Dark Game Revisit – Should you go back to Aliens: Colonial Marines?
Written By Casey Douglass
I am more than happy to
be alive in a time where I can say that the last Alien/s game, Alien:
Isolation, was a corker. The blend of sneaking around trying to
avoid a prowling xenomorph and the filmic atmosphere made it one of
the most intense gaming experiences I’ve ever had. This was also no
doubt due to the love I already had of the films/graphic novels/books
etc. If I delve back further however, memory butts up against another
game: Aliens: Colonial Marines, one that was greeted on launch
with a gnashing of teeth and a whipping of wagging fingers that
almost mimicked the movements of the black shiny predators that the
game featured. People felt that the game’s graphics compared badly
to the pre-launch trailer, there were doubts about the narrative, and
the game was just viewed as pretty shonky. I remember seeing one
YouTuber show that you could run through one part of the game without
actually needing to attack anything, even though you were clearly
meant to be fighting for your life! It was with all this rattling
around in my head that I decided to give the PC version of the game another go, having
previously played a few hours and called bullshit on it many years
ago.
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No, he's not bursting into song. |
The first few hours
were again, a period in which I found myself tempted to give up.
While the game has likely been patched since I last played it, the
A.I is still a pain in the arse at times, and the number of times all
of the attacking xenos seemed to have a hard-on only for me, ignoring
my teammates, got a little annoying. I also experienced a few
frustrations with the save game check-pointing, a few instances
occurred where I died and had to replay 5-10 mins of the game to get
back to where I had died again, one including an unskippable
character dialogue exchange. I’m not sure if this is a relic of
when the game was released (2013) and modern games are a little better at
that kind of thing, or if it was pretty bad in comparison to other
games even back then. All I know is it annoyed me more than a few
times.
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Give us a kiss beautiful! |
Graphically, the game
is serviceable. Dark corners and dripping vents all look suitably
menacing, and the xenos rushing at you certainly tickle that “Holy
shit we are fucked!” feeling. Until they get in your face and you
see that the textures and animation is, once again, simply
serviceable. Audio wise, things fair a little better, the screeches
of the creatures and pips of your motion tracker increasing the
tension and foreshadowing more confrontation in a pleasing,
horror-like way.
I found the gun-play to
feel a little disconnected though. The weapons feel like they have
little “heft”, your gun seeming to float about easily in front of
you, click to kill, click to kill, click to kill. I can’t fault the
variety of weapons though, from pulse rifles and grenades to more
legendary weapons like Hicks’ shotgun, the player certainly has
options when it comes to death dealing. Weapons can also be improved
via a ranking upgrade system, letting you add new types of sight or
extra capabilities like an under-slung shotgun or grenade launcher.
Ranks are in both single and multiplayer, but I didn’t try the
latter as I just wasn't interested.
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A costly trip and looming death. I like this pic. |
I came back to Aliens:
Colonial Marines because I’m going through a period where I
really don’t know what games I feel like playing. After finding
that I didn’t enjoy replaying Alien: Isolation once I knew
how it ended, I was left with a xeno-void that had me looking back at
this game. It was with this in mind that I gave it another go, and I
have to say that it did scratch that xenomorph itch. Whether the
narrative sits well with the main story of the films and other media
or not, it was enjoyable enough in a pulpy way. While the combat was
lacking, it was still satisfying mowing down waves of insect-like
death with shotguns and pulse rifle blasts, and the environment was
truly threatening and interesting to negotiate at times.
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A xeno queen misbehaving in a steam filled room. Sounds like a new porn category. |
Looking back on Aliens:
Colonial Marines, it is still sad to think how it might have been
better, but viewed as a guilty pleasure when you just want to visit
that hostile universe again, it does the job. It did for me at least.
If you have it sitting in your game library and have only played a
short distance into it, maybe think about giving it another go at
some point.
Here is a link to the
Wikipedia page for Aliens: Colonial Marines. At the bottom
there are tens of articles referenced that go into all the hoo-ha it
caused when it was released.
Aliens: Colonial
Marines Images © Copyright SEGA