It's backed by Sega.
Back in the day, and I mean way the f*ck back in the '90s, Sega knew what they were doing. Sonic the Hedgehog was probably one of the greatest side-scrolling platformer games of our generation. But lately, they've slowed pace with development. In what way, do you ask? Aliens: Colonial Marines. And Gearbox, well, guess their primary project was Borderlands 2. Least that one didn't suck.
I was legitimately psyched for this game since it was announced years ago in Game Informer. This is coming from the same developer that gave us Borderlands for all things holy. You would then imagine after years of development, Sega and Gearbox would've had this game down perfectly.
Wrong.
Right from the start, Aliens: Colonial Marines does nothing to truly grab the player and immerse them into the action. The pacing is the fastest I've seen in a video game which does even less for the story. Characters are introduced, but never given the opportunity to develop into likeable or even relatable individuals. The game doesn't give a tense feeling when walking down the corridors of the Sulaco or Hadley's Hope. Never once do you feel as if you're about to step into a veritable hell hole of xenos and pitch black with only a flashlight to illuminate. Instead, players have access to literally every f*cking weapon the USCM has in their arsenal making them Ultramarines rather than Colonial. No to mention that every single enemy drops either ammo or armor, so don't expect to die quite often unless you truly suck at first-person shooters. This lends even more to how simple the gameplay is regardless of the difficulty.
Graphics are substandard making it one of the worst looking games of 2013. Particle effects look last-gen. Frame-rate issues are laughable, character animations are often buggy, textures pop constantly, and the AI makes Colonial Marines more like a shoot-out than survival-horror. Hell, Doom 3 looks better than this game.
As far as the story, Colonial Marines has been certified as canon for the series. Seventeen weeks pass since the disaster on Hadley's Hope. The USS Sulaco, somehow, returned to orbit over LV-426: an incident that's only somewhat explained through speculations. And now, yet another contingent of marines is dispatched to 'rescue' the crew of the Sulaco despite a distress signal from Hicks (voiced by the one and only Michael Biehn) which should've been code for "STAY THE F*CK AWAY FROM LV-426!" Yeah, sure, let's send even more marines to die after a unit was slaughtered by xenos. I mean, come on! Hicks just said 'my entire unit has been wiped out'. What more of a warning do you need? Sure, never leave a marine behind, but why sacrifice even more? The story boils down to: run here, flip that switch, shoot this, repeat. There's never a moment when you feel genuine terror especially when you have Ripley's Pulse Rifle complete with flamethrower and grenade launcher (which looks f*cking stupid, btw). Easter eggs come and go in the form of Bishop's lower half in the hangar bay, Hick's shotgun, and Dietrich's body that ended up in a casket somehow. I won't go more into the story for those of you brave enough to slave through it.
Multiplayer is a joke. Marines win every time unless you're brilliant with a xeno. The bonus firing range is even more pathetic. All I can say for this game is the sights and sounds of Aliens is there, but nothing to make it believable or redeeming. Sega dropped the bomb, again, on Hadley's Hope. However, the voice acting was acceptable with Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprising their roles as Hicks and Bishop.
The collector's edition was alright for the additional $40. The statue, around seven-eight inches, has enough detail for a nice desktop display. Two USCM iron-on patches should help my new leather jacket look pretty cool. The 'classified' mission dossier has a few neat items: schematic of the USS Sephora, recon photo of LV-426, a propaganda card, and briefing of the mission.
So, my overall rating of Aliens: Colonial Marines- the lower tier of "keep sitting on the couch playing whatever game you're hooked on". Pass this one up unless you REALLY love Aliens. Rent, GameFly, or Red Box this one, dear readers. Sorry, Sega, go back to making Sonic games that don't suck.
Aliens: Colonial Marines earns the Lame Duck award (and no, I'm not referring to a political lame duck).
Stay tuned next time for news on March's releases and the delay of The Last of Us.
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