User Score
3.2 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 864 Ratings

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  1. Feb 12, 2013
    5
    I would rate the first part of the game below average, That part is set on a space ship, and this is where you encounter human enemies besides aliens. The main problem of the game is the DUMB AI. This ruins the fight with human enemies, but ultimately ruins every part of the game where you are teamed up with human npcs. Team mates get stuck frequently, they are left behind, stay in front of you at the wrong times (basically they are useless and annoying...I would rather go alone, than with a marine that is not good for anything...). The second part is set on LV-426 (Aliens took place here). I would rate this part of A:CM average, with some better than average parts. It was fun to encounter the sets of Aliens (especially if you love the universe of the movies). Here the game focuses on the aliens. There is also a mission where you need to rely on stealth (it was a highlight of the game, with creepy lighting and sounds). There are some tense moment in the game, but I never felt scared (There were some intense moments, but I felt the game is lacking tension). The movement of the enemies felt clunchy. This is probably due to the small and closed spaces where most encounters with aliens took place. Many time they are spawned behind the player or just running around. Weapon customisation was a nice addition. The story is average, while characters are very "two dimensional" (with many cheesy dialogues....). Overall the game felt like a generic shooter, set in the Aliens universe, which would deserve a better game than Aliens: Colonial Marines. Expand
  2. Mar 15, 2013
    6
    SEGA have made a terrible presentation again. Was not that bad nor good. Good dialogue but terrible missions. Being this game on the human scale it would be Alienated, waste of $70
  3. Feb 13, 2013
    4
    Single player wise, yeah, Colonial Marines is pretty bad. There's a lack of suspenseful atmosphere (except for one level), the AI is atrocious, acting is bad, and the storyline is worse. Hadley's Hope? Un-nuked, I guess. Whatever. Multiplayer is a better experience than single player, but suffers from some major issues. Marines level up from the campaign and multiplayer, while aliens can only level up from multiplayer. This means that pretty much right out of the chute marine teams have a gigantic advantage over the alien team. 6 hours after launch I was running into marines between level 10 and 23 with fully upgraded weapons, and today all my matches have consisted of max level marines vs. level 1 to 7 aliens. Customization options are far more in depth for marines, with aliens being limited to 3 heads and some slightly differently colored skins. Finally, there are no dedicated servers, and if the host leaves before the match is over, you are kicked and lose all your progress. So, bottom line, multiplayer is the only way this game can redeem itself, but even that has a long way to go. Collapse
  4. Mar 12, 2013
    3
    Such a disappointment coming from Gearbox Software, the creators of the Borderlands franchise. To keep the long story short; Aliens: Colonial Marines is everything I didn't want it to be.
  5. Mar 8, 2013
    1
    Hmm, poor gameplay, an intensive marketing campaign, a useless fat bastard as a CEO. yep, we have all been utterly scammed. People should post his home address on youtube. I seriously hope this scamming scumbag and his front company get everything he so richly deserves. I could go on to describe what this game has done to encourage piracy or damage the gaming industry etc etc. I will simply put it this way. To the development and publishing community. If you want to develop a revenue stream based upon sustainable growth. This is an example of how not to do it. Make sure this idiot and his company are relegated to the unemployment poverty stricken hell they so richly deserve. Expand
  6. Apr 26, 2013
    4
    When I first heard of the bad reviews in Aliens: Colonial Marines, that's when I actually started watching Aliens the movies. I wasn't even born at the time the movies got released and I never had much interest in that, but since I've been a gamer since I was a kid, I wanted to like Colonial Marines. I watched the movies, to get up to date with the story, and I loved it. The atmosphere, the sound, the special effect (by the times standards) were amazing. And that is exactly everything what Colonial Marines missed. There is no atmosphere as the Xenomorphs just come running towards you in stead of lurking in the shadows, the sounddesign is sooo poorly done it barely makes me care about anything that is happening, and the graphics are mediocre at its very best. I decided to give it a 4/10 because this game actually made me watch the movies and made me love them. It could have been an okay 6/10 title if they would have released it as an indie game. Expand
  7. Feb 22, 2013
    4
    I think i should rate it at 4,a good point is how this game was released after being cancelled thats first one...Co-Op mode was fun,and the sound effects are really nostalgic,especially the Pulse Rifle and the ALIENS ,Multiplayer are amazing and last thing is the Environment of the game was cool.Ok,the bad point...the AI is stupidly bad,either Enemy or Ally...i don`t know but its broken in every possible way.If you try to play Soldier Level alone,Don`t.The graphics are low-detailed even on MAXED detail.The story,well its uninspiring and dissapointing at the end of the story.There are Aliens vs Predator 2010,and even better than this.This is 2013 game,its like game from 2007. If you tend to buy this game,just stay avoid this game. Expand
  8. Feb 12, 2013
    1
    After 7 hours of playing I will have to write now or never. Some may complain that I haven't given the game a chance. You know what? It's not going to get any more than these 7 hours out of me and in retrospect that's probably 2 or 3 hours more than this game deserves. A dull traipse through badly designed levels with "rent and idiot" characters and so little in the way of gameplay above "it moves shoot it" that it might as well be Quake with better graphics. The difference being of course, that every game must be taken in context, and of it's time Quake was innovative and excellent but that time was 17 years ago. I was temped to give this a zero just becasue I'm so cheesed off as a massive Aliens fan. Why buy the rights to an iconic franchise and do this? Why Gearbox WHY? I got nervous when they said they were removing the single player squad system to make the game "more accessible" (i.e at best "dumbed down" at worst "we couldn't be bothered or don't have the skill to implement a system like this") But this game is just so DULL. It doesn't crash, the graphics are ok the sound, though taken from 26 year old samples it seems, is very good but that's the best I can say about the game. The old samples used for gunfire polish up well considering how old they are. That really is the best I can say about this game. The gameplay is as generic as "Jenny Generic and her Generic Geriatrics" cut and paste gameplay that is soooooooo old. How could this game have taken more than 6 months to cobble together from exising gameplay mechnics with a new lick of GFX on top? Anyway I'll give it 1 out of 10 which is 2 (yes 2... I considered minus one but I couldn't push the slider back that far) more than I wanted to give it 10 minutes ago. Expand
  9. Feb 26, 2013
    5
    This is the first time I have beaten a $50 dollar game in less than 20 hours. Even though the game is relatively easy (even for old guys like me), I still found it to be entertaining. My biggest critiques are: (1) too much down time between fights, even though cut scenes didn't interfere too much. (2) rather dim graphics (3) number of radio calls from the normally absentee players who always seem to be waiting for the protagonist to show up (4) highly forgettable plot; I can't even remember the hero's name. Expand
  10. Apr 17, 2013
    3
    This game is more like Call of Duty: Colonial Warfare. By the second level, they drop all horror and intensity and instead you are fighting HUMANS WITH GUNS. This is ALIENS: Colonial Marines. The AI are horribly programmed, they are suicidal, they charge at your position even on the highest difficulty setting. The graphics are just awful, even when you set it to the highest possible max settings, I still feel like I'm playing a game from 2004. The story is a joke, basically you return to LV-426 to investigate a distress signal sent by Hicks and that's it. That's your story. And then, suddenly, oh my god, Hicks is alive! As if that's going to make up for the crap story. The AI are constantly getting in your way and at the worst moments possible. Then, after beating this linear Call of Duty shooting gallery, you are greeted with a crap ending to a crap story. Most of the focus is in this game is on human combat. If I want to battle humans with guns I can just pop in Black Ops 2 into my Xbox I don't need to pay 49.99 for this. Disappointing, I expected more out of an Aliens game. Aliens VS Predator 2010 isn't even Marine focused yet does a better job proving a fresh Aliens experience. Do not buy this game if you're not a fan already, and if you are a hardcore fan of the Aliens franchise, buy it when the price drops to about 10. Expand
  11. Feb 25, 2013
    0
    I wasted $60 of my hard earn money and 30 mins of my life.I was expecting this game for many years so it comes up with such a great disappointment. The kills don't look realistic, there are motion glitches on the aliens, repetitive game play, terrible multiplayer system. The thing i enjoyed was a big alien startling me and being cautious at the sewers, of course reviving the places of the movie; but after that, its predecessor aliens vs predator, its way much better than this huge mistake that will sink the aliens franchise Expand
  12. Mar 29, 2013
    2
    what is this aliens:colonial marines or human:colonial marines.i loved the first level and i thought why people hate this game so much,now i understand.aliens colonial mariens is a terrible game in the first level the graphics are good after the first level has became one of the worst game i have ever played the desing is horrible the fact that this game called aliens:colonial mariens and you are fighting humans more than half of the game or that the game ending is just horrible and easy or that the game is 7 hours on ultimate bad ass the only thing that lets me give this game a 2/10 instead a zero is the multiplayer its quite fun but its doesnt help this game to be good.aliens colonial marines=one of the top 10 worst game on angry joe list and also my list Expand
  13. Apr 27, 2013
    1
    Gearbox has really gotten on my bad side lately. They went from great games like Brothers in Arms and Borderlands, to A:CM and Duke Nukem Forever. With the Brothers in Arms Furious Four coming out i think i wanna punch Gearbox in the face. This game was a lying, false advertised piece of sh*t that pisses of die hard Aliens fans like myself. Avoid at all costs, nuke it from orbit! Its the only way to be sure! Expand
  14. Feb 12, 2013
    3
    What the hell happened? The AI was one of the worst AI I've ever seen. Many Aliens won't even come after you. Sometimes they look at you and walk around you. WALK.
  15. Mar 24, 2013
    5
    Aliens: Colonial Marines is a sign of what the gaming industry has degraded to: pure utter Not only does this so-called 'sequel' to Aliens takes a big piece of dump on the Alien film canon, it also demonstrates how deceitful the industry can be and how easily it is for gamers to fall for its web of lies. Not only does A:CM not have any of the graphical power seen in the 2011 E3 demo nor the interesting level designs, the entire game is essentially half broken. Enemy AI is ludicrously dumb and glitchy, the friendly AI is almost broken with some of the worst pathfinding Ive seen in literally years. The plot itself starts off well and actually has some interesting aspects to it throughout the middle but after a few levels, it just falls to pieces, as if they ran out of time and had to add in a horrible, poor-executed climax and conclusion. For fans of the franchise, you will be hooked by its generic xeno-killing gameplay but this excitement only lasts as long as your love for using the Pulse Rifle. There's a wide range of weapons but in all honesty, you'll probably only use 2-3 of them. Thankfully, the Smart-Gun and Pulse Rifles have been well designed and executed with their familiar sounds and impact (though the recoil for the Pulse Rifle is a big ridiculous). Another positive is the inclusion of legendary guns from the second film including Vasquez's Smartgun, Hudon's Pulse Rifle, Norman's Pistol etc. The NPC's you meet are generic as hell and have the worst lines (though the voice-acting is solid). The game cutscenes are poorly rendered and overall, the engine has a 2005 look with excessive lighting and poor textures. Multiplayer-wise, it holds up well but ultimately, compared Natural Selection 2, its inferior. Co-op just feels tacted on and is fun for a few levels for at the end of the day, its probably one of the worst implemented with player warping and a lack of Co-op features. Aliens: Colonial Marines is a total letdown and my biggest disappointment of a game since Mass Effect 3 last year. They have recently released a new patch that does enhance the AI and graphics as well as a solid Bug Hunt DLC but all in all its like adding extra icing and fresh seasoning to a chocolate cake gone bad: too little, too late. Unless you're a big Aliens nut like myself, than avoid A:CM at all costs. Its Game Over all right. Game Over. Expand
  16. Feb 12, 2013
    5
    It's sad when a beloved franchises gets the "EA" treatment. I might be embellishing a bit, but it's understandable since i used to be a fan. The game is, for lack of a better word, "MEH". I didn't get to play much since i did so at a friend's house, but what i did get to play kind of left me wanting. What the hell was i playing? It certainly didn't feel like an "Aliens" game. Somewhat Clunky and Heavily scripted, the purpose of which, i'm guessing, is inspiring suspense, but it doesn't really matter because it fails to do so in any other way except for those moments of eerie silence when you're walking alone And those are nothing new. Outside of excluding the Predators as a playable race, and adding some menial reward mechanisms you see in EVERY OTHER FPS out there, i don't see how this can be viewed as anything other than a dumbed-down AVP3 clone. The optimization itself seems to be horrendous, as the already non-stellar gameplay suffered almost omnipresent lag spikes. IN SINGLE PLAYER. How the hell does that happen? This might be a huge issue with paying customers, since some of them coughed up quite a sum by pre-ordering. One other thing that seems to follow every game of late like the plague, is the over-dramatization of already "dramatic" events. I don't understand what the issue is there, and why does it happen so often, but it sucks to see marines acting as if this is some Aliens soap opera. How, in their right mind, would anyone take this game seriously after that fact is beyond me. I should have known, after seeing Randy Pitchford's smug little face on the trailers, that this game is going to bomb. The AI is pathetic. I've seen better enemy reactions in Wolfenstein. I give it a 5 out of sheer devotion to the franchise, nothing else. If this was any other generic fps, it wouldn't even sell at the bargain bin. My advice is, play something else. Until it gets a couple of well-deserved patches, you should forget that this "thing" even exists. Expand
  17. Feb 13, 2013
    1
    Oh god...7 years for NOTHING, this game has got some good features but besides it's a boring experience with bad AI, dumb Xenomorphs and Invisible campaign, the multiplayer feels like Call of Duty changing players for fool attack dogs (Xenomorphs) and an extremely boring gameplay. This is definitely one of the worst games of the year or the biggest dissapointment of the year.
  18. Feb 12, 2013
    10
    I don't know why there is so much hate surrounding this game....for what it is I had fun and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's just a simple scripted corridor shooter. If you wanted borderlands with aliens then yeah you'll be disappointed. I thought it was great!
  19. Feb 20, 2013
    0
    I paid 25 quid for this game, and I can't play it. I looked all over the web and could not find a fix for the problem I'm having, the game literally cannot be played on my advanced gaming computer. I can't get a refund either. Well done gearbox, well done!
  20. Feb 13, 2013
    4
    It is important to remember when placing a numerical score on a game that, naturally, it must sit below better offerings in the entertainment spectrum. But it should be rated better then the crud this product out shines. In that regar, remember the movie Last Action Hero?
    That movie Sucked! This game is way better then that movie. It isn't good, but it's better then that crap.
  21. Feb 13, 2013
    9
    Please give this game a chance. That being said, I am not blind to the issues that this game has OK! I love the franchise and have been waiting for this game for some time. They need to fix the multiplayer issues even though it's still extremely fun and different. By the way that is what really get's me here people are pissing and moaning because it has not got what makes other shooters great. GREAT! GOOD!. I yearn for the time when people don't want the same rehashed Call of Duty game every single year!!!!!!!!!! This game is different and a refreshing break from the normal shooters. Expand
  22. Feb 13, 2013
    0
    When I first tried this game, I was appalled by how bad it was. All the hype and promises lead up to this pile of useless garbage? How can this even happen with a 50$ game, it's mind-boggling. It is so bad, unpolished, buggy, cliche... just thinking about it makes me nervous. The graphics are very dated, it's like the developers didn't even care. The textures look like they've been taken from a 2007 game on medium settings. Animations made me want to gouge my eyes out, the way a limping man just glides over the terrain? Aliens who just die into a stiff ragdoll? The way their wounds are just yellow blood textures on the models? Concerning the gameplay, it is nothing but another lame, generic FPS that is exciting for about the first two encounters. It is the same old s**t, clear a room, move on. Hold the button to weld a door. Rapidly press the button to punch an alien and stun it(ridiculous). Multiplayer? Oh look, suicide bomber aliens. How original. The story, you won't even care for. All the shock value of aliens, chestbursters etc. is gone for any fan of the franchise. It is slightly unsettling for the first 5 minutes before your first alien encounter, when you go back to seeing them as cannon fodder that walks up to you and slashes the air, cause that's how they attack, if they don't pounce on you and initiate the same quicktime event for the millionth time. I had that exact quicktime event 3 times during my first encounter with an alien. AvP 3 Marine campaign has better atmosphere than this worthless trash, which says enough. With all things taken into account, this insult to the franchise deserves nothing but a 0. Expand
  23. Mar 7, 2013
    0
    I won't waste time retreading the same ground everyone else and point out one simple fact, it's made by Gearbox.

