| Platforms: PS3/Xbox 360/PC | Developer: Gearbox Studios/Timegate Studios | Price: $60 |
| Genre: Shooter | Publisher: Sega | Rating: M |
A game that was in the making for five years finally gets released but was it worth the wait? After the long wait for Colonial Marines was the wait actually worth it?
It all begins with Corporal Hicks sending out a distress signal to the Colonial Marines, which of course they respond to it. You play as Winter that got sent over to the Sulaco and you are supposed to find any remaining members of Rhino 2-3. As you progress through the level you will be going through a tutorial like any other game. The only member from Rhino 2-3 that you find during this level is Keyes which he wants to disobey the orders. Which I think it was pointless getting what Keyes wanted (well I am not going to spoil it. You can find that out if you want). During the time I played the beginning, I became bored. Yes bored. It didn’t have the suspense and it isn’t even scary which is shocking to me because it supposed to have that. I saw that they tried but it didn’t work, so I say that the beginning was fair but not good.
As stated above, this game is not suspenseful at all. There was a certain part that could be the only exception and that part was on The Raven mission where you had to sneak around (I think it is pipes but not sure) or you would die if you didn’t and during the mission you get chased by a big Xenomorph. Practically mission 4 first half was the only mission that was scary and had suspense but every other mission isn’t suspenseful or scary at all. In the game you spent more time killing the humans than aliens and that is wrong. Why would I buy a game expecting to kill aliens but get the exact opposite? Oh right because the game is called Aliens: Colonial Marines. I should have had so much more time killing Aliens than humans but no. I don’t even remember seeing Colonial Marines killing more humans than aliens in the movies. Co-op was good because it is fun to play with friends and it gets tougher than when you are by yourself but it won’t make the story any better unfortunately. The storyline was confusing and disorienting. First it was about aliens, then about mercenaries, then went back to aliens, then did both at the same time and another one was a part which had some person which I believed should have been dead. Confused yet? Yeah that is how I felt through the entire game.
The ending was disappointing to be honest. I was expecting suspense, scary, and hard to get through but it wasn’t. Just run around and pull a lever and then make sure the queen is on the moving platform and shoot her out of the ship. I expected more than that. That was way too easy for facing a queen. Isn’t the Queen supposed to be the badass of the game (meaning hard)? No they coped out and barely put any effort for the last chapter.
Overall it isn’t good at all. My expectations were high and I left completely disappointed in every way possible.
It is easy to understand the controls especially if you played other FPS games then you will learn the controls to this in a fly. The challenges are well and good but the only thing I hate with the challenges is that you can’t do any challenge that you want. The only way to get to the next challenge is by completing the currently active challenge and that is a bummer because I should be able to choose what challenge I want to do at the moment but no, you will be forced to do what they want you to do which stinks horribly. The customizations are always good and there is a good amount of them too. Change what your Xeno online would like or your marine (male or Female) would look like online. As customizations are good but I must continue on. Finding Audio Logs & Dog Tags is a good way to look around the area even though they are not that hard to find but nonetheless. The Ultimate Badass mode is not really that hard as I was expecting. It is surprisingly easy unless you have a co-op partner then it is hard but it should have been hard by yourself too. Since Ultimate Badass was the hardest difficulty in the game I expected it to be really hard but it felt like I was playing on medium hard difficulty level, which is kind of weird actually. During the game you practically don’t even have to use the tracker since the Xenomorphs come in front of you. They seem to come from the front like crazy and rarely come from the back. Talk about horrible AI. I also hate that Xenomorphs always goes after you. Even when there are others shooting them they will come at you. It is stupid really because it acts like you are the only one in the room. The AI in this game is just horrible. They are plain stupid that i would rather face the Xeno’s all by myself because that is what it feels like anyways. When I am fighting Xeno’s, O’Neal (most of the time) will just walk by them and wait at the destination point and leave me killing all of them. That is the way to work like a team. Not! I think Gearbox put no effort into the AI or most of the game for that matter. Hell most of the time O’Neal will aim up at the ceiling. He also has that smart gun through the game and he barely does anything with it. If you are not going to use the Smart Gun, then give it to me. At least I will know how to use the darn thing.
Overall they didn’t do a good job at all. It is fair at best.
The presentation is definitely not an award winner either because there are so many problems that I can’t comprehend why it is so bad. Reminds me of the days of PS2. We will just look at the good for now. The animated background on the main menu is good. Animated backgrounds make the menu looks less bland and the main menu layout is simple to get to everything. The gun sounds are ok but not the best and the gun designs are ok as well but they could have done slightly better but it is fine as is. The music in this game (to me) was great. It was better than the game but the music was used (most of the time) in the wrong parts. When there was nothing going on the music would make it sound suspenseful but nothing was happening. No sounds of enemies, not a single thing was making a sound. The music was great nonetheless. Now let’s dive into the bad things. The game looked like it was made for the PS2 (or launch PS3 title). If this was a launch title it could be excused for this but this late in the gen when next gen is about to start, there is no excuse for this. The demo looked better than the final product which is bad and they could have at least made it look more like it but it is worse. Remember this line “the cake is a lie”? Well the demo is that cake and it is a lie. It looks like two separate products but they are the same game. The design to this game is bad. It is just bad compared to the demo (which Gearbox said that the demo was real gameplay) so I was expecting it to look more like it since the demo footage was the darn game. There is texture pop-ins and it takes 20 seconds for the game to load it which is horrible. The enemies (majority of the time) randomly disappear when you kill them. How the heck is that possible? They shouldn’t disappear as soon as I kill them even though it is a game but still. The Blood/Acid looks horrible. It doesn’t even look like that at all. It looks like it got washed out (meaning acid is supposed to be green but it looks like light green). There is barely any dialog like “over here” or “follow me” but it is just random. Most of the time It is completely useless to even listen to them. The voice acting is bad. Winter sounds like he is a squeaky toy that lost his squeak. You can also walk through people. When can I walk through another human? Supposedly the people in this game are ghosts. It should be called: Aliens: Ghost Marines. The character animations are bad. They walk like they are floating and randomly shaking their heads up and down or the lips moving when they talk. There are several glitches in this game. Like when Bella tries to do a bypass, she doesn’t even face the wall to do it or the AI will use invisible guns, or better yet invisible walls.
