14 DAY TRIAL // Facehuggers are the enemies I hate the most in the Alien universe and the first meeting I have with them is the moment when I traditionally first stop and evaluate the games in the series that I play.
The first facehugger I met in Aliens: Colonial Marines caught me by surprise, jumping out of the shadow after I only managed to glimpse its tail and was unable to fire at it with my trusty pulse rifle.
I was surprised and startled, almost sure that, like in the original Aliens versus Predator, getting a facehuggher attached would lead to a fail state.
But Aliens: Colonial Marines handles the attack as an opportunity to give the player a chance to save himself via a Quick Time Event.
I quickly pushed E in succession in order to get the alien off me and then shot wildly in order to take him out and avoid a second attack.
I then took my hands off my keyboard and mouse and took a few seconds to steady my breath and pledge to myself that I would never again be surprised.
Of course, a few hundred meters away another facehugger was patiently waiting to attach itself and once again I used the QTE to throw it away.
From there on, I paid much more attention to my flashlight, carefully scanning dark areas, especially where xeno eggs were present, in order to spot any and all enemies and take them out before they had a chance to leap.
Of course, the facehuggers in Aliens: Colonial Marines seem to be different from those in the original movie.
Ridley Scott and his team designed the creatures to be almost impossible to remove, because of their acid blood and the strength of their Tails, and getting one attached was seen as a death sentence.
It would have been nice for Gearbox to make them similarly deadly in their take on Aliens, but players would have probably complained about the difficulty level.