    Gearbox is and always has been a mediocre game developer. Their big claim to fame is borderlands which is essentially if you put world of warcrafts boring quest system into a wasteland, put it in first person mode, then tout how it has millions of guns but the fact is 1 out o
    f 10,000 are actually an upgrade (repainting the same crummy pistol 5,000 times doesn't make 5,000 different guns) and finally start pimping DLC for the game before it even releases and then keep releasing more to nickel and dime your customers to death by turning a 60 dollar turd into a 100 dollar turd. They also made duke nukem forever which as we all know is a giant steaming pile of you know what and is a god awful abortion from start to finish. The best games they actually made were the brothers in arms games which aren't as terrible as those other two games but its still incredibly sterile, generic and uninspired. BIA is your basic mediocre WW2 shooter and nothing else. They have a few other games under their belt but they are all titles no one really cares about and faded into obscurity as soon as they were released. Bottom line is Gearbox is a terrible game maker and this is a terrible game.

    Now for a quickie about colonial marines.

    The story is nothing short of fan fiction written by someone who cannot write but still posts to their blog and believes themselves to be a great writer. It's kind of like how a young girl will take pictures of furniture sitting in a shadow in black and white and then think they are really deep and brooding for taking such artistic photographs when in fact it's just garbage. They tried to wink at the fans so hard their eyes have fallen out because of it. Everything about it feels very amateur, boring and forced. It feels more like they did a sci-fi channel original aliens movie, or something that went direct to video.

    The game is buggy as you can get. I've flown out the side of things and floated high in the air stuck. I've had allies that would stick in walls. Hell I found out in section you were supposed to be stealthy starting out and I just ran past every alien and once I passed them they forgot about me and I finished a level without firing a shot. I see environmental objects get stuck in things and so on.

    All the pretty and cool looking screenshots and videos I've been seeing for over a year from now weren't from the same game they released. You can easily find comparison videos showing the game released looks just awful compared to the "in game footage" they showed in the past.

    Multiplayer is very sterile and pretty much what you'd expect. It's so boring in fact that multiplayer will be a ghost town in 2 months.

    The game play its pretty much call of duty. It's just a mix of "it's the last stand....again" and "quick run through fast as you can" with some boring corridor stalking in between.

    I could go into great depth, I could go on and on naming other things I didn't like but you can read other Amazon reviews and see exactly what I've got to say.

    So really if you must play this, wait till its 10 dollars. Trust me it won't take very long before it gets there. And next time, don't pay full price for a Gearbox title.
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  24. May 4, 2013
    4
    Aliens: Colonial Marines is not a great game under any criteria.

    The game is set in the same universe and location like the original movies, LV-426, a planet which actually isn't a planet, it's a moon, bigger than average ones.

    The story is set after the events from the original 1986 movie Aliens. In the game you revisit the iconic locations from the original 2 movies, but in a diffe
    rent way. The plot is a very simple one, which relatively lacks of originality. You assume the role of a a Colonial Marine called Christopher Winter, and your mission is to check an SOS left by Dwayne Hicks, one of the main characters in the Aliens movie. From here it's obvious what's next, you find that the place is infested and you must later fight to survive. Very simplistic. However, even so, the game's chaotic development leaves his mark. The best citation can be ,,The game sounds like Aliens, looks like Aliens, but unfortunately, it doesn't play like Aliens., IGN. This citation captures exactly how the game is, the level design isn't really horrible, but is not ground-breaking like other games from today's standards. The graphics are as simple as possible, with simple shadows, banal lightning effects and banal textures. Beyond the graphic design, the story also draws criticism, it lacks of consistency and it takes only @5-6 or 9(on harder/hardest difficulty) to be completed, so is quite short. Also the story is very chaotic at some parts, like progressing with no sense during the levels, basically just ,,Shoot the bad guys in this room, then continue playing,, . And also many people(including I at some points) is like a sort of Call of Duty: Weyland Yutani, and I partially agree here, for me is a sort of a Sci-Fi Counter-Strike. Is centered more on shooting humans than aliens, and more on combat than the story itself. Again, the story doesn't make much sense at many parts, especially when you find that Bishop and Hicks have survived, but rather than make light, it makes you even more confusing. It's reveal that Hicks was captured and interrogated but nothing more abut how he's been captured. Same with Bishop, where is nothing revealed about how it survived. In game play and value terms the game is mediocre, is based on one of the best sci-fi horror-thriller movies ever made, but the game is a shame. It captures the alien in banal encounters many times, and the tension suffers. Is also insufficient in value term, we we're promised a far better game in both story and design in the trailers and E3 demos, but the final product is lower in quality and a lot different, and doesn't stand up at the price as well, seriously, it isn't worth 50$, I'd say 15-20$, but not more. I also greatly dislike the patches, because they fix things that we're not supposed to be there. Improved the AI to be more aggressive and responsive, added many effects and some graphically redesigned places? Fixed some circumstances in where the aliens could've used erratic animations? This all are bugs and glitches which must have never been in a game, doesn't matter this or other and improvements that must have never be cut. It wasn't able to run on consoles? Then where we've seen the game running in some game plays? This is just a lie, haven't we all seen Crysis? It has ridiculous requirements, but somehow it looks and runs well on consoles, and also has a good replay value and design. Also the iconic weapons are only used a ridiculous amount of time, only max. 10min. to use the Smart Gun and no more ammo to be found for it? Really? The characters aren't really well developed as well, you can't describe many marine's personality. The development was very chaotic, and why put others work on your dream? TimeGate Studios for single player and Nerve Software for multilayer? Why? You said it was your dream and you love the franchise. The coop as well isn't really awesome included, you can play in the campaign with up to 3 more friends, which I find really cool, despite it doesn't feature additional objectives and locations. In visuals and performance, the console versions were terribly optimized, by having many visual glitches , and unbelievable low resolution textures, cut shaders and several bad effects. This were the bad parts, but there somehow are some good ones. The weapons sound, look and behave exactly like in the movies, the game has a very well made sewer level where you have no guns and you must escape from the explosive aliens. That's aliens! Very exciting and tensioned. The first DLC and the multiplayer are well made, despite the multiplayer doesn't feature a lot of maps, but they offer lot of fun and are having a great value. Excluding the coop flaws, is Drop-In Drop-Out so you don't have to restart a level of some annoying things. So in the end, A:CM has some good stuff inside, but too many problems, however there are 3 more DLCs so who knows, maybe Gearbox is preparing a surprise for us. Expand
  25. Feb 14, 2013
    10
    The game is solid, the design is spot on and it is fun to play, especially in coop.

