Review: Aliens: Colonial Marines - IT News Africa

Aliens: Colonial Marines, developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sega, is the latest title to be added to the list of Alien-inspired games - but does it live up to all the hype that was created before release?

[hosseincode]

Games TM Mag gave it a 4 out of 10
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boa...

[pr0digyZA]

I've been reading some impressions from neogaf, and it's not looking to good to be honest.
Apparently you fight a lot of normal soldiers,
aliens just attack you head on with no impact from bullets,
I believe from people playing on normal the blood does no damage,
graphics are not up to scratch
etc...
From what i can tell it looks like a bargain buy game or if you are a huge alien fan who just has to get a fix from that world.

[jimbobwahey]

Yeah, this game really is complete and utter garbage and honestly? 7.9 seems like a ridiculously high score to give it considering that it's terrible in pretty much every single way, and I say this as a huge fan of the movies who's been anticipating the release of this game ever since it was announced.

The campaign is full of horrid bugs and glitches, some of which will actually prevent progress and require a restart of a checkpoint. AI (friendly and enemy) is the worst I have ever seen, and regularly glitches out getting stuck in geometry or trying to run/shoot through walls.

The game is supposed to be about fighting xenomorphs but you actually fight more humans. Why you might ask? Well, the story explains but make no mistake, it is abysmal. I'm actually shocked at just how bad the story is actually, since this is supposed to be an official sequel to the movie Aliens but the writing honestly reads as something a 10 year old would come up with after watching the movies. I'm not even joking, if you're unfortunate enough to have spent money on this game you'll see what I mean, it's offensively bad.

I wouldn't even know where to begin with how it completely and utterly destroys the continuity of the franchise and introduces glaring plotholes all over the place either.

Really though, the gameplay is the real offender here, and it's just awful through and through, with no redeeming factors. As for the ending? The final boss fight is utter junk and you can no doubt predict what it will be if you're a fan of the movies. As for the ending to the story? Well, rather than giving effective close for this crapfest they go and leave the ending open to set the game up for a sequel, under the assumption that anybody would actually hand over cash for one after they're finished with this game.

Utterly rubbish in every regard. I strongly advise anybody thinking of buying this to not waste their money, because you WILL regret it.

[pr0digyZA]

Yeah to be honest I really loved the 2010 AVP marine campaign.

[Gaming101]

License game that's been delayed several times - who coulda figured it would be bad...
This one filed under "duh"

[WeskerChildReborned]

I have a feeling this game will get alot of mixed reviews.

[ironfist92]

Unfortunate for the developers of the amazing Borderlands 2 game, asked to handle an equally amazing franchise as Aliens.

[showtimefolks]

this game has been played by many Via piracy and some here in n4g have given their thought which are not good

i guess this is one of those summer games you buy in bargain bin and enjoy for a day or two

summer list:

Daed space 3
aliens
MGR
DMC
arm of 2
fuse

for as good as 2013 was hyped to be a lot of games have been not as good as advertised

my high hopes for

bioshock
tomb raider
last of us
beyond 2 souls
gta5

[kupomogli]

Looks more like a list of currently cool to hate games rather than a list of games "not as good as advertised." You probably haven't played any of them.

I'll give my opinion of the ones on that list I've played.

Dead Space 3 plays coincidentally, like Dead Space. Imagine that. When playing single player there is no ally, it's just Isaac by himself. If you play co op, the story changes to include the additional character, John Carver.

Now I've only played Dead Space 2 prior to this, and apparently, it's the same as the first game. With Dead Space 2, you're constantly shooting at enemies and I've never came close to running out of ammo once. After you acquire the Plasma Cutter and you go to the next area, you have to kill six necromorphs in order to proceed. "Six Necromorphs in order to proceed." Shortly after that, you fight a boss that you need to put multiple shots into his arms to kill him. Constantly through the rest of the game you'll be shooting, never running out of ammo. There's even one point later in the game where you stand on a drilling vehicle killing dozens of necromorphs.

You're only fooling yourself if you think the other Dead Space games aren't shooters, because they are.

