Obsidian's canned Aliens RPG looks finished in new gameplay video

Judging by a 13-minute gameplay video that's appeared on the internet, Obsidian's Aliens RPG was ready to ship, as studio boss Feargus Urquhart once said it was.

The video's resolution doesn't climb above 480p and the environments are primarily dark, so it's hard to get an accurate idea of texture detail. But at a glance it passes as a finished product. It's not as visually stunning as space RPG Mass Effect; it's roughly similar in terms of visual quality to Obsidian's spy RPG Alpha Protocol.

The characters are voiced and there are naughty swear words as the player explores the interior of what looks like a spaceship with his four comrades. There are dialogue options at one point.

There are context-sensitive abilities - like Heal, Hack, Open, Loot, etc - mapped to the A and X buttons as you explore. Prompts appear top-centre of the screen. Nowhere in the footage do we see any sign of skill trees or how you customise a character beyond what they look like when you create them.

The video flicks through a through menus and loading screens but nothing particularly of note.

The tone isn't particularly dark or scary although that's what it looks like Obsidian's going for. There's plenty of shooting, plenty of aliens. But it's hard to get a real sense of what stands Aliens RPG apart without delving into the story and character development and interaction that Obsidian excels at.

I wonder why it was canned.