Aliens: Colonial Marines (DRAMA RAMA BOMBA)

So most (all?) of you reading this will obviously know I worked on this game.  I personally don't think I'm biased at all, but judge my comments accordingly.  Also a disclaimer for anyone reading this that possibly made the game.  I know you worked hard; hell, I know I did.  Working hard is great, and you should be thanked for working hard.  However, working hard doesn't (nor should it) protect you from getting criticized.  Not everyone did a bad job on Aliens, but *clearly* some did.  I have no interest in calling people out.  I do however have extreme interest in pointing out where Aliens went wrong in hopes that we can all learn from ACM's mistakes.


What I expected:  A pretty big mess.  I expected a campaign that had the quality of being made in 9 months. I expected a versus mode that was buggy and never quite feels right, but ultimately was decently fun.

What I got:  Considering what I expected from the game is based off the state of the game when I left Timegate, I had a pretty accurate view.  The game is a pretty big mess, but versus mode is definitely the better of the two game modes.

What I liked:  The art is by far the best part of the game.  Specifically, the environments.  Super specifically, Hadley's Hope, and *inside* the Derelict.  The art in those two areas is nigh perfect.  The nailed the art style.  Not only did they make you feel like you were in the Aliens universe, they added what I personally feel is the natural extension to the universe.  The things they added that weren't shown in the movies, didn't feel out of place.  Some of the voice acting is extremely good. Specifically, Bishop's and Bella's. Versus can be really fun, when things click.  The Raven level is also probably the best level in the game.

What I didn't like:  O boy.  Let's try and go down the list....

Challenges:  These are really dumb.  They are like achievements, but not quite.  I have to do them in order, which is beyond stupid.  One of the single player challenges is "kill 5 face huggers".  I got EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that I got that challenge seconds before I entered one of TWO face hugger areas in the game.  If I didn't get this challenge at exactly the right time, I'd have to quite the campaign and start over, or just wait potentially many levels to get to the on I was at.  I don't even understand why this was put in the game.  It makes so little sense.  Why aren't they just achievements?  I find it hard to believe that game designers had nothing else to do but design these.  Pure waste of time.

Call of Duty:  The game direction is largely wrong.  What I mean by that is from the very core, the game isn't what it should be.  Specifically, this is a Call of Duty Wanna Be.  An Aliens game has no business trying to do that.  This game should have been a mix of what made the Alien and Aliens movies so great.  Survival Horror and a small squad of marines against impossible odds.  This game is purely run and gun.  4 player coop should have been sacrificed for a solid single-player campaign mode, instead the opposite happened.  It is obvious to literally everyone that there should be a horde mode where you just have to bunker down and defend a location against a horde of xenos.  Undoubtedly Sega will be selling this as DLC.  I personally think they could have saved the game if they just would have included this (and did a good job on it).  I think this section could be an entire essay by itself, so I'll just end it with saying, when you kill something over 500 times in a game (where the hell did the Xenos find so many humans to infect?) the enemy loses all threat and meaning.  Even in Aliens, which has the highest xeno body count of any Alien movie, not that many xenos die.  For a good example of what this game should have been, look at the two demos they made.  Both of those nail the survival horror mixed with action theme.

Art:  While Hadley's Hope and inside the Derelict look beyond fantastic, the Sulaco and outside the Derelict look terrible.  The Sulaco doesn't look like a marine ship, doesn't feel like one, and it doesn't look like it even belongs in the Aliens universe.  There are flat panel monitors throughout the entire game, despite there not being a single one in the entire Aliens movie.  I don't care that we didn't really have LCDs back in the 80s, that isn't an excuse to change things.  You're supposed to fit the Aliens style; not change it.  The outdoor areas are so entirely bland.  This is mainly due to the lighting.  Because of how their lighting engine works, outdoor areas are insanely expensive to light well, so what ends up happening is they have one giant directional light.  I don't understand how this happened.  I know for a fact they had someone tell them they can't do outdoor areas.  I also know for a fact they were told to not include levels that highlight your weaknesses.  (Full disclosure, this person was me; big surprise)  This shouldn't be something you tell a company that has made multiple games before, yet here we are......where a good fourth of the levels are outdoors.

Xeno controls:  It feels like things got worse since I was there.  I constantly found myself pressing left to go right while running on walls.  I was constantly getting stuck on ledges.  I don't know why things are so bad, it seems like such a simple thing to get right considering AVP2 got it right back in 2001.  Not to mention they had multiple people pointing out the problems all the time.

Versus:  Jesus where to start on this one.  Escape is the most rewarding mode...when teams are balanced. It's painfully obvious to many people that escape should have been the main (only?) game mode with a strong focus on it.  Right now it just feels like they said "O hey you know we could kind of make a L4D like game mode...but we don't want to actually put forth effort."  TDM is ok, but any well coordinated marine team will just turn TDM into survivor mode.  Survivor isn't terrible, but it just alludes to the glaring omission of a horde mode, which is all anyone really wants.  This brings us to the over all problem with this game...

Final thoughts:  The people in charge do not understand what people want from an Aliens game.  I know the higher ups at all companies claimed to love the Aliens franchise, but the direction they took the game clearly shows they don't love the franchise.  There are so many things wrong with the game that I can't even address them.  The sad part is this game could have been the best Aliens game ever, but it ended up being one of the worst.

How much did I pay:  $0.00   (I got the game on my steam account while I worked at TG)

How many hours did I play:   16  (all of the single player and as much of versus as I could stomach)

Dollar per Hour:  $0.00

How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight:  $5

Why?:  Single player is incredibly forgettable, despite be supposedly the focus of the game.  Versus was entertaining for the couple nights I played.  In fact wondering around inside Hadley's Hope and the Derelict (especially infested Derelict) is probably worth $5 alone.