Aliens Colonial Marines had so much going, it is to be considered part of the Alien's canon along with finding out what happen to our heroes from another point of view. Sadly, after playing the game through with considerable thoughts and process, I was very letdown and also don't have my $60 since that is the cost of the game. For a PC player, I cannot trade in the game nor get a refund for it. Anyways, here is what I experienced in the game and hopefully help you decide whether to get the game or not.
The storyline is about the marine corp who finally receives the distress call from Corporal Hicks from the movie Aliens. As part of the detachment, I'm to go and rescue any stranded marines since we don't leave them behind. The story does offer a lot of fan services which is very nice especially being part of the Aliens movie, we do expect to see some mentioning about Ripley, Bishop, Newt, and the other characters. Sadly though, there is no Burke mentioned much, would have been nice especially we want to hear how a person like him, a sleazy business men sent hundreds to people to their deaths. Sadly, the story throughout the game was ho-hum and could have been more developed such as O'Neal and Bella could have been more develop to where you actually care for the characters. The voice acting was so-so, Michael Biehn tries to maintain his "marine" calmness but on a computer game, you just don't sense that feel. Lance Henriksen is the cyborg Bishop and his character is just as creepy, but even big name actors doesn't really saves the game's storyline.
Graphic for the game sometimes make or break the game but not always, but here, it seems the game is dated around Half Life 2 or something. For paying $60 of a dated game is way too much and is a complete rip-off. The texture is very bland and very uncolorful, the texture on the aliens when you shoot them, acid supposedly bleeds, is colorful yellow? Is the yellow supposed to be really glowing that bright? I know graphic isn't everything but for a game this old, this is just not acceptable especially for the price you pay and staring at the screen for the next 6 to 8 hours. Just look at the fire texture in the game, either it is because the surface of LV-426 is lighter then air or the developers just want to rush the game out the door.
Weapons in the game is the pulse rifle, smart gun, shot gun, assault guns, but the sound of the guns just sound so bland, it just doesn't have the feel of the game.
Gameplay was what broke the game for me. Instead of squad-based game where you're in charge, commanding your troops, or giving them a free order, it seems like you're playing with a bot from Unreal Tournament or something else. Because you're carrying around 4 to 5 weapons, the game just doesn't seem like you're in trouble or the "poop in the pants" moment when you're out of ammo. The boss fight with the alien queen was an utter disappointment. Unlike the movie where she grabs stuff with her long arms or try and spike you with her inner jaws, your objective is to try and get her in front of this sliding loader to slide her out into space. All the aliens even doesn't seem that interesting, just your standard aliens. There is even an acid spitting aliens that is considered a brand new alien? I thought they had those guys in Alien 4 and they are the same standard alien drones. I would have thought they have the queen's guard or something or even the hybrid aliens. Gear Box was invited to see the Prometheus script? Well, I found nothing that was "prometheus" link in the game at all, I was hoping at least a boss fight with an engineer, but anything Prometheus was not present in the game at all.
What a mess this game is, game over man, no doubt about it that I'm very sad and $60 down the drain for a half baked game. The fan service is good for us Alien fans to point out and say "oh cool, that was in the movie", but even fan service just doesn't justify dropping $60 down the drain. Gaming wise, Aliens Colonial Marines is probably the saddest thing for me in the world of gaming, so much could have been better, and for once when Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox was demoing the game, it looked very impressive at one time, how could this happen? Anyways, if you want to really know the storyline for the game, probably check out the wikis and youtubes as playing through the game just to know the storyline is a complete waste of your money.
The storyline is about the marine corp who finally receives the distress call from Corporal Hicks from the movie Aliens. As part of the detachment, I'm to go and rescue any stranded marines since we don't leave them behind. The story does offer a lot of fan services which is very nice especially being part of the Aliens movie, we do expect to see some mentioning about Ripley, Bishop, Newt, and the other characters. Sadly though, there is no Burke mentioned much, would have been nice especially we want to hear how a person like him, a sleazy business men sent hundreds to people to their deaths. Sadly, the story throughout the game was ho-hum and could have been more developed such as O'Neal and Bella could have been more develop to where you actually care for the characters. The voice acting was so-so, Michael Biehn tries to maintain his "marine" calmness but on a computer game, you just don't sense that feel. Lance Henriksen is the cyborg Bishop and his character is just as creepy, but even big name actors doesn't really saves the game's storyline.
Graphic for the game sometimes make or break the game but not always, but here, it seems the game is dated around Half Life 2 or something. For paying $60 of a dated game is way too much and is a complete rip-off. The texture is very bland and very uncolorful, the texture on the aliens when you shoot them, acid supposedly bleeds, is colorful yellow? Is the yellow supposed to be really glowing that bright? I know graphic isn't everything but for a game this old, this is just not acceptable especially for the price you pay and staring at the screen for the next 6 to 8 hours. Just look at the fire texture in the game, either it is because the surface of LV-426 is lighter then air or the developers just want to rush the game out the door.
Weapons in the game is the pulse rifle, smart gun, shot gun, assault guns, but the sound of the guns just sound so bland, it just doesn't have the feel of the game.
Gameplay was what broke the game for me. Instead of squad-based game where you're in charge, commanding your troops, or giving them a free order, it seems like you're playing with a bot from Unreal Tournament or something else. Because you're carrying around 4 to 5 weapons, the game just doesn't seem like you're in trouble or the "poop in the pants" moment when you're out of ammo. The boss fight with the alien queen was an utter disappointment. Unlike the movie where she grabs stuff with her long arms or try and spike you with her inner jaws, your objective is to try and get her in front of this sliding loader to slide her out into space. All the aliens even doesn't seem that interesting, just your standard aliens. There is even an acid spitting aliens that is considered a brand new alien? I thought they had those guys in Alien 4 and they are the same standard alien drones. I would have thought they have the queen's guard or something or even the hybrid aliens. Gear Box was invited to see the Prometheus script? Well, I found nothing that was "prometheus" link in the game at all, I was hoping at least a boss fight with an engineer, but anything Prometheus was not present in the game at all.
What a mess this game is, game over man, no doubt about it that I'm very sad and $60 down the drain for a half baked game. The fan service is good for us Alien fans to point out and say "oh cool, that was in the movie", but even fan service just doesn't justify dropping $60 down the drain. Gaming wise, Aliens Colonial Marines is probably the saddest thing for me in the world of gaming, so much could have been better, and for once when Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox was demoing the game, it looked very impressive at one time, how could this happen? Anyways, if you want to really know the storyline for the game, probably check out the wikis and youtubes as playing through the game just to know the storyline is a complete waste of your money.