The gaming industry has once again started the year in controversy. Last year we endured the disaster that was the ending of BioWare’s otherwise magnificent Mass Effect 3. This year we have been subjected to yet another blight on the face of the Aliens franchise in the form of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Like many other fanboys, I had been waiting with bated breath for a game that was promoted as being the very first canon Alien game, and boy did we hold our breath for a long time as the game was announced almost seven years ago.
The campaign follows the events of Aliens after Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop have jettisoned away from the moon LV-426 and are returning to earth. You play a marine who is part of the military unit responding to the distress signal sent by Ripley. And that’s about all I remember of the story. I spent the next six hours running around the monochromatic steel corridors shooting at what can only be described as alien fodder.
“But hey Baz? How can you describe Aliens as fodder? In all of the films the Aliens are famous for being almost invulnerable, bar attacks by airlocks and rocket jets.” Good observation Baz. In the dumbest move in development history, it was decided that this “canon” game would instead have fans of the series defend themselves against waves of aliens as tough as your grandmother’s hips.
But hey, if the aliens are going to be inaccurate, why not the story too? I won’t ruin the specifics of the story for any soul sorry enough to still want to play it, but you remember I mentioned Hicks and Bishop flying to earth with Ripley? Well consistency be damned, the teams at Sega and Gearbox have brought them back in the most inconsistent bit of fan service in the history of the world.
It’s a sad addition for developer Gearbox, which has enjoyed much recent critical and commercial success with last year’s Borderlands 2 and was starting to gain a very respectable reputation. However, a suspiciously timed statement by an “ex” Gearbox employee was leaked two days after the game was released, admitting that development had been outsourced to other developers, essentially absolving Gearbox of responsibility for the game.
Conveniently, the statement said that Gearbox’s primary involvement in the game’s development was the multiplayer mode, which is the liferaft in this sinking ship of a game. All five multiplayer modes, which include Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Capture the Flag variations, as well as a survival mode, have you assigned as either an Alien or a marine competing against the other. This is a fresh change to the multiplayer experience, giving players a very different playing style depending on which team they play on.
The Marine involves pretty standard first person shooting; however, playing as the Alien is a fun new challenge as you try to figure out the best ways to stalk and climb, and attack your prey. Unfortunately, despite the intrigue of this new playing style, the matchmaking and levelling system is so lacklustre that there is little invitation to extended play.
If you’re looking to experience more of the Alien universe I would recommend Aliens vs. Predators before I would recommend this campaign, but if you’re keen to try a new multiplayer style in an industry flooded by first person shooters, it’s worth a rent.
2/5