Overall it felt unfinished. It also felt like they rushed it. It is hard to understand why they did a horrible job with this game. Did outsourcing it have a horrible effect for this game? Probably yes.
Well the rest of the game is bad so far but let’s just continue on. To begin with this game has a good amount of attachments which is good and has good amount of weapons from the movies which adds fan service. Adding stuff for the fans is great and all but they need to make it feel more like an alien’s game than a Call of Duty game. Yes it feels like Call of Duty because most of the time you will try to kill humans more than anything but let’s continue. It was a generic FPS game and didn’t try to be unique at all. They could have tried at least because there needs to be a uniqueness in the FPS Genre because they are all becoming the same thing. The guns seem to be overpowered at times and that especially goes to the Shotguns. I can shoot 30 feet away with three shots and kill someone. I think they tried to make this game something else rather than what it shouldn’t be. This game should have tried to be scary but it was more action shooter than anything. To a film that is supposed to be scary to a game that didn’t even try to be scary.
Overall it got executed badly. It needed to be scary but wasn’t. The fan service was a good thing and I will give them that. They did an ok job but not good
Ah multiplayer, something that usually eats away the Single Player experience but is multiplayer any better than Single Player? Let’s find out. For starters you actually need to use the tracker, something that you didn’t need to use during SP campaign and MP actually felt scarier than SP which is actually sad. You never know when the Xenomorphs will pop-out because a lot of the people can be clever and sneak behind you which they should have had the Xeno’s in SP do. The maps are designed well and I actually like them. It wasn’t jaw dropping but it was good nonetheless. Before I forget, the MP is more enjoyable than the SP experience. Did they do this on purpose and just not care about the SP? It somehow feels like that. Good amount of modes to play which I like Escape the most. Every mode felt like it should be there and not just for a tack on. The matches are not short and have two rounds per mode and I like long matches because Short matches are boring in my opinion. You can play as a Marine or Xeno (the game chooses but you will play them both in a match and that is the reason for two rounds per mode). Now onto the bad stuff of MP. You can barely find anyone. After you wait a while you possibly can find a group to face but be sure to have patience. As Xenomorph there can glitches climbing up walls. When I am climbing up, sometimes it would glitch and go down instead of going up. There are only two maps for Survivor & Escape and that to me is a bummer because they could have done more than two. Expect some connection problems like lagging in a match or getting disconnected but it lags more than anything. Going into vents is a bit glitchy. Sometimes you will have to wait for 10 seconds to walk in a vent or instantly able to. I think it has to do with connection problems too but not sure. Playing online sometimes will cause the system to freeze but it is really rare. It only happened once and not sure why it happened but it happened to a friend of mine once also, so I don’t know the cause of it. There is no customizing a private match which again is a bummer because I should be able lengthen the time limit and make the match the way that I want it but hey that is probably just me.
Overall they did a better job with MP than SP. I sometimes think they made it for MP and just tacked on the SP part. I think that is wrong but hey that is just me probably.
Conclusion:
After it being five years in the making, it is an utter disappointment. I expected it to be better actually and this is like DNF all over again. Probably Gearbox shouldn’t have outsourced this game because this game had potential and it got squandered like any other game that had potential. Sega should have looked at this game and said “no, I won’t publish this. Make it better” but hey that is logical. I wish this game never got released because it would have been better than that. If you ever want to get this game, wait till it is in the bargain bin or rent it because it definitely is not worth the money at the price it is at now.
| Positives | Negatives |
Story- 3/10
| +Mission 5 was good | -Practically No Suspense |
| +co-op was good | -Not Scary |
| -Spent more time killing humans than Aliens | |
| -Storyline was confusing | |
| -Ending was disappointing |
Gameplay- 5/10
| +Easy to understand controls | -Horrible AI’s |
| +Challenges | -Xenomorphs come always goes after you |
| +Customizations | -No need to use the tracker |
| +Audio Logs/Dog Tags | -Hardest difficulty isn’t that hard |
Presentation-3/10
| +Gun sounds are ok | -Glitches |
| +The animated background | -Looks like it is was made for the PS2 |
| +Menu is simple | -Design is horrible |
| +The music was good | -Unfinished Game |
| +Gun designs are ok | -Demo looked better |
| -Barely any dialog | |
| -Enemies disappear when you kill them | |
| -Walk through people | |
| -Blood/Acid looks horrible | |
| -Texture pop-ins | |
| -Voice acting is horrible | |
| -Character animations are bad |
Shooter Genre Mastery- 5/10
| +Attachments | -Horribly executed |
| + Good amount of fan service | -Generic shooter |
| +Good amount of guns | -Guns are overpowered |
| -Tried to be something else |
Multiplayer- 6/10
| +Need to use the tracker | -Can barely find anyone |
| +It feels scarier than Single Player | -Glitches climbing up on walls |
| +More enjoyable then SP | -Only two maps for Survivor & Escape |
| +Maps are designed well | -Sometimes it will cause the system to freeze (rare) |
| +Good amount of modes | -Some connection problems |
| +The matches are not short | -Glitches going into vents |
| +Play as a Marine and a Xeno | -No customizations for a private match |
Overall- 4.4/10