    So why is it that this game gets such horrid reviews? Sure, it does not have top notch state of the art graphics. Good for me, cause if it did I probably could not play it on my PC. It does not look bad, though. Sure the AI is not very bright, but to control shiny black critters that usually come straigh
    t at you it doesn't have to be. The most likely reason why this game is hated by so many people is because expectations were too high. Everyone wanted HIS personal perfect Aliens game and now everyone is mad that he just got a good game, instead of that.

    I guess many people also have not seen ALIENS for a LONG time. If you complain that the xenomorphs in this game are allegedly stupid, please watch the movie again and take a look how many of them get slaughtered by sentry guns. It does not get any dumber than getting killed by a stationary autocannon, wave after wave. The xenomorphs have always been rather stupid, but they are fast, fearless, strong, full of acid and individually they are cunning hunters. Being a cunning hunter just isn't any good if your prey has Pulse Rifles.

    So yeah, the game could have been better. It could also have been much worse. More easily than the other way around.
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  26. May 13, 2013
    3
    Worst game ever created by Gearbox (TimeGate). Gearbox, you lost 50% of my trust in you. At least Borderlands shows that you have talent. Use your good men and women on only one project and concentrate, don´t hire other idiots to do the job like Timegate. You fools! Terrible AI, ugly graphics, low atmosphere, bad animations, boring and uninteresting story and the boss fight is a slap in thhe face for all fans. At least Mutliplayer is good, balanced and makes fun. Even the Co-Op is a joke if you compare it to Killing Floor or Left 4 Dead, Payday The Heist. We expected more tension in Co-Op, but what to expect by such ugly graphics which can´t produce enough atmosphere to let the aliens look terrifying. They feel like no danger and they die to easily. The developers threw them against you like they had nothing else to offer as danger in this game, than hordes of aliens and HUMANS! Who wants to shoot humans in such a boring game? It´s getting even more boring. A total fail. There´s one dense scene though, were you have to sneak, but thats no reason to buy it. Take it from the shelf and spit on it. Expand
  27. Feb 14, 2013
    1
    What a genuinely awful game in a series of awful games. An iconic franchise that is so simply transplanted to FPS meets mostly awful development time and time again. Expectations were pretty low coming in. I would have been happy if this long incubated title was 'Mediocre'. It's offensively bad, and that is not hyperbole. It is offensive on every level. Rebellion must be rolling with laughter right now after their middling AvP got raked across the coals. As far as finger pointing goes, the consistent iron in the fire is Fox Interactive. Flushing their franchise down the toilet in every medium possible.. Expand
  28. Mar 28, 2013
    2
    I'm giving this a 2 because I actually got enjoyment out of it. But as far as games go I feel like I wasted my 50$. This game will likely be 5$ on a steam sale in a year for sure. I got sucked in as a die hard aliens fan. Before this game even got released I had a feeling it was going to be bad. Not because of something we were shown, but because of what we WEREN'T shown. A day before release and I'm sitting there paying for the preorder through steam, thinking to myself "isn't it odd that there isn't a single actual gameplay video for this game? No teaser no nothing that is relevant to the release candidate?". Well I learned my lesson we can say that. I am not going to sum up everything I thought was wrong about this game, but I think I was one of the few that actually didn't mind the graphics. The worst part was the gameplay itself. It's an aliens game that is actually more difficult during the parts where you fight humans. Which happens roughly 50-60% of the game, or at least feels like it because it's harder. There are WAY too WY soldiers to fight in this game. The aliens in this game are laughably bad at what they do, so much so that it's not even scary to fight the aliens, not even difficult to say the least. They either run straight at you, or are a "spitter" alien (dreamt up by someone who theorized it would make a good game element in multiplayer probably) with a glowing head that you can see from a mile away. The multiplayer while it is somewhat fun, is basically just a back and forth with aliens and marines in a small call of duty arena style battle. Good luck getting into any other game modes beyond team deathmatch because everyone has already moved on from the game. If this game ended up going the multiplayer route of natural selection 2, this game could have actually been awesome. Even if all the other gaping flaws still existed, the natural selection 2 multiplayer model with an aliens theme would have been so so sick.

    The worst part about this game is without a doubt the alien melee "pistol" finishers. I have never seen such a waste of animation in my entire goddamn life. Let me put it this way. In an aliens game, if you put your entire hand and pistol in an aliens mouth (and alien with molecular acid blood) and pull the trigger, you better be either pulling a half melted pistol out of it's mouth or be screaming while the bones fall off your hand for me to even START believing the character just did that. But no, your character will jam his pistol and hand into the aliens mouth, pull the trigger, and pull it out completely unscathed. I'm SHOCKED I haven't seen more complains about this, because this is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. The lack of realistic consequences in this game absolutely kills any potential of fear.
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  29. Feb 13, 2013
    6
    The short version is that IT'S NOT THAT BAD!

    Main problems are it's too simplistic and lacks polish. But it's no worse than all the others games based on this franchise. There is enjoyment to be had here, but no more so than with your latest Cowadooty game. I'd give this mid-60's rather than mid-40's. It really doesn't deserve the slating it's taken, although it can mostly blame itself
    for raising expectations so much at E3. Expand
  30. Feb 13, 2013
    2
    This game is not fundamentally broken (with the possible exception of the AI) but it doesn't feel like it's a finished product either. It doesn't capture the feel of the Aliens movie, it looks dated and it's short and not very interesting. In no way does it live up to the marketing and hype around it.
  31. Mar 14, 2013
    4
    A game that is not that good in overall. I have played at my friend's PS3 and the graphics were even worse that on PC. My deal is, why on earth is the DEMO look even nicer than the original game? Who would pay 49.99 USD for a game that looks like a 2003 one?
    As for the gameplay, it just sucks due to the amount of details not added in the original game from the demo. Weird storyline in ove
    rall. All thanks to their ridiculous management by handing the game to a infamous company. Expand
  32. Feb 12, 2013
    7
    Is it GOTY material? no.. is it better than Farcry 3? no.. is it a decent satisfying game experience set in the ALIENS universe? yes.

    The hate-fest is silly and doesn't reflect reality at all. its a 7/10 game, no less and no more.
  33. JEK
    Mar 18, 2013
    2
    I was waiting for this game since last year. I was hoping that this game will be good because there are lots of alien games to be release this year (crysis 3, dead space). I was really disappointed and was hoping a lot more from this franchise.
  34. Feb 12, 2013
    2
    Campaign: Not worth to mention: Broken AI. Story is illogical garbge. It's running in circles and shoot aliens. Let's move to the Multiplayer: Matchmaking: No dedicated Servers. "Host leaved the game" every few minutes. Not much more to say Feeling: (Alien) Switching to the third person view may be a good descision for making gameplay more smooth, but the lack of proper animations and the fact that the alien moves like your put a stick up his and now pulling some strings absolutly ruins it. Feeling: (Marine)
    It's ok. I'm missing some kind of distant radio. I had a guy with his micro not muted and i could hear the dampened gunfire while catching up with the group. It was actually pretty cool. Otherwise the game lacks a proper envoirement sound set. If you spawn after death somewhere you can't hear nothing. It's so peaceful, you may settle down and have a picnic with a nearby spitter. Also the guns feel somehow cheap, like made out of lego bricks. To be honest all the models feel like i bought a 14,99 Indie game.

    Maps:
    The maps i played so far are uther rubbish. Sorry envoirement artist and level designers, but did you play your maps once? There's no tatic. It's just "find the best spot to sit on" and stay there and shooting the aliens coming from two directions. Forget vents, they're placed almost randomly without strategic purpose.

    Season Pass:
    You expect me to pay 30 bucks for you to maybe fix this, really?

