Fan Reviews

[Corporal Hicks]

You can use this thread to post your reviews in. I'm opening this now as I know some folk have received their copies early.

[Ferengo]

So my copy arrived on Saturday. Didn't take long to isntall and a short update for day one.

It's a decent game. Play wise it is repetitive but that said I was playing it in single player but still had fun. With people you can interact with I think this will be a lot more fun. Match making wasn't bringing up any results for me but this is 4 days before release, I'm guessing when more people have the game it will be easier or perhaps it was turned off until release date? I think setting difficulty and levels in matching making may saturate the amount of sucessful matches you'll get.

It can be a little hard to know what to do outside of the game play. Setting up and customising skins/weapons took a little while to figure out but once you do it's easy to set up. Annoying you need to run around everywhere on the ship to do different things but I remember one of the Call of Dutys (Maybe WWII) doing this.

I've noticed a couple of glitches with the camera. If I hide behind a wall I can't jump over then try to get up and move away, the camera glitches back and forth a few times. Likewise if you're backed into a corner the character vanishes and it can be hard to know where you are in relation the what's going on. Nothing that I haven't seen in other games and not the end of the world gltiches.

All in all for the price, it's a decent buy. Single player will tire quickly but multiplayer should be where it's at. I'm certainly not let down by this and looking forward to joining some people for games.

[seattle24]

So I've had it since Saturday as well like Ferengo but can only share brief thoughts as I've only got to mission 2 in the first campaign because of my necessity to play on "intense" and what I hope is my mate's awful internet, and not the game having connection difficulties.

+ crisp presentation and surprisingly detailed textures which really pop in 4K.
+ when it comes to a last stand situation it feels authentically "Aliens". Was really fun watching the sentry turrets deplete and the Aliens break our line
+ challenging. And this was without the use of challenge cards.

- some voice-overs and dialogue is a bit cringe. Aliens excelled (sharp witty dialogue) in this that's why I have the bar high
- last night we couldn't play one bloody mission. Could be because we're playing pre-launch though or just that my mate's internet is quite poor?

I can feel this reviewing rather well which is pleasantly surprising and a huge testament to the folks at Cold Iron.

[Corporal Hicks]

So we just finished the 2nd mission of the 3rd campaign. Taking a break for RT to sleep, but I'm really enjoying it! The level and environment design in this campaign is on fire.

[Leggs.obj]

Played the first campaign last night. Got stuck on the second mission, the game is definitely way more challenging than I expected. Was a good time though, I'm really enjoying the collectible items scattered throughout the missions. The aspen beer can was a nice touch.

[426Buddy]

Trying to play now on XB, crashed after creating my character lol.

Trying again

- played a few minutes with bots, enjoyed it. Graphics on the xenos are a bit of a letdown compared to what I've seen of the next gen or pc screens footage. (I'm playing on the Xbox One x)

[PAS]

Aside from needing some optimization fixes, I'd say this game is really good

[426Buddy]

Beat the first level, really enjoyed it even though it was just me.

The gameplay is mindless fun and overall it's got a lot for franchise fans. Also the soundtrack is excellent, actually elevates the game a bit imo.

I did notice there has been no human blood or gore at all thus far. Even when someone is picked up by the warrior or pounced on by the other special variants. It's been a game I wouldn't worry about playing around the kiddos, so far at least.

[razeak]

I've finished 2 levels. It's fun, but looks like its getting better. I'm going to up the difficulty though.

[Voodoo Magic]

I put in my first couple hours last night, here's some random first impression thoughts.

The Deluxe Edition I spent $30 extra dollars on. Woah boy, what a waste of money, maybe the biggest waste for a "Deluxe Edition" in my experience at least, all for a small handful of cosmetics, some that aren't even noticeable in-game. Enjoy that extra Christmas money Cold Iron!

Music was uneven for me. Some of the moody cuts I liked, some of the faster paced tracks didn't have enough umpf and sometimes distracted me even.

Move your mouths! Sometimes I can live with AI talking without their mouths moving at a minimal basis, but considering you're dependent on having dialogue repeatedly with AI crew to accept missions, purchase upgrades, learn lore, rinse-repeat, the lack of mouth movement feels old generation cheap. Feels like a cost savings measure. And the one guy working on the Power Loader kept moving his mouth, but nothing was coming out!

The game crashed while I was in the queue so I switched it over to bots. And thankfully, the bots played well. Pleasantly surprised with some decent A.I.

Graphics were fine. No where near as good as the overclocked footage on IGN but I'm playing on a PS4 Pro. It's decent graphics for a PS4 Pro. Nothing special, nothing awful.

Fun factor is the best part. It literally often felt like a coin-op arcade game where I'd put an embarrassingly amount of quarters to continue. There's no sense of fear or dread here, it doesn't feel like a correct interpretation of Aliens 'the film' unfortunately. There are some frustrating moments here or there where I feel I should logically be able to jump this or climb that - nope, find another way. But lots of mindless shoot-em-up fun for sure!

Two major concerns ringing in the back of my mind so far:

No Cross Play. This game feels like will live or die by its replayability and that will require friends. And the lengthy way "leveling" occurs here, I don't believe a great many will want to start from scratch again just so they can play on other friends' platforms, if they even have that option.

25 Minutes to Spare. I had 25 minutes to spare before I had to hit the pillow for work last night and I couldn't start another mission because I feared it wouldn't be enough time - its not like I could save my progress- so I moved to an entirely different game. It's not a great aspect. If these missions can run 30-45 minutes, I wonder how many random real-player Fireteams are going to experience someone cutting and running because dinner is ready, or mom is calling, or this or that. We'll see.

