This is my first go at one of these, so please be gentle in terms of my writing ability in preview/review format. Now I haven't finished the game, so this is sort of a first impressions as I don't want to rush through a game I just got this morning. Also, the only images I can give are ones with my digital camera, so I apologize for the quality, but I figure a low quality image is better then none as far as showing features goes.
It's also worth noting, that this is for the Xbox 360 version of the game, so there may be difference on different platforms.
A name can say a lot about what you're playing, and Aliens: Colonial Marines tells you exactly what to expect, it's got aliens in it, and there are marines of a colonial variety as well! So before even getting to the game, I'm already expecting the same sort of cheesy macho marines we already got with the second film like Vasquez and Apone, and that's great, because that's what we liked in that movie and they are trying to deliver us something similar. An exciting and pulse pounding bug hunt, something that Rebellions AvP really didn't deliver at all.
After installing the game, I booted it up and was greeted with a nice title screen, your usual starry space then ships drift over, stuff happening in the background that sort of thing. As is usually the case with menus, there was stuff to click on, now I always check everything before I start a game, all the options, modes etc.
First thing I looked at was the multiplayer customization, I was expecting very little to be honest. What we get however is anything but little. With multiple heads to choose from, ten for the male marines and four for the female ones, though in my opinion, the ladies have the cooler ones. There's only a few voices per gender, but at least they each sound different unlike some games where you barely tell a difference , a problem the recent Xcom is a good example of. Then you have different choices for your uniform and armor, helmet, shoulder pads, tattoos, face paint and then there's emblems to put over your armor which adds a more personal touch to it that I liked. Not to mention extra things like belt pouches, combat knives and ammo to attach to your marine. The DLC which came with my collectors edition added a few, but the vanilla game has quite a bit, it only added one or two things here and there so don't worry, you're not missing much if you didn't get it, I promise.
What surprised me next was that the Xenos get custom bits too, not as many, but heads and skin tones to unlock, which is cool. With the three classes of alien you play in the multiplayer getting different heads to unlock, it adds just a little something for those preferring to prey on the marines to strive toward getting.
Then you have five load outs you can make for your marines to lock and load in multiplayer, the Xenos get one load out per class, which seems fair enough. For your marines you have some bits and bobs to change on your weapons as you unlock em, they even have traits for the marines themselves, like do a bit more melee damage or reload quicker etc and the aliens have their own equivalent traits too, like health regeneration for certain things etc. Each class of aliens has different types of attacks, fatalities and you can unlock better carapace armor for them as well as the marines, so to keep the playing field even.
Into the options, now Gearbox has done well by giving players some preset controls, or if you have your own in mind, you can completely change the buttons functions to your liking, which we need to see more in games. Also thought I would note, there is a mute all players option, so you never have to put up with other people if you're that way inclined, bit of an odd option, but some will be glad it's there I'm sure. Lastly, one option that I turned off was for the motion tracker, now you have to bring that up to look at it, but if there are enemies within range it puts this little icon on the bottom of your HUD to let you know there are some that your scanner is picking up when you are not looking at it. For a more immersive experience, I recommend turning this off. That's all above the norm in terms of the options I figured worth noting.
Campaign can be played Split screen, online, and over LAN as well. Glad to see Gearbox continuing to let us choose how we can play our games in that regard. I'm not sure if you can have someone split screening the campaign and go online to have four people like Borderlands 2 but I hope so, will update with an answer on that if I get the chance. Split screen is not an option for the outside of the campaign though, which is a bit of a shame, but you will want the full screen when playing against other people.
Now after playing a bit of the game, I noticed a bit of texture popping and a bit if screen tear, not too bad but it was a bit noticeable. In the heat of the action I didn't notice it anyway, at least that's how I found it. As far as the visuals go, some say they look dated and to a degree they are a little right, but I think they have a certain style to them. Trying to keep the look and at atmosphere of the films in the game. After all, if this is crap graphics:
Then to be honest, you're getting too picky. Granted the visuals have a certain style to them that some may not like and some texture popping shows up. But the game isn't trying to be Crysis, it's trying to be Aliens and I think the visual representation does the job adequately. But I'm not going to lie, it's not perfect and you may notice some blemishes here and there.
Another issue I came across during play was that there is currently no host migration for multiplayer, so if the host quits, then goodbye game, hello game lobby. It's something the community has already been vocal about on their forums and I'm faithful they will fix it. That's as far as the negatives go so far in my experience, but if I find the chance I will update on any others.
Now, about the gameplay itself. The controls are mostly your standard fare and do the job nicely. You can adjust what you don't like as I mentioned earlier and the game seems quite responsive, I never noticed any control input lag which can be a game breaker most of the time. If you are familiar with Borderlands, the game feels like that control wise, and I really like that.
