Aliens: Colonial Marines

[MrJim]

I know Aliens: Colonial Marines got almost universally awful reviews (Metascore is 45!), but just how bad is it? It's on offer on Steam for £3.74 at the moment, & I'm considering buying a couple of copies for some co-op action with a friend. Is it worth it, do you think?

[outwar6010]

When its that cheap why not. I got it cheap on the ps3 and its okay but im still very early on. I doubt the mp has any real problems but can check for you. However gamefly is having an ea sale so you could get medal of honour war fighter around the same price unless you really want a sci fi game. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/game...amefly-1932950

[MrJim]

When its that cheap why not. I got it cheap on the ps3 and its okay but im still very early on. I doubt the mp has any real problems but can check for you. However gamefly is having an ea sale so you could get medal of honour war fighter around the same price unless you really want a sci fi game. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/game...amefly-1932950

Thanks for the heads-up - I already bought Battlefield 4 this morning

Does Warfighter offer specific co-op modes (as opposed to team multi-player)?

[Ttaskmaster]

It was written and coded up by devs who are huge fans of the Alien franchise... but then overseen by their management (who were more concerned with other games, like Borderlands*) and commissioned by SEGA (who seem to love capitalising on the money-maker franchise).

In the campaign, you'll find a load of Colonial Marine references, to the point where half the NPCs are members of the fan community scanned in (name, face, armour and Pulse Rifles included) to the game. One of the Xenos even had a red dog collar on, which is 'Abe The Alien' (seriously, he's quite teh celeb in certain circles. Google Abe T. Alien or look at http://www.aliencostume.co.uk).

However, all this was then overlaid with the usual FPS gunk and rushed to meet SEGA's latest timeframe (as they'd missed all the other deadlines), before they ended up in court. The results are what you see in-game.

There have since been some heavy patching on the quality improvement front, but it's still a generic FPS, really. As just a computer game, it's not bad... but so many games have already taken from or been inspired by the Alien films, that there's no longer anything new or interesting an Alien game can bring to the table. AvP was FAR superior!

Multiplayer is a generic FPS multiplayer, really.
Those who are good at them will excel. Those who are not will get shot... assuming there's enough people still playing to get you a match.


As a big Aliens fan myself, I got this game... I have yet to make it halfway into the SP campaign and have had to restart twice as I forgot what was happening!


*After Gearbox taking ages to get anywhere with A:CM, SEGA looked around at other places. Rebellion did more with AvP-2010 in three months than Gearbox had with over 18 on A:CM. Thus Reb got a deal for another AvP game that was dev'ed, completed and released all well before A:CM was close to making any real progress.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its not too bad for the price.

[MrJim]

Thanks for the feedback. It's really the co-op side of things I'm interested in. Can you play through the whole game in co-op, or is the co-op 'bolted on' as a bit of an afterthought like Far Cry 3? I've already got 3 co-op games I've not got around to playing yet, so I might wait until the Steam Summer sale & see if the price goes even lower

[Ttaskmaster]

Bolt-on, I believe.
I don't recall any mention of the campaign being co-op and your companions are two annoying NPCs that get in the line of fire rather an awful lot...

Just your typical Multiplayer co-op/deathmatch sort of affair, AFAIK.

[heinsmit]

Such a shame what happened to this game, interesting story Ttaskmaster, definitely the most disappointing game of the last few years.