So I finally got a hold of Aliens: Colonial Marines…
Lot of hype surrounding this game. When I picked it up from Gamestop, I was just antsy to get home and I even invited over a friend to play co-op. Well sadly it did not live up to the hype(no surprise right?). In fact it was really underwhelming.
First of all, the level design started out really nice and well done. GearBox spent a lot of time and effort on the Sulaco and I thought it turned out fantastic. The ship just felt really authentic to the setting. But sadly the layout quickly became very linier and very predictable. After leaving the Sulaco, it just got worse. The rest of the game did not get near enough treatment as the Sulaco did and it suffered because of it. When you reach LV-426, it’s just a bunch of broken copy and paste science facilities thrown down on rocky wasteland. The science facilities themselves are just bland and don’t give you a sense of awe and wonder like the Sulaco did.
Graphics wise, the game was okay. Textures had a hard time rendering at some points and seemed a bit dated to say the least. But they weren’t terrible.
Animation was just god awful. Any epic gameplay moments are quickly butchered by the glitchy and clunky animation of the aliens and fellow marines. You even get a chance to use the power-loader, which was just bad ass! But that was ruined by a terrible pseudo boss fight with lazy left-right punch controls and some glitchy scripted ‘critical hits’.
Allied AI was just fucking stupid. They were fucking useless most of the time and couldn’t kill shit. One of your “teammates” even had a smart gun and he still couldn’t do dick with it. I guess he turned the ‘smart’ function off(hur hur). If they weren’t being useless in a fight, they would just slow you down by standing still and doing nothing, like they were petrified by fear. For once I was praying for the enemy to kill them outright.
Enemy AI seemed solid enough. The Xenomorphs did what they do best. Crawl up walls, pop out of vents, and leap at you just when you’re conveniently reloading. Acid blood is meh. It hurts you when standing over their dead corpse, but doesn’t have any splash damage. They also don’t prioritize enemies very well, because they will always target you over the closest enemy and just flat out ignore them until you’re dead.
Gameplay, it’s your typical shooter. You got your pulse rifle, shotgun, pistol, and few un-lockables. You run through a bunch of corridors and rooms and shoot aliens. Not a whole lot going on. The hand held motion tracker is very cool, but I found myself rarely using it. The aliens were always in front of you it seemed and never tried to outflank you or do anything unexpected. The liner level design made the aliens way too predictable in that aspect. You were just putting yourself at risk by pulling it out.
Overall I like the game for what it is. If you were just looking for chance shoot some Xenomorphs (maybe with some buddies), then this game is for you. Anything beyond that, you might want to think twice. But when comparing this game with the AVP games, this it least an upgrade. I’m convinced that Aliens is just not right for the gaming market. Haven’t played the multiplayer yet. I’m hoping my $30.00 season pass for DLC won’t go to waste…
TL;DR Game was mediocre, wait for the bargain bin.
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