For those who want to play Dead Space 3, the developers give those people many different options. Single player or co-op. With co-op, enemies can take more damage and take off more damage. At the start of co op mode, you have the choice that when your ally dies, will he/she be able to be revived Resident Evil 5 style or an immediate game over. There are multiple difficulties like every Dead Space game and there are multiple modes. Classic mode removes co op and only allows you to create weapons from Blueprints, Pure Survival only allows health and ammo to be created from materials rather than found on enemies or in boxes, and Hardcore only allows for you to die a single time.

As for Army of Two. I haven't played Devil's Cartel and sure that you haven't either. However, the 40th Day was an amazing game and one of the best shooters this gen. I'm interested in Devil's Cartel for that reason alone.

[axerated]

Mines due in the post today, I may have to avoid reviews until I've completed it so I'm not going in knowing what's apparently shit about it and see if these faults stand out to me when I'm not aware of what they are...

[TheModernKamikaze]

That's what I do, I just watched

Jackie Chan's new movie CZ12,
And I liked it, but when I saw the reviews, it was bad, I felt bad that the review wasn't fond of the movie.

[maximus1985]

very true, we dont all notice it but reviews tend to mold our perception of the game before we even hit start. Its best to go in unbaised then reflect.

[KaBaW]

True. I do that whenever there is a new game that I'm looking forward to.
I try to keep away from any news, reviews, videos, ect. as I possibly can..
When you read a bad review you kinda look for the bad while playing.

At least I do.

[sithsylar]

Like i said in a previous article gearbox got lucky with borderlands 1. The games after it have been pretty shit...

[Kurt Russell]

I liked Borderlands 2 as well :P

[sithsylar]

Thats all right Kurt Russell everyone makes mistakes. ;-)

[NeoTribe]

You kiddin? Borderlands 2 was leaps better than borderlands 1. Sold alot more aswell.

[csreynolds]

Yeah, Borderlands 2 was a HUGE flop. Or not.

[BanBrother]

It will still be fun for huge Alien fans. I loved the AvP from 2010, even though it had many flaws. A couple of my friends already have it, and one of them said it was pretty average.

I don't care for reviews much, as I'll still enjoy it. For those who aren't big Aliens fans, it is probably a bargain bin buy.

[jimbobwahey]

Actually the game is even worse if you're a fan of the franchise.

As for AVP 2010? I can honestly say that game is a straight-up masterpiece in comparison to this. That's how bad Colonial Marines is.

[ironfist92]

Wow..

[maximus1985]

jimbobwahey, stop. your on each page just bashing this game trying to convince everyone of how awful this game is. you hate the game we get it.

[MysticStrummer]

Did someone from Gearbox touch you inappropriately?

[Perjoss]

"Did someone from Gearbox touch you inappropriately?"

maybe they didn't, but actually that's what he wanted?

[PopRocks359]

AVP was a glitchy mess. You keep saying how awful this new Aliens game is but you refuse to state anything specific about it. I'll trust my own judgement on the game over your annoying assessment, thanks.

[bluetoto]

@jim

I'd like you to at least give me some other personal details about what you don't like other than repeating what someone else has already said, over and over.

I'm a big Alien fan, even still got my copy of AvP(have only played about 2 or 3 hrs of it) and after being disappointed with AvP ( you can't even crouch in the game! or was it the lack of an ADS?)

Anyways, it just seems you are just spewing hate, which is fine and all, but again, at least back up your comments with what YOU didn't like.

[Fil101]

I seen AVP for £7 and was thinking about getting it, is it worth it and is the online side to it any good ???

[BanBrother]

Fil101

I take it you are from England? If so, AvP is the best if you live in the UK. The matchmaking on PS3 (and 360) is region locked, so to match up you have to have two people from the same country. Japanese people didn't get the game, but one of our friends who lived there imported a copy and could match up with any country.

The campaign is pretty cool. 3 'shortish' campaigns where you get to play as Marine, Alienand Predator. The MP is pretty fun also with a group of friends. The UK community is probably the highest, but still not quite 'healthy'. Could always recruit people off of 'ps3trophies.org' though.

[MasterCornholio]

Its a shame that this game will probably be crap. I miss the good old days of AVP2 which was a fantastic game in my opinion.

BTW wasn't this game suppose to have amazing visuals? Which is why its disappointing that while the Wii U might have the best console version of this game the graphics are still crap and nowhere near next gen as they claimed.

[asmith2306]

AvP2 was amazing. One of my favourite shooters ever. It was pretty much AvP Half Life style!

