Aliens: Colonial Marines Review: Poor Xenomorphs

Game Reviewed: Aliens: Colonial Marines

Release Date: February 12, 2013

Developer: Gearbox Studios

Publisher: SEGA

Platform: [Reviewed:Xbox 360], PlayStation, PC

Genre: First Person Shooter

Rated: M for Mature

If you’ve seen the trailers for Aliens: Colonial Marines, then you felt like you truly had something to look forward to. I say “had” because the game planned a well thought out storyline with literally nothing else to offer at the high value it released for.

Developed by Gearbox, who created the epic title Borderlands 2, and the horrific Duke Nukem Forever. Nonetheless, it placed Aliens in a very uncomfortable position. Most gamers believed that the over extended delay would work for the good, and a few may still believe so. However, when you first place your disc inside your console and see the frame rate drops before even pressing start at the main menu, you have to ask yourself, is Colonial Marines going to operate in this manner?

It doesn’t get much better. I found myself trying to advance through locked areas to turn back and re-walk through certain areas,unable to carry out objectives, horrible glithes and more choppy gameplay.

Colonial Marines jump starts after the original Aliens, covering the LV-426 Sulaco. Heading in, a new group of soldiers are recruited, including yourself, Christopher Winter.

The missions are way easier than they should be. Xenomorph’s flood the game, but they go down so unrealistically. How? Let’s start with the overpowered weapons. You have a shotgun and an MK2, which can be upgraded or replaced by plenty of other rifles and machine guns.

If that isn’t enough, observe the xenomorphs as they walk towards you, in a sense, fearless. They don’t dodge bullets, they just jump in your face, making the game scream buttons your way.

This sadly leads me to wondering where was the QA team when testing took place? There was glitch after glitch, from walking to doors that wouldn’t open, to grabbing ammo while the structure or vents to magically appear, at one time glitching my armor under whatever the hell spawned in that spot.

The biggest flaw is that Aliens Colonial Marines seems like it remained in a gaming vault, only to be released as is. Setback for years with no one looking over the finalized copy. Graphically, the game has frame rate issue, and when close to some soldiers, they look a bit pixelated.

Co-op and multiplayer both fail as well with picking up the slack that was left by the 6 ½ hour campaign. It’s a decent experience when you involve friends, but an average game just leaves you feeling the continuous wrath of glitches.

Then there’s multiplayer presenting you with Execution, Team Deathmatch, Survival and Extermination. Escape was by far the most fun for the moment it was played. However, prepare to still be mishandled as an xenomorphs by the humans overpowered weapons again. In Escape, your objective is to survive attacks all the way to the checkpoint. If you’ve played Left 4 Dead, then you are ready for this mode.

Unfortunately, Colonial Marines falls flat on its face with delivering a promising experience. Exactly how Gearbox can go from Borderlands to this is beyond me, but this installment shouldn’t have passed QA, nor arcade status. Even if you’re a diehard fan of the Aliens series, you won’t find anything memorable other than a few names from the movies.

The Scores

Gameplay: 2/5

Visuals: 2/5

Audio: 2/5

Controls: 2.5/5

Replay Value: 1.5/5

Overall Rating: 2/5