Line #50 VideoGame/AliensInfestation


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AliensInfestation_front_8486.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[AnyoneCanDie Not all of them will make it to the end.]]]]
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4	''Aliens: Infestation'' is a 2011 side-scrolling {{Metroidvania}} game set in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' universe, developed by Creator/WayForwardTechnologies (of ''[[{{VideoGame/Contra}} Contra 4]]'' and ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' fame) in collaboration with Creator/GearboxSoftware for the Nintendo DS.
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6	18 weeks after the Colonial Marines sent a distress call for backup in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', a backup team from the ''U.S.S. Sephora'' arrives near LV-426 and finds the ''Sulaco'' adrift in space. A group of soldiers, including Captain John "Duke" Cameron, Private Brock "Bear" Paulson, Private Buddy "Brando" Whistler and Lance Corporal Samantha "Homewrecker" Johnston are dispatched to the derelict ship, where they discover that a group called the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP) have boarded the ship and are attempting to harness xenomorphs, who are subsequently attacking them. After the Marines deal with the UPP soldiers aboard the ship, they travel down to the surface of LV-426 and discover a xenomorph hive, as well as several friendly Marines trapped in desperate circumstances. It's up to the core group to rescue their fellow soldiers and destroy the alien presence on the planet once and for all...
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8	The game originally began life as a handheld port of ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' for the Nintendo DS, but was subsequently changed into a standalone product due to the latter title's TroubledProduction. It bridges the plot between ''Aliens'' and ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'', as well as incorporating story ideas from Creator/WilliamGibson's unproduced script for the third film (namely, the Union of Progressive Peoples).
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10	Most of the tropes applicable to the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise in general, as well as ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' specifically, also apply here, for obvious reasons.
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14	!Tropes appearing in this work include:
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16	* AirVentPassageway: Used prominently across all the levels. Expected of LV-426, as the movie has shown that the colony had these in spades, but somewhat unexpected on the ''Sulaco'', where space was supposed to be an issue preventing fitting in air vent spaces you can hide a building in.
17	* AllThereInTheManual: Unless the player is aware of Gibson's unproduced script for ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'', the game doesn't explain who the UPP are or what the acronym even stands for.
18	* AnyoneCanDie: The team roster is actually an interesting take on the [[VideoGameLives multiple-1up system]]. Because every one of your "1up"s has a name, a face, unique animations and unique responses for every single situation in the game, it feels like a combination of AnyoneCanDie and VideoGameLives. The game keeps score of how many Marines you've lost this way.
19	* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: While safety in numbers would be a sensible solution to fighting off the Aliens, only one Marine is playable at a time, and there can be no more than four Marines in your squad; trying to recruit a fifth Marine will have them refuse. Sometimes their reasons are understandable (usually "looking for their former comrades"), other times... not.
20	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Inherited from the parent title. The traditional inconsistency of the alien gestation cycles is still here -- the Marines have been on the ''Sulaco'' for a matter of hours by the time the first of them get chestbursted, and the replenishment drones [[spoiler: that appear on the ''Sulaco'' after the Corporation ferries some eggs from the planet onboard]] mature surprisingly quickly.
21	* ASpaceMarineIsYou: As expected from a game based on the SpaceMarine-centric ''Film/{{Aliens}}''.
22	* {{BFG}}: The M56 Smart Gun fills this role - it is slow to set up, takes a while to reload, but it turns everything in front of it into fine paste in no time.
23	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Can be played straight or averted, depending on who your first casualty is.
24	* CatScare: Multiple uses, including several featuring actual cats. Which is funny, considering that there were no cats in the movie besides Jonesy, who got left at Gateway Station.
25	* CeilingCling: The xenomorphs have no reservations about attacking from above. For some reason, this makes them more resistant to the flamer.
26	* ColonyDrop: Attempted with the ''Sulaco'', à la ''Film/AlienResurrection''.
27	* ContinuityNod: Numerous, seeing as how you revisit most of the first two movies' locations.
28	** Most of the battlecries (said when you pick up weapons and weapon upgrades) of the Marines are quotes from the movies or riffs on them.
29	--->Whistler: "Game over, bugs, GAME OVER!"
30	--->Henick: "Achieving peace through superior firepower!"
