For the conclusion of our detailed looks behind-the-scenes of Aliens Infestation (which, by the way, is in stores now) WayForward director Adam Tierney takes things to their natural conclusion by explaining the game's unconventional approach to death.

Make sure to head on over to the SEGA Blog to catch the other half!

As players move through the game, they will encounter the other 15 playable Marines, stranded in various locations of the different maps. Walking up to one of these soldiers, the player is treated to a short exchange between their currently-active character, and the idling Marine. Each of these scenes was written 4 times (although technically, it's 4 scenes multiplied by 19 marine scripts, for a total of 76 possible encounters - did I mention we're crazy?). Those possible exchanges are: 

So if the player encounters a Marine when all 4 of their squad slots are filled, the stranded Marine will greet them, but decline to join the squad at that time. If there is an available slot, then sure, they'll tag along (and assume one of the slots previously occupied by one of the Marines you let die). And then the same thing when you revisit them: they'll either refuse again, or tag along, depending on whether there's an available slot.

These little exchanges were important, because they immediately set the tone of each character. Some soldiers are apologetic in remaining behind, while others are downright rude. The player gets an instant, 5-line primer on who that character is, from the moment they meet them. Beyond that, whenever a Marine wasn't ready to join up (meaning the player didn't have a slot empty yet), it worked as a tease. The next time that player loses a character, they know EXACTLY where to find someone to fill that slot. And what's more, there's already a story agreement between the characters: 'If you're ever down a man, come and find me.' The player has essentially already agreed to come back for them later. Once this system was functional, we found players were far more likely to grab a new marine and move past their grief, rather than hit the power button to get their dead soldier back.

Of course, sometimes death isn't so cut and dry...

What if you could bring your favorite Marine back? In the game, anytime the player is killed by a human soldier, a synthetic, or a robot, they're dead as dust. No bringing them back. But when a Marine is 'killed' by any species of xenomorph, the player is presented with a unique situation. First, they'll assume control of another soldier, as usual. Shortly after gameplay resumes, they'll be contacted by their commanding officer (Steele), informing them that he's just picked up a beacon from the presumably-dead soldier. What? You mean they're alive?? That beacon is added to the player's map, and is always in a xeno hive, making it challenging to locate (as those exist only in the air ducts outside the mapped area). At that point, the player must make a choice: do they try to rescue their now-captured squad mate? Or do they press on, and leave them to die?

If the player is able to reach their squad mate in less than 5 minutes, they'll break them down from the Giger-esque wall of the hive, and that marine will rejoin the player's squad. Woohoo, go Marines! Never leave a man behind! If the player takes more than 5 minutes, then when that time elapses Steele will radio the player to inform them that the beacon's gone down. Give up, they're dead. It's time to move on.

Where it gets interesting, is what happens in between (spoilers ahead). If the player reaches their Marine in less than 5 minutes, but more than 3 minutes, they'll save them and the Marine will rejoin their squad. But upon rescue, they rescued Marine will remark that they feel 'kind of sick.' You can probably imagine where this is headed. The xeno-impregnated soldier will rejoin the player's squad, and can fight normally, indefinitely, with one small difference: the next time that soldier loses all HP, a chest burster xeno RIPS out of their chest, causing them instant, permanent death. No more capture, no more second chances. Even worse, when the player selects a new Marine, the first enemy they fight is that newly-spawned chest burster, freshly-birthed from the ribcage of their former squad mate. Ewww.

So those are our life and death systems in a nutshell. When you break the mechanics down to the concept that you basically have a maximum of 3 extra lives, and there are additional extra lives scattered around each map that you can grab later on, it's not too unconventional. But as soon as you put a face, a name, and a voice onto each of those 'extra lives', it becomes something else entirely.

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