Aliens Colonial Marines Video Game Review
Surpassed only by Godzilla, Aliens and Predator are my favorite sci-fi franchises of all time. So it goes without saying that I was waiting for the “Aliens: Colonial Marines” video game for years with spittle forming at the sides of my lips. So this past Tuesday, with great anticipation, I got my pre- ordered copy, loaded it up on the X-box, saw the opening sequence, and was immediately disappointed. This game fails in almost every respect; action, suspense, excitement, intrigue, inventiveness, story, music, and graphics. This game is an utter and dismal failure. Now for those of you die-hard “Aliens” fans who are still holding out hope that this game will satiate your craving for all things Aliens, please tarry with me for a bit while I hang on a cross, pay for the sins of all Alien fans, and try to persuade you to stay on the straight and narrow.
The game looks so dated, so last-gen that it’s laughable. Sure some things are beautifully lit and the mood has an eerie atmosphere at some points in the game but that doesn’t make up for the fact that much of the environments and characters look like they were rendered using the same technology as the Wolfenstein game. I’m exaggerating of course, but with such a long development time the overall visuals of the game beg the question “what the hell were those guys at Gearbox doing all this time?!” If you’re expecting a visual experience on par with “Dead Space 3” or even Rebellion’s 2010 “Aliens vs Predator”, abandon all hope now!
The game was billed as being a true sequel to James Cameron’s 1986 “Aliens”, and it was even reported at one point that James Cameron and Ridley Scott themselves had creative input into the game. That alone is enough to get any Alien fan hot under the collar, but unfortunately the end result is a video game narrative that steals past events from the franchise, twist, mangles, and wedges them into a disconcerting plot that only insults your intelligence. When you finally get to the “surprise” in this game that Randy Pitchford (President of Gearbox) spoke so long and lovingly about in an interview that I posted here on CBM some time ago, you’ll probably want to dismiss this game as having nothing at all to do with the canonical Alien story arc.
As for overall playability, where should I begin? In the game you get fight both Aliens and Weyland Yutani guns for hire. The Aliens, at a distance look very well rendered, but as soon as they charge at you like a Jets fan rushing the field after Gangrene gets into the playoffs with their arms stretched out wide begging for a hug, you quickly realize the 8-bitishness of their programing. The Alien A.I. is wooden. At times the characters run right past you leaving you scratching your head. The human mercenaries you face are exactly the same. Some of them look like Storm Troopers from Star Wars and are equally as wooden. Bottom line the A.I. in this game needs to be taken back to the drawing board.
There are so many other aspects of this game that fail, but to expound upon them all is waaaaaay beyond the scope of this limited review. Just trust me when I say you should wait a few months before you purchase this game...let it come down in price first. For those of us who have already purchased this game and for those of us who haven’t but are true Alien fans, I’m calling for an all out boycott on all products that Gearbox studio releases (this includes all “Borderlands” titles) until Gearbox releases a revamped version of this game that lives up to all the hype! Please, everybody feel free to find Randy Pitchford on twitter and message the hell out of him...his handle is DuvalMagic.