Aliens: Colonial Marines

[Rombie]

My hands up as a sucker. I got the CE though which might be the only saving grace as the 8 inch statue of the Alien attacking the Power Loader isn't that bad. But I preordered this back last September so that's why I got it. If I hadn't done that I wouldn't have picked it up at all.

[Pikminister]

In better news though, Infestation on the DS was good and hopefully Creative Assembly's upcoming Alien game will be as well.

The DS game is dirt-cheap ($10 at amazon) and it IS better than this game and the last AvP (2010).

EDIT: It seems that SEGA is complaining about GearBox being distracted and not giving their all when developing this game. I guess they should've paid them more.

Anyway... What happened?

[nemesis_lover]

I'm currently on level 5 of the game. I found the first 10 minutes to be what I expected an aliens game to be like. Then you just seem to shoot endless aliens running straight towards you. No strategy really, but the soundtrack and sounds are pretty well fitted for the game. Having human enemies in the game has spoiled it for me so far, but I'm glad it's gone back to fighting aliens. Will update when completed, so far I'd give it a 6.5/7 out of 10.

[TheBatMan]

The story? Ha ha ha ha ha! Definitely the ORC of the Alien universe.

It amazes me how these people are so quick to piss all over Alien 3 and only count the first two yet when making their own product completely misinterpret what made these films great in the first place.

Long live Alien 3. The restored work print version is just as good a film as Aliens. It's a beautiful piece of work.

[[STARS]TyranT]

Someone spoil me the story if you will, so I don't have to play it?

How does the Sulaco end up back at LV426?
How does Hadley's Hope be relatively intact despite the huge explosion?
Does Prometheus feature in anyway? (There were rumours it perhaps might).

EDIT: Pikminister beat me to it.

[Pikminister]

And what the fuck happened to this game in the last year???? Check this video out!!

You posted the messed up version of the video. Check out the FIXED version I posted before.

[[STARS]TyranT]

Ah sorry Pikminister yeah you beat me too it posting that video. Got so many windows open atm didn't check this thread before posting that video.

But back on it, christ that's some serious visual downgrading.

[Pikminister]

Ah sorry Pikminister yeah you beat me too it posting that video. Got so many windows open atm didn't check this thread before posting that video.

But back on it, christ that's some serious visual downgrading.

No its okay. It's just that the author of that video made some errors labeling parts of the video. So he made another version of it where he corrects those mistakes.

The 'fixed' version is the video I posted earlier.

I think one of the reviews got it right when it said that this game could've run on a last gen console. Because it looks dated. Like a 2006 game.

And the gameplay is crap. A boring shoot'em-up.

EDIT: LOL The Wii U version of this pile of crap has been postponed indefinitely.

According to Kotaku editor Jason Schreier:

We heard from a tipster about a month ago that the Wii U version had been “postponed indefinitely.” We reached out to Sega, and they denied it. I’ll let you guys fill in the blanks there.

Amazon no longer lists the game at their site. So there might be some truth to that 'rumor'.

I doubt Wii U owners are gonna miss playing it. Considering that the game barely even uses the alien radar... and is of no help at all during actual gameplay. That detector was suppose to work on the Gamepad.

[Zombie_X]

I am bummed by this game. I saw the gameplay demo months and months ago and it looked really good, but the game look like it's from the original xbox. That was a let down. The aliens AI changed and now they just run at you and aren't cunning like shown in other videos.

Who wants to bet that when the discs were pressed, they were pressed with the wrong version of the game? Maybe a beta version got pressed but it was too late to do anything?

Ok, people say that TimeGate Studios was outsourced to make the game and Gear Box did the multiplayer, and if that's true, why push it as Gear Box's title? My bet is that Gear Box made the gameplay demo with assets from TimeGate Studios build and all the lighting and effects were theirs, along with the AI and animations. They had to have something to show, right? So Sega had them whip up a demo.

[Spera01]

So a friend of mine rented this last night and we played a good couple of hours in split screen co-op. My god, what happened? You think it looks bad? Actually play the thing and it's worse. It felt so mindless. I didn't even have to think. The Aliens run right into your shots and even if you decide not to shoot them, you can just stand there and melee the shit out of them. We actually had a moment where an Alien just refused to attack us and stood there in the room. We then proceeded to jump on top of him and ride him as he begin walking around aimlessly. It was a good laugh.

Oh and acid for blood? Nah that doesn't exist in this game... Or at least it barely does. Pretty much 9 out of 10 times I killed an alien right in front of my face or walked over it's corpse, I didn't get damaged. Also what it up with the second level being almost entirely human enemies? The whole time I felt like I was playing yet again, another shitty rip off of CoD rather than what the game was actually called.