    There are some things cool about this game but it doesnt compensate the games overall cheap feeling and bad, bad, bad, BAD map design. Just my personal opinion on this.
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  35. Feb 14, 2013
    4
    If your an Aliens fan like me then AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!!! The story is so pathetically put together that it doesn't even have an explanation that links this game to the movies. It's like no research went into making it in the first place! The characters are so uninteresting and their AI is incredibly DUMB. The aliens AI is so stupid that it basically runs at you straight past the dumb NPC who is closer! Aliens even get stuck doing what they 're good at, clinging to walls! The level design is appalling! It's like a CoD game where you keep pushig forward. The graphics are so, soo, sooo dated! Even the collisions aren't working, with aliens running right through NPCs and bullets impacting on, well nothing! Coop is a joke! Other players somehow mysteriously teleport in from nowhere and have no idea what they should be doing, except shooting. Multiplayer is probably the only thing that is good about this game, but even that is flawed. No dedicated servers, imbalanced matchmaking system and in the right hands an alien can be OP because they can see through walls! From Borderlands 2 to this? Gearbox, You need to shift up to 6th because this is unacceptable!! Expand
  36. Feb 25, 2013
    1
    Ill firstly start with the Campaign, its a disgrace, this game i was hugely hyped up for, the E3 trailer look exactly how it should do if you were watching the films, somehow the end product is nothing at all like the E3 trailer, i understand that companies change the storyline, characters and plots before release, but they've turned it into something so poor its shockingly bad, the AI is BROKEN, it does not function half the time, and it does not move or react like a Xeno should, the marines again, are broken, O'neal (your companion) is useless, he does nothing but shoot with the most powerful gun in the galaxy which seems to do nothing, the storyline is ridiculous, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it has no likeability about it, it takes no time to complete leaving no room for immersion, its so annoying to think that such a promising game which all aliens fans were looking forward to, is wasted and turned into something thats not only unplayable, but borderline insulting to the fans of the franchise. It's only serious saving grace (which isnt a large one) is multiplayer to some extent, the customization is great to play around with, but will eventually get tiresome because you have every customization available to you, because its not that difficult, which means this game (until DLC comes out) is virtually offering no replayability, even with the season pass, because the game has fell so badly under my expectations i honestly doubt any amount of DLC could entice me back into playing this, only if they made an ENTIRE full feature length campaign, dedicated to xeno's only, and a few weyland encounters, other than that, this game is seriously not worth its current price at (£29.99) even more on Xbox and other consoles, and yes its worse on them. A total disappointment. Expand
  37. May 3, 2013
    5
    The game was better than I expected (Thought it was gonna be as bad as DNF since the game was also stuck in hell for several years). Liked the collectibles and the fact I could carry all the weapons. Enemies were kinda stupid and the companion AI not that good (luckily he didn't get stuck anywhere). Locations where nice. I just wish they put more effort in the game. I gave it a 5 because I'm a fan of the movies and previous AvP games and as I said it could of been worse (like throwing on walls and slapping wall seriously) Expand
  38. Feb 12, 2013
    5
    Well this is a game i have been waiting for a long time. And, truth be told, it's not great. First of all, the grafics are "ok" on the pc version. Not great, but ok. But they are not the problem with this game. First, the campaign is just bad. From the first 10 minutes into the game, it felt really wrong. If this is suppose, to be a direct and legit sequel to aliens, well... It sucks. The characters are all forgetable. I cared for none of them. NONE. They are a generic copy and paste from old school action game characters with no personality. If you liked Hudson, Hicks Vasq, drake, ect... None of the marines in this game come even close to them. You just DON'T CARE!!! The story was meh, the missions on the Sulaco were forgetable, but it gets better once you get to Hadley's hope. And the ending is just terrible. The campain is just 5 hours long give or take. Now... some of you might not care about the story. You just want the atmosphere and tensions from the movie right? Did gearbox pull it off? Well... To be fair, sound is good, music is accurate and yes Hadley's hope is very detailed and looks very accurate to the movie. But here is the thing where GBX messed up... And it's no small issue. The ALIENS... My god... the Aliens! They walk and move around like retards, they don't scare you, they just pop at you in (badly)scripted events. Think it stops there? I am just getting started... The AI is... It's..... I can't describe it. But Half-life 1 had a better AI then this piece of crap. Yes. HL 1, a game that came out YEARS ago, did better. ALIENS ARE RETARDS in this game. And don't think that they get smarter at higher difficulty setting... They don't, they just hit you harder. Like the motion tracker? don't bother using it! Aliens just pop in front you and try to give you a hug. What happened to the most feared monster in the galaxy? They just run at you like retarded zombies. I never felt ANY tension during the campain. (Well, except the stealth level, the only good moment in the campain). The AI is by far the kiss of death of this game. This migh just be a zombie game, it wouldn't make any difference. Co-op is a welcome addition and will definitly spice-up the experience. Provided that you set the difficulty level up, as the game dosen't scale according to the number of players in co-op. Multiplayer is probably the only enjoyable part of this game. Escape mode is fun to play as a marine as FINALLY you are facing Xenos with BRAINS. The motion tracker is usefull again. So yes it's fun and i can see myself playing it for some time... BUT........ playing as a xeno is... HORRIBLE! Wall climbing is by far the worst in ANY alien game i have seen so far. IT'S USELESS! You can't aim properly and perform attacks while you are on the wall. This is THE important part of being an alien, BEING ABLE TO ATTACK FROM ANY ANGLE!!!!! Why choose to make a 3rd person view to avoid people getting sick while wall climbing if wall climbing is broken in the first place? Screw the multiple alien races, an alien that can't climb on the wall properly is a dead alien. In short, they got the alien COMPLETLY wrong. Both in the Campain (Bad AI) and the multiplayer (Wall climbing+ attack is not much of an option). I used to have a lot of trust in gearbox games. But Duke Nukem forever, and now THIS! You have the greatest franchise of all TIME to toy with and this is what you DO with it? I swear, GBX needs to pull itself together. Expand
  39. Apr 27, 2013
    4
    Długie powstawanie gier często(nie zawsze!) nie wpływa pozytywnie na ich jakość. Taki przykładem jest właśnie Aliens: Colonial Marines który zapowiadał się ciekawie a po wyjściu na światło dzienne został zniszczony przez recenzentów że musiał szybko wracać pod ziemię. Fatalna grafika, kiepska grywalność, bugi, niedopracowanie gry, głupie AI, nudne pomysły, nie wykorzystany potencjał to jedzystany potencjał to jedynie połowa z wad które można wstawić temu wybrykowi. Twórcom udało się chodź odrobinę uratować sytuację robiąc chociaż po części nawet(tylko nawet!) ciekawy klimat, który i tak został strasznie nie wykorzystany. Nawet jak dla fana kosmicznej serii o Obcych to tytuł który powinno się omijać z daleka. Moja ocena 4/10 Expand
  40. Feb 15, 2013
    4
    Second review... campaign is complete crap.. multiplayer is fun at first but there isn't enough variety.. found out there were things not in the game that were suppose to be...

    As a whole it's still not worth $50, more like $15
  41. Feb 14, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After playing for a few hours I've already kind of lost interest in the game entirely. I was really excited for this game because I loved the original movies, but this game is pretty disappointing. The visuals are rather outdated, which isn't a deal breaker for me at all, but some of the textures in this game are laughably low resolution. One think I really noticed was how the characters look slightly cartoonish. It almost reminds me of the Jurassic Park video game by Telltale; in regards to the visual style the characters are given. It isn't as pronounced as Telltale's style, but it's still noticeable. The game doesn't have much of a budget for poly count. A lot of models rely almost entirely on textures for intricate details (and do it poorly). Levels tend to have block syndrome as well. As far as the environment art goes, they nailed the old Aliens look pretty well.

    The pacing of the story is awkward at times. Missions and cut scenes tend to start and end abruptly. There was one point in the game where I was on the bridge of a space ship and my crew and I watch helplessly as our ship explodes. We stand perfectly still, unaffected by the blast. Then the mission ends suddenly and at the start of the next mission, we're all lying on the floor of the bridge as if the blast had violently shaken the ship we were on, knocking us all off our feet. Very awkward moment. It's not a HUGE deal, but it's amazing how they overlooked this. There's more of it throughout the campaign. There's even a few glaring issues with the core gameplay. Some sites on weapons don't seem centered. Hit detection also seems off at times, especially around cover. If an enemy is behind cover but you can still see a little bit of their body sticking out, it's nearly impossible to hit them. But whenever you take cover, you frequently get hit by random bullets every few seconds. To top it all off, AI is pretty wonky in this game. Your companions CONSTANTLY walk in front of you as you're firing. I blew myself up at least 6 times because one of my allies walked in front of me RIGHT when I decided to fire a shell from my under-barrel grenade launcher. Very frustrating to say the least. This game had a lot of potential and you can even see it when playing, but it just falls completely flat on its face.
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  42. Feb 21, 2013
    3
    This game really hurts because I always had the opinion of gearbox as superb developer. Well, time, a long developing process and some minor dev-studios might be the reason for this but it's still not acceptable. Big fans von the Alien-Franchise and Gearbox himself were disappointed in a big way: Aliens: Colonial Marines manages to create atmosphere and has a great soundtrack, but after all there are just to many bugs, ugly visuals and a very short campaign. Only fans of the movie might get some of the references being made but every „normal“ shooter fan should not buy this game at all.

    Gearbox, you can do it better and you know that!
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  43. Mar 16, 2013
    4
    This game is below average, no question about it. One has to wonder how to mess up a aliens game, but somehow it happened in this case. The action is boring and repetitive, the aliens are not threatening or scary, the story makes no sense and the characters are uninspired. Not mention bugs and lack polish. The game feels rushed. It manages to surprise at parts with good lighting and interesting locations from the movie. I would give this game a 3 but as a fan of the aliens franchise I bumped it up to 4. Huge disappointment. Expand
  44. Apr 16, 2013
    1
    I was so looking forward to this title telling my friends finally there's gonna be an Aliens game sequel showing the footage from E3..Seeing there's co-op on the mission we couldn't wait to be in the boots on the ground finding what happened to the Sulaco marines..I bought the game and the DLC thinking expensive but this so gonna be worth it...Then finally its a piece of crap so let down man the graphics on AVP 2010 were more better than this pile of stinking crap..Lets see Randy Pitchford carter burke and gearbox weyland yutani now i know how ripley and the crew of sulaco felt when the got back stabbed by burke and weyland and left to die... Expand
  45. Feb 12, 2013
    6
    Oh how I wanted to love this game. The campaign for the most part is a soulless, standard FPS with wildly inaccurate guns which make trying to kill mercenaries in cover a chore. The low res textures make the game look dated, attempts are generating atmosphere are a bit hit and miss, the dialogue is nothing special, and the multi-player is a guilty pleasure, but I got to the point where all I wanted to do was play the xenomorphs and got bored whenever I was forced to play as the marines. Leaping around the arenas and crawling across ceilings and walls is mighty good fun, but often the game can't understand exactly what you're doing due to the complex nature of the terrain and your character will start doing donuts a wall or something. At least I managed to pick it up fairly cheap. Meh. Expand
  46. Feb 12, 2013
    10
    Great, Great did I say Great GAME! Don't believe the retarded GameSpot review this game is amazing, yes there are a few textures in the game that don't look perfect but thats the only legitimate complaint and you don't grade a game just based on that. I am loving this game and the tension is has, it reminds me of the fear I felt while playing Dead Space 1 and 2 and the aliens are cool as They look great and the game-play is amazing while staying honest to the movies and the genre. I definitely recommend this game if you ever enjoyed any of the Aliens movies, or any of the Dead Space games. Expand
  47. Feb 12, 2013
    4
    This game is not recommended, its a bad PC port for starters, the singelplayer story is neither good nor bad, The AI is broken and not at all challenging, They introduced a expensive DLC pass with content cut from the game, that they expect us to pay for. The multiplayer has some potential, but its not worth it, considering you pay a full price for a game that you finish the singerplayer in less than 10 hours, and a multiplayer thats hardly worth it as a alone light in the darkness. Expand
  48. Feb 20, 2013
    7
    I love this game, it worth every penny I spent. Seriously people, it's not that bad. Let's look at the problem people are talking about: Graphic Sucks Alright, I can related to this, the graphic is very poor, textures has really low resolution, and no “Real” anti-aliasing options make things looks jaggy at times. But to say it's horrible? I'm sure you guys hasn't played FEAR 3 b 3 before, it's graphic is way worst than ACM, it's story is uninspired and makes no sense at all, but it scores 7.5 on gamespot, really? If we apply the standard people enforce on ACM, every game needs to have Crysis level graphics and big-shot writer script to be call a decent game. But since it's obviously we don't judge a game by it's graphics, than why does ACM gets so much more hate for this?


