What do you hear?

I’m not cool enough, nor do I know the legality of following that with “Nothing but the rain.” But that’s all whole different colonial issue. This issue is more of a bug problem and said bug problem hasn’t been cared for in about 17 weeks. So who do you call when you’re under distress? Why, the United States Colonial Marines of course.

Need to Know

Aliens: Colonial Marines has been a long time in coming. On its way there have been delays and controversy that may or may not have gotten the light of day, but there’s a time and place for those things. Doing most of the development was Gearbox Software (Borderlands) and it was published fresh for us by Sega.

Assholes and Elbows

This is what Alien fanboys and girls have been waiting for. Leaving no marines behind, balls to wall xenomorph killing action. Well, first things first boys and girls. It’s been 17 weeks since the distress signal from the U.S.S. Sulaco that appeared in James Cameron’s Aliens film 17 years ago. For your time in the game’s campaign players fill the boots of Corporal Christopher Winters who is part of the Marine detachment on the U.S.S. Sephora. Bad news for Winters and the other marines that will comprise his squad is that some marines who were first sent aboard the Sulaco are missing in action. So, guess what? You gotta find them. Things get real interesting upon your discovery of the cocooning of marines once you look up from your handy motion tracker. Let’s just leave at bad to worse, because let’s face it, when does anything good happen when you introduce the xenomorph?

The gameplay is arcade like to me, almost in a style that is similar to Left 4 Dead. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t think that’s vibe I was expecting from Colonial Marines. Most of the game is a point A to point B kind of style and that’s not bad considering that amounts of xenomorphs and Weyland Yutani thugs you have to fight through. Roll that in with the occasional I hope you survive a few minutes without help situations and you got yourself a game. The way this story plays out is what I think I and many, many others would have loved to have seen on the big screen in the place of Aliens 3. It takes a nice twist and shows a few hints of things we’ve seen before which beyond subtle nods, don’t really effect the gameplay and aren’t anything unless you’ve watched the movies (Alien, Aliens, etc.). If you do enjoy collecting things, and who doesn’t, Colonial Marines has its fill of stuff to find. Scattered within missions are dog tags of fallen Marines, Legendary weapons that were carried by Marines in the Aliens movie, that you can use once found, and audio logs that help clue in on the events since the ending of Aliens. Hopefully you wont have to play through multiple times like I did, to try and find most of the items, because the are hidden, and not always in obvious places. Some of the items are worth the little tid bit of story they add, while finding the legendary weapons is actually quite cool, but the upgrades you can make to your own weapons seems to outweigh the abilities of the weapons you can find.

Oh dear Lord Jesus, this ain’t happening, man… This can’t be happening, man!

Those are the lines of the late Private Hudson from Aliens. Those lines are how I felt while playing the Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer. Take that with a grain of salt though. A rather large grain of salt that would kill a slug mightier than Jabba the Hutt. The multiplayer plays similar to the way that Left 4 Dead does. There are four different multiplayer modes: Team deathmatch, extermination, escape, and survivor. All the modes are straight forward so the only handle you need is on controlling your xenomorph, which for me, was a lot tougher than it looks. Team deathmatch is a 6 on 6 playlist with Marines and xenomorphs going at it. For the most part it’s pretty fun until your caught out in the open by yourself, so stick with your squadmates and hope at least one of you is using the motion tracker. Toss in the ability to use the upgrades and legendary weapons you gathered during your campaign runs and this can be a very good time.

How hard is it to poach a godd*mn egg!?

Extermination is more objective based than the team deathmatch, in that the players have a goal behind not dying. The goal is to get to designated sites and destroy the xeno eggs that wait there. Seems pretty easy until you release enemy team doesn’t want you frying the eggs. It’s pretty much the same concept as the team deathmatch, but you don’t have to worry so much about your skill in killing the enemy when you’re playing as the Marines.

Maybe we can build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh, how about we try that.

Escape. Pretty self explanatory, and of the modes you can play, it’s the most like Left 4 Dead‘s multiplayer. As Marines, players have to fight their way to their safe zone. I didn’t particularly enjoy this mode as much as extermination and team deathmatch.

Maybe you haven’t been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!

Very similar to team deathmatch in that the goal of both teams is to kill the other, but unfortunately there aren’t waves and waves of xenomorphs to slaughter with your buddies. Instead you’re pitted against four other player controlled xenomorphs to see who is left standing.

That’s it, man. Game over, man.

I gotta say that I’m a little disappointed in this game. As a person that was waiting and waiting, and then waiting some more, I think the patience ran out. Demos looked really good, but unfortunately it suffered from a problem that happens with food. Why can’t it look like the picture? For this game to look worse than the demos is a let down. They can hold up, because I think we’re all graphically spoiled, but that’s another story for later. The game isn’t too long, but it’s a story I think a lot of people have been wanting. The multiplayer is so-so. The arcade like feel I wasn’t digging too much.

If I have to grade the game: 2/5

My grade: Wait til it’s cheaper or rent it. I was happy with the story and not too much else. I’m accepting of the game up until a point.