New Aliens: Fireteam Images Tease The Return Of Engineers

Cold Iron Studios could be making a daring attempt to bring together several unresolved narrative threads with Aliens: Fireteam.

For those not aware of the name, it belongs to an upcoming third-person co-op shooter which pits a group of Colonial Marines against the unending Xenomorph threat. Inspired primarily by James Cameron’s celebrated sequel to the 1979 movie, this spinoff features not one, two, three, or even one hundred aliens, but thousands. In fact, many of the species you’ll find in the far reaches of space will be never-before-seen mutant strains, each with their own unique abilities intended to spice up gameplay.

Thanks to a batch of new screenshots released yesterday to coincide with Alien Day, though, it now seems as if the iconic monsters brought to life by H. R. Giger might not be the only hostiles that players will face among the stars. As the environmental art shows, one of many campaign areas that squads will be fighting their way through is an Engineer Temple. While it looks remarkably similar to the very same structure seen in Prometheus, Cold Iron has neither confirmed nor denied that the two are identical, though either way, the reveal raises some interesting questions.

It’s worth noting that Fireteam is chronologically set in wake of the original trilogy, placing it centuries after Elizabeth Shaw and her crew’s expedition to LV-223. Will the pale-skinned extraterrestrials make a physical appearance, and if so, will they be friends or foes? Judging from previous depictions, we’re inclined to believe the latter is true, but who knows what mysterious the cosmos holds?

Aliens: Fireteam is scheduled to release this summer for consoles and PC. Stay tuned for more details.