As for the story and it's characters? If Gearbox is seriously taking pride in how they made a "sequel" to one of the greatest movies ever made, they're the biggest morons I've ever seen. The whole thing feels like fan fiction.... Really bad fan fiction and not the funny kind.

[Dracarys]

Played it, is shit. Melee kill an Alien, yeah! Just like in the movies. Well, shit is a bit harsh. As bad if not worse than the last AvP game maybe a better description. Or perhaps complete shit compared to AvP1 and 2 on PC over 10 year ago?

The development history alone should send up alarm bells. Was 'Colonial Marines Forever' for a lot of years, funny when you look who the develop is.

Expect majority of scores in the 70s.

I warned you all.


...but lawls at still overshooting the scores.

[Rombie]

Oh and acid for blood? Nah that doesn't exist in this game... Or at least it barely does. Pretty much 9 out of 10 times I killed an alien right in front of my face or walked over it's corpse, I didn't get damaged. Also what it up with the second level being almost entirely human enemies? The whole time I felt like I was playing yet again, another shitty rip off of CoD rather than what the game was actually called.

While I hate the game no doubt, I do have to note on the harder difficulty levels the Acid splashes back and slowly eats through your armor and health when you kill enemies in close quarters. It doesn't do it on normal (Solider) or below as much, but I played it on Hardened my first time and that was generally the only reason I found the game difficult. :p

[TheBatMan]

Someone spoil me the story if you will, so I don't have to play it?

How does the Sulaco end up back at LV426?
How does Hadley's Hope be relatively intact despite the huge explosion?
Does Prometheus feature in anyway? (There were rumours it perhaps might).

EDIT: Pikminister beat me to it.

You'll have to forgive me as I've only done one playthrough and can't remember all the details but this is the plot and backstory in a nutshell:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Immediately following the events of Aliens, Hicks sends out a general distress call citing that all marines dispatched to LV-426 are KIA and that only Ripley, Newt, the damaged Bishop and himself survived. Presumably shortly after this message they enter cryo sleep as seen at the end of the film.

An undisclosed time later, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation headed by Michael Weyland (who is implied to be Bishop II from the end of Alien 3,) intercept and board the Sulaco. This intrusion sets off the ship's warning systems and as senior ranking officer left on board ship the computer wakes Hicks up from cryo. He is immediately captured and interrogated by the company men on the ship. For reasons that are never explained, a replacement dead body is put into Hicks' sleeping pod alongside Ripley and the others. The start of Alien 3 then occurs and the EEV jettisons Ripley and the others including the Hicks imposter down to the surface of Fury 161. However, the reason behind the facehugger and egg on the ship is conveniently forgotten about and not explained.

Presumably acting on information given to them by Hicks under interrogation, the Sulaco is towed back to LV-426 orbit and the company begin investigating the planet for traces of the Alien and to see if the derelict ship from the first film still exists.

The events of Alien 3 then occur and of course Weyland/Bishop II is unsuccessful in capturing either the dog xenomorph or the embryo Queen Alien from Ripley before she perishes. Weyland and the ship that brought him then head back to LV-426 where the Company have located the still in-tact derelict ship. This retcons the fact that it was destroyed in the nuclear blast at the end of the second film as stated in the Alien Res novelisation. The company then spend several months constructing a massive research facility around the derelict which is now codenamed 'Origin'. Obviously they locate the space jockey/engineer and the egg hold and so begin growing their own xenomorph specimens. For reasons which are not explained they deliberately infest the still orbiting Sulaco with the aliens and set up monitoring and recording equipment everywhere. Again for reasons never explained, they keep Hicks alive during this time and torture him every day. They also soon have a new Alien Queen.

Seventeen weeks after Hicks sent the first distress, the USS. Sephora under the command of Captain Cruz reach the the radio silent Sulaco with over 300 marines on board. A recon team is sent in to investigate and locate the flight recorder but all contact is lost with them. This is when the player as Corporal Christopher Winter is popped out of cryo and told by Cruz to head over to the Sulaco and find out what happened to them.

As you move over to the ship an explosion damages the umbilical and you are soon trapped on the Sulaco whilst repairs are made. You investigate familiar areas of the ship seen in the film with a few nice easter eggs such as finding Bishop's legs and the grates on the floor that the Queen pulled up whilst looking for Newt. In the sleeping chamber you also notice that four of the cryo tubes have been ejected and are missing. Further in you discover that much of the ship has been turned into a giant hive and is infested with xenomorphs. The initial recon team have been wiped out save for two marines named Keyes and Bella, though both have been cocooned and facehugged. You rescue Keyes and recover the flight recorder, however whilst moving down the umbilical back to the Sulaco, a chestburster erupts from Keyes who blows himself up with a grenade, destroying the link back to the Sephora and losing the flight recorder for good in the process.

