Aliens Colonial Marines Review

Collector’s Edition

I purchased the Collector’s Edition of the game. This is not something I typically do as I find that the extra goodies you get with the game tend to be subpar, particularly busts or statues that are included. I never brought the fancy version of the Alien Anthology because the bust looked nowhere near as impressive as in the concept images released. Thankfully the power-loader statue that came with Colonial Marines does look really good and makes a really cool addition to any collection.

The Collector’s Edition also comes with additional downloadable content in way of multiplayer skins, exclusive weapons and equipment and an additional map. The skins are all based on characters from Aliens: Corporal Hicks, Sergeant Apone, Private Drake and Hudson. Aside from Hudson, all include quips and taunts voiced by the original actors but even Hudson’s voice actor sounds immensely “Hudson-like”.

The likeness is good enough considering the graphical standard of the game and they look exactly like who they are supposed to be. It’s really cool to be able to run around looking like Corporal Hicks and hearing Michael Biehn’s voice in multiplayer.

Also included is “Ripley’s Pulse Rifle/Flamethrower”, the duct-taped combo that Ripley storms into the hive with in Aliens. I’ve got to admit, it puts a bit of a grin on your face rocking around with this thing. There’s also the phased plasma rifle, what was a throwaway comment in the movie, put into existence in the form of this one-shot kill wonder weapon. It takes time to charge up and then fires a beam of energy that obliterates whatever it hits. This is a pretty fun weapon.

Another piece of DLC equipment is the “sonic-electronic-ball-breakers”, another throwaway comment that Gearbox/Timegate took and ran with. They’re grenades that jump and emit a pulse of energy that stuns anything within a small radius. They’re actually pretty useful and fun. The last item of DLC we have is the shooting range. It’s a small map based within the Sulaco that lets you test your loadouts against a series of shooting targets. It’s fun but nothing special. I’ve only used it the once to see what it was like.

And to round off the Collector’s Edition, we’re also treated to a “dossier” which contains a blueprint of the Sulaco (cool), a security image from Hadley’s Hope (lame) and a graduation certificate (kinda alright). I quite like the DLC and the statue but aside from that I do regret paying full retail for this.

Conclusion

There’s no escaping the fact that Aliens: Colonial Marines is a bitter disappointment. However, it’s not the offensive gaming experience that everyone has been cursing about. Gearbox, Timegate, and whoever, simply failed to deliver the experience that was promised. Instead, we got the privilege of a 6 year wait for a buggy game.

Despite the fact that I’m really enjoying the multiplayer I can’t, in good conscience, recommend people pay full retail price just for a multiplayer experience. If you can get it really cheap then by all means pick it up. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sega drops support and leaves us with this mess of a game which really saddens me. We finally have an up-to-date Aliens gaming experience and it’s buggy and most likely will be dropped ASAP.

We’re guaranteed 4 DLC packs and I hope we get a Derelict level and more customization options but I honestly think this game will quickly lose its player-base unless it is patched and soon.

I can’t get over how disappointing this game really is. How let down I feel by Sega, by Gearbox. I feel ripped off. From Aaron Percival here at AvPGalaxy, I am immensely disappointed to have to give Aliens: Colonial Marines a 2 out of 5.

Disclaimer – All images used in this review came from the community screenshots page for Aliens: Colonial Marines on Steam.