    AI is stupid, no challenge unless play the hardest difficulty

    I finished the game on Soldier difficulty, I don't even know where is this opinion coming from, the AI is fine in my opinion. Yes sometimes your AI teammates get stuck on some places, but it's not like it never happened to other games before, and for me it only happens 1~2 times so it didn't bothers me at all. Enemy Xenomorph are fairly intelligent, I heard people are complaining about “They only charge at you, they don't flank you or anything.” I have to say from my own experience, the xenos can move very fast and surround you very quickly if you don't have a good aim, also they pounce at you from a distance sometimes, makes you have to keep pressing E to survive, I say they are fairly challenging. Don't forget the Xenos outnumbering the player by a huge percentage, if they all play hide and seek and being very smart, marines won't have a chance! You wouldn't have a game here.


    Story makes no sense, bad ending.

    I partially agree with this, the game could use a better story, the ending is a bit abrupt yes, but understandable.(sort of) But even though, I don't think the story is THAT bad, not bad enough to warrant all the hate it got anyway.


    Ultimately, I think it comes down to the mindset you got when you play the game. If you got all hyped up by the PR, then you probably going to be very disappointed. But when I play this game I walk into it with one simple mindset

    ”Kill Xenomorph with Pulse Rifle and Smartgun, visit Sulaco and LV-426, experience the scenes from the movie ”

    And I got everything I was paying for, so for me, this game rocks, as for people who expected more than this, unless RIDLEY SCOTT and JAMES CAMERON themselves are working on this project, you are expecting too much from Gearbox.
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  49. Apr 30, 2013
    2
    Was this one big joke to Gearbox? It certainly comes across that way to me and to think that I have followed this game for more than 6 years; this release feels like a massive kick in the teeth...

    Well, I guess we all saw those Randy Pitchford videos where he was creaming in his pants talking rubbish about how he is a massive fan of the Aliens movie that James Cameron directed. Well Pit
    chford, you should be ashamed of yourself as this game is awful! If you loved the franchise that much, why is this game so S**T? Why did you not endeavour to make this the best Alien game available? All these questions will never get answered and really, we all should have known better because he talked up Duke Nukem Forever as if that was going to be some kind of genre defining game which also turned out to be S**T!

    Anyways, what we have here is a first person shooter set after the events of Aliens. The game follows a team sent to find out what has happened to the Sulaco and of course, what happened on the planet LV-426 (although that is not the same location the game goes too, it's LV-244). The game looks like Aliens if you ignore the poor graphics, awful animations and clippings, and the vast amount of bugs. It's funny but the E3 demo that Pitchford again was showing off with such Glee looks nothing like the product I have purchased??? False advertising most definitely as the released version looks 6 years out of date whereas the E3 demo was full of lovely shadows and lighting and had a much crisper visual and colour palette set (looked like advanced current gen).

    Gameplay wise, the story is a complete mess. It's hopelessly derived and should have been handled with much more care... where's the love Pitchford??? The guns sound great but feel underpowered. Locations feel samey with textures that are low resolution and adding to this is the minimal physics used on objects within these rubbish environments, the actual feeling of interaction is ZERO. It's just not that great to look at and my god it’s even worse to play.

    Enemy A.I consists of over erratic cover seeking morons that pop up and downs three times whilst shooting, then move to a different location, repeat the same process; and then move back to the previous location until you put their idiotic path finding body fodder down. Aliens sometimes move authentically but this immersion is broken once they glitch into a wall or turn 90 or 180 degrees in one motion... Its school boy error stuff and the question of this game getting through quality control is a bitter pill to swallow.

    It is hard to pick out redeeming moments from this game to be honest. It is not worth the time or money and unless you are a person that isn’t overly critical when it comes to games, you will have a tough time playing through to the end. With A.I that has the simplest of path finding code, aliens that act like drunks rather than predators seeking out their prey and a story line that is so redundant, you don’t really care; it’s hard to actually want to keep playing this game. The hardest part of the whole process of playing then reviewing a game based on my favourite movie of all time was the fact that I didn’t really have high expectations for it. I didn’t want a 10/10 game… I just wanted to feel like a bad ass playing in the boots of a Marine. Feel the feedback of the Pulse rifle when I offloaded a clip into a dangerous xenomorph. I wanted to seal doors with my hand held welder (you do this but it’s irrelevant and has no impact on the games mechanics) and lock down an area as if it’s a ‘last stand moment’… Using the motion tracker is pointless and is not even needed in game, yet they have included it… WHY? SO IT LOOKS LIKE AN ALIENS GAME!!! Pitchford you’re a fool and so is your team! This franchise has so much quality material you couldn’t go wrong yet you have churned out this disaster! If the game was not very good, why lead everyone down the garden path with the hype videos and e3 demo showing the quality that would never feature in the final product shipped? They should have just cancelled it or gone back to the drawing board…

    This game is not recommended 2/10
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  50. May 23, 2013
    3
    First of all: I cannot play it without Gold membership. Second: The gameplay is pure crap Third: it copies Left 4 Dead Fourth: It feels like a mentally retarted cat is controlling the AI Fifth: the story has been eatened, swallowed, thrown up, Eaten again, and got dumped in the toilet. Sixth: I was just lucky I got it for a free rental on GameFly.com. I wouldm't bear spending a single dollar on this.
    and Seventh:
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  51. Feb 12, 2013
    3
    The first thing that you will notice after paying 60 bucks and booting this thing up is that it is possibly one of the ugliest modern shooters I have seen in a very long time. If you are a graphics enthusiest then this will make your eyeballs bleed. I have a fairly stout computer and was hoping for some meat on this thing, there is none. The first thing that came to mind (an after reading these reviews, many others as well) is Doom 3. and not the BFG edition. Some may argue that it is uglier. Its pretty bad. It is kind of fun though, but that is comming from a guy who is not a serious FPS player. I do enjoy cod series but if thats what you look for in all shooters, dont even come near this. But if you like shooters to a degree and are tired of the hardcore ones, and reminse about the days of return to wolfenstein and the like then this may be something to try. Not for 60 bucks though. 20 at the most. If you buy it now you will feel ripped. Being an aliens fan dosent hurt either but not being one will destroy any enjoyment you hope to have. The only reason it gets a 3 is cause of the alien thing. its not a bad shooter, just not a serious one, and a very very very very very ugly one. Its so ugly you will be floored. My jaw hit the ground. Expand
  52. Feb 12, 2013
    6
    There are so many problems with this game that it's not even funny. The story is so bad it's good, there are parts of the levels that are so unpolished it's embarrassing and there's too much time shooting other humans rather than hunting bugs. As a single player game, it's a dead loss. If you stop to examine it, it's really stupid on many levels.

    BUT

    If you want an Aliens game, as a
    Marine, no Predators around, you and your mates shooting aliens for about seven hours, it's okay. I mean it's not brilliant but it's a fun, reasonably challenging cooperative shooter and there aren't many of those around for the PC. I enjoyed the coop campaign in ACM more than I enjoyed my first play-through of Left 4 Dead or the Syndicate coop missions and it had a much smoother process to set it up than the latter.

    It's a long way from polished but I think it offers something that is all too rare on PC, a solid coop first person shooter experience. I got seven hours out of it, which isn't much for a full price game, but they were seven good hours, so I don't think it's that bad. Wouldn't recommend getting it except on sale though really. But just to reiterate, it's only saving feature is the coop, it does that well enough to be worth a dip into a bargain bin.
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  53. Feb 13, 2013
    1
    Lazy game which rides the title to monetary gain rather than putting forward anything worth playing. So many times while playing this I could see broken textures on hallways, those bright blue lines you are seeing on the floor are not lights, people, they are the edges of the textures. The in lifts you can see through the world into the sky-box (and see the planets below), it is a lazy lazy game. Not only that, it is boring, dreadfully so, even the co-op has my friends and I laughing at how awful the AI is, even on the hardest difficultly, it is a lazy game with lazy writing, coding, and development. I'm not sure if Gearbox actually made this, or outsourced it to somewhere, it really makes me question and further purchases of their production. Expand
  54. Feb 15, 2013
    0
    I'm not going to write a long review, all I have to say about this horrid pile of steaming crab has been said before.

    False marketing, bait and switch. Everyone involved should have their companies and assets seized.
  55. Feb 16, 2013
    0
    This is one of the worst first person shooters I have ever played its not the worst Gearbox's duke nuken forever takes that title but only just. Both titles are utter crap and gearbox should give up now. I will nerv buy another gearbox title again.
  56. Feb 16, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A game that had a lot of potential, but ended up terribly. Blame the casual players! This game was supposed to be an awesome survival experience, but to make the game more accessible to a larger public, the incompetent directors of Sega and Gearbox decided to make it a Call of Duty clone. You don't even need to use the motion tracker one single moment on the entire campaign even on the hardest difficulty, because no enemy will ever spawn behind you. But if you can go through the festival of bugs, and the awful ending, you will able to enjoy a somewhat fun shooter with an actually good soundtrack. Expand
  57. Feb 18, 2013
    5
    An average FPS, all the fun is due to the fact that you can enjoy the nice working radar and the good old pulse rifle.
    If you close your eyes you will feel like you're really into one of the Alien movies, but when reopening them you will be really disappointed by the stupid A.I., the poor storytelling and the bad presentation.
    Gameplay would be fun if not affected by all those bugs, the
    enemies act like they're animals, the strategy that you expect from the creatures just does not exist in this game, the human enemies will randomly leave covering position and your fellow soldiers are more a pain in the ass than an aid (the worst thing is that most of the issues could be corrected by a proper debug phase).
    Graphics are 6.5/10, but the use of lights and shadows is light years far from the 1977 masterpiece and some of textures are so much low res for a 2013 game.
    Sound is good in complex, but some audio effects are missing and the music is simply trivial.
    The weapons upgrade system is nice and the unlockable add-ons are well distributed.
    In conclusion, if you are an Alien fan that can close one eye (or two), you will enjoy shooting some xenomorphs.
    Otherwise just run away without looking back.
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  58. Feb 20, 2013
    2
    This has to be one of the worst games ever released for PC. The most honest and true review I found for this game can be found here at http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/12/wot-i-think-aliens-colonial-marines-single-player/ Please do not waste your money, time or effort with this game. The AI is so terrible that the enemies/aliens will run away from you or will stand still and let you shoot them. You take more damage from enemy humans with guns than you do aliens. The level design is horrible, all you are allowed to do is open doors and hit checkpoints. You can literally play this game on the hardest settings and run from checkpoint to checkpoint barely killing anything. This does not feel anything like ALIENS.

    The graphics are circa 2005 and use Direct X 9, that's right... the game is very bright, and does not convey any sense of visual moodiness to it, at no point is there anything to shock or awe over as far as eye candy goes.