[g-nome]

Waiting for that 20 euro price .... what games should cost in the first place.

[first1NFANTRY]

lol that's harsh but funny

[LockJaw]

The local distributor in South Africa failed to mention to me that there is a review embargo on Colonial Marines. So I had to pull the article, but it will be back up in a couple of hours.

[SilentNegotiator]

....is that the job of the local distributor?

[ufo8mycat]

So GearBox decided to go lazy on this game it seems?

Well I guess I will go lazy on this game as well and pirate it.

Fair is fair.

[ExCest]

No, I hear that the campaign wasn't made by Gearbox.

[Son_Lee]

Gearbox is just not a good developer. Borderlands 1 was mediocre at best (enjoyable once, not much better in co-op in my opinion). Not even gonna bother with BL2. It's literally all sidequests. I have no faith in them to make a good game.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

lights!

[LockJaw]

In reply to #1.1.1 (jimbobwahey). Although I have seen some of the films a long time ago, I'm really not "a huge fan". The game was crap, granted, but not as bad as say Inversion. I forgave it enough for its shortcomings to be able to finish it. I suspect I might have scored it a point or two too high (compared to the other reviews that will come out), but I won't give it anything lower than a 6/10. Oh, by the way: to me anything lower than 80% is a suspicious purchase, so this was just low enough to raise my eyebrows.

[jimbobwahey]

It's your review and all so it's your choice how to write and score it, but I find it alarming that a writer who considers the game to be "crap" awards it a 7.9 score. That's pretty crazy when you think about it, you know?

I mean I'm fairly sure that most review sites would consider just shy of an 8 out of 10 to mean that the game is good and borderline great, right? Since your post seems to imply that you only score games in the 6/10 to 10/10 range (which is a little nonsensical to me) though, since out of 4 a 7.9 would put it at just under 50% or 5/10 on anybody else's review scale.

I'm not entirely sure your readers would interpret 7.9/10 to mean that the game is as crap as you think it is, though.

[LockJaw]

Ok, I get you point and thanks for the comments. I think you are right, and I think I need to evaluate the score - maybe drop it down to a solid 6 or even 5.5

[maximus1985]

wow jim you reeeeeaaallly hate this game and you clearly want the world to know. did this game touch in a bad place?

[foster]

clearly you hate this game with a passion, but his score is HIS score...stop trying to make the world reflect your hate

[foster]

so lockjaw you are willing to drop your professional rating by several points just because some hater on a web site harasses you?

remind me not to take anything you say seriously

[MrAnderson]

That's just it, he's not a professional, anyone can submit a review to N4G.

[MysticStrummer]

I'm not sure why any of these early reviews are given credibility. They normally come from sites that aspire to be considered second rate.

[juandren]

That's my country yo!

[ironfist92]

Seems like they put the majority of focus on Borderlands, and very little on Aliens.

Wonder how Brothers in Arms will fare..

[isa_scout]

Well, this sucks. I was really hoping this game would be great. I spent $120 on this game(bought my dad and I a copy)so I was really expecting something on the same level as Borderlands.Guess I'll just have to play it for myself and make my decision then. At least if it does suck we still have next month to look forward too.

[Saleem101]

Getting the game regardless big aliens fan reviews dont sway my purchase...

[dubal-e]

Yep me too.

[1nsomniac]

It's from GearBox what did you expect. Ive been saying for months they're going to wreck this & i've been saying for years they're a shit developer! I really dont know why they are so highly respected!?

I hate them!

[MadLad]

Gearbox is a rather good developer, actually.

Brothers in Arms is a very highly regarded series. One of my personal favorites.

While I wasn't the biggest fan of the original Borderlands, with the sequel, they improved upon many of the parts I felt were lacking and really made a game I enjoyed.

Even before that, they cut their teeth with two very, very well done expansions for the original Half-Life.

To say they are a "shit developer" just isn't accurate. You may not like them. You may go out of your way to talk negatively in every article that allows for it, but that doesn't make it true.

[1nsomniac]

they're a shit developer who's only skill seems to be spinning shit publicity in their favour!

BiA was strictly average & dull at best.

Boderlands is utter rubbish, the only plus side is playing Coop which you can do far better in other games.

HL Blue-Shift was where somehow they got their name from & that was from a time when it was big for indie developers to release map packs etc and it was still massively overrated for what it was.

