Video Review
Intro
First off I just want to say that I'm a pretty big fan of the Alien movies. Being so I had hopes that this finally would bring the Alien Franchise on the map of a new media. A game that would both excite Alien fans and compliment the movies nicely. Sadly, this game fails pretty heavily on both accounts. It's beyond me how this game obtained the level of hype it did. I don't say that to put down the large amount of people who did follow the hype this game created prior to release, because I likewise was among them. After having played this game I can now safely say that the hype was falsely given. Actually, this game might be the worst thing to happen to the franchise since Alien 3.
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| Lock' n Load |
Presentation/Story
From a purely graphical perspective this game feels outdated. The game's many character models give off a sense of lifelessness. Meaning they don't make very convincing humans. This is mainly seen in the characters eyes, which make them come across as very doll-like. Certain textures in this game are also very poorly done. To be perfectly honest, some of these textures are so lazily executed that they look as if they came straight from a Playstation 1 game. It's not every texture in the game but, a fair amount of them after becoming even somewhat close come across as being extremely blurry, and ugly. The most noticeable of these bad textures comes in the form of screens placed on computers found often throughout the levels. It's not only that though I encountered a truly awful looking sky texture on one of the outdoor segments. Even the green light texture placed on the games hundreds of doors just looks bad. There is no excuse for ruining textures that are so often encountered during the gameplay.
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| Whatever you do don't look into her eyes! |
At times the environments look "alright", and even pay homage to the movies. Although, these environments also suffer from an overly shiny look, a look that a lot of games made early on in this generation suffered from. You'll know what I mean when you play it, instead of looking gritty and realistic, it comes across as plastic-y and unrealistic. Last generation all of these graphical hiccups wouldn't of looked out of place, but nowadays we as gamers have a different level of expectations. Especially from a game that we were teased into believing would be a high-quality game.
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| What the F*** is that even supposed to be? |
The story associated with this game probably won't interest many. Instead the majority of those playing will probably skip the cinematics, and will not miss anything special in doing so. Majority of the characters in this game aren't very likable and by the end of it, your opinion and feelings towards them won't have changed. The dialogue in this game while being fairly well done, comes across as being kind of cheesy. For anyone wondering no, it's not the kind of cheesy funny dialogue one would get from watching the Aliens movie now, it's just simply cheesy. The story is unraveled by both in-game real time dialogue, and through high res cut-scenes. While, these cut-scenes look decent, the character models lips still don't appear to match up with what they're actually saying. Which further assists in taking the player out of the already dull story.
Gameplay/Structure
As some people like to say "it's not the graphics that matter it's the gameplay", I am a firm believer in that statement myself. If this game had outstanding gameplay I could overlook the graphics, sadly though it really doesn't. The gameplay has just as many, if not more issues than the graphics. It plays like a low budget first person shooter. Player movement feels clunky, and the aiming feels loose. The controls are nowhere near as tight and refined as they should've been. The control layout unsurprisingly is very similar to that of Call of Duty's. You've got your iron sights, and sprint button.
The gameplay rarely is accompanied with a feeling of fun. It's just simply too bland. A lot of just standing around facing waves of Aliens or soldiers. Encountering an alien for the first time should be both exciting and scary. In this game it is neither, it's just a target to shoot. The only cool thing one could mention about the aliens in this game are perhaps their movements. They'll crawl along walls, jump at you and look good doing so. They have the ability to knock you down and put you into what I would call Last Stand mode from Call of Duty. Whilst knocked down you have about 5 seconds of only being able to shoot your pistol until you automatically get back up. Generally this ability is more annoying than anything. The encounters with soldiers while adding variety, just tend to showcase the bad shooting mechanics. Along with all that there will be a lot of times in this game where you'll die due to stupid reasons. This becomes further aggravated by the awful looking death scene that accompanies your every demise.
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| This Picture is misleading they're not ACTUALLY scary |
Majority of time in the game you'll be accompanied by friendly AI's to assist you in battle. While these friendly AI's do occasionally kill things, they are extraordinarily stupid. They'll bump into things, get in your way, and show you at times some amusing glitches. I've seen them float in the air and I have also seen them literally run through solid objects. The glitches don't stop there though, you will have a hard time making it through the campaign without seeing something amiss. Whether it be enemy bodies falling through the ground, or sticking to the environment after being killed. Luckily none of the glitches I came across were game-breaking.
Aliens Colonial Marines is set up like your typical First Person Shooter. It's chapter-based and linear. The campaign is extremely short, I'm talking 3-6 hours a play through depending on how fast you choose to play. Actually I bet if you really tried you could get it done in less than 3 hours considering during my second play through I realized that a lot of the enemies I could just run by. Which is completely unacceptable a game that allows you to run by the opposition is a sign of a bad game.
At times it attempts to break up the gameplay, and add some much needed variety. There is a stealth segment in the game where you're in the sewers sneaking past "bugs", and luring them into traps. On top of that the game also has a few minor boss battles, and a chase segment where you're running from a particularly nasty Alien and sealing doors behind you. Two times in this game you will get to control the famous yellow "mech" from the movie. The first time you'll get to use it for about 10 seconds to lift up a door. I'd like to say the second time is more intense, but honestly it's not. I mean you do get to use it in a battle to kill a very large Alien but it lacks creativity. Consisting of a lot of pressing down on the right and left triggers to punch the Alien until it finally dies. The boss battles, if that's really what one can even call them are some of the worst I've ever seen. The final boss fight in particular, was verging on pathetic. I won't spoil it for those who actually still want to play this game but you'll know what I mean when you get there.
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| If only this part was actually fun.... |
This may be hard to believe seeing how I've had a lot of negative things to say about this game, but there were times where I did enjoy the game. Although, these instances were far and few between. I would say I enjoyed it as one enjoys a B-Movie. Along with that I liked it when the game coincided with the movie. The instances where I would be in a location where Ripley was in the movie. And, the idea behind the Legendary weapons hidden in different levels, which were actually weapons taken out of the movie itself.
Aliens offers a pretty underwhelming, unbalanced online experience. Some people will appreciate it more than others, but I don't see anyone sticking with it beyond a couple of weeks. Along with the less than stellar online this game includes a 4-player co-op which makes the campaign slightly better than playing solo.
Audio
I really don't have much to say about this game in terms of audio. Perhaps, this is because it simply doesn't have much. When I say that I'm referring mainly to the music department, which this game has little to none of. Aside from your typical gun firing and aliens dying there is rarely any kind of background music. This becomes really noticeable during the game play and at times the silence annoyed me. A lot of the sounds effects though do remain true to the movie, even the infamous screeching sound that is accompanied with the Pulse Rifle.
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| Look Familiar? |
On paper this game has absolutely everything someone would want out of an Aliens game, it's such a shame that the execution of all these ideas was so poorly done. Very few redeeming qualities exist within this game. Mechanics and graphics feel extremely outdated and bland. The game play only occasionally takes on the essence of fun, more so when playing co-op. The many glitches while being amusing, only assist in showcasing its poor quality. Boss battles are absolutely atrocious. Honestly, I have a hard time actually recommending this game to anyone even fans of the movies. Aliens Colonial Marines will undoubtedly go down as being one of the most if not the most disappointing game in 2013.
Pro's
+ Legendary Weapons
+ Some Great Ideas
+ Remains true to source material
Con's
- Bad AI
- Really Glitchy
- Terrible execution of Ideas
- Outdated Look and Feel
- Atrocious Bosses
- Not very fun
- Falsely Hyped
Rating
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| Yes It's Really That Bad |
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