Since the release of Alien in 1979 fans and gamers alike awaited an opportunity to play a game based off the Alien franchise. There have been quite a few of adaptations, but none of them capture what makes the Alien franchise so great; the sense of tension, horror, and feeling claustrophobic in small corridors. The news of Gearbox working on an Aliens game turned a lot of heads, especially me in particular as an Aliens fan. So the question remains, does Aliens: Colonial Marines live up to it’s potential and capture what makes Aliens a respected franchise?

     The answer sadly is no. Not only does Aliens: Colonial Marines fail to capture the horror genre, but also fails to live up to Gearbox’s promises.

    Instead of building tension, Aliens: Colonial Marines turns into a generic shooter. The problem? Aliens: Colonial Marines fails to amuse, even as a standard first-person shooter. Enemies lack the proper artificial intelligence to function as a proper game. The lack of enemy variation quickly turns repetitive. Aliens: Colonial Marines contains too many problems it’s hard for me to recommend even to an Aliens fan.

     Lets calm down a bit and recap what’s good. The sound design is spot on with the movie, the sound of the Pulse Rifle and Motion Tracker wash over me with nostalgia. There are checklists of references to the Aliens film. The game forces the references in attempt to hide just how bad the game is. The game added weapon customization options, adding new guns that feel apart of the Aliens universe. Sad part is none of the weapon customization matter when enemies die in a few hits.

"A game this late in the console generation is unacceptable."

    Aliens: Colonial Marines does an excellent job showing you what a good Aliens game could be, and then take that moment away from you. Encountering your first Xenomorph sets the tone of what could’ve been. It builds tension when the Xenomorph hides and you are forced to you the Motion Tracker. Like a game of hide and go seek, but the seeker is the prey. After that moment, it all goes down hill from there.

    The iconic Motion Tracker loses its purpose, Xenomorphs mindlessly charge at you and disappoints to use the games environment. My A.I. partners fail to respond to danger and get in my line of fire multiple times. The human enemies, along with the Xenomorph, lack innovation all enemy types act the same and do the same. The promised Charger xeno shows up in the last act and becomes unmemorable. The pattern repeats shoot, shoot, shoot, open doors, shoot.

    It’s all outdated; the game looks as if it would run on the original Xbox. Playing on the Xbox 360 I suffered a significant amount of dropped frame rates. I don’t understand how a game like this, so late in the console cycle, can be this terrible with the Unreal Engine 3. Aliens animation move more like humans, textures are missing from various locations and bodies disappear once an enemy dies. A game this late in the console generation is unacceptable.

   The story goes absolutely nowhere. The events of Colonial Marines take place weeks after the events of the second movie and third movie. Even as an Aliens fan I could not make sense of the plot, which makes it hard to explain. You are sent to rescue a team but you encounter Xnomorphs, then for some odd reason Weyland attacks you. Later you and your team crash lands on planet LV-426, so you must steal a ship from Weyland, who are also trying to escape. The story is flat out dull and convoluted. The dialogue is equally as atrocious. Nothing is explained; the only answer you’ll get from the game is “just because.”

     Multiplayer component has a Left 4 Dead feel, pitting aliens against human. Sadly, it all feels clunky; the humans have a better advantage over the xenos. You play in a third-person prospective, with the xenos, attacks fail to register and learning to control a xeno takes a few matches. Humans have the simple first-person shooter element; so learning the controls are easy. Match types vary there is standard Team Deathmatch, Extermination, which is like king of the hill; Survivor, in which the humans try to survive an alien attack; and Escape, where humans try to reach from one checkpoint to another. Maps lose their luster after the first 5 matches. Multiplayer was the main selling point for Aliens: Colonial Marines, but feels like a last minute addition.