Aliens: Colonial Marines, having just been released this past week, is already starting off with great hype. With it being delayed about two years, it's no surprise that gamers are thoroughly thrilled by the long awaited release.
First up, the campaign. In what way is it not awesome? The attention to detail when dealing with the storyline of the original Aliens movie is dead on. There are tie-ins and references to past characters such as finding their dog-tags, weapons, sound recordings, and sometimes even their bodies, or parts of them. With the pre-ordered version, gamers can access this even more with playable characters and guns for multiplayer.
The xenomorphs in the campaign are just like the xenomorphs we know and love from the movie, with a few added mutations. Xenomorphs attack head on as expected and dissolve into an acidic substance that will cause damage if touched. The mutated xenomorphs (Spitter, Crusher, Boiler, Brute) add an extra scare factor to the game that keeps gamers on their toes.
While the campaign has a lot more human fighting action than what most Aliens fans would prefer, it answers the question of how the xenomorphs can continue to repopulate their shot down civilization.
The campaign cannot and should not be compared to games such as Halo, Deadspace, or Call of Duty for it still has bugs to fix and is set in the same way as the movie, which keeps it at a lower level than the games players are more used to.
The multiplayer mode makes up for the flaws of the 'quater-of-a-day to complete' campaign. Set with four game types (team deathmatch, escape, extermination, and survival) where players get to be either marines or xenomorphs (getting to choose between the types of Spitter, Soldier, and Lurker). Players get to customize both their marines and xenomorphs, earning upgrades as they play for skills and looks. Random drop points for weapons (such as the flamethrower, smartgun, and rocket launcher) give marines an edge while randomly placed 'shells' (turning their xeno into either a suicidal Boiler or tanking Crusher) give the xenomorphs an edge of their own.
Unlike the campaign where split-screen is an option, multiplayer, frustratingly, doesn't offer this same option. Players can join with one another for a multiplayer group game via the online systems but not while they're in the same room with each other. Frustrating and flawed.
As any new game does, Aliens: Colonial Marines has bugs and glitches that need to be sorted out in order for the game to run smoothly. Despite this, Aliens: Colonial Marines is a worthwhile game that will bring hours of xenomorph/marine action.
Comments