31	** When deploying on LV-426, you can see the leftovers of the movies' action. Less so on the ''Sulaco'', but you do visit a few iconic locations there as well.
32	** Activities, such as driving a power loader.
33	** Or [[spoiler:dumping a Queen out of an airlock]] in a boss battle.
34	** Ever wanted to see what a Monkey-grown Xenomorph would look like? What about a [[spoiler: Space Jockey]] one?
35	** The battle robots bleed white, something to be expected in the movies' universe.
36	** Various bits of Creator/WilliamGibson's unused ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' script are integrated into the story, such as [[spoiler: the Union of Progressive People taking the ''Sulaco'' over, and becoming fodder for a new wave of xenos]], providing variety to the opposition encountered by the Marines.
37	** The Knife Trick mini-game. Guess what it's about?
38	** The end credits feature the title theme of ''Film/{{Aliens}}''...
39	** And an ExpositoryThemeTune called "LV-426", mostly made up of quotes from the movie.
40	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Generic Company Man, as he introduces himself.
41	* CriticalExistenceFailure: Played straight. There isn't even any indication of heavy wounds for the player characters.
42	* {{Expy}}: Pretty much every Marine is an Expy of either an ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' character or a SpaceMarine from some other franchise.
43	** Henick looks and acts like an expy of Hicks.
44	** Johnston acts a lot like Vasquez.
45	** Heston looks suspiciously like the VideoGame/{{Doom}} guy. Or ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, your pick.
46	* ExpositoryThemeTune: In the end credits.
47	* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Facehuggers will try to do this to you, resulting in PressXToNotDie. You also see the occasional aftermath of these, both in-progress and already finished.
48	* FiveFingerFillet: As a shout-out to the film ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', there is a playable mini-game where you get to imitate Bishop and stab a knife in the spaces between fingers.
49	* GetBackHereBoss: One of the alien queen boss fights goes down this road.
50	* HubLevel: The ''Sulaco'' ultimately serves as this for the game's story.
51	* HyperspaceArsenal: Partially averted. You can only carry one big gun with you, and a set amount of ammo for it (expandable for some guns via upgrades). The rest of your kit is mostly realistic - a sidearm, flares, grenades, detpacks, motion sensor [[note]](not just "like" in the movies, as it's either ''the tracker'' that belonged to Hicks, or the same model, as your Marines get it on the ''Sulaco'')[[/note]] and whatever LockAndKeyPuzzle components you have amassed. At the beginning of the game it feels like a set of things a man (or woman) can realistically carry on their person, but once you add a pipe wrench, a blowtorch, six grenades (plus 10 underslung grenade launcher grenades for the pulse rifle) and four detpacks, it starts to stretch the imagination a bit. We can safely assume that keycards, keys and the flashlight do not take up significant space, but the air tank [[spoiler:for the Zero-G suit]] sure as hell does.
52	* JustifiedExtraLives: You start with a four-marine team and if one of them dies, they stay dead and you have to continue with another one. However, you come across other lone marines who can join you if you are short of a full team.
53	* KillItWithFire: Among the usable arsenal is a flamethrower (with infinite ammo!). When fully upgraded, it makes a very good tool for clearing out xenomorph nests.
54	* LargeAndInCharge:
55	** [[spoiler:The final boss]].
56	** Many bosses are Praetorian xenomorphs.
57	* LockAndKeyPuzzle: Blowtorches for unblocking (or re-blocking) doors, pipe wrenches for shutting off steam, keys for the Power Loader to smash crates and barricades, detpacks to blow up other barricades... All par for the course when you're playing a Metroidvania.
58	* LudicrousGibs: Killing a xenomorph causes it to burst in a welter of acid gore and spray guts everywhere. If you killed it with an explosive, those guts are also on fire. Facehuggers are completely pasted; they dissapear like snow against a high wind when shot enough.
59	* {{Metroidvania}}: In a wonderful reversal, the movies that inspired the VideoGame/{{Metroid}} series finally get a game with action inspired by the VideoGame/{{Metroid}} series. This happens a lot in the video game world.
60	* MiniGame: The Knife Trick, unlocked when you reach 50% completion. Two guesses what THAT refers to.
