully in a pool of dank ultramasculinity.

[77] According to a report, Gearbox had been moving people and resources off Colonial Marines onto Borderlands and Duke Nukem Forever while still collecting full payments from Sega as if they were working on the game.

[79] While Sega initially denied such outsourcing,[22] sources claimed otherwise, suggesting that the game was rushed through redesigns, certification, and shipping, despite being largely unfinished.