More like Colonial Mehrines, am I right? Ok that was terrible, I apologise for that. Moving on.
I completed the campaign of Colonial Marines today and I have to say it is the worst game I've played in a while. First of all though, here is a short video I recorded of my early impressions with the game's campaign. Enjoy.
So I was pretty down on the game then, and it got worse. Well basically it just didn't change, after that point I started fighting humans and that wasn't very fun. The enemy AI across the board is just terrible, soldiers frequently ignored me, ran around for no real reason or just cowered next to a waist high wall leaving a bit of body exposed to be shot. They also died real easy and pose little threat, the armoury in Colonial Marines is vast and you can use any gun at any time (apart from power weapons), on top of this ammo is super plentiful and so are health and shield items. This means there is no real sense of danger ever, and this is added to by dull corridor based level design and repetitive enemy encounters. You enter a room, xenos appear and they run at you and die quickly, the show no sense of self preservation or tactics, or just basic intelligence, they just run at you and die. The one bonus is you get to use a pulse rifle and a motion tracker, but the motion tracker is useless because the game is so predictable. For one thing, a little icon comes up every time it wants you to use the tracker, so you know aliens are near (or other enemies) so there is no shock factor to it, and then the enemies always run straight at you and there are never very many of them. You just don't need a radar at all. The pulse rifle sounds great, but the shooting never feels great, the aiming is a tad sluggish and hit detection just seems a bit off sometimes. However accuracy is never really needed so no trouble is caused, it just makes for a game that never feels great to play. Sure it is serviceable, but it's never wholly enjoyable. On top of this the game just looks ugly, sure they nailed the Aliens aesthetic and that's great, but the graphics from a technical standpoint just look dated. I was maxing it out on PC and it just looked old, and yes the corridors look like corridors from the film Aliens but they sure do repeat a lot.
High Five!
So what else is there? Oh yeah, story. Well the story is ineptly told and characters seem to go out of their way to keep you out of the loop. The plot itself is supposed to segue between Aliens and Alien 3, do some explaining and give you your Alien fix. It does nothing of the above, it just exists and it makes little sense in the larger canon. Certain things just happen and at one point something real major happens in regards to Alien lore, and instead of giving an explanation a significant character just says it's a long story. This is a pivotal moment, and it's just this happened, we don't know why but it's fan service and you like fan service right? The story is also ruined by abysmal cutscenes which are horrible compressed and feature the worst facial animation. Sure it makes Bishop seem like an android, but I half expected a twist to come that would reveal every person in the game as an android. Characters flap their mouths in an out of tune way with dialogue as they stare glassy eyed with no other facial movement bar the occasional blink. It just looks awful.
So if you want to spend a boring five to six hours in a game that looks kinda of like Aliens but doesn't feel like Aliens, buy this game. Staple facts about the franchise are just ignored and disrespected, sure you get an audio log everynow and then which is kind of neat, but that is it. Aliens as an enemy are belittled, the Alien queen especially who you eventually confront as she follows you harmlessly around a room whilst you pull four switches and press a button. The Alien queen, one of the mos iconic and awesome sci-fi monsters and this is how an encounter with it is treated. Once again, there is no fear and no tension but a palpable sense of boredom. Taking down the Alien queen should not be boring.
Nobody wake up Hicks. It's better he never sees this.
Basically guys, don't play this game. As a shooter it's completely mediocre, it's serviceable but there is nothing else to it. Everything kind of works, but nothing works really well. As an Aliens game, it's straight up bad and kind of disrespectful. If you don't like Aliens then the game will carry no interest to you at all, if you do like Aliens you will hate it. It's not a good position to be in.