First mode I hopped in was the survival mode, and that's interesting to say the least. The marines have work to do as soon as the game starts, with setting up sentries and welding doors to block the aliens from taking other routes to where you're holding out, it made for some frantic game play and was very fun. Best part is, once your turn as the marines is over, you get to grief the people who were just against you as the aliens but invading their little base and trying to take them down. So it's like a horde mode, but you just got to survive the alien onslaught until the time runs out, the more aliens in the base, the faster they respawn, so keeping them out is the best way to stop being overrun easily. Aliens win by chomping the marines up of course.
Playing as marines and aliens, both require a bit of thinking and team work, and even making the odd sacrificial play to help the team will be needed in order to get the most out of the game I feel.
One thing that needs to be said, is the aliens do have a bit of a learning curve, as there is no sort of tutorial, but shouldn't be too hard for most players to pick up. Just something too keep in mind.
Extermination brings an objective based mode to the game where the marines have to destroy alien eggs and the aliens have to stop them from doing so, it's a simple mode, but was a lot of fun. I found playing as the aliens in this instance to be far more satisfying!
Aliens play in third person, which I think works quite well considering they are (with exception to the spitter) melee based.
Here's a spitter getting hit, screen greens up more then usual as an alien, make of that what you will.
As for the sound, it's great. All the weapons sound like they should, I think the voice acting is exactly what an Aliens game should be like and the music helps the general atmosphere of the game. Also, Lance Henriksen (Bishop) and Michael Biehn (Hicks) reprise their respective roles, which is awesome to hear as well, they even got title credits as the game opens up.
Now for the campaign, I'm not going to spoil here, and I'm going to be short on this point as I have only played a little bit. Seems you're investigating the Sulaco, your commander, who addresses his marines respectfully as chicks and dicks is sending you to investigate what's happened to the first team sent to the ship. Story seemed straight forward, got some hoo raas and such from the marines and have enjoyed it so far. People seemed to be wondering if you play as your custom character, sadly you do not. It seems any friend that join you have unique looks given to them too at least, so everyone looks different at least. We played split screen and found it ran fine, we didn't have any frame rate issues or anything like that, the fact that when you pick up armor and it shares it to the other player was appreciated, since alien blood chews through it real quick, so be careful.
If you want the short version: I think the game is overall worth playing, and while it may not have the best graphics around the game play seems solid, the sound quality is good, all those classic sounds like the awesome rifle sound just right and the music sets the mood perfectly. The aliens are fun to play as, there is plenty to unlock and enjoy and it makes for a great competitive game as well as a cooperative game too!
If you like the Aliens franchise, I would recommend taking a look, it's great fun.
If you're a general shooter fan and want something different, I would recommend it to you too.
I know this was a big wall of text, hope it answered some questions about the game and I hope it was an alright read. Any questions about the game, just let me know and I could try it out or see what you want to know is there etc
It's also worth noting, that this is for the Xbox 360 version of the game, so there may be difference on different platforms.
A name can say a lot about what you're playing, and Aliens: Colonial Marines tells you exactly what to expect, it's got aliens in it, and there are marines of a colonial variety as well! So before even getting to the game, I'm already expecting the same sort of cheesy macho marines we already got with the second film like Vasquez and Apone, and that's great, because that's what we liked in that movie and they are trying to deliver us something similar. An exciting and pulse pounding bug hunt, something that Rebellions AvP really didn't deliver at all.
After installing the game, I booted it up and was greeted with a nice title screen, your usual starry space then ships drift over, stuff happening in the background that sort of thing. As is usually the case with menus, there was stuff to click on, now I always check everything before I start a game, all the options, modes etc.
First thing I looked at was the multiplayer customization, I was expecting very little to be honest. What we get however is anything but little. With multiple heads to choose from, ten for the male marines and four for the female ones, though in my opinion, the ladies have the cooler ones. There's only a few voices per gender, but at least they each sound different unlike some games where you barely tell a difference , a problem the recent Xcom is a good example of. Then you have different choices for your uniform and armor, helmet, shoulder pads, tattoos, face paint and then there's emblems to put over your armor which adds a more personal touch to it that I liked. Not to mention extra things like belt pouches, combat knives and ammo to attach to your marine. The DLC which came with my collectors edition added a few, but the vanilla game has quite a bit, it only added one or two things here and there so don't worry, you're not missing much if you didn't get it, I promise.
What surprised me next was that the Xenos get custom bits too, not as many, but heads and skin tones to unlock, which is cool. With the three classes of alien you play in the multiplayer getting different heads to unlock, it adds just a little something for those preferring to prey on the marines to strive toward getting.
Then you have five load outs you can make for your marines to lock and load in multiplayer, the Xenos get one load out per class, which seems fair enough. For your marines you have some bits and bobs to change on your weapons as you unlock em, they even have traits for the marines themselves, like do a bit more melee damage or reload quicker etc and the aliens have their own equivalent traits too, like health regeneration for certain things etc. Each class of aliens has different types of attacks, fatalities and you can unlock better carapace armor for them as well as the marines, so to keep the playing field even.
