Imagine a game where the only thing you control is a piece of crap moving
through a sewer. Now divide that experience by 50 and you'll get Aliens:
Colonial Marines.
This game has been stuck in development hell for around 6 years, ample time
for Gearbox to get it right. Instead they spent their efforts on Duke and
Borderlands, outsourcing some development to a host of different companies
leading to a ramshackle, just garbage game.
Graphics: Dated graphics that look like they're from a 360 launch title.
Fire and other special effects look shoddy and almost no effort has been put
into cutscenes. What is lip-synching-
AI: Your AI squad mates walk wherever they want, leading you to teleport
ahead even if you're searching around. They often stand in doorways and even
impede your progress by glitching into the environment, leaving you to restart
from checkpoint. The enemies consist of a massive two varieties of human enemies
who all look exactly the same, and aliens, who are just reskinned for
variety.
Gameplay: The weapons feel like you're shooting water guns, the pulse rifle
feels like a peashooter, which is a disappointment to any Aliens fan. Tired
combat sections with enemy encounters fill the majority of the game. There is a
really enjoyable section, in the sewers below Hadley's Hope, where you have to
sneak past a ton of hibernating Aliens. It ends there and the rest of the game
is boring.
Characters: Unlikeable characters, no character development whatsoever. One
of the characters dies in the story and I actually felt relief since it meant
one less dumb AI to get in my way.
Sound: Sound effects are lifted straight from the films, which is a nice fan
service. Score isn't bad, but far from masterpieces like Halo's and Mass
Effect's.
Multiplayer: Laggy online only multiplayer, alien movements are wooden and
have no real flow and playing as a Marine just feels like any other generic
shooter.
DLC: There is a season pass for 2400msp which I find to be absolutely
hilarious, especially considering there is no DLC for the game at
this time.
I think it's really really sad that I wasted 94 dollars on this turd.
I went in expecting a below average game but what I got in my disc tray was
just a completely unfinished game. I couldn't recommend this to anyone, let
alone a diehard Aliens fan. H.R. Giger probably died of a heart attack when he
saw this game in motion.
Overall, don't bother with this garbage. It has one redeeming section of the
campaign, lasting 15 minutes if you really crawl through it. That's it.
Gearbox has a lot of explaining to do with the half-assed quality of this game.
I've played unpolished games like Dark Void and enjoyed them, but this is
something else. Avoid.
Final Score: 2 out of 10. Playable at least, but you might as well play a
game about a floating crap in a sewer.