Kevin Riepl talk to us about his latest score, and gave us his view on the Alien franchise.
GamerHub.TV: Alien: Colonial Marines is penned as the official sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens. Did you take any bits and pieces from the movie soundtrack?
Kevin Riepl: There is much homage to both Jerry Goldsmith’s ALIEN and James Horner’s ALIENS. I felt it was necessary to call on or creatively borrow certain motifs and melodies used in the previous films. I thought it was the best way to help link the stories and give the players a familiar sonic palette to help immerse them in and return to the ALIEN universe.
GamerHub.TV: What was the inspiration for Aliens: Colonial Marines?
Kevin Riepl: Being a fan of the franchise for so long and hearing the scores many times over was essential in the inspiration behind creating a new score for the franchise.
GamerHub.TV: Was one of the focuses for Aliens: Colonial Marines to sound nothing like Alien 3 and, for it to be completely original?
Kevin Riepl: There was never any deliberate goal for it not to sound like Alien 3. It needed to sound like a sequel to ALIENS, and how it would sound coming from me. Elliot Goldenthal’s score for Alien 3 was amazing and worked with that film and story. Gearbox and I felt that the score for Aliens: Colonial Marines needed to fall more in line with the canonical story that the game’s path took. Therefore calling on and paying homage to ALIEN & ALIENS’ music was a big part of tying it all together.