Into the options, now Gearbox has done well by giving players some preset controls, or if you have your own in mind, you can completely change the buttons functions to your liking, which we need to see more in games. Also thought I would note, there is a mute all players option, so you never have to put up with other people if you're that way inclined, bit of an odd option, but some will be glad it's there I'm sure. Lastly, one option that I turned off was for the motion tracker, now you have to bring that up to look at it, but if there are enemies within range it puts this little icon on the bottom of your HUD to let you know there are some that your scanner is picking up when you are not looking at it. For a more immersive experience, I recommend turning this off. That's all above the norm in terms of the options I figured worth noting.
Campaign can be played Split screen, online, and over LAN as well. Glad to see Gearbox continuing to let us choose how we can play our games in that regard. I'm not sure if you can have someone split screening the campaign and go online to have four people like Borderlands 2 but I hope so, will update with an answer on that if I get the chance. Split screen is not an option for the outside of the campaign though, which is a bit of a shame, but you will want the full screen when playing against other people.
Now after playing a bit of the game, I noticed a bit of texture popping and a bit if screen tear, not too bad but it was a bit noticeable. In the heat of the action I didn't notice it anyway, at least that's how I found it. As far as the visuals go, some say they look dated and to a degree they are a little right, but I think they have a certain style to them. Trying to keep the look and at atmosphere of the films in the game. After all, if this is crap graphics:
Another issue I came across during play was that there is currently no host migration for multiplayer, so if the host quits, then goodbye game, hello game lobby. It's something the community has already been vocal about on their forums and I'm faithful they will fix it. That's as far as the negatives go so far in my experience, but if I find the chance I will update on any others.
Now, about the gameplay itself. The controls are mostly your standard fare and do the job nicely. You can adjust what you don't like as I mentioned earlier and the game seems quite responsive, I never noticed any control input lag which can be a game breaker most of the time. If you are familiar with Borderlands, the game feels like that control wise, and I really like that.
First mode I hopped in was the survival mode, and that's interesting to say the least. The marines have work to do as soon as the game starts, with setting up sentries and welding doors to block the aliens from taking other routes to where you're holding out, it made for some frantic game play and was very fun. Best part is, once your turn as the marines is over, you get to grief the people who were just against you as the aliens but invading their little base and trying to take them down. So it's like a horde mode, but you just got to survive the alien onslaught until the time runs out, the more aliens in the base, the faster they respawn, so keeping them out is the best way to stop being overrun easily. Aliens win by chomping the marines up of course.
Playing as marines and aliens, both require a bit of thinking and team work, and even making the odd sacrificial play to help the team will be needed in order to get the most out of the game I feel.
One thing that needs to be said, is the aliens do have a bit of a learning curve, as there is no sort of tutorial, but shouldn't be too hard for most players to pick up. Just something too keep in mind.
Extermination brings an objective based mode to the game where the marines have to destroy alien eggs and the aliens have to stop them from doing so, it's a simple mode, but was a lot of fun. I found playing as the aliens in this instance to be far more satisfying!
Aliens play in third person, which I think works quite well considering they are (with exception to the spitter) melee based.
Here's a spitter getting hit, screen greens up more then usual as an alien, make of that what you will.
As for the sound, it's great. All the weapons sound like they should, I think the voice acting is exactly what an Aliens game should be like and the music helps the general atmosphere of the game. Also, Lance Henriksen (Bishop) and Michael Biehn (Hicks) reprise their respective roles, which is awesome to hear as well, they even got title credits as the game opens up.
Now for the campaign, I'm not going to spoil here, and I'm going to be short on this point as I have only played a little bit. Seems you're investigating the Sulaco, your commander, who addresses his marines respectfully as chicks and dicks is sending you to investigate what's happened to the first team sent to the ship. Story seemed straight forward, got some hoo raas and such from the marines and have enjoyed it so far. People seemed to be wondering if you play as your custom character, sadly you do not. It seems any friend that join you have unique looks given to them too at least, so everyone looks different at least. We played split screen and found it ran fine, we didn't have any frame rate issues or anything like that, the fact that when you pick up armor and it shares it to the other player was appreciated, since alien blood chews through it real quick, so be careful.
If you want the short version: I think the game is overall worth playing, and while it may not have the best graphics around the game play seems solid, the sound quality is good, all those classic sounds like the awesome rifle sound just right and the music sets the mood perfectly. The aliens are fun to play as, there is plenty to unlock and enjoy and it makes for a great competitive game as well as a cooperative game too!
If you like the Aliens franchise, I would recommend taking a look, it's great fun.
If you're a general shooter fan and want something different, I would recommend it to you too.
I know this was a big wall of text, hope it answered some questions about the game and I hope it was an alright read. Any questions about the game, just let me know and I could try it out or see what you want to know is there etc