    Factor in that there are terrible bugs found throughout the game, no dedicated servers for a bare bones multiplayer mode and you can easily tell hands down that this is probably going to win WORST GAME OF THE YEAR 2013. But hey dont take my word for it, Youtube a few videos for yourself and see the vast majority of other critics reviews. A lot of good people got fleeced when they bought this game, dont be one of them.
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  59. Mar 5, 2013
    5
    I really like the Alien films but it did not make me more fond of the game. When I play deathmatch in multiplayers it was great fun so 37 hours before uninstalling when you meet original kamapnjen after 8 hours so you can say it was worth the money.
  60. Apr 1, 2013
    0
    Randy Pitchford LIED the whole 7 years to us and put this game off for his other Crap IP that when he made this contract with sega, didn't exist. He stole money from sega to make Borderlands and then didn't even work on this game! Where is the stand off game modes? All the other game features not in there? Where is the Demo!!! ALL A LIE. Do not buy or play this game. I waited for this game since 2001 and like all things aliens i knew it would suck, and with all the delays from borderlands too Duke we all knew this game would suck. Now this proves Pitchford is a lair. And borderlands is crap. Expand
  61. Apr 11, 2013
    4
    Broken AI. It doesnt have the good atmosphere or the suspense.... Really what a let down!! and like the other reviewers said the Graphics are outdated, animation and blood/acid effects are very poor, sounds effects are very nice but what we have here strikes me as overall unfinished, unpolished, rushed, underdone.
  62. Feb 23, 2013
    7
    After playing you, the feeling is rare. 1) The best of the game is the sound. Guns sound like in the movie. I think it's the best atmosphere achieved (not the visuals is lousy, I got better with the sweet nothing). 2) Graphics cuestinables the time. Safan. 3) AI-sas-tro-za. The worst part of the game. 4) good gameplay and good story (although everything is open to criticism) 5) Final open (and bad?) Which gives the possibility to Gearbox to patch everything bad in this 1st part.
    6) It could have been a great game, but it's like a diamond in the rough. I miss polishing asperities (which people no longer banking). When will they understand? It would have been better to wait 6 months and now be putting a 9
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  63. Feb 24, 2013
    1
    This Game is a Disaster and a well made Scam. Nothing in this Game looks like the Gameplaydemo´s. Its horrible, but not in the way we want it. Horrible Grafiks, stupid Story and the AI is dumber as a stone.
    I wonder if this is even legal, what Gearbox done.
    Only the Weaponsounds are good. Anything else is just bad bad bad. Dont buy this piece of Trash. EGM give a 90?..Lmao..
  64. Feb 24, 2013
    3
    Game over, man! The Aliens franchise is as dead in gaming as it is on the big screen. Secure that sh-t, Hudson, and let's go play another game. Even the lackluster Aliens Vs. Predator circa 2010 makes Colonial Marines look like horse meat in place of beef. In fact, if you are dying to play an Aliens game, play that one instead you can probably get it relatively cheap.
  65. Mar 1, 2013
    0
    I literally felt obligated to warn other people to avoid this game at all cost. I never felt so cheated from a gaming company as I do now with Aliens: Colonial Marines, everything about this game is bad except the rifle modifications and the gun sounds.. thats it.. I literally forced myself to beat the campaign since I love the aliens franchise, but I thought the story was terrible. The AI in the game is flipping terrible and the graphics are super outdated. I figured for a PC.. I would be able to turn the specs up, but your left with hardly any options. Lets just say that mass effect 1 on xbox has better graphics than this game and the AI was way better also. I took screenshots of all the horrible game design mechanics.. like the companion being attacked by an alien and some how it bugs out and he just stands straight up with his arms out.. while the alien is stuck between him and it looks like the marine guy has a huge alien pen*s. I have no clue why people love the sewer part.. wasn't scary in the slightest and you're telling me the 6 foot hole it makes is to tight for it to come down and kill you while you don't have any guns?? just stupid stuff like that through out the entire game. Please avoid since Gear Box only touched the multiplayer and they outsourced it to small companies to make the single player. Expand
  66. Apr 7, 2013
    0
    The game itself is not THAT bad, i would give it 4/10 compared to other current AAA game releases.
    However, the amount of lies and misinformation from Gearbox should be punished so that other companies will learn the lesson from this. Hence the 0/10 rating.
  67. May 9, 2013
    10
    Aliens colonial marines on PC gets yet another big update and it looks like a legit directx11 game now with hi res graphics better AI shadows, fog,mist and dynamic lighting among other things.
    I am totally amazed how they turned it around, it looks so beautiful now,check it out.
  68. May 4, 2013
    7
    The pc version is MILES better than the xbox version and the game can be pretty fun at times. so far the only problems I see can be fixed with patches or in the next 3 dlc packs
  69. LMW
    Feb 12, 2013
    5
    Played it for 3 hours in 4 people coop mode on Ultimate Badass. 6 11 missions accomplished. What can I say? What I like:

    - 4 people coop makes game a lot better. While not perfect, you have sort of cooperation and tactic while killing stuff.
    - Sounds and music are not bad at all. Weapons, well-timed music and big booms are all there.
    - Weapons. While there are basically 3 categories
    (rifles, shotguns and pistols), all of them have their own style and feel.

    What I didn't like:

    - Story. Story is meaningless. It doesn't make you care about key figures. Who was that guy over the radio? Who cares, let's move, aliens won't kill themselves.
    - Aliens and enemy soldiers AI. Well, nothing much to say here they are just plain stupid. The only way they can attack you is by jumping straight at you. Oh, they can also just stand and watch you killing them (or just running around waving their claws). And yes, they die A LOT. Packs and packs run at you and you just shoot them in the face. No challenge. Easy as that.
    - Level design is lackluster. Corridors over corridors, watered with boring cut-scenes, where developers try to make you care about characters around you. Nothing spectacular here, at least so far.
    - Almost no challenge. Yes, we died several times during these 6 missions only because we were running straight ahead almost all the time, shooting stuff without any problems (I did check our difficulty level twice I still can't believe it is so easy to play on the Ultimate Badass), but nothing really challenging. Aliens die in a matter of seconds, almost without any effort from our part.

    As it was said before, game feels like another generic FPS. There is nothing special about this title whatsoever. Is it fun? If you play it not alone maybe, but I can't imagine playing it myself all alone (I did finish 2 missions alone, by the way). And yes, graphic is not that terrible. Of course it is quite outdated, but not that bad as many people state. While not at Far Cry or Crysis level, it doesn't make you puke either.

    Overall, 5.5 (maybe 6.0) out of 10 for me.
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  70. Feb 12, 2013
    7
    This game is not bad i see that is better on the pc because the pc versions do not have problems whit graphic.The gameplay is ok you will get scared sometimes and if you play it on a harder difficulty the game gets harder and better.My biggest issue is the stupid friendly AI it is just stupid it lets the xenos kill you without helping but they still help sometimes.The game does not deserve 1 and 4 it deserves a 7 or a 6.6 out of 10 if you do not like aliens you will not like this game a lot but if you like aliens and you have friends that have time to play co-op whit you than thee game gets better.My final verdict is a 7/10 Expand
  71. Feb 13, 2013
    2
    Seriously Gearbox? After the excellent Borderlands 2 I thought, it can't be wrong to pre-order another game produced by Gearbox. I was proven wrong. One thing I have learned for sure after this game release disaster: I will NEVER NEVER NEVER ever pre-order a game anymore!
  72. Feb 13, 2013
    7
    Yes, this game is arguably underwhelming from the expectations that everybody had set for it but then, what did you expect? The game has spent 7 years in development accumulating hype from a fan-base in what I call the Duke Nukem Effect. The game spent a good portion of it's development indefinitely postponed, and when it came to fixing it up, there really hadn't been 7 years of development put into it. Maybe two at most.

    However, this doesn't mean it's a bad game. Sure, the AI is a little dumb and the graphics are mediocre, but then games with similarly poor graphics never really receive the abuse that this has. Campaign wise, yes, the story is... way off for an Aliens game, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable if you forget the game's relation to its source material.

    There are also loads of little references to the film that are nice for fans, and the atmosphere is quite well done the lighting in this is excellent, as is the fact that you can see your own feet and shadow really adds to the immersion.

    A:CM is not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but if they can sort out the AI, it'll at least be respectable. It deserves more than it got, but less than the game should've achieved.
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  73. Feb 14, 2013
    5
    Generally a disappointment, the Aliens atmosphere is there with the sound and lighting effects but the AI is really poor and this really effects the gun play. The weapons are good, each has a role to play and the customization is pretty good allowing you to change the guns to fit your play style.

    Overall its worth a rental or if you can pick it up cheaply but I doubt many people would b
    e happy paying the full retail price for this game. Expand
  74. Feb 19, 2013
    1
    It is official, Gearbox has taken up 3drealms's bad habits. over-hyping, overselling, and didn't deliver at the end. hell, the demo that they showed was a complete fabrication which i think it should be illegal. If ACM only took 2 years to make it will be understandable for all the poor graphics, coding, crappy game play ect. but this "game" took 6 years to make?...like i said 3Drealms bad habits. only recommended for hard hard fans of aliens, or just wait for the $5 special the steam, ether way. I, personally will never buy a Gearbox game as long as i live. *taking my money else were* Expand
  75. Feb 19, 2013
    10
    An enjoyable game for fans of the earlier Alien movies (especially the 2nd one), and while graphics are not groundbreaking they are still good enough to give you that creepy feeling of being on LV-426, except for maybe a few textures here and there that could use some polishing, I am a little disappointed that they didn't use DX11 but I can live with that. I've played about 15 hours of the game and still haven't experienced any crash or freeze up, sometimes there can be a little lag when going through a door opening into another room but that is minor stuff that easily can be patched. While the single player part is enjoyable I have to say that the most fun in this game is without a doubt the co-op campaign. People complain a lot about the AI and sure they are no Einsteins but I have seen far worse in other games, and also I'm sure they can be patched to perform better as well Expand
  76. Mar 13, 2013
    0
    This game is the worst game i haved ever wasted my time on. The AI is horrible, graphics are far below average and the story is boring. Don't waste your money on this game, if you are a die-hard aliens fan and absolutely MUST have everything with the brand name on it then at least wait until you can get it used for 10$ or something like that.
  77. Jun 3, 2013
    6
    Overall Aliens Colonial Marines is very bland and even boring at times. The graphics are very bad and the gameplay is pretty average. The story is uninteresting but the campaign has some pretty good moments. But multiplayer is where it's at. There are a few game modes to choose from and you can play as either the marine or the alien. Playing as the alien is very smooth and rewarding and the balance is very good too. And the maps are very well designed too. Expand
  78. Feb 12, 2013
    1
    This game is by far one of the worst of the year, and i can say that in all confidence even though it's only February. No atmosphere, the WORST textures I've ever seen, a majority of vents and small crawl spaces that aliens sometimes crawl out of and such are actually just black squares, not real vents. Such a poorly designed game it's almost impressive. No effort has been put into this game at all. Do not buy it, especially not for the ridiculously high price on steam. this game would be somewhat reasonable at 10 dollars, but even then, do not buy it. Aliens are too cumbersome to control, the tactical sights on weapons are strangely mis-aligned, the weapon firing sounds are laughable at best. avoid at all costs Expand
  79. Feb 12, 2013
    9
    havent played the sp campaign much but the multiplayer has a lot of potential. MP just needs a little bit of tweaking on matchmaking and lag compensation. Host does have a distinct advantage in regards to hit boxes actually registering shots. overall the balance between aliens and marines is very good, neither class feels overpowered. Definitely more fun than black ops 2... not really saying much but what else are you gonna play? Expand
  80. Feb 12, 2013
    6
    After 1,5 hours of playing i can say that this game is sadly not a horror game I was really hopped for a great horror/shooter. They made the shooter part well, but not the horror part. The story is so typical, a ship send out a distress signal, marines roll in much of the squad gets killed in the first few minutes and only you remain to save everyone ass. The graphics are fine, not to shiny not to rusty. The gameplay is just a go from A to B and meanwhile kill Xenos. Expand
  81. Feb 14, 2013
    1
    I'm only going to talk about the singleplayer/co-op campaign.