61	* NostalgiaLevel: Most of the game, actually, seeing as how most of the locations you will visit have already had previous gaming incarnations.
62	* NothingIsScarier: Used to great effect on several occasions, including checking on dark areas. Pretty much a given for an ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game. Steele will inform the player that the marine can't move on unless a light source can be found.
63	* NotUsingTheZWord: When the Marines inevitably [[spoiler:go up against Weyland-Yutani interests]], the techies across the ''Sulaco'' start implementing this trope. They lurch, they move slowly, they lunge... and nobody comments on that. All the new sorts of xenomorphs get discussed at great lengths, but not the implications of gunning down what earlier seemed to be normal humans. Their white blood and dialogue from Davis before you first fight them does indicate they're Synthetics who've been given an override command.
64	* OnlySixFaces: Since it's Chris Bachalo, sometimes Marvel Comics artist, doing the portraits, some of them look suspiciously like Marvel character designs. As such, Heston looks like ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Fischer looks like Rogue, Cameron looks like Cable and Palms looks like Nightcrawler's human mask.
65	* PaletteSwap: Provides variety in the human-grown drones and allows you to discern the Marines outside of save rooms.
66	* PressXToNotDie: When a facehugger or a full-grown drone will grapple you, you have to indulge in this to survive.
67	* {{Retraux}}: The Knife Trick menu is deliberately Atari-styled.
68	* SaveGameLimits: One save per cartridge, saving only in specially allowed save rooms. In other words, par for the course of {{Metroidvania}}s everywhere (aside from the one-save-slot limit). The traditional MST3KMantra of {{Metroidvania}}s about replenishing health and ammo when entering one is done via a HandWave about how they are combined Communication (for "logging your progress") and Supply (for stocking up on ammo and switching weapons) rooms.
69	* SentryGun: You have to survive and get around some of these set up around the ''Sulaco'' against the xenos because they don't understand the concept of IFF.
70	** You get to use them yourself [[spoiler:in the final boss battle]].
71	* SeriesContinuityError: Hadley's Hope looks suspiciously intact, considering the protagonists of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' were abandoning it to avoid a nuclear blast - 16 days prior to the game's events!
72	** The research base [[spoiler: on Phobos]] seems to possess xenomorphs unrealistically early, considering LV-426 was the first major run-in the Weyland-Yutani Corporation had with the xenos, and our Marines are the first on the scene besides [[spoiler:the UPP]], which didn't manage to get anything out because most of them got eaten or chestbursted or both.
73	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Type I. They kill most xenomorphs and robots [[spoiler: and humans]] with a single blast up-close, penetrate cover and generally look cool. The downsides of a short range and the slow reload are negligible outside of boss battles.
74	* ShoutOut: Aside from references to the movies (see ContinuityNod above), there are these.
75	** PFC Chau, the geekiest of the recruitables (you find her texting "her BFF" from her bolt-hole behind a barricade of debris), is called [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Mei-Lin]].
76	** The leader of the default squad is one Corporal John [[Creator/JamesCameron Cameron]].
77	** Lance Corporal Williams has [[Music/TomPetty "Damn The Torpedoes"]] written on his body armour.
78	* SpaceMarines: Duh.
79	* TeamShot: Every time you enter a save room, your Marines arrange themselves into something like this.
80	* ThrowDownTheBomblet: Averted, using explosives at close range is a good way to lose a marine.
81	* UnexpectedGameplayChange: [[spoiler: The Zero-G section]]. Complicated jumps, with several sequences of one LeapOfFaith after another, all the while fending off xenomorphs...and in a game that doesn't let you move the camera.
82	* VasquezAlwaysDies: Can be played straight or averted depending on whether the Vasquez {{Expy}} that is in your starting team makes it to the very end.
83	* VideoGameLives: See AnyoneCanDie above. A slightly bizarre implementation, where your team members all have the same gameplay abilities, only partake in the action one at a time (despite moving as a unit, the game {{Hand Wave}}s this as one Marine running point), and get KilledOffForReal if you lose them, in-universe. The game keeps track of who you met, who you recruited and who got killed in the Extras section.
84	* WhereItAllBegan: You will have to pay a visit to the Crashed Alien Ship, oh yes.
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Context VideoGame / AliensInfestation