You manage to get back to the Sulaco and next thing you know are being attacked by mercenaries working for the company that have apparantly been on board all along. They do not take kindly to these colonial marines coming onto the Sulaco and attempt to wipe out Winter and his men. The mercs use the Sulaco's weapons system to try and destroy the Sephora which still has a majority of the 300 marines on board. You try to stop it but are too late and the Sephora is destroyed. However, a majority of the crew manage to evacuate in EEVs down to LV-426 but are scattered all over the moon. The debris from the Sephora then smashes into the Sulaco and badly damages it. This is when Cruz and several survivors arrive to rescue you in a dropship. But the Weyland mercs also want to use the ship to escape and a big firefight happens before you manage to get away. The dropship is damaged by debris and crash lands on LV-426 somewhat convieniently near to the remains of Hadley's Hope which is still suprisingly mostly in-tact. Your squad is now down to yourself, a guy called O'Neil who is the AI or co-op partner, Bella, Cruz, Reid the female dropship pilot and another Bishop android. In the game's best level for nostalgia you explore the remains of the colony, secure operations and set up a perimeter with O'Neil whilst Bella and Reid head to the comm. tower to try and raise the other marine survivors.

You then move to find Reid and Bella and are incapacitated by a nemesis-like Alien that is akin to the creature from the first film. In easily the best level of the game you have to navigate through an eerie sewer being stalked by this one alien as well as several other types that have mutated thanks to radiation from the atmosphere processor explosion. It is down here you also find Hudson cocooned to the wall chestbursted and Newt's casey doll.

Eventually you locate the others and head back to Operations. Cruz then sends you to investigate the Weyland-Yutani facility to try and find a way to remove the alien embryo from Bella before it's too late. But Cruz also has an ulterior motive for doing so. I cannot remember why exactly but somehow he knows about Hicks and about the ship Weyland is on. He wants the manifest recovered so they can use it to get off-planet.

You move on to the research labs and Bella is killed. It is revealed it is impossible to remove an alien embryo without killing the host as the alien placenta fuses to all the host's vital internal organs. This overlooks what happens in Alien Resurrection with Ripley.

You then find the derelict which has a massive electric perimeter fence around it to keep the aliens at bay. You power this fence down and all the scientists are killed by the creatures. You move through the ship and on the other side recover the captive Hicks.

After more pointless battles and a pointless trip back to the colony to rescue some more marine survivors that have turned up out of nowhere you head back to the research area to try and capture Weyland's ship and escape. You suddenly have a fleet of dropships and APC's here but don't ask me where they came from.

Eventually you escape onto Weyland's ship before it takes off. However the Alien Queen is on board and Cruz sacrifices himself to kill it. You then find Michael Weyland hiding in the ship's hold. Hicks kills him and he is revealed to be just another Bishop model android with white blood. Bishop then connects himself to the Weyland droid and downloads all his memory banks which contain enough data to bring down Weyland-Yutani for good.

The survivors then fly off into space and enjoy a well-deserved cup of tea.

So there you go, utter garbage and it is in no way as detailed as I described but that is the basic jist of it. It seems the whole plot was centered around the twist of Hicks being alive to appease the raging fan boys over what happened in Alien 3. It doesn't make Alien 3 a better film as Randy Pitchford claimed, it just messes up the timeline even more.

And as for the Prometheus links, the corridors of the derelict have been slightly redesigned to make them more Prometheus-juggernaut looking and they are easily recognisable as this. You also see the red ball 'pups' flying around mapping the ship and that's your lot apart from an in-joke about the space jockey being 'not their god'.

Garbage.

[Dracarys]

Support beam through the face seems a better end imo.

[[STARS]TyranT]

Jesus Christ Bats.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

If I'd come across that online I'd be sure that was just simple fan wankery. It's absolutely fucking awful! Like I actually can't believe how fucking awful that is. I'd take Andersons AVP over that garbage. And THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING lol.

And why the fuck do people still carry on with the Bishop/Weyland thing, specially since we are now post Prometheus which actually reveals who Weyland actually was.

I need to sit down mentally, and wash over how simply fucking awful this game is. The story is actually insulting. Does Michael Biehn play Hicks at least?