Written by: James VanGorden
Even though I’m not a huge fan of the Alien(s) movies. I’ll watch them if I just happen to stumble across one on late night cable, but I do enjoy watching bald Sigourney Weaver kicking Xenomorph ass. So I had some hope for this title. Developed by gearbox what could go wrong? Well, I learned Gearbox should just stick to what they’re good at (Borderlands).
The game begins with a space marine (your main playable character) waking up from cryo sleep. As the Marine wakes a generic stereotypical armed forces drill Sargent yells out “get up and lets go!”. The game didn’t improve much beyond that. Soon after you’ll experience sub-par AI, clunky combat, few and far between checkpoints, and weak graphics.
Playing this game was such a struggle. It was a challenge to find anything entertaining and It felt like such a chore to play. After playing half an hour into a level then getting killed just to end up all the way back where I started! That was super frustrating after a couple of rounds of that happening. Then there was the AI of the Aliens, It was horrible as well. I often watched them run into walls and not even try to attack me. The textures, very muddy and the lighting isn’t even there. It looks like a game that should’ve been out in 2005 (possibly a 360 launch title). The guns also felt weak and had no power behind them. The only thing that was ok out of all this was the audio. At least Gearbox got the sound of the Aliens scurrying around the air ducts and the sound of the pulse rifle right. They’re are also audio logs laying around the environment that sound good but the overall voice acting is pretty bad.
Closing comments:
Aliens: Colonial Marines is a poorly put together and executed title . Even though the game’s audio is pretty good it doesn’t save the rest of the game. For the amount years this game was in development (by an awesome developer) it could’ve, would’ve, and should’ve been a way better game than what was delivered.
ere’s a link to a YouTube video by CVG that proves my point when I said this could’ve been a great game. Gearbox, What happened?
Ratings:
Gameplay: 3
-Horrible AI
-Few and far between checkpoints
Graphics: 3
-Looked like an Xbox 360 launch title
Fun factor: 3
+Sound was pretty decent
-Clunky combat
-Once again horrible AI and too few checkpoints
Lasting appeal: 2
+DLC is coming up if you made the mistake of buying this game
-It was disappointing to play and lacked visual appeal that there’s no reason to come back?
ElectricSproket 
I am a huge fan of the movies, wanted to play it when I saw the preview, maybe just rent it.
What About the Co-op? I was not expecting much from this game to begin with, and there is a history of Aliens vs Predator games that regardless of their graphics limitations, were fun to play, but I had hoped for some good multiplayer out of this one…