[seattle24]

25 Minutes to Spare. I had 25 minutes to spare before I had to hit the pillow for work last night and I couldn't start another mission because I feared it wouldn't be enough time - its not like I could save my progress- so I moved to an entirely different game. It's not a great aspect. If these missions can run 30-45 minutes, I wonder how many random real-player Fireteams are going to experience someone cutting and running because dinner is ready, or mom is calling, or this or that. We'll see.

This is a really good point. I work from home and fancied a cheeky mission before I logged on for work this morning - I really cut it fine as the random chap and bot I was playing with kept getting downed, and stretched it out. Almost the opposite of that casual pick up and play, a little bit. Fortunately we all died a few minutes before I started work!

[Kailem]

My copy finally arrived this morning and I got to play about an hour or so. I mostly spent time creating my character and exploring the Endeavour hub area, and went deliberately slowly on the first mission, which is the only one I've done so far since I've seen so many pre-release videos of it that I figured it wasn't like I'd be seeing anything new.

So far I've really been liking it. It definitely gets fun and intense when the really big hordes show up and you're diving all over the place an switching weapons because reloading would take too long. And when the big boys like the Drones or Warriors appear they can definitely make things extra fun.

I only went through that first mission with two AI teammates, but they did well. I'm not the higher the difficulty the less helpful it'll be to have them in place of real people, but for standard difficulty they're great.

I really like that there are collectible on the missions that have some lore attached to them that you can hear characters talk about when you get back to the ship. Ever since I saw the little info blurbs on the weapons in the IGN preview and after hearing that Andrew Gaska was involved, I've been looking forward to seeing and reading all that stuff, and noticing all the ways it fits in to the RPG.

Still need to find one on the Endeavour itself, but the ones I've nabbed so far have been cool.

The Deluxe Edition I spent $30 extra dollars on. Woah boy, what a waste of money, maybe the biggest waste for a "Deluxe Edition" in my experience at least, all for a small handful of cosmetics, some that aren't even noticeable in-game. Enjoy that extra Christmas money Cold Iron!

It seems like most of what you're paying for with the deluxe edition is the season pass for the upcoming year's worth of cosmetics, so maybe by August 2022 you'll be able to enjoy all of what you paid for.

I checked and the veteran's pack is going for £8 on the Playstation store here. That's more than I was hoping it'd be, but I'll probably still get it anyway as it looks like there are a few cool things in there. The season pass though I'm just going to wait and see what sort of things they have in the first drop before I make a decision on (though it seems like all you can get at the moment is an expensive "deluxe edition upgrade" instead, rather than the pass on its own).

Move your mouths! Sometimes I can live with AI talking without their mouths moving at a minimal basis, but considering you're dependent on having dialogue repeatedly with AI crew to accept missions, purchase upgrades, learn lore, rinse-repeat, the lack of mouth movement feels old generation cheap. Feels like a cost savings measure. And the one guy working on the Power Loader kept moving his mouth, but nothing was coming out!

Yeah the lack of moving mouths despite how often the characters talk definitely sucks. It's a very nice-looking game overall, but that part just feels cheap.

I'm not asking for full lip syncing here, but some movement would have been good.

Regardless that's a small thing overall. I'm very much looking forward to playing it again later, and with some actual human teammates.

[razeak]

I haven't played it since last night, but the music in the first two levels, meh.


Fun factor for me is enhanced by the fact that I have a 13 year old son and we have 2 gaming PCs side by side. I'm loving it. He's the one who dragged me through Colonial Marines probably 30 times when he was 5 lol. We had a good time last night. We can see some weaknesses in AI here and there, as well as some Aliens that are getting stuck. I'm happy we bought it, but I echo the sentiment about the deluxe edition. Not worth it.

[The Necronoir]

Only had time to poke around in the Endeavor and play the first mission solo, so far. Ran out of ammo twice and had the squad wiped just before the final elevator arrived, so didn't achieve much by the end of it all. It quashed any ideas that this was going to be a spammy shooter though, as others in the genre can be. Managing resources does add some genuine tension, and I'll be much more conservative with ammo in future!

Some random thoughts:

- Is it just me, or does going through the campaign with only Alpha and Beta on your squad make it creepier than if you were alone? Nice job replicating the experience of synth-phobia, I guess!

- I'm surprised that we can't add decals to our outfits, like you can with the weapons. I know it was never explicitly promised, but somehow the coverage gave me the impression that we'd be able to do this. Even Colonial Marines had that to some extent!

- I consider myself average-to-good at this kind of game, but man am I finding it hard to hit the swarms of runners! The speed and general manoeuvrability they have makes it really hard to track them. Reminds me of the interview with Rebellion years ago (on the AVPG podcast, if I'm not mistaken) where they talk about having to slow down the alien movements and introduce pauses between attacks just to allow players a fair chance of landing a shot on them. Even in third person it's not easy to keep track of.

[Kailem]

Yeah I spent a while increasing the aiming and ADS sensitivity after I encountered my first swarm. I really like how they can crawl on the ceilings and walls too. Makes it so that even if the motion tracker is telling you there's one there you might not necessarily see it because it could be right above you. Definitely helps it feel more "Aliens" than if they were all just running along the floor like the enemies in most of these types of games do.

And yeah I ended up running out of ammo and having to use a medkit a couple of times on the first mission, so I'm sure on the higher difficulties the resource management side of things should really help make it a lot more tense.