    What it does right: The game level design, sound and music are all true to the license. It has some really nice references to the movie hidden throughout. The graphics are not ground breaking but are good enough. In other words, they set the scene for an awesome aliens game really well.

    What it does wrong: It completely re
    moves the atmosphere the aliens franchise is known for. There are no moments when your fighting for you life. There are no jump scares. And the aliens do not behave like a dangerous opponent, in fact they spend most of their time walking at a reasonably slow pace with very little climbing on walls and roofs, and are just simple head straight towards target AIs like Serious Sam and just walk mindlessly towards you. Unlike Serious Sam you don't fight hordes of enemies or need keyboard agility to avoid them. In fact you can kinda half be asleep while in heavy combat in this game. The other thing which brings the game down is the fact you can carry all weapons and ammo at once, this basically turns you into a tank with unlimited ammo and in the aliens franchise ammo conservation is an important part of the fear factor.
    Summary: If you looking for an alien fix and don't mind the other species your best bet is still Aliens Vs Predator (The original one not the new one) and its sequel and play through the marine campaign.
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  82. Feb 15, 2013
    2
    1) Atrocious AI; especially the aliens. They just make a beeline for you.
    2) Dated graphics; unlike what was seen in the demos.
    3) First level was great with a great atmosphere and build up. It stops there, at the first level.
    4) "EPIC" boss battle.
    5) This is related to the second point; there's absolutely no sense of dread or "feel". Flip switch, run and gun, flip switch, run and gun.
  83. Feb 15, 2013
    6
    i gave it a six out of ten, basically i enjoyed the game, it wasn't until it was pointed out that the game was nothing like what the demo promised i felt cheated a little, but hoping the devs can do something to keep supporting the franchis with animation,Ai and texture upgrades, and hopefully do what Bioware did with ME3 and release some "extended version" DLC cutscenes to better explain the storyline. I hope gearbox, and Randy don't abandon this franchise, it CAN BE MADE RIGHT you can start by releasing a HD texture pack and a lighting overhaul Expand
  84. Feb 16, 2013
    2
    Coming from an Alien/Predator fan, this game is a complete disappointment. I waited 5 years for a game that makes DNF look like a masterpiece. I had to REALLY force myself to finish the campaign. What makes this game so bad, you ask?

    1- The AI. That damn AI...the worst I have EVER seen. Enemies can't do anything but run straight at you, your comrades will shoot walls in an (obviously fu
    tile) attempt to hit an enemy: they can't "see" the obstacle! Of course they will shoot through you as well. Sometimes enemies stand still in the middle of a room. Even at the highest difficulty the bad guys are just too stupid and that results in the game being extremely easy.
    2- The plot makes no sense, the character's reactions are completely off and you're left wondering whether the authors behind this were 5 years old fans. It's that stupid. Oh, the ending makes you want to punch in the face whoever wrote this garbage.
    3- No atmosphere. I remember the old AVP1/AVP2. Those games were terrifying when playing the Marine campaign. In Colonial Marines you feel nothing...well sometimes you get angry over how stupid everything is. It's that boring.

    These are just the three main issues with the game, but there's a lot more, for example the bad animations and the mediocre (at best) graphics but that's not really something I look at when judging a videogame. There are a few good things, though, like the guns (they sound really nice), one of the levels (although it doesn't last long) and the MP, which isn't horrible.

    Overall, this game is extremely bad, and may very well be the worst game I have ever played. If you're thinking "I'll try it anyway because I'm a fan of the Alien Saga" then listen to me and DON'T do it. You'll be even more disappointed.
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  85. Feb 16, 2013
    1
    There is a lot of controversy surrounding this game most notably the blatant false advertising but let me just focus on the game itself here. Visuals and auditory: The game drags you through poorly modeled drab futuristic enviroments where the 3d assets are re-used far too often. Walking through corridors, corridors and more corridors you'll encounter roughly four types of enemies whose animations were apparently motion captured by a frozen corpse tied up with rubber strings. The textures that cover everything look like something I imagine artists send to each other as a practical joke. Lighting and shadows, probably the most important part of an ALIENS game is sloppily put together. Gearbox tried to sprinkle recognizable objects from the movies into the game in order to distract you from how god awful the game looks but that is a bit like drawing a smiley face on a fist that punched you in the face, it is still going to hurt.

    Meanwhile in the audio department we have mediocre voice acting, it is not going to draw you into the game any more than the graphics but perhaps that is a good thing. The iconic tension building motion tracker is in the game but only as a curiosity for movie fans since it servers no purpose whatsoever gameplay wise. Music is the only thing I consider somewhat decent even though there are very few compositions and they are re-used too often. Again, sound design is one of your greatest tools when you are designing a game based on Aliens but the creators miss the mark completely.

    Gameplay: When you think of the movie aliens do you conjure up images of pants fudging terror and struggling to survive or do you think of a handful of marines shooting for hours on end at corporate goons? The designers of this game seem to have thought of the latter since all you do is run through narrow corridors spraying everything you see with your pick of fast shooting pulse rifle, normal shooting pulse rifle or slow shooting pulse rifle. At the opportunities where the developers could have differentiated themselves from the rest of the flock in the putrid sea of brainless military shooters, stuff like planting turret defences or welding bulkheads shut they just put a scripted event where the maximum amount of player interaction is Hold E button. It feels as if the developers worked hard to puncture any feel of suspense the game might build up by accident so they added immortal AI teammates and flashing RANK UP exclamations (because nowadays the only way you'll get a sense of accomplishment is through gaining points in an arbitrary rank ladder). Longevity: The campaign will at the very highest of difficulty go on for about 5-6 hours and considering how easy the game is I doubt it is even possible to die at normal setting. Anyway you'll unlock all the additional attachments and pointless twaddle about halfway through the story so there is no incentive to replay it. The multiplayer is another peer2peer that I can't imagine anyone will still be playing two months from now. Conclusion: When you make a game based on a specific franchise your customers expect you to at the very least capture a sliver of the mood presented in the source material. Gearbox Interactive is either made up by a bunch of meatheads that don't understand the movies or they just farted out a failed abortion of a game to make a few quick bucks, avoid a lawsuit from Sega and urinate on alien fans. They failed miserably on every single level when making Aliens colonial marines and it is honestly one of the worst games I've ever played in my life.
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  86. Feb 16, 2013
    2
    One of the weakest shooters in recent memory. I have a hard time thinking of anything good to say about this game. In spite of how archaic the visuals are (easily below offerings that are nearly a decade old, such as Doom 3, Far Cry and Half-Life 2 to name a few), graphics are far from the biggest problem with this game. Anemic, popgun-like shooting, bland levels, lack of challenge and a plethora of bugs are far more pressing concerns. I would not recommend this title, not even to hardcore fans of the Aliens franchise. There's nothing to see here, even as pure fanservice it falls flat. It's not worth enduring Colonial Marines' below average gameplay to experience this "canon" continuation of the series, as you'll probably also end up disappointed by the retcons and sophomoric writing.

    Strong candidate for worst game of 2013 and we're only in February.
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  87. Feb 16, 2013
    4
    "100% gameplay" demo shown in E3 expo was a lie. Look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo
    Other than that Poor AI, Jarring atmosphere and cliche story gives it a 4
  88. Feb 17, 2013
    8
    As a huge fan of the movies I've waited years to play a game where I can run around on LV426 with my favourite characters. The campaign was fun, the whole game is basically Call of Duty meets Aliens, nothing mind blowing or eye watering but decent. (And unlike CoD the the price wasn't £49.99) The multi player is great fun. I have no clue why this game is getting such a low rating, I found one haven't had any issues with bugs, crashes but I have seen the AI do some stupid stuff. However, I'm having a blast with it. I would probably give this game 10 out of 10 just for letting me live out my dream but that would be biased. So a solid 8 from me. Expand
  89. Feb 23, 2013
    1
    Well I have to admit I started playing this game with a biased negative view on it after all the initial videos and reviews of it. But I have played it with as an objective perspective as possible.

    My initial impression was actually quite mixed. For a bit, even though I knew how cut down the atmosphere and graphics were from the marketing demo we saw: I actually liked the atmosphere and
    lighting even though it didn't feel really new and awesome. It was dark, intense blinking lights, etc. It really gave me a nice sense of fear and creepyness.
    What was bad however was the presentation of the plot and the really wooden and cliché characters. Even by game standards it was just not even close to par with games that have decent dramatisation and dialogue.

    From here on it goes downhill fast and stays there. The gunplay couple with the enemy and buddy AI is just complete rubbish: as bad as Brink. Just as in Brink your buddies are useless and their gun-fire is more visual effect than effective. The AI is just spawn spawn spawn and jump jump jump around: compounded by all the guns being weak pea-shooters with small mags and clumsy handling. Like I said: exactly what made Brink so bad.
    The Xenos are just really not good in terms of modeling, behaviour and danger. We have this image of the Xenos from the movies as unbelievably good ambush masters that need to be killed from atleast 10 yards away or longer if you don't wanna die. In this you just constantly shoot at them while they're in front of you in a stale "a blooga blooga boo!" stance. It reminds me of old 90s arcade games where you just had a big sprite in front of you and it didn't really animate in any way.
    So yeah instead of amazing sneaky and lightning fast xenos we really don't get anything more complex than doom3d enemies coming at you going "rawr". That's the one move they have: they spawn and climb stuff to get to about 10 yards away from you. Then they kind of crouch and wiggle their hiney followed by a silly pounce in front of you. It's like you're playing against cats in xeno costumes.
    The way they behaved in the AvP games was actually kind of good: to go way way way down in quality after all these years is just pathetic.

