As you may have guessed, these posts are about me and my first 30 minutes with a game. That may not be enough to totally give a proper review, but this isn’t a proper review…it’s my first 30 minutes.
I’m not going to write too much about this game because, basically, it doesn’t deserve too much of my time. Aliens: Colonial Marines takes place months after Aliens, the ultra popular James Cameron movie (one of my favorites). From what I gather, Cpl. Dwayne Hicks (from the movie and played by, Michael Biehl) sends out a distress call regarding LV-246. The Colonial Marines show up in their overtly testosterone-fueled brutish fashion and the game begins, literally.
I told you I didn’t want a kiss, jeez!
The first glaring fault I noticed was the lack of vocal syncing. Lips were moving and there was sound but the two were definitely not in harmony. I found this so distracting that I couldn’t focus on the story. All I could focus on was the fact that this fundamental aspect of game cinematic couldn’t be properly executed, or the developer is just plain lazy. Now I understand this game has had a myriad of issues and developers, but this is no excuse for not being able to sync lip movement with voice acting.
The next technical flaw I noticed was the frame rate was not very good and the ally AI looked super robotic. There was slight screen tearing and the graphics looked more reminiscent of something from the Xbox 360 launch line-up. To be honest, the graphics were just slightly better than those of the Doom 3 HD remake. It was clear this game started development a console cycle ago.
Something else I thought was weird was that two of the main characters in the beginning looked exactly alike. The main character, Winters, and his commanding officer, Cruz. These two dudes would make great doppelgangers in the real world, or make a great sequel to “Twins,” where the two people actually look exactly alike.
The last thing I’ll mention, and this may just be because it’s the beginning of the game, but the enemy AI Xenomorphs are clumsy, predictable, and they just rush at you. Now, I’ve watched a shit-ton of Aliens movies and I’ve never seen Xenos rush at the likes of any of its prey. They lack stealth and finesse in Aliens: Colonial Marines. Time will tell and more should be revealed in this aspect as I play through the remainder of the game (Do I have to!?).
Aliens: Colonial Marines has been handed off, passed through, and worked on by so many developers over it’s atrocious 6 year dev cycle that it’s almost customary this game be flawed. Rarely have I seen a game be touched by so many studios over such a large amount of time and it release under a positive light. Sleeping Dogs is the only exception I can think of.
All in all, my morbid curiosity got the best of me. I read a lot of the reviews last night at 1am when the embargo was lifted and found myself very disappointed by what I read. The majority of reviews from reputable gaming sites gave this game less than mediocre reviews. Even though I found myself disappointed, deep down I wanted to like this game and I optimistically didn’t want to believe all the reviews. I thought that maybe, just maybe, my experience would be different. I thought that maybe the love I have for the franchise might have some fundamental effect on my perception of the game. So far, this has not been the case.
If you’re still interested in playing this game, it’s available on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC.