Shit developer. End of.

[Pipedup]

Because they make good games? Plain as that dumbass

[MadLad]

Thanks for the "My Opinion is God" rant.
I certainly take you much more seriously now.

People will like what they like. End of.

[Pintheshadows]

You hate them? What a strange being you are. You'r talking like Pitchford forced his way into your house and removed parts of your mothers facial features until you agreed to buy his games. And you can't even string together a coherent argument as to why they are a bad developer. Saying they're average, I hate them is the limited logic of a child.

[1nsomniac]

..and surprise, surprise the new Aliens game is soo bad & getting such bad reviews that Gearbox have now come out & said they didn't really make it.... Yea, they're a great developer! when will you sheep realise you cant spend your life believing marketing rubbish telling you who to like. Look at the facts & make your own decision!

[Pintheshadows]

So i'm a sheep now because I find it ridiculous that you hate Gearbox so much and i've bought into their 'marketing', even though i'm not getting ACM.

As I said before, all you're doing is spreading hatred against Gearbox without any legitimate explanation beyond 'they're s**t' or 'they're average'.

You are ridiculous. I can't take someone seriously if they can't form a balanced argument and decides to ignore the content of my previous comment entirely.

[Rubberlegs]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

People should look at E3 2011 demo. This was great looking game at one point and now you can tell a lot was cut back from the delays and long dev cycle. This didn't come straight from the core Borderlands team either. They out sourced this early last year to Timegate Studios to help finish it.

Another dev is working on the Wii U port which still doesn't have a release date yet.

[axerated]

I dunno man, I just watched bothe the ign live demo and the other gameplay demo and they seem to look the same, doesn't look like groundbreaking graphics but certainly looks quite clean and decent. I hope I enjoy this game, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt until I've played it through, optimism can make all the difference

[Rubberlegs]

Just so you know that scene from the E3 demo is completely different after playing the game. It just shows how much time they spent changing up the game and never seemed like they had anything solid work off of.

I'm enjoying it and don't think it as bad as what the reviews have said but it does feels rushed out.

[axerated]

Ah okay, haven't got that far yet, guessing its different then? My main complaint is the weird frozen-alien-everything-else-s till-moving death screen in campaign. It's really pissing me off!

[lovegames718]

wheres metroid and kingofwiiu?????? They swore this game was a godsend to the wiiu and was going to set a graphical benchmark.

Wow i %ucking knew it!!!!!! Check my comment history. I told everyone this game would be super hyped mediocrity like Duke Nukem was!!!! Nintendo fans especially were hyping up this garbage because gearbox said it would look better on the Wiiu and they thought this trash would be a new graphical benchmark for consoles smh how more wrong could you have been!!!!!!

Bottom line i did research and saw videos of ppl previewing it and they all said the same thing. A generic shooter, terrible character animations, dumb spongy Al, and nice backdrops that look kinda fake because of their shininess.

However as usual well known sites that previewed this game omitted such issues and hyped this up to death along with the devs smh. I say %uck what devs. say and most well known webistes because they just cannot be trusted!!! Everything is about money and free copys of games. And like i say taste is subjective but blatantly not mentioning glaring issues in a preview and just hyping games up because of a company name is not whats up and it happens all too often. These reviewers and previewers also tend to not stick to a standard on some reviews of more popular known releases but keep a strict standard on other games and down vote them to death.

I keep telling these fans and especially these Nintendo fans stop listening to everything these devs say like Gearbox they are just stroking egos to sell games and in the end will under perform. zombi u was another such case.

[stumpa]

Apparently this game has been found to contain horsemeat it really is that bad !!!

[Myst]

Eh I will take the reviews with a grain of salt and see what it's like. It will be just like Raccoon City, I mean the game was bad in a lot of aspects but was able to be enjoyed with friends. So hopefully there will be some people online to make it enjoyable and hopefully I can do the same. I suppose that is the only/main way for these games to be fun despite how low or bad they are.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

If I want to kill Aliens again... I'd rather play the severely dated Prey on my 360 again than to buy this game that looks just the same graphicly and seems more broken than Prey and the gap in release dates between the 2 is astonishing... the dev time of this game and also the amount of expierence Gearbox has had on these now dated consoles. It just don't warrant the quality of the finished product. The HD gameplay videos I've been watching on Youtube look really average/lackluster!