    I'd go on but I'm already tired of pointing out all these inadequacies. It's a bad game with gameplay that in parts is as simple and archaic as doom3d and some parts at best live up to 2004 gaming standards. If I had developed this I would be ashamed of myself.
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  90. Feb 26, 2013
    3
    Duke Nukem Forever all over Again!!! After Being in Development for over 5 years the final product of Aliens Colonial Marines is finally here, and its no where as good as the demos shown to public way back in 2011 and once again in 2012, its insulting that the final product, look way different in the bad way than previously shown. Aliens Colonial Marines feels like a generic and an outdated FPS, the visuals are horrible, the lighting effect are terrible and the level design is only good thanks to the already existing Aliens Universe, the developer's didn't created anything new, they just recreated some of the locations from the movies, and even that was not top notch. The Story is extremely Boring and the dialogue is laughable, at times you get hooked to the story but that last for very short time. Aliens fans will see this as a wasted potential for a great story, Non-Aliens fans will be confused for 99% of the time! Perhaps the only good aspect of the game is the Audio, for most parts the Voice Acting is strong, although at times the dialogue is incredible dumb, making even a good voice actor sound silly, the iconic sound effects like the pulse rifle and the motion tracker present in the game and perhaps the only thing that makes you feel like you're actually playing an Aliens game! The Gameplay is generic, in the worst way possible, and that's thanks to the inclusion of human enemies in an ALIENS!!! game. There are 2 Types of Human Enemies and 3 Types of Alien Enemies [Not Including additional 2 bosses], So prepare to kill only 5 types of enemies in the ENTIRE game that lasts about 5 hours, throughout 11 missions. There are some good if not generic collectibles like the traditional Audio Logs and the lost marines Dog Tags, perhaps the best feature of the game is the fact that there are legendary weapons to be found that features weapons that were used from the characters from the movies. The Multiplayer is decent, Playing as Aliens is fun but very clunky and at times broken, there are only small amounts of maps and modes so the MP will grow on you very quickly which is a shame because this could have been the feature that could have save this game from becoming a complete disaster! Instead we get a Short and Boring SinglePlayer Campaign, Clunky MultiPlayer and a Bad Story. Im Done with this... Here is your score a 3/10 Expand
  91. Mar 6, 2013
    2
    I was one of the fools who pre-ordered this. When I saw the reviews on its release day, I wasn’t expecting a great game but it was worse than I imagined. Graphics from 5 years ago and gameplay from 10 years. It’s not scary, it lacks atmosphere, the weapons feel weak, the AI is atrocious, the NPCs constantly glitch and the animations of the aliens are so laughably bad at times it breaks any any possible immersion into the game’s world. And why am I spending more of the game shooting men than HR Geiger’s monsters? I didn’t buy a game set in the Aliens universe to shoot at other marines. The multiplayer isn’t much better. I was hoping that it would be like a cross between Valve’s Alien Swarm and Tripwire’s Killing Floor, both tactical co-op shooters that employ strategy, different player classes, a varied range of weapons and equipment, and which require planning and strong co-operation and co-ordination between players (at least on the harder difficult settings). Instead it’s a poor imitation of the versus mode from the far superior Left 4 Dead. The maps are badly designed, the game mechanics are poor, the controls are clumsy, and there are no player classes and a very limited range of weapons. If you want to play a co-operative game set in an Aliens-like universe then I strongly recommend Alien Swarm, which is a 100% free game available on Steam.

    The game feels unfinished and from what I’ve read about its disastrous six-year development it sounds like it was a rush job done in nine months in order to get rid of the project and appease publisher Sega. It’s hard to believe this is the same developer (ie Gearbox) that brought us the excellent Borderland games.
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  92. Apr 1, 2013
    1
    This game is not all its cracked up to be. pretty let down by this one. average graphics, tedious storyline, substandard weapons, cheesy in game conversations. shame could have been so much better!
  93. Apr 7, 2013
    4
    This is a waste of money and (Alien) license: the game fails to recreate the athmosphere of the series.
    Even if the overall gameplay is not too bad, AI of the game seems not good and the graphics disappointing.
  94. Feb 12, 2013
    8
    Ahhh, Aliens. The series that everyone around the world has heard about. There have been numerous games over the years based on the Aliens franchise and to this day, none of them have quite managed to hit that 'sweet spot'. Aliens: Colonial Marines attempts to fix this by plunging you into a world or terror and action, allegedly providing the (quoted from the back of the box), "ULTIMATE ALIENS FIRST PERSON SHOOTER". Although Aliens: Colonial Marines does not quite live up to this expectation, after all, buggy AI and annoying multiplayer glitches have swarmed their way into the game which will hopefully be addressed in a patch soon to come.

    Now with that out of the way, Aliens: Colonial Marines, on PC at least looks brilliant. Maybe not the best graphics you could possibly get today, but good, nevertheless. I feel that the game's main strengths come through the tension-riddled scary sequences, followed by the high-octane action sequences, both of which are incredibly well scripted and thought out. Your arsenal feels real both visually and through their sounds, adding to the dramatic feel of the game.

    Overall, Aliens: Colonial Marines is a superb game, especially on the PC. It incorporates the tension of the Aliens movies as well as their thrilling action sequences. This game is well worth your money because although not being a particularly original or 'new' kind of game, it is EXTREMELY fun to play! ***RECOMMENDED***

    Pros: Fun gameplay, excellent sounds/music and good level design
    Cons: Lousy AI and bugs (both alien form and glitches)
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  95. Feb 12, 2013
    5
    Enjoying myself fully after 3-4 missions in the cinematic single player part of this game. Not as scary as the earlier AvP games but a solid SP experience. So far my only real complaint is the scripted pauses where the tracker is not accessible. The unlocks and leveling feels well integrated and solid and adds more game within the game.

    Good: gfx, sound, control
    Not as good: Scripted,
    interrupting pauses, tracker feels a bit scripted Expand
  96. Feb 12, 2013
    3
    This is a subpar game. A disservice of the Aliens licence. WTF gearbox? Brain-dead AI, poor textures, boring corridor shooter. This game is candidate to Worst Game of the Year 2013.
  97. Feb 12, 2013
    6
    I totally LOVE the Alien movies, and I think this game will recive a open heart from us. For the rest of you guys that Isn´t that in to the movies, I´m sure you will find a hard time with it. Sure, they got some stuff they could have tweeked here and there, bit I´m enjoying it, and that´s what counts.
  98. Feb 12, 2013
    7
    Is Aliens: CE a great game? Not even kinda. However, if you were to ask me if it were a bad game...well then the answer is no, not really. In my opinion, the honest truth is that Aliens: CE is just an average game with an Aliens brand, and perhaps that's why it's being trashed. So lets examine the game's faults right away. First and foremost, the graphics are mediocre to downright bad. I've run the game on max settings and I'd be a colossal liar if I said it compared to the other 2013 titles. The dated look instantly made me think of Duke Nukem Forever. Up second is the AI, which isn't too bright either. Under the most ideal circumstances, there was one or two times where the Aliens made a maneuver that I didn't expect, but sadly the majority seemed content to just rush you from different angles. Granted, I myself could get past these issues fairly easily, but what really keeps me from loving Aliens: CE is the single-player campaign, which considering its title as a true canonical sequel, should be one of the most important aspects. Instead, single-player quickly becomes a shooting gallery of great set-pieces brought down by average fight sequences. Furthermore, the campaign is just too easy for any terror or tension to really emerge. I myself played on the Hardened difficulty, where the enemy could three-shot-kill-me, as it should be, but the dull AI and never ending discharge of bullets wrecks the atmosphere. That said, the campaign isn't a total miss, there are plenty of homages and tributes to the film, as well as some decent setpieces, but ultimately the atmosphere these things are trying to create just never really happens. Finally, several technical bugs have been reported in the game, though I myself have not run into any of these, it certainly isn't doing the game any favors.

    And yet, Aliens: CE isn't a total loss, which is why I'm so reluctant to be complacent with a 4.5 average score. As said before, the environments and game entities have some tender love and care, and are accurate recreations of the sets from the films. At times the game is absolutely brimming with fan service, such as collecting weaponry used by the cast of the Aliens movie, or scouring the game for secrets and achievements named after movie events. All the iconic weaponry handles well enough (minus the half-baked cover system), and some of the action sequences started to make me feel like a bad-ass. Multiplayer, assuming it doesn't die in the next few weeks, was actually quite a satisfying experience and is where the game really shines. A good variety of modes, a solid mix of weapons, and some great tactics that only emerge when humans are at the wheel instead of AI's gives a pleasant glimpse into what the game should have been. In the rounds I played it was enjoyable to see xeno players find ways to lure and trick opponents, while marine players would develop strategies for staying safe and well protected. The multiplayer is also packed with customization options to fine-tune your playstyle with gun accessories, perks, armors, and plenty of cosmetics for both humans and aliens.

    After six years in development, its understandably depressing that your patience has been rewarded with rather unremarkable sci-fi horror corridor shooter that sometimes grasps for greatness, and oftentimes falls flat on its face. And yet despite all the flaws, there's just enough gory, acidic goodness in the game to give me hope that an amazing aliens video game is not quite as impossible as it might seem.
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  99. Feb 13, 2013
    5
    I was a bit skeptical when i saw all harsh reviews, but then i played a the game, its true that the graphics are dated, but that's not the straw that broke the camel's back (straws in this case), it doesn't feel like an aliens game, or a horror movie for that matter, the Xenos come at you in plain sight, and you have more than enough ammo to gun them down, the game suffers from broken AI, quirky animations, forgettable characters, You'll find yourself stepping right through some debris, and chunks of alien organic materials found on the ground while walking around like its not there, i haven't tried the multiplayer yet, so i have no opinion on that. if you're a fan of movies, you might tolerate some of the inconveniences that i've mentioned, or you'll just rate it harshly out of bitter disappointment like all the 1's and 2's found on here, as a for me i feel like i flushed my money down the toilet. Expand
  100. Feb 13, 2013
    1
    There is not much to recommend about this game and zero reason to play it. Everything you've likely heard is true. The plot is bland and illogical, the aliens are neither scary or believable, the level design is so linear that they might as well have sat you in a theme park ride. The animations are so sub-par as to be beyond belief. This game would be embarrassing to a value software developer. For it to be developed by Gearbox (a supposedly triple A studio) based on a can't-lose sci-fi franchise.... This will surely ruin Gearbox's reputation, at very least. Expand
Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 40 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 40
  2. Negative: 23 out of 40
  1. Jun 10, 2013
    60
    Judging by the result, Gearbox could not handle the tremendous success of Borderlands 2. On the other hand, there’s this erroneous notion that franchises can exploit their name and are justified to produce mediocre titles for ever. Those two facts were enough to condemn Aliens: Colonial Marines. While it’s true that the console version is even worse, the competition in the PC shooter genre, is relentless. [April 2013]
  2. Mar 15, 2013
    68
    I dared to hope, but was given a game so dull and average, that is an actual achievement itself. [March 2013]
  3. Mar 12, 2013
    60
    Not as bad as the wost Aliens games, yet it's also not in the same league as the very best, leaving ACM to meandering in the space system of mediocrity. [Apr 2013, p.69]