It's not great. It's kinda fun but It lacks the subtlety of Left 4 Dead. There was a little down time in between swarms in that game. Gave you a chance to collect yourself and search for gear. This game never stops throwing enemies at you so there's never any tension, and yeah, your CO always making some quip or remark that really undercuts any sense of dread. Treating the Aliens like more of a nuisance of the job than a real threat. Just another day in the core I guess? The writing and voice acting is pretty awful. The characters are all cliches at best, stereotypes at worst. Sadly in the attempt for diversity the writers forget that people are more than just there ethnicity and are all still humans beings with more than just stereotypical ethnic traits. The actors don't do much to better the terrible dialogue either. It's got bugs(not the xenos) and a fair amount of jankiness. The more you play the more the rough edges show up. The game has a serious probables being repetitive. The levels are often bland and boring. Lacking much of anything in terms of visual storytelling or interesting set pieces. And there nothing to do here but shoot things. There are several opportunities to shake up the gameplay (a moment of stealth to sneak past some sleeping androids? But no, they wake no matter what and it's back to shooting.) That being said, its not all bad. The actual gunplay is great. The weapons are fun and feel great to fire. They managed to make all the iconic weapons really feel powerful and useful. The smart gun is kinda OP and it should be! Kudos to Cold Iron for not shying away from making it a super powerful gun. And the flamethrower, which in most Alien games is either useless or just not fun to use, is maybe the best close quarters crowd control weapon in the game. Everything sounds and feels great to fire. The classes and kits are all distinct enough and offer enough to make them feel unique and useful. Building a group and understanding your role in the unit adds a very needed layer of depth to the game. In fact it's much more tactical than it seems initially. Once you know your role in the game and how to synergize with the team the game is a lot of fun. But that's maybe the biggest issue here. So much of the experience is up to the player. There's fun to be had here, but you have to work for it.
