RadioSEGA Review - Aliens: Colonial Marines

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Reknoc
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RadioSEGA Review - Aliens: Colonial Marines

Post by Reknoc »

Aliens as a franchise has done alright in Video games Aliens vs Predator 1 and 2 were amazing games and manage to do an excellent job of bringing the tone and atmosphere of Aliens to the games. Even the last game wasn't that bad.


This is.


Announced way back in 2006 this game had a lot of promise. After all Gearbox were a good developer and Randy Pitchford claimed to be a massive Aliens fan. Apparently not a big enough one to make a good Aliens game though.


Or to do, like, any work on the Aliens game your company is supposed to be making.


Instead just outsourcing it to small, low budget developers.


I'm not suggesting anything but between A:CM's announcement and release, both Borderlands games have been released. Just sayin.


The game is a mess, the only way this could appeal to you is if you want a bland Call of Duty: Future game so bad you're willing to play some sort of low budget shovelware PS2 game to get it.
Because that's what this feels like.
Gunplay is completely unsatisfying as most enemies are nonreactive bullet sponges. The AI is brain-dead and every encounter feels like another dull shooting gallery. Boss encounters are thankfully rare but still completely terrible thanks to also being unresponsive bullet sponges, or in the first bosses case powerloader claw sponge.
While the game was split by chapters most of the time they never felt coherent, like one would end and then it would throw you into the middle of something like I'd accidentally skipped a cutscene to explain what was happening.


Some chapters would end on a downer, but it was cool because as the game joyfully told me with a little fanfare I had ranked up! Yes just like Call of Duty this game has a leveling system but unlike Call of Duty that keeps that shit tied to multiplayer A:CM did it during the single player as well! In fact do you like typical weapon progression where you'll find new ones as you go? HAHA! Hope you like unlocking weapons when you level up! That's not to say you don't find weapons around the levels, and this is one of the few good things about the game. On some levels you can find "Legendary" weapons, what these are are weapons used by characters from Aliens. It's a nice touch and the game does have a couple of those nice touches around, though they are sadly few and far between.


Graphics are hideous, even with max setting on PC is not a very pretty games. While some of the lighting is quite nice the textures are awful, most of them don't even look like they loaded in, a common problem with UE3, but no that's just how they look. Character models are awful, like they tried to make it look a bit like borderlands, but not, instead it looks like a cheap Wii game where they decided to go for a more cartoony look to make up for the low-spec hardware. I've seen some footage of the console versions as well and hoooooo boy, I almost feel sorry for anyone having to play it on them. Animations are shitty and robotic, when they're not spazzing out in walls.


One thing the game does do well is the sound effects, of course they're all ripped straight from the films so they sound authentic, but the cues are also done pretty well. Voice Acting is awful, Hick's actor reprises his role but like everyone else sounds bored or like they don't want to be there.


Which they probably the didn't as the writing is terrible. The dialog is cringeworthy nearly all of the time, but it get's especially bad after a scene which I guess is supposed to be emotional but I really hated the character so I the only emotion I was feeling was joy. Apparently this was supposed to be an actual canon sequel to Aliens, much like Prometheus is supposed to be a canon prequel. Actually pretty much exactly like it.


There is multiplayer, I hear Gearbox actually worked on that, but when I tried to play a TDM game it took too long in searching for a match so I gave up because life is too short. Maybe I'll return to it to give it a go but I'd rather this game no waste my HDD space.


So there you go. The game isn't worth whatever price it is, maybe for around a tenner or less but I wouldn't recommend it. Unless you're desperate to see what a Pulse Rifle is like with the reflex sight (and 39 bullets less than what it should be able to hold) or have such a hard on for Call of Duty you want to play every corridor shooting gallery FPS.


2/5


Would be a 1, but I think the sound and little nods to the film are worth a point.

Edit: Forgot to mention it took me around 6 hours to complete on Hardened.
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metalgamer
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Post by metalgamer »

Good review Reknoc. I've seen others review this game and they all say the same thing. I've seen various footage of the game and it looks like a really poor game. But it's great to see a really fair review of it. Good job.
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