Written by Lance Alexander

I was very excited about this game, excited to a point where I was rabidly following any update I could find. Like an addict, I had to get my fix. So to say that this game was unfulfilling is a polite understatement. This is a game that was so vastly disappointing to me that it’s taken awhile to calm down enough to write about it.

Let’s talk about the good things, because it will be brief. Aliens Colonial Marines started off on a good note. Sure, the graphics were disappointing after such a long development cycle, but it’s forgivable, at first, because your just so bloody EXCITED to start playing. Again at first, it’s good. It’s atmospheric, it uses the sounds and lighting in great ways. You feel tense, and it’s perfect. It’s the kind of Aliens game that you’ve been waiting for.

Sadly, for single player, that’s about where the good things end. Multi-player provides a decent experience, even if the weapons are terrible and the game types are dated. Imagine the multi-player as Left 4 Dead, where all the Zombies have been removed and you’re just playing against special infected. It’s fun, and it provides its thrills, but eventually you do start to feel drained by it.

Unfortunately for everyone, this is where the good things end. As is typical for the more recent additions to the Aliens video games, this is simply another disappointment in a long string of disappointments. The game engine is weak, to a point where it’s more common for the game to glitch out and break down than work properly. The weapons, as previous mentioned, are terrible. At first, the pulse rifle is pretty great, and in single player it is legitimately the go-to weapon. Things like the flame thrower, smart gun and turrets are a blast, but eventually, like everything else, they simply fall way short of the mark. The AI is a disaster. The aliens in single player are so predictable that you can count on them to ALWAYS make a bee line for you unless your playing in co-op. Your ‘friendly’ marine AI is so bad it almost seems like they take pleasure in watching you get mauled to death. They don’t help, and they will literally watch an alien beat you to death without doing a single thing to save you. Worse, you can actually shoot THROUGH your teammates as if they weren’t there, and vice versa, the aliens can leap through the AI characters like they were phantoms. The hit boxes are a wreck, with the only consistent thing being that head shots don’t count as head shots. Character animations are choppy, to be nice about it, and how they interact with the game world is so terrible that it’s common for you to ‘trip’ on a rough edge in a level and get insta gibbed by fall damage.